Jade Moon (Celestial War Book 1) Read Free Page B

knock-kneed that his entire upper body swayed back and forth when he walked down the halls. He wore baggy brown suits and a nervous tic that made his left eye twitch whenever he stopped to talk to someone. 
    Vice-principal Ransom was also there. He was comically opposite Mr. Beuterbaugh in every way. Rotund and ruddy nosed, he had a sort of African-American santa thing going on. Grey beard, perpetual smile, robust laugh that you could hear a mile away.
    Mr. Beuterbaugh took in the scene, fuming Mrs. Louie with a death grip on my arm.  Me, head bowed, pleading look on my face.
    “What’s happened, Irene?” he asked.
    “This student refused to follow a direct oder. She was sneaking around the library, clearly up to no good, when I caught her. Then, when I told her to go to class, she outright refused. Fabricated some elaborate lie.”
    “Wasn’t a lie,” I piped up. Mrs. Louise flashed a look at me that made me finally understand the saying, if looks could kill. Little, icy dagger would certainly have shot right out of her pupils if she could have.
    “I see. Thank you Mrs. Louie. I’ll deal with this. You can go back to the library.”
    She reluctantly let go of my arm and stormed out.
    “Mr. Beuterbaugh, I swear, I heard someone crying. Someone sounded really hurt and I was checking it out. I wasn’t sneaking.” I was still shaking from adrenaline and he looked closely into my face.
    “You’re not on drugs are you Ms. Dae?”
    “No sir. Look, you can do whatever you want to me, but please go check out the library.”
    Mr. Beuterbaugh steepled his long, boney fingers, thinking. Mr. Ransom gave me an encouraging smile.
    “Alright, Harper. You’re new here. I don’t know anything about you and I’ve got no school records to look at. Since this is your first infraction, rather than writing you up, I’ll just send you detention. You will remain there until the last bus at 5 o’clock. In detention, I want you to write down exactly what you heard and turn it into me tomorrow.”
    Tears welled.
    Mr. Ransom spoke up, “Now Carl, what if she’s telling the truth? Why don’t we split the difference. She goes to detention for not listening to Mrs. Louie, and I’ll personally go to the library right now and check on things.”
    “Fine,” was all the long-faced principal said.
    My knees almost buckled with relief. “Thank you,” I said as Mr. Beuterbaugh ushered me out.
    Mr. Ransom gave me a wink.         
     

 
    In Trouble
     
    Detention was in a room that smelled like plastic gym socks. Chemical-y stale sweat, yum. Slightly smaller than a normal classrooms, it was the pale green walls and flickering fluorescent light that really made it feel homey. My bag was still in the library but I didn’t think sneaking back there after detention was the wisest move.
    To be honest, I was actually kind of scared of Mrs. Louie.
    In the detention room sat a single other person who ignored my arrival. He was hunched over his desk, intent on something. He had fading purple hair, thick and a little mussed in the back as though he’d just stumbled out of bed. From head to toe he was a walking bad-boy cliche complete with black leather jacket and combat boots. A rather cute bad-boy cliche.
    There was no adult supervision in detention which was surprising.
    I scrounged some paper from the recycling bin and sat at the opposite end of the room.
    “Hey do you have a pen?” I asked loudly.
    He looked up, dark grey eyes, mocha skin, screw you attitude. The sexy bad-boyness practically leaked out his ears.
    I gave a small smile. “I just need a pen.”
    Something about the way I asked must have disarmed him, because his face shifted from ‘screw off’ to ‘whatever’ and he tossed me a pen from his bag.
    I decided to write everything I could remember from the library with such diligence that Mr. Beuterbaugh would see I wasn’t a trouble maker.
    I scrawled for almost an hour before I glanced up and noticed that