"What?" I asked as the principal turned towards me. "How could I destroy a statue? Made of stone. And metal. And very heavy duty materials that a jackhammer couldn't cut through?"

Mr. Roy looked at me, his eyes betraying suspicion. "Yes, I agree Sarah. You couldn't have done this alone. But still, you are right next to the statue.""Ok, are you assuming I brought a bomb or another device to school and attached it to the statue? " I asked him. "Because I would never do that." I turned to the crowd. "Does it look like I would destroy school property? Me, a short little 8th grader who's new to this school? And what reason would I have?" 

"I don't know, you tell us!" Someone from the crowd yelled. A few people murmured in agreement. I gave the "what the heck what are you thinking" look at all of them and slapped my palm on my face. "I have no tools, weapons, or anything else to prove that I destroyed our statue!"

"That's called destroying the evidence," a boy named Noah called out.

 I rolled my eyes."You are all seriously suggesting that one of the students who is new to this school would purposefully destroy the school mascot statue? Do you realize how ridiculous that is?" I looked at all of my classmates. They all eyed me with suspicion. I started to worry. "Anyone?" I whispered.

"I agree with Sarah," someone said. I nearly toppled over when I saw it was Kort. He looked serious, all joking attitude and signs of embarrassment from earlier aside. "What reason would she have to destroy a statue that belongs to our school? I know Sarah. She is one of the kindest people I know. She would never do something that would hurt anyone or anything." He smiled at me. I blushed and looked down at my shoes.

 My principal eyed Kort. "Okay then, even if she didn't do it, someone did.""Maybe there was a gas line pipe rupture?" asked Jaquellen. I jumped. I had completely forgot she was even there. She gave the principal a nervous smile.The principal frowned. "I would know if there was a gas line pipe below our statue. And there isn't. So someone must've done it."

"Well, until proved otherwise, everyone is innocent, and we can blame Mother Nature," Kort said, edging closer to me. "We should conduct an investigation of the area and see if we can find any clues about who, or what, destroyed the statue."

"I'm still not set on the idea that Miss Maughn had nothing to do with this," Mr. Roy grumbled. "She was right by the statue when it exploded, and yet doesn't have a scratch on her."

Now that I thought about it, he was right. Everyone else I saw had cuts and bruises, and yet I was perfectly fine. I was literally standing three feet away from the statue. It was as if the flying debris had purposefully missed me.Kort looked at him and patiently explained, "Yes, but she couldn't control that even if she had destroyed the statue. And anyways, I think it is extremely unfair to blame her. I say we call an investigator and tell him what happened, and in the meantime we all go home."

"Might I remind you, Mr. Lacroy, that I am the principal of this school, not you," said Mr. Roy. He glared at Kort, and looked back at the crowd that had gathered in front of the school. "Don't worry students, we will call an investigator to come check out what happened. In the meantime, you will all return to your classes." A few students argued that there was still 12 minutes of lunch left. He shushed them and told again told them to go inside. He waved over the vice principal and talked in hushed tones. She went inside the school to go call the police. People slowly trickled back into the school, talking excitedly about what just happened. A few boys thanked me because they said they had always hated that statue, and ran away laughing. Principal Roy made sure that everyone was back inside. Jaquellen, Kort, and I started walking inside. Principal Roy stopped us before we could get too far. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"Back to class," Jaquellen said.

"Oh no, not you three. "You will go back to class, as soon as your done cleaning up all of the pieces of the blown up statue."

"But we didn't do anything!" I yelled. 

"M-hm. You could very well be the cause of the statue blowing up," Mr. Roy argued. 

Kort frowned. "I thought we agreed on innocent until proven guilty."

"And also," I added, "why would they need to stay? What did they do?" 

Mr. Roy straightened his blue and grey striped tie, his round belly deflating as he sighed. "They came to your defence, they must have had something to do with it," he explained as if it were the most obvious concept of all time.

"Uh, Kort?" asked Jaquellen nervously. She was watching me very closely, as if she expected me to be the one to blow up next and was preparing herself for it.

"This is so unfair," I mumbled, ignoring her concerned looks she kept giving me and looks of urgency she shot at Kort. He looked a little worried too, and just nodded at her. "How am I supposed to take credit for blowing up a statue and then be forced to clean it up when none of it was my fault? None of it!" Kort stepped closer towards me and looked at Mr. Roy. 

"It has probably been exhausting for Sarah to have to go through all of this trauma with everyone blaming her for everything that is going on. How about we come back tomorrow when the investigator is finished with his search, and we talk then. Deal?" he said, grabbing my hand as we started to walk away from Mr. Roy. I looked down, his hand on mine. I blushed again, and smiled at the ground. 

He frowned as we started backing away from the school. "Where are you kids going?" he asked us. He started to stalk towards us.

"Home," Kort said. "We are going to go home, and then we will help clean up tomorrow when the investigator is done, if we are found guilty."

"Which we aren't," I grumbled. Mr. Roy growled. 

"I don't think so. I don't care what you say. You kids caused the damage, and you kids will clean it up!"He reached for Kort's other hand. 

"Run!" Kort shouted. He rushed ahead of me, dragging me behind him. Jaquellen hurried to catch up. We all ran as fast as we could. I was panting. I was shorter than most people, and my legs could never move very fast. I HATED long distance running! I didn't hear the principal running behind us. I mean, I knew he couldn't run that fast, but still. I continued to run, but then glanced over my shoulder. I gasped and stopped in my tracks when I saw what was by the school.

It was hideous, with gray skin, bloodshot eyes, and fangs three inches long. And it had tentacles. Like, no joke, it looked like an octopus married a zombie and had a child. "Um, guys?" I said, my voice shaking. "You might want to see this."

Kort looked at me and nodded. "Yeah, we know. Scary, right?" I looked at them, my eyes bulging. This was just getting weird, and I didn't think I could handle it. I started backing away from them, as well as the thing. But then I noticed the strangest thing about it: the blue and grey striped tie around its neck. And then I gasped again. Kort looked at me.

He gave me a grim smile. "Oh yeah, you figured it out? Yeah, that's Mr. Roy."