Chapter Thirty-Eight: Halley/Alex

I was sat on the horrific chair, waiting to see if the principal was going to come out to collect me. I was stuck outside his office, and had been since the end of the school day, which was, as I reconfirm with my watch, two hours ago.

I may have been asked to see the principal after school because I might have, maybe, punched a girl in the face and blackened her eye... Boy, were her parents not happy when they found out!

The door opened and the principal invited me into his office with no facial expression whatsoever, no change there. I walked in to see two familiar, glaring eyes up at me. I awkwardly smiled at my obviously angry parents and put my hands in front.

"Mister Wilson, I thought we had a deal... I kinda asked for you not to call the big parents in." I jokingly laughed.

"Halley Wolowitz, this is not the time to make jokes." Dad steamed. I'm surprised there wasn't smoke coming out of his ears.

Wilson pointed to the spare seat and I slowly sat down. I didn't want to annoy my parents any more, aye? We sat for another ten minutes, discussing about the punishments for doing this. Finally, I got a word in, and I confessed why I did what I did. "I was protecting someone, he was about to get punched himself."

"Halley, we've told you for two years, you don't need to protect Louis like you had to in elementary school, you're both older now." Mom butted in, sighing and looking to the side.

"I wasn't protecting Louis," I said loudly, before whispering after, "It was Alex."

Mom and Dad both looked shocked whilst Mister Wilson just looked angrier. "Leonard and Penny's Alex?" Dad wondered.

I nodded.

"Who is this?" Wilson asked, thankfully breaking the silence.

"Alex Hofstadter, he's in the eighth grade, there's no way she would have gotten into trouble for protecting him." Mom looked at me with a glare.

"Ahh, but yes, you see Mister and Misses Wolowitz, as a new program, we have decided to allow the eighth graders to come up for one period and lunch to understand this transition." Wilson explained.

I cut in after. "Alex accidently bumped into a girl in the same grade as me. He apologized, but she didn't take on it, as she looked as if she could have hurt him, so I hurt her instead."

The room was silent before the principal broke it again. "Hofstadter? Does he have an older brother Lucas?"

Mom and Dad both nodded simultaneously as I sat in complete silence.

"Right... give me a moment." Wilson announced before leaving the room, keeping me stuck inside the office with my overly angry parents. - oh, boy.

Dad appeared to stomp through to the dining room from the hall after having left abruptly during dinner. Conversations had been low, and I was extremely glad. As he sat back at the table, he turned to Lucas. "What did you do at school today?" He sounded serious.

"Who, me?" Lucas lifted his head after a moment of silence. Dad nodded, so Lucas spoke. "Nothing much, lessons were pretty boring, and I spent the whole lunch in the library." He sighed.

"Well, that's funny, because the school was on the phone, they want to have a chat with your mom and I about the events of today tomorrow." Dad glared at him.

Lucas raised his eyebrows. "I don't know what that's about, I didn't do anything." He defended as I gulped, the large lump in my throat making it hard to breathe at that moment.

The debate about it went on throughout dinner, and it ended with Lucas storming upstairs. As Dad was clearing up after, I stepped into the kitchen to confess.

"Dad," He turned to face me, "I'm the reason you have to go into the school tomorrow," I muttered.

"Alex, don't own up for things for your brother." Dad sighed, still half looking at me, and half doing the dishes.

"I'm not lying." I sighed. "I'm the reason." He turned and raised his eyebrows.

"How?" Dad wondered, putting down the pan he was holding.

I sighed. Mom walked in after hearing our conversation and listened too. " I was a little distracted at lunch at the school and I didn't see where I was going. All of a sudden I've bumped into a girl and before I know it, things have escalated, and Halley's come up from my side and punched the girl in the face. Before anything could happen next, I had bolted and was sitting in the open science room, reading a textbook I found on the shelf."

Mom quickly pulled me into a hug, much to my dismay, and Dad dried his hands, before making his way to the stairs. I knew what he was doing; apologizing to Lucas about dinner. I got into Mom's hug after a while, and she didn't let go.

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