Damn, I Hate You

I was shaking. I tried to hide it all and conceal my fear, but it was hard to know your first trip to the office was about to take place. Deryk could see I was nervous. He reached over and pulled me down onto him, where I gladly leaned into and sighed.

"Seriously, I'll be in there with you since it's a joined referral. Just let me do most of the talking. Follow my lead. Takes two to tango, and I'm the guy." he explained. God, sometimes I think he knows too much.

"If you say so..." I was still worrying.

"For real, girl. Think about it: they're going to call your house. Your parents are outta town. If you're not so lucky, they'll call your parents but just say that they're out of the country right now and won't be able to take any calls because their phones aren't international. It's really simple." he assured me. He himself could care less, but this was probably his third of the month. Well, maybe I should give him some credit. This was probably his third of the semester...

"Oh geez, it's Deryk. You brought a friend for me this time?" our assistant principal, Ms. Rodriguez commented and half-smiled at him.

"Every good villain has an accomplice! We know this by now! She's my Mr. Bigglesworth." He smiled and guided me to the office.

"Dr. Evil this time? I thought you were more clever than that." Ms. Rodriguez jested. Wow, she's so casual considering the circumstances! What did I miss?

"Well, I'm more of a joker than a villain- well, not Batman Joker, more like a court jester, I guess- so of course I'm not going to talk about a real villain!" he said as he seated himself in front of the desk.

"Lemme see the referral so I can get a good idea of your teacher's point of view before you try charming your way outta this." she asked and he handed it over to her. I tried calming myself as she read.

"Alright, so Jaimie, it is. What exactly did you do to disturb the class?" she asked me.

"She was crying. See, we had an arguement this morning and I was a lil reluctant to forgive her." Deryk said.

"You monster! You should know better than to make girls cry!" she scolded. I didn't know if she was joking but he was looking down.

"Yeah, I guess. But the thing is, I went over to comfort her and that's what she said the distraction was. She's just bitter 'cause she doesn't have a great guy like Jaimie does." Deryk laughed.

"Don't flatter yourself. I'd prefer not to know your personal lives, Mr. Silva." Ms. Rodriguez told him. Strange, I never knew Deryk's last name. It didn't quite suit him, Deryk Silva, but I guess I didn't name him... "By the way, honey, what exactly made you choose him? Please don't tell me it's his sweet talking. It never gets him out of trouble, apparently since I see him so often." She rolled her eyes.

"Well, we were partnered for a project and I started to get to know him and..."

"And you liked what you saw in there?" She asked as though I were insane, pointing at his head.

"Oh come on, I'm not that bad. You know you enjoy my routine visits." he smiled slyly.

"I don't enjoy that they're so routine. Jaimie, you think you can set him straight? Deryk, I really don't wanna see you ruin a perfectly good future just because you can't shut your mouth. You have some of the highest potential of students I've seen pass through these halls and yet here you are, every week. I'm trying hard not to get you expelled for your habitual truancies and all these trips to my office. You're lucky we don't give suspentions for excessive referrals anymore!" she started lecturing.

"I'm sorry. I'm working on it. You know how hard it is, though. I mean, I think I have too much potential. It's not fair how understimulated I am." He started serious but couldn't help but chuckle at her reaction.

"Yeah, we don't have the best programs."

"Wait, this is a serious visit? Why do people act as if you're such a horrible person to visit?" I had to ask.

"Well, Deryk's a special case. He knows this. I see him all the time. The thing is, he's got justified reasons for being here. Everyone else just fights or does something stupid in their class. Deryk tries, which I appreciate, and he is reforming himself. Slowly, but there has been some change. But yeah, I suppose it's a little bit of a bias is all." she admitted. So I'm not the only one who sees the real Deryk deep down.

"You know you were a distraction, though. According to this you cussed. I don't condone that. If you want to argue, use a more colorful vocabulary. We talked about this in summer school, didn't we?" she was once again stone serious.

"I'm sorry. I honestly don't remember what I said to her while we were arguing. It's just that she never gives me-"

"Deryk, I know. I've heard this a lot. She's old. She makes a decision and sticks with it. You two are very alike in that sense. But you gotta understand, no matter what the situation, the point of English class in the first place is not to swear. Now, since both of you were a disruption, I'm going to say you deserve today and tomorrow in detention. All day, not just lunch. This way you two don't miss much. You were both absent earlier this week. Anyone care to explain that one?" she tried.

"Freak coincidence, I suppose." Deryk lied. She bought it, though. Or maybe she was just too used to hiim. Either way, we were stuck with only that short sentence and hurried off to the detention room.