"How did this happen, Sammy?"

"I don't know, Principal King," Samuel Seabury said to the closed door. King had been inside for days, ever since the march and then the decision. It had been a harrowing few days for all of them. It was still a confusing world to navigate, now that the law was on the side of those that Seabury knew were wrong.

"I just don't understand! I love them so much, and yet so many of them hate me! I thought that I was loved, but no! It's just you and me and a few others."

"Mr. King, I think that if you left your office, things would be better." Seabury, a senior, could remember the days when Principal King had truly been a leader. For a long time, though people such as Hamilton might not have remembered, King had kept the best interests of the school at heart. As far as Seabury could see, he still did. He admired the way that King managed to keep himself together and keep control on the school despite the fact that they disliked him.

Well, he had been keeping control. But now…

"Sammy, do you think I should make an address?"

"Perhaps."

"It'll fix everything!"

Alex was still floating on a combination high of the Supreme Court decision, King being kicked out of the school, and sophomores and freshmen being allowed to be on the student council when the intercom crackled on.

It was two days before the end of school, and Alex supposed that King must have wanted to have his last hurrah. Sure enough, King gave a small vocal warmup. It was almost endearing, except that King was at the top of Alex's hate list.

"They saaaaay…"

Mr. Washington sighed, stopping writing on the board to listen.

"That I'm not a good principal, and that I'll have to...pay. Yes, that rhymes, excellent… moving on…actually, no. No songs. You're not good enough to get a song out of me! They say that I'm the crazy one? You're all insane! You're cheating by bringing City Hall into this, they're too fed up with everything, and then having your stupid spy-hacker people review the account books? Ugh! Now I'm in the middle of a civil suit! You guys are the worst! I'm so sad, so upset, so blue, so very blue. I thought that we had an agreement. I stay out of your way, and you stay out of mine, and I'm the boss.

"Well, okay, obviously we had a miscommunication. You're acting like disenamoured teenagers...which I guess makes sense."

"Mr. Washington, can you do something?" Eliza asked.

"It's Mr. Knox's turn to deal with it," Mr. Washington replied.

"But you know what? Even though you treat me horribly, I've got a question for you.

"What comes next? What's your plan? Do you have any idea who's going to step up to be your leader? There's no one as mighty and all-powerful as me! You're never going to find someone like me! Never! And do you know how hard it is to be the supreme leader of a bunch of ungrateful ingrates like you? No, you don't because you haven't done it! But now you're on your own. And okay, I can hear you celebrating because you're jerks! Awesome! Wow! You think you're free or whatever! But you don't have a fucking clue, you losers, because you're going to tank this school in the first year of your so-called freedom!"

King took a deep breath. "And now I'm getting all worked up. Well. Anyway. It's harder to do anything when it's your call. You'll be begging for me back by the end of your first year, mark my fucking words, but I'll be in a better place, and I'll laugh. So have fun! But from now on, you're own your own. I hope that you all just die, and maybe—"

"Mr. King." That was Mr. Knox's voice. "You're done. Please just...leave."

"You can't make me, Henry!"

"I'm Mr. Knox to you, Mr. King, and please leave before I call security. You were fired two days ago."

The intercom went off.

"...do you think he's right?" Revere asked.

Mr. Washington shook his head. "He's resorted to scare tactics. Or maybe he really believes what he said. But he's wrong."

"We're going to make this school amazing," Lafayette said with confidence.

"I like to think so, Mr. Lafayette. I do believe that having this complete overthrow in leadership is a good way to revolutionize the way we do things at this school. We can try some new policies, and while relatively radical, I think that they'll help the school."

"Who's up for the position?" Mulligan asked.

"Several of us teachers. A few outside people."

"I think you should take it."

Mr. Washington turned back to the board. "We need to get back to the lesson."

"Oh, come on!" Alex said. "You teach social studies. Well, this is history. Or, at least for us. We should be able to discuss current events. We're socially...studying."

Mr. Washington had to hide his smile. "If you must know, it's not my place to take it—"

"Would you?" John asked.

"Don't be rude," Eliza admonished, and then turned to Washington. "Would you?"

Mr. Washington paused a moment. "Yes."