CHAPTER 13

DRIFTING

That next day of school, Spike and Tempest walked out of the English room talking about the essay they had to write.

"I can't believe we gotta write a three page essay", Spike complained.

"At least it can be about anything as long as it's school appropriate", Tempest said.

"Well I guess that's a good thing."

Tempest walked towards the bathroom while holding his stomach, "God damn it", he muttered. "I don't feel very good."

"Are you okay?" Spike asked.

He shook his head slightly, "Not really. I gotta get to a toilet." He ran into the bathroom and immediately dropped his things on the floor. He ran into an empty stall and fell to his knees immediately throwing up in the toilet.

Spike kneeled next to him and rubbed his back, "Tempest, what's wrong?"

Tempest looked away from the toilet with some of his vomit dripping from his mouth, "I don't know. It's probably nothing." He then bent his head down in the toilet again and started to cough and vomit.

Spike's face frowned because of the smell of his vomit. Then his coughing caught his attention. 'Wait a minute, that cough...again. What's wrong with him? Every time I ask about it, he says its nothing or forget about it. I know for a fact that something's wrong with him.' He decided to make himself useful so he grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser and gave it to Tempest.

Tempest took it and wiped around his mouth with it. Afterwards he stood from the floor and flushed the toilet. He threw the paper towel away and began to wash his hands.

Spike sat on his backpack and watched him dry his hands off, "Feeling better?"

"I guess", he said as he sat beside him. "I suppose a cigarette would make things a lot more easier for me."

Spike watched as Tempest took out a pack of cigarettes and took one out of the pack.

"Shit, I'm skipping. This isn't the best place to hide but damn I hate my fucking Spanish teacher." He placed the cigarette in his mouth and lit the bottom of it with the lighter he took out of his pants pocket. "She is a bitch ." He held the cigarette pack up to Spike, "Want one?"

He gently pushed the pack of cigarettes back to him, "Maybe later." He didn't want one now, especially when anyone could just walk in and see. Then it hit him. "Tempest, you can't do that in here."

"Don't worry everything will be fine."

Yeah so he said everything would be fine, but Spike had a feeling that nothing would be fine because he had a feeling they would get caught. Spike tried to change the subject, "So uh, I heard there's gonna be an awards ceremony tomorrow night. We should go you and me. Lynn could go but she's not allowed back here until Friday."

Tempest took out the cigarette from his mouth and blew out some smoke, "Sure I'll go with you but I doubt if I'll get anything."

Then all of a sudden, the door had flung open and Principal Fears stood there with a furious look on her face. "You two? Should've known. I thought I smelled smoke in here."

"Principal Fears!" Spike shouted.

She raised an eyebrow, "You know the drill. In my office now", she commanded in a firm voice.

Later in her office, Spike and Tempest sat near her desk and waited for her to say something to them.

The first thing Principal Fears did was look over to Tempest, "You pick a fight with him and now you're his friend again. All in the same week. How weird."

"What are you going to do with us?" Tempest asked.

"Easy", she said. She pointed to him, "You." She pointed to Spike, "And you, are both expelled from this school for the rest of the year."

She faced Tempest with a cruel look on her face, "Deja vu huh, Hawk?"

Spike's mouth hung open with shock, "What?" He said in a broken voice. "I can't get expelled. What will my parents do to me when they find out?"

"Probably kill you", she was not making this easy for him.

"Wait!" Tempest shouted. "You can't do that to him. I swear to you, he did not smoke with me in that bathroom. All he did was watch. I swear. You can't punish him like that. It was all me."

The red fox looked over to Spike who was looking at Tempest surprised that he truly meant what he said. "Is this true, Spike?"

Spike looked away from Tempest and back at her. He nodded slightly, "Yes. I didn't do anything."

She slowly made a nod, "Okay, I believe you. Instead of getting expelled, I'll just give you an extra ten days of detention. Now get out of my sight while I deal with Tempest."

Spike did as he was told and left the office.

After school, Spike went over to Lynn's house to tell her the news. He was in her room sitting on her bed with her while holding her close to him. "After when Tempest and I fought with each other, we forgave ourselves and became friends again. See Lynn, nothing to worry about. Anyway I got bad news. Really bad. Tempest got expelled from school and I think it was all because of me."

She lightly kissed his cheek and wrapped her arms around his body, "Principal Fears found out about the drugs didn't she?"

He nodded, "Yeah."

"It's not you're fault, Spike. He had it coming to him. That's just the way things are."

"No Lynn, he's a really great guy. He was always there for me. You should've been there when he took the blame for me."

"All right, Spike. I believe you." Just as she was about to lean in and kiss him, Spike's cell phone had rung.

He took it out of his coat pocket and answered it. "Hello?"

"Spike, this is Tempest. We got a problem", he said.

"Tempest? What is it? What's wrong?"

"Principal Fears had us, Spike. We're screwed big time."

"What?"

"She knew, Spike. About you. After when my parents took me home, they searched through my room and found my fucking weed. They are pissed and to make matters worse, they're calling your parents right now to check your room. God I hope you hid your shit good."

"What did they do to your bag?"

"They flushed it all down the fucking toilet. God I'm so pissed off! I hate Principal Fears! I fucking hate her! She's the one that told my parents to check my room." He sighed with frustration, "I'm so sorry, Spike. I never meant for this to happen."

"It's okay really."

"You'd better get home now than later if you know what I mean."

"Yeah I do", he said in a low voice.

"I'll guess I'll see yea later."

"Okay bye", he hung up the phone and placed it back in his pocket. He rubbed his forehead with stress, "Damn it", he muttered.

Lynn gave him a worried look, "Spike, is everything okay?"

He looked over to her and placed his hands on each side of her face, "Lynn, I did some bad stuff and now I have to take care of it." He kissed her lips one final time and walked out of her room without saying anything else.