The Files of the Big Damn Principal

At some point in the afternoon, Veronica and Anakin stopped by.

"Principal Washburn? Could we have a few minutes of your time?" Veronica asked before entering the office.

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Anakin poked his head in above Veronica's, giving the principal a shy smile.

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Zoe gave both of them a smile. "Certainly, come in. What can I do for you?" she asked politely.

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Veronica walked in to the office and smiled. "We were talking the other day and the idea of taking our students on a day trip to Washington, D.C. came up. So we were wondering if that would be possible. It would give my photography workshop an opportunity to take pictures somewhere other than Fandom."

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"And the Air & Space museum would be fascinating for my flight students," Anakin added, coming in right behind Veronica.

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"I think those both sound like excellent ideas." Zoe glanced at her calendar. "Do you have any idea when you'd like to do this?"

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"In two weeks," Veronica suggested. "To give the students time to arrange their schedules. We were looking at going on a Saturday so no one would have to miss any workshops, so that would put us on June 17th."

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Anakin nodded. "We have some workshop overlap, so it wouldn't be a huge number of students, if that makes a difference."

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"That certainly helps," Zoe said to Anakin. "The 17th should be fine. Just get me a ~~handwavey~~ list of the students who are going, so we can keep track of everyone, and you should be all set. Oh," she added, "will you need anything for transportation?"

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"A bus of some kind?" Anakin said. He perked up. "I could drive it, if you want."

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Veronica didn't look nervous about that suggestion at all. She hoped Anakin realized that school buses didn't go very fast.

"I think there will be less than 20 of us," she said. "So we don't need anything too big."

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"All right, then we should be able to find something for you." Zoe marked the 18th on her calendar ~~because the basketball game was on the 17th already, ha!~~ and gave Anakin and Veronica another nod. "I think that's everything, unless there's anything else you need?"

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Anakin shook his head, standing up. He gave Principal Washburn a slight bow. "Thank you for your time," he said. He turned to Veronica. "Unless you can think of anything I've forgotten?"

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"No, I think that should be everything," Veronica said with another smile. "I'll get you the list of attendees before the trip," she added, before turning to leave.

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"Perfect," Zoe said, smiling. "Thank you both."

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Later that afternoon, Phoebe nervously approached Dean Washburn's office. Talking to Deans and Principals always scared her and made her nervous, but this time she had to try.

However, after what had happened last night, and the subsequent detention from Anakin, she felt that she at least had to try to appeal to someone about thedetention. It didn't seem fair that they had gotten detention fordefending themselves and making sure that nothing else happened to Lanaand Maia.

If all else failed, maybe she could get Cole out ofthe detention since she was technically the one that had knocked Johnunconscious.

Taking a deep breath, she stood in the doorway.

"Dean Washburn? Do you have a moment?"

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Zoe looked up, and waved Phoebe in. "Sure. I might even have a few of them strung together. What's going on?"

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"Something happened at the cabins... okay Koala cabin... last night/early this morning and three of us have detention because of it." Phoebe took a nervous breath. "I understand that there are rules about violence. However, I would like to say that I don't think detention is fair because of the circumstances involved."

Phoebe was being very respectful and very nervous.

She swallowed. "I am not accusing Anakin of being cruel or power-hungry, I swear. I just feel that because of what caused everything to happen, detention for two of those seems extreme and unjust." She bit her lip. "It was late and we didn't get a chance to tell the full story of what had happened. I'm asking for the chance to explain and get your opinion."

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Zoe knew enough about Anakin to know that there were moments where his judgement might not be able to be trusted, but she wasn't sure if this was one of those times. So, she supposed listening was the only way to find out.

"All right, have a seat," she said. "Tell me what happened."

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The fact that Zoe was willing to hear her out made some of the tension ease out of her shoulders. She sat down on the edge of a chair.

"Early this morning, a scream and a loud thump woke us up in the Koala cabin. Cole left our alcove to go see if anyone on the B side was hurt and if he could help. Lana, Maia and I were worried when we heard scuffling in the dark. We've been at Fandom for a year and noises don't make us run the other way.

"We were able to get close enough to the B side to see that John was attacking Cole and saying a lot of weird stuff to him about cyborgs and robots. John is our friend and we wanted to try to talk him down from whatever had him so... scared. Principal Washburn, I'm an empath and what I felt coming off of John in waves was pure fear with some anger." She shook her head. "I don't know what he thought he was seeing, but it wasn't us. Then, at some point, he saw Lana and tried to shove her into the common room. I think in some part of his mind, he thought he was protecting her. Her head hit the door and she went down."

