23. Punishment

"Ah... that..." he looked up. 

Contemplating, he squeezed out.

"I'm in love with her and want her attention?" He half-asked, while gobbling her up with his eyes. After losing a bit of weight, she looked really good, an ice beauty. Maybe he should lose weight too.

Lance's face fell, and he blocked Paige with his body from that creep.

Jace looked in wonder at this behavior. Did Lance have a thing for Paige? Why? How?

"Is that a question? And is that even a reason? Are you six years old?" The principal raised his voice, and the short boy flinched. 

"I am sorry." 

"Good. You have to write a ten-thousand-word essay on why drug addiction is not something you can joke about. I will call your parents to the school to inform them of the doings of their good son."

The boy flinched again; clearly, this punishment was harder than he had expected. But he had no choice but to oblige. He nodded sadly.

The principal turned to the others. "Jace, have you told anybody else about your suspicions of Lance and Paige?"

"No," Jace lied.

"Good. As it is your first mistake, and for being deceived, I will just let you write an eight-thousand-word essay about believing in fake news and rumors. Calling your parents won't be necessary." 

Jace let out a breath of relief. 

"But." The principal followed up, 

"That is under the premise that nobody else knows about what happened. If my students get accused of something this serious and it spreads, hurting their reputation, I will not let it slide."

His eyes held a thread in them, and Jace felt cold sweat running down his back.

Everyone nodded and went to class, while Paige had to stay.

When they were alone, the old man asked, "What about pushing people down the stairs? What should I do with you?"

In the original first part, Paige was only held accountable after a while because nobody accused her frankly, and only later came a few witnesses, and Eve pressured the principal. This time, the plot somehow changed, and now Paige had to face punishment.

[How should I act?]

[Unreasonable. Text will be given.]

Paige said 'sorry' to the principal in her mind and read down woodenly, "It was her, that bitch, that splashed her coffee all over me. I just reacted."

"What is this? Why are you talking like a robot?" 

Paige looked at him and answered monotonously, "I am not." 

"Is someone forcing you to speak like this?", the old man scrutinized her. 

"Well..." She received an electric shock from the system and stopped speaking.

Observing Paige, he thought something was definitely wrong with her, but he had already done enough for her parents' sake.

"Nothing happened and the girl Natasha won't go to the police. So a public excuse and an eight-thousand-word essay from you; the topic is about the possible consequences of falling down the stairs." 

[Text?] Paige asked the system; there were no words in front of her.

The system tried to calculate Paige's original reaction to the punishment. But it was a bit more difficult because it sensed that the principal had not as much ill will toward Paige as he had toward the original Paige at that moment.

It projected text, and Paige recited boredly,

"But what that bitch has done, -"

The principal interrupted her, "Yes, yes, I got it. I don't know if this is some kind of 'dare,' but stop behaving like this. Go away; class has started." With that, he chased her out of the office.

Lance waited in the corridor for her.

"Punishment because of 'scene one'?"

"Yeah, an essay. If you write it for me, I'll give you money."

He chuckled, "You already gave me money, so..."

"Damn, yes, that's right," she said disappointedly.

"Ah, and I just remembered about Pigtail." Lance looked around, but nobody was in sight. "The pigtail girl, be careful; I think she's a reader."

"My deskmate? Yes, she is strange, but a reader?" She raised an eyebrow. "Yes, or reborn, but she is too enthusiastic about me and Natasha to be normal."