Albaer sat with his arms crossed in the main office, the chair was as uncomfortable as ever and he shifted a little bit in the cheap old material, tears and rips were the smallest problem, it was also filthy, and the material inside was either flat or sticky from past spills. It was also the chair they made those in trouble sit in, and it was, in a word, familiar.

“Albaer what did you do? Did you steal something like your father?” The secretary asked, and Albaer shook his head.

In the past, her comment would have cut, now, it only stung. However, the sandy haired young man didn’t wince. Nor did he retort. He simply glared at her without blinking. ‘Lisa knew… lots of people knew… nobody told me… I spent all that time being treated like shit to prove I wasn’t bad, all for nothing…’ His anger only intensified when she looked away from his disgust filled glare.

“It’s not right that I’m here.” He said at last.

“What?” She snapped her head around so fast he briefly wondered if she was giving herself whiplash. Her eyes and eyebrows widened in shock, and her mouth dropped as if she no longer had the strength to keep it closed.

“I said, it’s not right that I’m here.” Albaer answered with the unbreaking, steady stare. “I was attacked in that class, Jason keeps doing this, over and over again, he whacks me, hits me, tries to provoke me, and nobody does anything. Today I did something myself, nobody else was going to do anything. So why hasn’t he been here every single day, while I’m here now after doing what you people always tell us our whole lives it’s okay to do?”

Struck nearly dumb by his rant, the old secretary managed to ask only, “What… do what?”

“Stand up for ourselves. We’re always told to tell teachers, but the teacher could always see what was happening, it was out in the open, but she does nothing. Why isn’t she here explaining why she can’t control her class?!” Albaer raised his voice an octave, and it seemed to get the principal’s attention.

“Albaer! Get in here!” The gruff snark of the weary bureaucrat was thick and weary, like gears that had ground too long without oil, and Albaer slowly rose from the sticky, torn seat and walked past the divider to go into the back room.

Albaer sat before the principal, and the old man’s eyes became flint. He was a world weary figure if ever there was one, stooped, a shaking in his hand, white hair in a combover that was the definition of denial. His cheap suit was a knockoff of a pricey brand, and he smelled of coffee and tobacco mingled with cheap cologne.

“Trouble follows you, doesn’t it, boy?” The principal asked. The old man snatched a coffee cup off the table, sloshing some dark liquid over the top to add to the natural darkness of the expensive oak desk.

“Nope.” Albaer crossed his arms in defiance and the bushy gray unibrow of the principal went up. “It comes before me. My father did stuff, but he was born before me. So were you, and you make my life harder. This place sucks, and a bunch of people before me made it that way. I’m just stuck here in this shithole.”

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The principal choked and sputtered some of his coffee out over his face, the dark water ran along the channels of his wrinkled old face before he could wipe his face clean with the back of his hand, coughing the whole time and setting the coffee down, it was a minute before he could speak again.

“You’ve got an attitude problem, boy. You need to respect your elders! Your daddy should have taught you that much. Show some respect, son.” The old man shot back.

“I’m not your son and I’m about a year from not being a boy. And I tried your way!” Albaer exclaimed and leaned forward with angry tears in his eyes. “I tried! I tried to show everybody I wasn’t the bad seed! That I’m just Albaer, just myself! But you… fuck all of you! You let people smack me around, torment me, pick on me… but fuck me if I defend myself! Then it’s just proof that I’m the problem! That got me here today! Yeah, I hit Jason! But he’s been targeting me for months! Your trash teachers don’t do a damn thing about it! Respect?! How about I get some elders worth respecting?! How about that, huh?!” Albaer shouted out loud, his face red and flushed with emotion, he pounded his fist on the desk and yelled across at the old man’s stunned face.

“The school has a zero tolerance policy on fighting!” The principal snapped.

“Which means it has a one hundred percent tolerance for bullies and thugs! I get picked on, you do nothing. I fight back, I’m punished because I started a fight! If I did any of what that bastard or his friends did, you’d charge me with a crime! But I’m supposed to take it?! You suck! You’re all just…” Albaer began wiping his face vigorously to clear off the angry tears, “I hate you. I hate all of you… lying… backstabbing… vindictive little tyrants…”

“That’s enough!” The old man practically exploded, “You disrespectful brat! I’m going to call your mother in for a conference! Something has got to be done about your nasty attitude! We do things the way we do for a very good reason! We have lots of experience and learned how to do things the right way. That’s why boys should listen to their elders.”

Albaer stopped listening at the word ‘conference’.

‘No… no you can’t… you just can’t. She- she’s asleep… all the time, from work… she needs her- her rest…’ Albaer’s tears threatened to return. “No… no you can’t do that, she can’t come in… she’s always working, see and-”

“Don’t lie to me, boy! My son-in-law runs the hospital where your mother works… or rather, worked. She quit two years ago to avoid being fired!” The principal smacked his open palm on the table, the clap of noise from the flesh striking the wood brought immediate silence to Albaer, who practically jumped out of his skin at the sudden noise.

“You see Karen on the way out, you get a notice from her for a parent teacher conference, and you come back here with your mother on Friday of this week, or face expulsion!” The principal demanded and then thrust a shaking hand out, pointing to the door. “I’d kick you out for the day, but you’ve got two girls shadowing you that I don’t have anyone else to watch… mind yourself, boy. You swing one time on one person, you start any trouble today for even a bug crossing the courtyard, and you’ll get worse than expulsion. Now get out!”

Albaer stood, ghost white, having barely heard a thing, he walked like a man on autopilot, like a crude movie robot, and carried out the principal’s instructions. He didn’t even look at the smug face of Karen as she slid the paper across to him just as Raziel and Lialah entered the room before he could leave it.