Chapter 5: Detention

Ok, ok. I know that trying to Vankovic´s patience wasn´t one of my wisest ideas but I already got my punishment. At that time it was ten minutes before five and hiding my nervousness failed completely. I was sitting on a chair and tapping my fingers on my knees. I hadn´t seen the pricipal really before and now I was waiting for him.

Finally after an endless eternity I heard the knob of the door click and gasped in surprise. I spun around immediately after the noise and ould myself feel begin to stare. That was never the principal. It was... Carl? I spoke my thought out loud: "You got to be kidding me!" But he seemed to ignore the question and walked past me slowly and took his seat at the other side of the table. For a few seconds we just stared at one another. Probably he was trying to find the right words to say because I was doing so, too. Of course it was possible that he just tried to look like Carl but in this case he played his role impressively well.

"As I can read from your face...", he began but I didn´t listen after this piece of sentence. I was far too shocked to do anything now. It was exactly Carl´s voice! "...I´m just someone to take the job of your principal for the following week. He seemed to be a bit ill the last days so I recommended visiting a doctor to him and now I´m sitting here", he finished his story.

Another silence got between them, which I used to eye him closely. He wore light blue jeans, a light brown jacket and his thin blond hair wasn´t standing from his head anymore. I didn´t know how someone could persuade him to go out like that.

"So, you´re Rachel, correct?" I simply nodded and continued to stare at him.

"As Mr. Van...kovic told me you have a bad attitude towards the church. Why do you feel about it so? I bet you´ve read the bible before?" Now it was my turn to be just as friendly to him as to Mr. Vankovic. Strange that he tripped over this name, isn´t it? I changed the position on my chair so that I looked like little girl with good manners and replied to his questions: "I´m sorry to disappoint you now but I must confess that everytime I wanted to read this holy book I fell asleep after I had read the first page. And please be assured that I have my reasons for this opinion."

I had him now. He would continue asking and I would answer just the things he didn´t want to hear. "And these reasons are?" I smiled sweetly at this question. That was my chance. "At first you need to know that I don´t like telling you this but of course I would never refuse to answer teachers´ questions."

After this I paused and let the words have their effect on Carl. Then I continued: "My opinion is that everyone should decide what they believe and that everybody should have the right to refuse to believe in things. You can take me as an example. Of course I believe in god but he did never say a word about not to tolerate other religions in which god isn´t the god. Do you know what I want to say?" I could see him biting his lower lip, as if wanting to hold something back from being said.

"It´s obvious what kind of religions you mean. But do you want me to tell you why I have a critical eye on them?"

I put a confused expression on my face. "I never said something that might have made you believe that you do so, have I?"

The man opposite me swallowed hard and pretended not to have heard the last part. "What I wanted to say is that I´m... let me say, a bit worried about your knowledge about such religions and I just want to -"

" - protect me from misunderstanding you and what you believe in. You simply want to tell me that persons who have a connection to the devil should be taken from this world and be kept from sharing the fate of such evil creatures. Of course you never doubted a thing that was told you about such persons. I think I got your message right!", I finished and made him speechless with it. I knew that it was rude what I said. Carl was a really kind guy in the movie but I couldn´t let him talk in any way bad about Dracula.

After he had collected what his thoughts he kept his gaze upon the desk and said quietly: "I´m sorry, Rachel, but you leave me and yourself no other way to have your parents phoned and teached about your behaviour." My heart started racing. I really hadn´t expected that. Perhaps I went a bit too far with my words.

"You may go now. You´ll hear from me tomorrow", I heard him say as I left the office without losing one more word. What had gotten into me? I usually joked with such things but as I said them this time I sounded so serious. Was I really so obsessed with Dracula, just as Marienne had tried to tell me? But it was too late to make it undone again. If my parents found out they would forbid me movies like Van Helsing or worse: they would take me on an other boarding school.