Louise’s POV

I sat outside Mr Gregory’s office, ready to get talked to death about my behaviour and making the school look bad and that I’m a straight A student so there’s no need for me to act out. He always says the same thing. Baring in mind he’s my counsellor you’d think he’d realise talking my ears off my face for hours on end will never and has never worked… We’ve been having monthly meetings for the past two years and I’m still turning up, still getting into trouble…

“Louise…” Mr Gregory appeared beside me and made me jump. “I’m hoping this is the last time I have to have this conversation with you!” He opened the door but as I stood up, the headmaster Mr Keaton pushed Conor in our direction. Conor shot an evil glare back to Mr Keaton and brushed himself down. His gaze met mine for a second, but he quickly looked away.

“Mr Gregory, a second please?” Mr Keaton nodded him over.

“Louise, sit back down. I’ll be back in a second…” Mr Gregory shuffled off with Mr Keaton into the Headmaster’s office just diagonal from where we sat. Conor sat down in a seat one away from mine and picked up one of the many magazines sprawled across the coffee table that had one fake rose in a plastic vase in the centre. I couldn’t help but stare over to him as he sat there flicking through a copy of ‘Cosmopolitan’ one of the popular girls must have left after seeing Mr Gregory. My mind went crazy with the amount of things I could have said to him, but did I have the confidence? No…

“Your magazine of choice? Definitely suits you.” I laughed. Conor shot me a glare past the page of the magazine. I straightened in my chair and bit my lips together. Why am I so stupid? The one time you get one-to-one conversation time with Conor and you go and make fun of him! Idiot! I know he doesn’t associate himself with people from school, the only time being when he’s arguing with them!

“I prefer ‘Chat’.” He smirked. It took me a second to work out he was, firstly, talking to me and secondly, making a joke. I slowly turned my head and looked at him. He was smiling. He still looked threatening, don’t get me wrong, like I wouldn’t mess with him even if he was smiling… but he was smiling at me!

“Some of the stories in that are a bit… long.” I joked back.

“I know what you mean, this one is a lot more visual.” He rolled his eyes and threw the magazine back on the table. I smiled back. What are you doing? Think of something to say! Don’t leave this conversation heading towards an awkward silence!

“So…” I said, “What brings you here? To Mr Gregory’s office, I mean.” I rested my head in my hand, my elbow held up on my knee.

“I punched Josh in the face.” He shrugged as if to say ‘no big deal’. “How about you?” How about me? Did you choose to ignore the fact I hit Josh like five minutes before?

“I punched Josh in the face?” I said, wondering if he just wanted the satisfaction of hearing Josh got punched twice. There was a small silence after this as I waited for an answer.

“That was you?” He asked, turning to face me. I looked him up and down and took mental images to keep in my mind of the moment Conor and I had a conversation as he sat there, hair messed up and clothes wrinkled from an obvious fight he must have had with Josh.

“Yeah. He was saying crap about your brother so I turned round and smacked him in the face…” I said with satisfaction in my voice as the moment replayed in my head. “Cos you couldn’t get to him…” I quickly added in case he thought I made him sound weak. He looked me up and down slowly, like I did with him earlier. It made me feel a little uncomfortable admittedly, but hey, he was hot and I was not gonna complain!

“That was you?” he asked again. “I mean he was saying all that stuff so I just turned and walked away. I didn’t even know he’d been hit!” A huge smile spread across his face, one so full of joy that Josh had to deal with two people punching him in the face.

“And you didn’t hear…?” I began, but stopped my sentence half way through.

“Yeah I heard something. I thought he’d smacked you or your friend.” He shrugged again. Oh yeah thanks, thought I’d been hit so you walked off and didn’t look back! Jheez.

“Yeah, that’s a reason not to look back!” I said shirtily.  He raised an eyebrow at me. “I mean you two thought it was appropriate to try and fight with me and my friend still in the queue, then admit you heard something and didn’t bother turning round?”

“Why would I?” He laughed. “I don’t know you.” I felt my stomach drop through the floor of the school and into the core of the earth where it burnt from the heat. Wow, way to just ruin a nice conversation! I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. What could I say? He just wanted to keep the fact he doesn’t associate with school kids fresh in the front of my mind.

“Louise, Conor.” Mr Gregory said as he walked back over to us. We both stood up.

“Sir.” We said simultaneously. I felt a flutter in my stomach. I know right? What a big baby, getting in a tizz because we spoke at the same time…

“You’ll both come into my office. Now.” He ordered, practically pushing me through the door. Once again I sat on the leather chair on the right in front of the dark oak desk, preparing myself for the speech I had practically memorised. He slumped into his chair in front of Conor and I and took a deep breath in. “Why?” He said simply. I raised an eyebrow. “One person punching someone once is enough, why did both of you feel the need?”

“He annoyed both of us.” I said, hoping the more I stuck up for Conor the more hopelessly in love he would fall.

“That’s not really an appropriate reason to hit him, is it Louise?” He leant forward. “Louise, you’ve been in here so many times… Every time for hitting someone – always male and always bigger than you!” I half smirked as I remembered the time I had a fight with Frank. “Like Frank for example. He had to go to hospital! You almost broke his nose!” Mr Gregory looked at me disapprovingly as I began to giggle.

“I’m sorry, he totally deserved it… He called Ross some rude words…” I said, sounding like a child.

“I totally wanted to punch him in the face too…” Conor added.

“Conor!” Mr Gregory shot an evil glare to Conor. “That’s not what I want to hear!”

“Not what Frank wanted to hear either…” He laughed. I couldn’t help but giggle.

“You two will be the death of me!” Mr Gregory started, and I knew this was the beginning of the long and boring speech I’ve heard so many times before. Although it wasn’t. Not at all.

“You what?” Conor’s voice broke me from my thoughts.

“I said Mr Keaton wants me to get strict with you two… You’re both bright, but you’re giving this school a bad reputation. So I’ve been told to do a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ rule. And this counts as number one…”

“You can’t be serious!” I blurted. “After everything?” I noticed Conor looking towards me but I didn’t look at him. Need to show him what he’s missing!

“But, Sir. It wasn’t her fault. She only hit him because I couldn’t! He was taking the piss!” Conor shouted. My heart fluttered and I looked over to him, he shot me a quick smile and looked at the floor. “Sir, he was saying my brother was worse than a dog…” Mr Gregory looked up at the ceiling as if to pray to God to give him the strength to deal with us.

“Look. Alright. I’ll let you off this time, but I mean it. Three strikes and you’re out of this school!” He slammed his fist onto the desk. “Now both of you get out. I have some lies to make up to Mr Keaton. Don’t say I never do anything for you!” We both eagerly stood up, thanking Mr Gregory and exited the office.

“Thanks for that!” I smiled lovingly at him. “For saying it wasn’t my fault.” He looked at me and laughed.

“Ha. It wasn’t for you! I was guilt tripping him! If he thought you did it for me, you just looked like a hero. Trust me, if he’d have taken that any other way I’d have left you in there to clean up the pieces!” He patted me on the shoulder. “You’ll learn…” he said patronisingly as he walked off, leaving me stood on my own wondering what just happened… That’s when my mobile rang.

“Mum! What do you want? I’m at school!”

“Yes we know that!” She huffed. “Getting into fights? Again!” Oh God. If I wasn’t getting moaned at by one person, it would be from another…