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A Trip to the Principal’s Office
     
    Jana sat with her knees pressed tightly together, waiting for the principal to arrive, not sure whether she should be scared o r excited.
    Did the principal want to praise her for something, or to punish her? She certainly couldn’t imagine that she’d done anything wrong, and her grades were excellent.
    He’d called her into the office, and then gone outside to speak with the secretary.
    She took her compact mirror out of her purse and nervously straightened her long honey-blonde hair and checked her makeup. It looked fine. Her big green eyes filled the mirror, and she smiled and winked at herself.
    Finally he came back into the room, and she heard him saying goodbye to the secretary before closing the door behind him. It was 3:15 now and school had finished for the day.
    “All right, Jana,” said Principal Stevens, sitting down behind his desk. “How are you fe eling today?” He smiled at her . His piercing blue eyes met hers. He was a handsome man , with thick dark hair and smooth olive skin. All the girls in school had a crush on him. She’d only spoken to him a few times before.
    “Fine, sir. Am I … in trouble?” she asked meekly.
    “Do you feel like you deserve to be in trouble?” he asked, still smiling .
    There was something cold in the smile, she thought. “I … no, I don’t think so.” 
    He looked at the file in front of him. “Your 18 th birthday was last week,” he said.
    “Yes, sir.” 
    “My birthday was last week also. I turned 43 .”
    “Twenty-five years older than me,” she said , crossing her arms in front of herself. She had wondered how old he was; he was certainly youthful-looking , with a t rim muscular body and only a bit of grey hair around his temples.
    “I see you’ve been paying attention in math class, anyway. Your grades are excellent and all your teachers say you work very hard. That’s not why you’re here. Do you have any idea why you are here?”
    Her heart was thudding in her chest. “No, sir, I don’t.”
    He stood up and paced in front of her, glancing down at her, his hands behind his back. He wore a grey suit and a dark red necktie.
    “Your uniform, maybe? Do you think it meets regulations?”
    She looked down at herself; the top two buttons of her blouse were undone, and she hadn’t noticed. Regulations were that only the first could be unbuttoned.
    She felt her face growing red. “I’m sorry, sir.”
    She hurriedly began to fasten the button.
    “Stop,” he said coldly. “Leave it as it is.”
    Her hands dropped into her lap again. She couldn’t look up at him, but felt his gaze bearing down on her.
    “I’ m so sorry, sir. I’ll fix it if … ”
    “No, leave it. You came in here, with your blouse open enough for me to see your bra. What does that say about you?”
    S he felt her face growing red. “I … It was just an accident, sir. I didn’t notice it.”
    “Look up at me, Jana.”  He was standing over her now, towering over her, so tall and broad-shouldered, his hands on his hips.
    She looked up, shyly.  “I’m really sorry, it just came open accidentally.” 
    “Accidentally … and what color is your bra, Jana ? ” 
    She felt her face radiating heat. “Sir, I . . .” 
    “Regulations in this school are for girls not to wear colored bras, because they must wear white blouses. What color is your bra, Jana?”
    “It’s white!” she said, shocked.
    “I don’t think so. It looks more pink, to me.”
    “It’s white, but it has some little red designs on it,” she admitted . She felt the heat spreading down to her chest, and she couldn’t look up at him anymore.
    He was pacing back and forth again. “Why did you do that, Jana? That’s two rules broken in one day. What would your mother think?”
    “She’d be very upset,” Jana said quickly. Her mother had always warned her to be a good girl. “I wore it because I didn’t have another clean. I work as a babysitter some days,