Lonna Tran sat outside the Assistant Principal’s office waiting to be seen by her friend Mary who Lonna thought would sort this mess out. Mark had gone in ahead of her to tell the Assistant Principal all about the unruly pupil who would not obey him in the corridor. After a few minutes the door opened and out walked Mary Elliott the Assistant Principal, Lonna’s friend.
“Well young lady what do you have to say for yourself.” Mary asked. “I did nothing Mary it was Mark he would not let me go.” Was the answer from Lonna. “How dare you use my first name its Mr Winters to you and nothing else.” Came Mark’s angry reply. Mary turned to Mark and said “You go on to your classroom Mark. I will deal with this” Without another word Mark turned and left red faced that he had lost his temper with this teenager.
Lonna stood watching the exchange in stunned silence unsure of what to say. Then her friend Mary turned to her. “Well what do we do with you then. I know you where running late for your class but that was no reason to upset Mr Winters was it. Anyway, what is done is done. You need to be getting along to class, don’t you?” Mary asked Lonna. Her only answer was a soft “Yes”.
“That’s what I thought. Here take this for your teacher. It will stop anymore problems for you this morning and I don’t to hear of this happening again.” Mary told her friend as she passed her a slip of paper and turned to go back in to her office. Lonna knew that Mary was a kind soul and had dealt with the problem that Mark had brought to her in her usual slight touch way. She knew that if a student had caused the same problem, they would not get off so lightly.
It was only as the door to her friend’s office closed, she realized what Mary had said. Take this for your TEACHER. It suddenly hit Lonna that even Mary had seen her as a pupil and not as a fellow teacher. What was going on she thought. This had all started with Lauren Rodriguez and her stone. Lonna knew then she needed to find Lauren and she knew exactly where she would be.
