Chapter Two
Sam stared at Principal Ishiyama, who was silently sitting across from her with a contemplative expression etched on her face. Sitting next to her at a distance was Paulina, who was impatiently staring at the woman as well.
They were both currently in her office, where she had ordered them to go right after their fight. She had yet to say a word and was just staring at them with her lips pursed. The seconds crawled by; the atmosphere felt more suspenseful than anything as they sat there like perpetrators awaiting the judge's verdict.
Paulina ended up breaking the silence by trying to cajole the principal. "You know, your hair looks very lovely today. What conditioner do you normally use?" she asked, batting her eyelashes. Principal Ishiyama looked unamused, but Sam was visibly annoyed.
"Really, Paulina? She's not Mikey or Nathan. You can't just sweet talk her to get what you want."
"Well, with your looks, I'm not surprised that sweet-talking someone doesn't get you out of situations."
Sam rolled her eyes. "Oh no, my feelings. They're so hurt."
Principal Ishiyama raised up her hands and exhaled sharply. "Enough, for goodness sake. You both are juniors. You're supposed to be setting an example for the freshman and the sophomore class here at Casper High. We have zero tolerance for fighting. You two should be ashamed of yourselves!"
Sam frowned deeply and moved her hands to her chest. "I know, Principal Ishiyama. Trust me, I know, but it won't happen again," she promised. "I was just having a really rough morning. I wasn't thinking clearly back there."
Principal Ishiyama still didn't look convinced. She just shook her head, which made Paulina chuckle dryly. "And you said mysweet-talking was bad," she murmured, rolling her eyes at Sam.
"But I wasn't sweet-talking her," Sam told her. She realized that she was about to engage in another argument, so she briefly closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. "I'm not usually a violent person. She's said and done a lot of rude things to me in the past and I've never done anything about it, but today just wasn't a good day for me."
Principal Ishiyama sighed. "Whatever the case may be, Miss Manson, fighting is not allowed at this school. There are other ways to resolve your differences that don't involve violence. Your behavior back there is completely inexcusable. Both of yours."
Sam bowed her head, saying nothing. She regretted fighting; not because of Paulina, but because of herself. She let Paulina get the best of her, which is something she told herself she wouldn't do. She felt ashamed, but what happened, happened, and there wasn't anything she could do about it now but face her consequence.
"I understand," she replied apologetically. "What's our punishment, then?"
Principal Ishiyama's lips puckered thoughtfully and she tapped her index fingers together. "I was thinking detention everyday after school for the rest of the week."
Sam nodded in defeat, but Paulina shook her head vigorously and leaned forward in her seat. "I can't do after school detention," she protested. "I have rehearsals for the upcoming talent show everyday after school. I'm going to be singing a song and I'm in charge of putting together my performance."
Sam snorted. "You? Singing? Seems like you're overestimating your own abilities."
"I can sing," Paulina huffed.
"And pigs can fly."
"What talent do you even have?"
"That's none of your business."
"Okay, ladies!" Principal Ishiyama pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. Paulina and Sam both fell silent, watching the woman curiously. She spoke up ten seconds later, motioning towards Sam. "Miss Manson will help you out with that everyday after school until it's complete."
"Miss Manson will do what now?" Sam asked in disbelief. The last thing she wanted to do was help Paulina out in any way, shape, or form. "With all due respect, ma'am, there's absolutely no way I'm doing that. I'd rather have detention everyday after school instead."
"I'd really hate to have to suspend you. The quarter's almost up, so any missed work would ultimately affect your grade," Principal Ishiyama responded.
Sam blinked several times, frowning. "That almost sounds like blackmail."
"I assure you it's not."
"I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I agree with her," Paulina chimed in. "I don't want her helping me with my performance. She's just going to darken the whole thing with her spooky witchcraft nonsense and bad fashion sense. Besides, I already have Star."
"Nobody wants to see a shallow witch parade across the stage and sing terribly about how conceited she is anyway," Sam retorted. She was growing irritated as the seconds passed by. "Helping her with that isn't going to benefit me. If anything, it's a huge waste of time."
