Mr. Plod's scream was loud enough to breach the walls of Crestmoore Elite, reach his ancestors' graves and echo off of them.
"Get off me, you little pest!" Mr. Plod announced, chubby hand pressed against the little girl's freckled forehead and pushing hard against it. Her teeth clutched tighter, his small fingers let go of their hostages, Kairos scrammed with wide eyes and a hung jaw, Yasin backed away with a hand against his mouth and tears in his eyes. Tears of disbelief.
When all saw crises, Henrik Stratford saw opportunity.
Henrik, baffled beyond belief but very amused, stepped over Headmistress Lissy's wingback chair and jumped over the scene of action. Headmistress Lissy banged her hand against her desk, shouting, "This is a place of discipline! stop this raging buffoonery right away!"
No one paid heed to her.
Henrik, trying all his rich-boy-luck, stood behind the little girl and poked her sides right over her wais-tbone.
"EEYAAP!" she screamed with raw terror.
Upon instinct, she jumped away, releasing Mr. Plod's now wet and very red, marked arm, and fell back. Henrik, very swiftly this time, dogged her body and pulled a flustered Kairos as collateral damage.
The girl fell over Kairos Rodrigo, head and back saved from impact by the Persian carpets spread over Headmistress Lissy's office floors. Limbs tangled, Henrik grinned, a boxy wide smile of fresh revenge, over the groaning bodies of the distressed duo and turned to face an equally distressed trio.
Yasin had Mr. Plod's arm in his hand, very daintily blowing over the fresh, wet, cuts, looking almost motherly with his concern, "Sh… it gets better, it'll be okay, don't you worry, it'll be fine, sir," while Headmistress Lissy was having a whole mental breakdown over her ruined carpets, "My dollars, my pretty sheep's wool—it was hand woven! I fed her—my- silks-!"
The trash-girl bared her teeth at Kairos, kicked him away and stood up. The poor boy clutched his gut and did not even pretend to make any attempts to scrape off his dead dignity and try stand up again. He curled on the carpets, folding his hands close to his chest, but the garbage stench emanating from them made him give up all over again and flinch away from himself. There was a 'do not disturb, i am mourning," sign spiritually plastered on everyone's face at that moment.
To say that Henrik was satisfied enough for incurring loss to all parties involved would be an understatement. His mind went, 'Ha! If I get puked on, you all take that!"
The trash-girl had walked up to Yasin, who was fanning over Mr. Plod, and pushed them apart. Standing between the two, she turned to face red-faced-Mr. Plod with her equally furious brown eyes, pointing an accusatory finger at his chubby chin as she enunciated each word with entitled precision, "You will not hurt him! You will not punish him! You will no—"
For a proper second, Yasin's breath was struck right out of his lungs. Then, his braincells acted with cohesion.
Her demands were cut off my Yasin's hand slithering over her mouth and holding her still as Mr. Plod, who had had enough indignity for a day, spoke up, "You! Who are you?! How dare you little pest disrupt the discipline of Crestmoore Elite! How dare you disrespect me and my orders! I will have your parents called! I will have this slander reported to media! All of you! Crestmoore shall know what hooligans will next inherit her! I am going to ruin all of you!"
His words hit like an ancient gong.
Kairos curled into himself again, hugging his hands to his chest now; breaths laboring and eyes clenching shut upon Mr. Plod's threats. Henrik gulped a shaky breath, fear growing his hands cold. Yasin's hand dropped from the girl's mouth and rested around her shoulders as he started pressing his thumbnail against the skin of his fingers. Over and over.
"Mr. Plod Danderdan! You will do no such thing that brings shame upon Crestmoore Elite! Do I make myself clear?!" Headmistress Lissy stood up, ceasing the threats with her spine chilling, authoritative, voice that left no room for further discussion. Her molten gold eyes stared Mr. Plod down to a mush.
Mr. Plod's beady eyes stared down at the furious looking littlegirl, still held back in Yasin's arms, and went back to Headmistress Lissy. His pride had taken a hit upon being denied of his authority in front of children. Rich brats. "Detention, for the whole year, graveyard shift with Mr. Turner," Mr. Plod's words were dripping with vehemence and restrained cooperation, "And I will be calling their families myself. They have the right to know."
A collective round of sighs were passed around the office.
"Very well, but it is Mr. Rodrigo's first day at Crestmoore," Headmistress Lissy's golden eyes whisked over her lavish furniture only to find Kairos springing up, from the floor, upon mention. His face had lost all color, so had Henrik and Yasin's, upon the mention of word reaching out to their families.
"Yes…Ma'am?" Kairos' words were a question, his fingers were twisting a battle amongst themselves and the tightness of his jaw conveyed a lot to Headmistress Lissy's trained eyes.
"That does not lets him off—"
Headmistress Lissy's hand stopped Mr. Plod from creating further argument. "What were you doing around East Crest when the morning assembly takes place in the West Crest?" Headmistress Lissy questioned the ravenette.
"I—uh, I, um, was heading to the um—canteen? ...Cafeteria? Luncheon? C-ca-"
"--Crest Dining Hall," Henrik helpfully supplied.
"Yes! The dining hall, crest I mean, for bread. I feel nauseous if I don't eat breakfast before starting my day—I, um, I am sorry I should have waited!" Kairos finally finished his statement and bent ninety degrees in apology.
"Wow, you really don't waste time, do you?" the little girl cheekily interjected.
Seven pairs of eyes glared at her.
She shrugged out of Yasin's hold in response and smiled. Her smile was wide, her lips were parted with no dignity and her eyes were crinkled with a humorous kindness in them, Kairos noticed.
