Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the characters from it. I do own my characters and the plot, though, so I'm not totally hopeless.
Chapter Four: High School 101-- The Principal
"Hi, I'm Duo Maxwell, I'm the new student that's supposed to start today."
The secretary looked up from her computer screen at me and frowned after a moment. She was a middle-aged woman, maybe ten or twelve years older than Diana. Her hair had been dyed blonde, and dark roots were showing. Her eyes were pinched around a sharp nose, and her clothes looked way to expensive for a high school secretary to be wearing. She looked like the kind of person who judged you first, and then got to know you later. And as she looked at me, with my usual all black get-up, complete with my priest collar and black cap, and my wild bangs (she didn't see my braid because I had tucked it up into my cap), I knew she was judging me to be a troublemaker.
"Just a moment," she said with a smile so fake it made me want to puke. She picked up her phone and hit a button on it. "Mr. Quigley, the new student Duo Maxwell has arrived…. Yes, sir, I can." She hung up the phone. "Mr. Quigley would like to se you in his office."
"I've been here for three minutes and I'm already being sent to the principal's office?" I asked, jokingly. She frowned at me again. She was not the joking kind of person. "Well, thank you," I said and went to the door marked "Charles Quigley, Principal". I knocked, and he called me in.
Principal Quigley's office was crowded with chairs and a desk and a conference table. The various degrees and awards he had received hung on the walls. He was sitting at his desk, and it looked like he was examining some papers. When I got closer, I realized it was my file that he was examining. Good God, I thought, rolling my eyes. Does everyone and his idiot brother have access to my records. I did notice how ever that his copy of my records was not as thick as the copy that Miss Renée had had. No doubt all the information about me being a Gundam Pilot during the war had been conveniently omitted from the school's version.
He stood up and stretched out his hand to me. The gesture was friendly, but I noticed the expression on his face was not. After we shook hands, he sat down, but did not offer me a seat. He picked up my file and continued to look at it. "So, Duo, I was just looking over your file here--"
"Yeah, I noticed," I said before I could stop myself. I felt like kicking myself when Principal Quigley glared at me over the folder.
"As I was saying," he continued. "I was looking over your file here, and it says time and time again that you are quite fond of wise cracks." I winced. Me and my big mouth.
"Duo, let me set something straight for you," Principal Quigley said, tossing my file down on the desk. "This is a top notch institution, the best public school in the region. We expect only the best from our students, and that's all they ever give us. Your records indicate that you don't have much respect for authority, and your schooling history is…sporadic at best. I don't see how they could place you in as high a grade as they did, what with all the school hopping you've done over the past two or three years. I don't know how they do things in the colonies, but if I had my way, you would be sent back to middle school--"
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Then I guess I should be glad you're not having your way, huh?" I commented with a smirk. This guy was rubbing me the wrong way, acting all high and mighty like he was some great educator or something.
He narrowed his eyes at me in return. "We're not going to have any trouble with you, are we, Mr. Maxwell?"
I shook my head and gave Quigley a sideways grin. "I wasn't planning on it, but you sure seem ready for some. I guess I could work it in my schedule if you really want me to, but I was hoping to have a nice quite time here."
"Good. Let's keep it a nice quiet time. Here." He lifted a half-sheet of paper off his desk and held it out to me. "This is your schedule," he explained as I took it. "Second period started fifteen minutes ago. Just tell your teachers you're the new student, and they'll know what to do."
"Okay, thanks," I said as I turned and headed to the door.
"Oh, and Mr. Maxwell."
I stopped with my hand on the door handle and turned back to him. "Yeah?"
"You are not to leave until I dismiss you."
"Oh. I'll try to keep that in mind for our future meetings." And without waiting for him to dismiss me, I opened the door of his office, stepped out, and closed it with a satisfying bang that made the secretary jump.
I smiled at her innocently and headed to my second period class, World History.
