The door to the principal's office opened and the principal walked out.
Mr. Davison, a 51-year old gray-haired man with years of educational experience and with years of experience with dealing with troublemakers, looked straight at Randy. The new Goth boy shied away from those glaring eyes. But when the principal looked at Trevor, he never flinched.
"Get in here," he ordered the two boys.
Randy obeyed immediately. But Trevor didn't. And that made the principal angry. He grabbed Trevor's arm and pulled him out of his chair. "I said get in here," he growled, then pulled the Goth boy into his office.
Randy looked at Trevor with shocking amazement. How could someone be so defiant? Especially against the high school principal? Randy wasn't really so easily intimidated. But he respected authority. Apparently, Trevor did not.
Mr. Davison closed the door behind him and then sat behind his desk. "What am I going to do with you two?" he asked them. Then he looked straight at Randy. "Should I suspend you?"
"Suspend me? But I haven't done anything. Listen, I'm not supposed to be this way." He then pointed at Trevor. "He made me like this."
"Yes, yes. I've heard it all before," the principal said. "But your actions are yours alone. Just because you fell into the wrong crowd, it doesn't mean you can blame others for your mistakes."
"No. You don't understand," Randy said.
Mr. Davison leaned across his desk. "And what exactly don't I understand? You two have been a pain in my ass for months now. And I think it's high time that I do something about that." He grabbed for some papers and a pen.
"What are you doing?" Randy asked.
"I'm putting you both on suspension," he said, as he began filling out one of the forms.
"Wait," Randy snapped. "I don't want to be Goth anymore."
Mr. Davison stopped writing and looked up. "Really? You can just stop whenever you want?"
"Of course," Randy said.
The principal looked at him a moment longer, then put down the pen. "For once, I believe you. But your friend here doesn't seem to want to have the normal life as much as you do."
"Normal," Trevor said with disgust. "Why would I want to be fucking normal?"
"That's exactly why I'm suspending you," he told Trevor. Then he turned back to Randy. "But you. You have another chance. Don't blow it."
Randy felt relieved. He was actually going to get out of this. Soon, he'd get out of these freakish clothes and get back to normal.
But then he looked over at Trevor. Their eyes met and suddenly that feeling of fondness and friendship splashed over Randy. He tried to fight those feelings, but it was so hard. He really did like Trevor. He really did consider him as his friend. But why? Where were these feelings coming from? And how could he get rid of them? He certainly didn't want to be best friends with a freak. Or did he?
