April Fools

by JK

It was April 1st and I was walking to school with some friends. We were walking slowly; we didn’t have to be at school for another 20 minutes. Suddenly an idea came to my mind. Why not take a few drinks from Market Hall? It had no cameras that I knew of, and it was always busy enough so that no one would notice, or so I thought. I went in and took a few drinks and went out. It seemed like no one noticed. No one said to stop or to put them back. I quickly crossed the street and gave out the drinks to my friends, saving one for myself. We kept on walking to school, thinking nothing of it.

The first part of the school day went by normally. Then, at the end of P.E., Mr. Lindsay came and talked to me. He said that people from the office were looking for me. I was surprised. I had no idea why they were looking for me. It was as if I forgot everything that happened before school started. I went to my next class thinking about it and wondering why they were looking for me. In my next class, English, we had to do an essay. After the Do Now and a little more explaining about the essay, Ms. Thaler told us to start on it. I had just barely started when Mr. Weekes came in the room and said, “I’m going to need Julian to come with me.” I went numb. I didn’t know what I did to get pulled out of class by the security officer. While we were walking to the office he asked me what I did. I told him that I didn’t do anything. Then he told me that I should just tell the truth to Mr. Taylor and it would all be over with quickly. When I was talking to him it was obvious that he knew I did something, but I was confused because I had no idea what I could have done to have to talk to the vice principal.

This was my first time in the office for doing something wrong. Mr. Taylor asked me if I took some drinks from Market Hall before school started. It was as if he just flipped a switch in my head. I suddenly remembered everything. I told him the truth about what happened while wondering how I could forget all that. He then sent me out of the office and called Ms. Crockett to the office. He also called the owner of Market Hall. When she arrived, she talked with Mr. Taylor and Ms. Crockett. Then I got called back into the office. Ms. Crockett was mad and she told me that I would be suspended for three days and I would have to clean up the storefront for three weeks. I thought that was unfair, because she was suspending me for something that happened outside of school, and she didn’t have the right or the power to try to appoint me to community service without parental consent. Then Ms. Crockett and the owner of Market Hall left the office. Mr. Taylor called my parents. He left a message saying I was suspended and to call him back as soon as they could. They didn’t call back, though, and I spent the rest of the day in Ms. Thaler’s class and left the school. I had no idea what I would tell my mom. For the first time in my life, I didn’t want to go home.