Principal Ishiyama's eyebrows rose slightly after watching the two girls before her bicker. "I don't think so. I actually think it'll be a great bonding experience for you two since you argue like you're back in elementary school. Give it a try, Samantha. I know you're creative and talented."
"What would I even help her out with?" asked Sam. "You know, if I happened to agree to this."
"I'm sure you'll come up with something. That's what you both can work on during detention after this," Principal Ishiyama concluded. Sam and Paulina looked like they were about to complain, but as soon as the woman flashed them a stern glare, they decided not to argue with her.
"I guess I'll take that over suspension, but let's get one thing straight, Goth," Paulina started, jabbing her forefinger towards Sam. "You don't get to boss me around or change any of my ideas. You'll just be there because you have to be."
Sam scoffed in response. "That's not my intention. Please, by all means, let your performance crash and burn on its own. I'll be sitting in the front row with some popcorn, watching in amusement."
Principal Ishiyama sighed and snapped her fingers together, calling out for Mr. Lancer. Since he didn't have to teach a class that period, he was available at the moment. He entered the office about seven seconds later, smiling respectfully at her.
"Can you escort these two to detention for the remainder of the day? After school included. They can be free for lunch, but after that, they need to report back to detention," she said. "I'll be calling their parents in the meantime."
"Sure thing," Mr. Lancer replied.
"Wait, so all you got was detention?" Tucker asked Sam during lunch. She was sitting across from him with her cheek resting against her palm. She wasn't in much of a talking mood, but she knew she had to explain the whole situation to both him and Danny.
"Yeah. Everyday after school, pretty much," she answered. She neglected to tell them what she and Paulina had to do in detention because she didn't think it was all that important. That, and she didn't feel like discussing Paulina or anything to do with her at the moment.
Speaking of the devil, the cheerleader entered the cafeteria just then with Star by her side. She and Sam simultaneously looked over at each other, glaring darkly once their eyes met. They continued staring each other down for several seconds until Danny decided he didn't like that and lightly tugged on Sam's shoulder.
"Don't look at her, Sam," he told her. "You're just going to get mad all over again. Focus on something else." She inhaled deeply, but listened to him and looked away. She already had a bad morning, but it was beginning to turn into a bad day.
"I don't know what came over me back there. She just picked the wrong day to start something with me. Usually I can handle her, but today... I don't know," she said, shaking her head. "Now I'm going to be stuck in detention with her everyday."
"You've done a really good job at ignoring her and her offensive remarks in the past, so just keep doing that," Tucker advised. "If she tries to say something to you in detention, pretend you didn't hear her."
"Ignoring her is no problem for me. I just had a little slip-up earlier. That's all," she assured him. The topic of Paulina irritated her so much that she decided to change the subject before she upset herself further. "Has Skulker tried attacking you again last night?" she asked Danny.
"Yes," he answered. "He's much more persistent now than ever." He flattened his hand and pressed it over the left side of his face, groaning softly. "He wasn't lying when he said he'd never stop hunting me."
"Well, at least you manage to badly bang him up every time you see him," Sam pointed out.
He chuckled at that and timidly shuffled his hand through his hair. "Yeah, but let's not jinx it." They both looked into each other's eyes and started smiling, which caused Tucker to roll his eyes at them.
"Man, I've been third wheeling you two for years. It's time I find a beautiful girl of my own. I feel like I have all this charm and these good looks for nothing. Criminal," he muttered.
Sam was about to respond to him, but the bell rang at that moment, so she let the words die in her mouth. With a deep sigh, she closed her salad container and grabbed her backpack from the table. "Detention, here I come," she murmured.
"Want us to walk you there?" Danny offered.
"Nah, that's okay. I'll see you guys later." She stood up from the lunch table and put on her backpack before walking out of the cafeteria. On her way out, she tossed out her container without looking back.
Detention was the last place on Earth where she wanted to be, especially with Paulina present. Still, she was going to try and heed Tucker's advice by ignoring the girl, but that was going to be difficult after what Principal Ishiyama assigned them to do.
As she arrived to detention, she noticed that she was the first one there, so she took a seat at the very back of the room. She set her bag on the surface of her desk and then exhaled softly. "Okay," she said to herself. "Let's see how detention goes."