Zenon's Game Chapter 296

But she was too busy watching Art's father and the Dawsons get ready to leave.

"What in the privilege is this?!" she exclaimed the second the Principal walked back in with Bryce's dad, "You're telling me the athletes and the rich kid are off the hook?"

"Ha!" my mom commented from beside me, "You sound surprised."

"I'm not surprised," Cynthia's mom replied, grabbing her bag and swinging it over her shoulder, "I grew up with privilege being shoved in my face, but am I going to accept it for my daughter?! Hell no. Cynthia, get your phone out and record this."

"Look," Roland Chadwick tried to calm everyone down, "I'm sure there's a practical solution here for everyone."

"I don't know how things work over in Sweden, but you and your son getting off free while the rest of us are stuck here is not how this is going down."

Oh, we're in it now.

Zenon's jaw clenched. He saw it coming too. My head moved like a ping pong from watching one side of the room to the other.

"Sweden?" Bryce's dad replied, "What does that have to do with anything?"

Axel lowered his head in his hand.

Cynthia stepped back as if she wanted to walk through the wall.

And Bryce tried to help the situation, "It's a figure of speech."

"It's not," Cynthia's mom responded, "I'm dead serious."

Cynthia whispered, "And I'm just dead."

RIP Cynthia, you will be missed. I loved you dearly, but nowhere near as much as you loved BTS.

It had started out with good intentions. Months ago, Axel convinced Cynthia's mom that she should come to Dubai with us. He succeeded, by pretending to be Bryce's dad and putting on an accent.

A Swedish accent.

And now the house of cards was crashing down. Not just for Cynthia, but for the rest of us too. The Principal said she would punish everyone and that it would impact our academic records.

I didn't grow up in the warmest of homes. Literally, we didn't have heating for a few years until my mom started earning more. I always told myself that if I studied hard enough, I could get a better life. But I got distracted. My grades were sinking and here we all were.

"Sweden?" Bryce's dad asked, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"It's a figure of speech," Bryce said.

"It's not," Cynthia's mom replied, "I'm dead serious."

Bryce's dad took a moment before he replied, "I don't know how this would be handled in Sweden, but I'm trying to get my son out of trouble in this country, and I understand you're trying to do the same for your daughter."

Cynthia went into a meltdown and dropped into her chair. Axel turned his head away, trying to keep a low profile. And I tried to keep so straight faced that my eye started to twitch.

They were moments away from being busted.

"Except that it sounds like my daughter had a very small part to play in this incident, unlike your son and his whip," she gave Bryce the side eye, "But he's getting away with it because of your bank account, while my daughter is still in the hot seat. That's the definition of privilege."

New voices sounded outside, interrupting the debate.

"Gloria, it's this way. Trust me, I know my way around this school," a voice said, "I've been here enough times by now."

I perked up the moment I recognized her voice. A few seconds later, the door swung open and Dr Thomas walked in with Gloria. Before the door shut behind them, I saw Doz's face in the hallway, trying to peek in.

Dr Thomas was wearing blue hospital scrubs. She waved at the Principal like they knew each other and marched towards her son, "Axel Thomas, what did you do now?"

They swarmed him; Gloria started patting his hair down while his mom tried to adjust his shirt. Axel brushed them off, but couldn't say anything. He still wasn't speaking in front of Cynthia's mom. He glanced over at Zenon and Bryce, his eyes pleading for help.

Zenon got the cue and said, "Dr Thomas, there's been a misunderstanding."

"There's always a misunderstanding when it comes to you three," she replied, "I know my son and if he's in this office, he's probably done something wrong."

"At least someone is admitting it," Art muttered from his chair, before his dad glared at him to stay quiet.

"Can we wrap this up?" Mr Albert asked, "I have an appointment at four that I don't want to miss."

Everyone turned to Principal Lee who was now just standing there.

"I hate my job," she sighed, and placed her notebook against the table, "Perhaps I need to remind you all that this school is built to educate children and keep them safe. Today, we failed in that mission, so I need to hold someone or multiple people accountable for what happened. It's school policy and it's the right thing to do."

I'd like to look at that school policy. Bullying isn't just physical, and I haven't seen any existence of this 'no-tolerance' policy supporting emotional harassment. I tried to get help multiple times freshman year, but was told that it's too hard to prove.

Over time, verbal bullying has destroyed my self-confidence and heightened my trust issues. I can readily admit that Zenon has helped me open my eyes to that and helped me start to rebuild. But it's a long road to walk back up.

Coach Griffith said, "With all due respect, Principal, we agreed that I will handle the punishment of my own players-"

"I now need to revisit that agreement," she said, pointing at the rest of us who were not part of his 'team.'

It was ridiculous that Zenon and Bryce had been about to walk out of here free of any repercussions.