She, standing in her stained-shirt, dirty skirt, torn stockings, shoeless, with mousy brown hair a mess. Smiling, carelessly, as if doing whatever her heart told her to do was the only socially accurate response to life. How… foolish.
In that moment, Kairos Rodrigo realized a very important detail by himself: No amounts of fresh clothes, elaborate backgrounds, titles, gelled hair or pleasant curtsies of his world could amount to a genuine person's confidence from the otherworld. It takes a whole world of lavishes to break him but not make him.
It's sad. Kairos Rodrigo realised that he was a sad person when people were glaring at trash-girl for making fun of him. He's sad alright.
"There will be no phones disturbing Minister Rodrigo from his duty, very well then, off you go, Kairos, to attend the orientation ceremony," Headmistress Lissy cleared out, much to everyone else's distaste. The ravenette was overjoyed, nonetheless of his epiphany.
Kairos all but jumped up in a flurry of 'Thank You's and 'I am sorry's as the boy slid his way out of the office and politely shut the door behind him. Begrudgingly, Henrik smiled a small smile for his friend.
"What about Yasin? You gonna go do this to him? He only helped me out--!" the littlegirl began with desperation in her eyes.
"Please take this girl to Crest Lab, run some scans and find out if she is lying or not. I shall report this to the Sheriff in a while. He'll know what to do with her." Headmistress Lissy gestured her assistants to make a move. Mr. Plod smirked a smug smirk as the little girl tried holding onto Yasin but was pushed away by the blonde boy with bitterness in his eyes.
The assistants sneaked their arms underneath the betrayed-looking-girl's underarms, raised her resistant body over their shoulders and carried her dangling self out of the office.
Henrik rolled his eyes.
"Very well, Mr. Hadid, I must say I did not expect you to be involved in something like this," Headmistress Lissy settled back in her chair and crossed her arms against her chest, scrutinizing Yasin's lanky and scared form. The little blondette assumed posture, folding his hands behind his back before proceeding with explanations.
"I was at Soccer practice this morning, Headmistress Lissy. Michael kicked the ball too hard and it went out of the field, hitting a trashcan. He was afraid of being reprimanded so I ran to collect the ball in lieu of him. I was simply doing a mate a favor when I saw the trashcan rolling over with actual, human, legs jutting out of it! And there were screams! Imagine my surprise...!"
"We all do," Henrik chided under his breath.
"... I saw Mr. Rodrigo running after it; I was quite frankly very surprised. I remained unacquainted with Mr. Rodrigo at that point of time and merely thought it was a student trying to bullying someone. Hence, I stepped in to help. I remain corrected, of course, for Mr. Rodrigo and Henrik were merely trying to help as well."
Henrik Stratford raised an eyebrow at the speaking blonde, wondering when they got on first name bases with Yasin Hadid of all people. Nevertheless, Henrik was impressed by Yasin's eloquent reiteration of their eventful morning. Unfortunately, Henrik too had to save his arse and come out in a good light before someone called his parents. So, he would have to, pretty deliberately, soil Yasin's plans.
There was a sharp twinge of evil in Henrik Stratford's soft brown eyes before he assumed position and started with his impositions.
"I would hate to interrupt, Miss Head Ma'am, but you see I am merely a victim of circumstances and ill fated friends. You see, Kairos discovered the body—the girl, whatever, and Yasin saved her or whatever—I was merely a bystander of the circumstance." Henrik smiled a smug smile, clearing out his name would be easy.
"They all lie, Headmistress, all of them ran when they saw me! They were clearly brewing some notoriety up," an aggravated Mr. Plod couldn't help but speak up.
"Correction, Mr. Plod Sir, I was very much vomited upon and furious about my lost and very expensive perm. I was very much there. Can't say the same about the other two…"
Yasin, scoffing out loud, eyes going wide at the pure accusatory tone, jumped, vocally, to defend himself, "It was merely an instinct of being misunderstood and receiving punishment!"
"Said every defaulter ever, yes, Miss Head Ma'am, I rest my case here," Henrik smiled, turning around to point at his vomit covered head and showing it clearly, "Damage to private property has occurred and the incompetence of Crestmoore's security system is responsible. I would like you to compensate me by dropping all detention charges on me, effective henceforth."
In a school ran on the terms of adults, where the students were treated as adults, there was no other way but to tackle it like an adult.
Yasin's fist clenched, unclenched, bit the insides of his cheeks, then folded his hands behind his back again. Henrik was the son of the two most successful lawyers the world would have ever seen— there was no use countering his tactics. Yasin's family was good and honest, not fuelled by illegal activities like the Stratfords. They would always be incomparable.
Headmistress Lissy, upon receiving the outrageous but very accurate allegation of her school's incompetence, stared Henrik down as if he were a piece of filth and picked up the white hand phone resting over her desk. She pressed a button and spoke into it, "I want the security footage of the last twenty-four hours delivered to me. Instantaneously."
Henrik, proud of his argument and ignorant of his involvement in the case by the photograph he had clicked, seated himself on one of the wingback chairs.
"Mr. Plod, don't you need to get that checked by the nurse?" Headmistress Lissy questioned coldly. Mr. Plod shook his head.
"I will wait for justice to be served. I want to call all of their houses using the Headmistress' phone," Mr. Plod scornfully replied. Yasin's gut dropped precisely how his company's shares would when the news gets out.
But before Headmistress Lissy could counter Mr. Plod's bold statement, her office doors banged open and in rushed her assistant with a tablet in her hand.
"Mademoiselle! We ran her prints…and I think you should see this!"
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