Phoebe squeezed her fists. "Things were happening so fast and we were screaming and yelling and then Maia got knocked down and hurt." She looked at Zoe. "The way John was acting... he was still in his nightmare and I was afraid he was going to force something bad to happen. I tackled him away from Cole whom he had been fighting with and attacking and then he decided that he had to protect me from the killer cyborg Quicksilver that he was seeing. He said that this Quicksilver had killed his foster mom, but that he wasn't going to touch me." She bit her lip. "He thought Cole was this Quicksilver...and nothing Cole or I said could snap him out of it. He kept attacking Cole and Cle kept trying to defend himself and us from John. Finally... I used a move I had been taught and knocked John unconscious."

She shook her head. "I don't doubt that Anakin was following the rules when he gave us detention, but I was so fragged that I couldn't explain what had happened. I don't think John would have ever hurt any of us on purpose --- especially not Maia or Lana or me." She swallowed again. "I'm willing to serve my detention tomorrow if you say I deserve it because I was the one to knock John out. However, I don't think Cole should be punished for doing the right thing and trying to protect us --- especially after Lana was hurt. As for John...

"Principal Washburn... something was wrong with him. Something was really wrong and he was scared."

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Zoe listened carefully to everything Phoebe was saying, and sighed deeply as she sank back into her chair. "If John had some sort of nightmare, some sort of bad memory that made him act out like he did, then I can understand why you might have felt that he was scared. But that doesn't mean I can condone his actions. Violence against other students is not allowed, no matter how upset they are. I'll make sure Dr. Pevensie knows about what happened, and she can decide whether or not she needs to speak to John."

"As for the rest of you, you're not necessarily being punished for the extent to which you protected yourselves, although I hope you understand that knocking John unconscious might have been taking things too far," she added seriously. "But the fact is, again, violence against other students is not allowed. I have tried countless times - as have the members of the administration before me - to make every student understand that just because many of you possess powers with which to defend yourselves, it doesn't mean you should use them in any given situation. I know you said things were happening fast, but someone in your cabin should have gone to get Anakin, or another graduate, or anyone else of authority before things reached the point where you had to resort to knocking John unconscious. That's why you were given detention, and I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree with Anakin's decision here, for both you and Cole. You've got to learn that you simply can't do everything by yourselves. It's too dangerous."

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Phoebe nodded as she stood up.

"I do understand, Ma'am," she said softly. "I had to try to help Cole. I'm glad he was there, though. Lana was knocked out fast and it could have gotten worse." She shook her head. "But it is important that I came here... and I have no aggressive powers to use on John. I just used a standard accupressure move."

She smiled slightly. "Thank you for listening."

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Peter walked over to the Principal's office after hearing the announcements. He needed to make a small request.

He knocked on the doorframe and asked, "Hi, Principal Washburn? Do you have a moment?"

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Zoe gave Peter as smug of a look as she felt she could get away with when he came in. "I suppose. How can I help you?"

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"Thank you," Peter said. "I heard the announcement this morning. I'm not going to protest it or anything. But I was going to be head out of town for the weekend in about three hours. I have my weekend pass (http://fh-office.livejournal.com/21465.html?thread=185561#t185561) and everything. Would it be possible to serve my detention next week instead of this week?"

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Zoe took a look at the weekend pass and nodded. "That'll be fine. I appreciate you not trying to get out of the detention altogether."

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"Thank you. Honestly, I'm just happy to have detention for something I actually did for once instead of winning the lottery again," Peter said.

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Zoe couldn't help but laugh lightly. "Well, I suppose that is an improvement. I just think the goal should be to not have detention at all."

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"Well, I'm halfway there now. In a couple weeks, I won't be getting detention for doing nothing wrong and then we'll all be happy," Peter said, standing up.

"Anyway, thank you again and have a good weekend."

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smartestone

Hermione is at the principal's office as soon as she can get there. "Principal Washburn?" she says. "I think there's been some sort of mistake. You called my name for detention."

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Zoe glanced up. "Miss...Granger, I assume?" She nodded. "Yes, you've been chosen to participate in detention this weekend."

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smartestone

"Yes, I heard that part," says Hermione, almost looking like she might cry just at the memory. "But I didn't do anything!"

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Zoe sighed softly to herself. "I keep forgetting, we never explained the detention lottery to you new students. It's something that one of my predecessors set up. It's completely random; I'm aware that you didn't do anything wrong."

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smartestone

"Will it reflect badly on my record? Will this go on my record? If it does will there be some sort of disclaimer saying that I did not, in fact, do anything wrong? What will I have to do? Can't I just do some sort of homework? I can write very good essays."

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