The New Vice Principal

“Today was the day that we finally got him, my cute adorable little Bernese mountain dog puppy!!!”

“Wait. What?! You got a puppy?!” Lauren said. “A. New. PUPPY!” 

“Well not really. It’s just a story Lauren.” I said. My name is Kimberly Carter, and the girl named Lauren that spoke earlier, is my friend from school. She is obsessed with cute fluffy things, such as baby puppies and bunnies. 

“Lauren, time to go home!” Mr. Rodger shouted from downstairs. Mr. Rodger is Lauren's dad. 

“Coming!” Shouted Lauren ir return. “Quick. Hide me.” We scurried all throughout my room to find a place that Lauren could hide so that her dad wouldn’t find her. 

“Here!” I said, as I had just thought of the stuffed animal pile that was in the far right corner of my room. “Just go in there, and I’ll pile the stuffies on top of you so that your dad wouldn’t be able to see the slightest inch of your body.” So Lauren scrambled into the stuffy pile, and hid herself. 

“Where’s Lauren now?” Mr. Rodger asked, not surprised that Lauren was hiding again. This happens every time that Lauren comes over to my house to play. 

“I don’t know.” I said innocently. “She left the room a couple minutes ago to go to the bathroom and hasn’t returned since.” As soon as Mr. Rodger and my mom had left the room, I shut the door and piled my heaviest things against it. “You can come out now Lauren.” 

“Clever thinking. I don’t know what I would do without you Kimberly Carter.” She said, as I helped her up.

We hear pounding on the door and then an angry Mr. Rodger “Kimberly, Lauren better not be hiding in your room again.” 

“Uh-oh.” Said Lauren under her breath. “I’ll be in deep trouble if my dad finds out that I’ve been hiding in here.” 

“It’ll be fine. We’ll just have to be rebels for once in our lives and jump out that window.” I said pointing to the window nearest my bed. 

“Um. I’m not so sure. What if my dad finds out we’ve escaped? He’ll be so mad if he finds out we’ve jumped out the window.” Lauren said, looking worried. “Let's do it!” 

* * *

The next day at school we bumped into each other and Lauren started to tell me about what happened when she had gotten home from the play date. 

“Oh, my goodness. My dad was about to blow his top when he found me and had gotten me into the car. He was so mad that he grounded me from sleepovers, play dates, and all things related to friends. Except for school.” Lauren said. “I can’t believe you talked me into doing that.” 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think it would get you into that much trouble.” I said, seeing the look of disgust that Lauren was shooting at me. “I was grounded from a bunch of things too. Any technology, play dates, and from watching T.V., even when Lance still gets to.” Lance is my little brother, he is 8 years old and is obsessed with anything related to nature. 

Then the bell rang. “Oh. Time to go in. I’ll see you later.” I said, walking slowly and sadly into my science classroom. Lauren waved back to me, then stalked off, shoulders high, confident, as always. 

At around lunch time, when we finally saw each other again, I started off the conversation on a positive note. “Well, Mr. Vazquez isn’t giving out tests today, so that’s good for me and for you!” 

“Mm-hm.” Said Lauren through a mouthful of spaghetti. Swallowing a huge bite, she said “I’m sorry that I was a jerk to you earlier. I don’t know what got into me. I just wanted to blame someone for the trouble I got in, and I - I just wanted to make someone feel bad for me.” Said Lauren, on the verge of tears.

 That’s just when our principal, Mr. Andersen made an announcement “Students of Carmen Ramos Academy, I hereby pronounce Mrs. Rocha, the new vice principal of the school!!!” Some people applauded, but most don’t really know that Mrs. Rocha is acting really weird. She moves stiffly, and she talks like siri, you know the thing on your Phone where you can say “Hey Siri, do this and that - or text so and so - or play me this song.” 

* * *

Later that day, when Mr. Andersen came into my math class, he brought Mrs. Rocha with him. He made each of us greet her and say what your name was, what’s your favorite hobby, and things like that. Things like you would say at a kindergarten introduction. 

When Mrs. Rocha came up to me and said “Hi” and put out her hand in greeting, I grabbed it and shook it. She grasped it firmly, not letting go until I yanked it out of her grasp. She shook hands with everyone way too long. According to my friend Roy, Mrs. Rocha was grabbing everyone’s hands for far too long in his class too. 

“She’s super weird.” Roy said, after school as I was walking out with him. Then suddenly Mrs. Rocha pulled me aside, yanking me by the left arm. 

“Come with me.” She said, in her expressionless voice. So I walked with her to her room, right next to the principal's office. 

“What’s all this about?” I asked, “You’re going to make me miss my bus.” 

“Your bus is not to be concerned right now; the more important matter is that you have been suspecting things of me. I can tell.” 

“How do you know? You haven’t been near any of my conversations.” 

“Okay. This is slightly personal. Things that you should not know, but I’m going to tell you anyway. I am a robot, and I can read your mind.”