But they soon found that they did not need to, for the shouting started shortly afterward.
The students could hear all being said.
However, Peter could only hear muffled shouts.
It was Helen who started it, and Weavger retaliated almost immediately after the shock wore off.
Weavger's voice was loud and his temper hot, but it seemed he had found more then his match in Helen, whose voice was louder and temper most certainly hotter.
As Peter continued to sit, the boy seated only a few chairs away from him was trying to listen just hard as Peter. "Who is that?" he asked.
"That's my mum," replied Peter.
"I wish my mum would come and do that," said the boy.
It was at this point that Peter no longer cared what anyone else thought, for now he felt pure unadulterated pride for what his mother was doing for him, and as the shouting carried on, Peter found that he almost felt sorry for Weavger. Almost.
"She's my mum," said Peter again only more proudly.
The shouting suddenly became louder and easier to hear as Helen opened the door to leave, feeling that she had accomplished what all that she could with the teacher's telling off.
Then suddenly, "DON'T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU! WHO THE HECK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO COME HERE AND START ALL THIS AND THEN THINK THAT YOU CAN JUST WALK AWAY AS IF NOTHING's HAPPENED! I'VE BEEN TEACHING HERE FOR OVER TEN YEARS -"
"TEACHING!" screamed Helen straight back at him. "PERSONALLY, I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU WERE ALLOWED TO BE A TEACHER! YOU'RE NOT FIT TO TEACH A DOG TRICKS, NEVER MIND CHILDREN'S LESSONS!"
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" the disgruntled teacher shouted.
"YOU HEARD ME! YOU'RE NOT FIT TO TEACH ANY CHILDREN!"
Helen walked away straight after this. It was not long before she appeared round the corner and stood beside Peter, her face flaming red.
"Right, come on," she said to him. "We're going in to see the principal and then we're going home."
Great, thought Peter as his mother put her hand on the door handle of the office, I'm getting the rest of the day off. Maybe this isn't the worst day of my life after all.
"I'm sorry, but Principal Holmes is taking an important call at the moment and can't be disturbed," said the secretary seated behind a small office desk.
"If you would like to leave your name and take a seat, I'll tell him you're here as soon as his call has ended."
Peter thought that Helen would not like to be kept waiting with her temper being what it was and all. However, she calmly told the woman her name and pushed Peter back toward the chairs.
Only four minutes had past then the secretary called, "Mrs. Lince, Principal Holmes will see you now."
"Hurry up, Peter. You first," said Helen.
Peter went in first as Helen said.
"Peter, Helen, please take a seat," said the Headmaster.
"What, just one?" Peter said with a snigger.
Helen leaned into his left ear and whispered, "Stop being a smartarse and sit down. You're in enough trouble as it is."
"Yes, well, I don't think that is prudent at this time, Peter, with all that has happened today," said the principal.
"Well, I think humour can dull the pain a little," Helen said hastily.
"Yes, well, I was hoping you would heed my letter and show up quickly."
"Yes, I read your letter, and I'm curious," said Helen, "as to why, without any witnesses or any prove that my son had anything to do with what happened to this damaged locker."
"Well, from what Mr. Weavger told me -"
"Mr. Weavger is an arse," said Helen, "and I personally wouldn't believe him if he told me the sky is blue."
"Please don't talk about my staff like that," said Holmes. "Mr. Weavger told me that Peter was the only one there when he got there. And the fact that there were only a few seconds between the noises of the locker being vandalized, Peter shouting, and Mr. Weavger finding him, means that if anyone ran past the English classroom, Peter would have seen them. And there's also the fact that if there was someone else, Mr. Weavger would have seen them before they could have gotten to the exit at the other end of the hall."
"Fine," said Helen. "As soon as you show me the tool that was used to damage the locker, I'll accept your decision to suspend my son. But then there's the physical strength needed to damage the locker that badly."
"Well, I -"
"Peter's just a teenager, and I doubt that he would have the strength to do that kind of damage," said Helen confidently. "Let's be real. Would you even have the strength for it?"
"Maybe," said Principal Holmes.
"Maybe. So not only do you have no witnesses or proof but you also don't have whatever was used to damage the locker. Is that right?" said Helen.
"Yes," said Principal Holmes flatly.
Just then, Mr. Weavger burst in through the door. He was pure white, whiter than white, and his hands were trembling. He seemed to turn paler when Helen was the first thing that he saw.
"I need to talk to you after," he said to the principal as even his voice trembled.
He slammed the door and was gone as promptly as he appeared.
"Oh, yes. There's something I wanted to say to you," said Helen. "When that man attacked Peter, you tried to make him apologize for defending himself. What kind of a Headmaster are you?"
"I don't think -"
"Well, there's a shock," said Helen scornfully.
The principal looked furious, and Peter tried his hardest to suppress a smile, as did Helen herself.
"I'm willing to forget it all if you apologize to him right now."
There was utter silence.
"I will stand by Mr. Weavger, and I will not apologize for anything that he may or may not have done," said the principal loyally.
"Let me put this in a way you might understand. Peter is a minor. A grown man manhandled him and physically hurt him. I'm sure that you don't want the authorities involved. And I'll tell you something else. That man doesn't have the best reputation with most of the students or their parents, which means we'll have lots of people willing to help us."
"You don't know that anyone will want to be involved in anything that you would decide to do."
"This school will be put under investigation, as will you and the rest of your staff. But to stop that from happening, all you have to do is apologize to Peter for your part in this."
"And has Alistair Weavger himself apologized?" asked Principal Holmes, knowing full well that the teacher would not have done so.
"No, simply because I don't want an apology from him, because it would only be a lie from a bitter man and would mean absolutely nothing," replied Helen.
Holmes said nothing to this. Helen reached into her handbag and took out her mobile phone. As she pressed the first digit and its droning tone sounded, the principal threw up his hands. "Please wait," he said pleadingly.
"Admit that you were too quick on the decision to suspend my son, and I'll forget any of this ever happened," said Helen calmly.
"I think that you're right. It was unfair to suspend Peter without any real proof, and I apologize, but you must understand that if a member of my staff tells me that there was no one else at the scene of the incident, I must ask the only person who was there if they saw anyone else. I'm sure if you ask Peter, he will tell you that I did just that. I asked him if he saw anyone or if he was protecting someone and if so, to tell, but he said that there was no one. So you understand what I'm saying."
"What you're saying is that because my son saw no one there you, blamed him whether he was guilty or not," said Helen.
"No, that's not what I meant."
"But that's what happened," said Helen loudly and angrily.
"And I'm sorry for that," said Holmes.
"Then I think that's it," said Helen.
"Well, you won't need to worry about Mr. Weavger. I'll talk to him, and I think it best that Peter take the rest of the week off. Then when he comes back on Monday, it'll be as though this never happened," said the headmaster more confidently.
"No," said Helen firmly. "Peter will never be back to this excuse for a school again."
"But he has to go to school; it's the law."
"He will not here. Come on, Peter let's go."