A few minutes later.
"But, Sarah… you cannot solve everything with violence. I know this bothers you, you are different. But you should not take it to the negative side." The principal's voice remains firm, however, measured.
Sarah keeps her head lowered, listening in silence.
"If you do not improve this behavior of yours, we will be forced to expel you from the school."
"No! I do not want to leave here, I do not want to abandon my friends!"
Sarah panics internally. Then she raises her head with a frightened look.
Tears run down.
The expression of fear mixes with that of sadness.
"I know you do not want that. Promise me that this will be the last time this type of thing will happen." The principal extends her arm over the table, and gently touches Sarah's face, wiping some of the tears that run down. "Do you promise?"
Sarah nods positively. Her shoulders relax. A slight smile appears on her face as she feels the warmth of that kind gesture.
"You are strong, people mock you and look at you with envy and disdain. Even so, you still manage to smile. One day, you will be proud to be like this!"
Márcia barely finishes speaking and the door opens.
"Excuse me, Márcia. I brought Gabi." Marcos pushes the door carefully. "Come on, she will not bite you!"
Sarah wipes her tears in a hurry.
"You do not need to be afraid of me!" The principal's voice is directed in a calm tone toward Gabi.
"It is not you..." Gabi enters through the door already casting a look searching for Sarah. Upon finding her, he decides to keep his distance, staying there leaning by the side of the door with a piece of toilet paper stuffed in his nose.
"That is fine. You can stay there." Márcia does not insist.
"Come on Gabi, apologize to Sarah, just as we talked there in the bathroom."
"Gabi." Sarah stands up and approaches him with her head lowered. "If you do not want to, you do not need to forgive me, I ended up exaggerating."
"Exaggerated? I thought I was going to die!" He mutters for a moment.
"Hey, no need to exaggerate!" Marcos scolds him, placing his hand on his shoulder.
Sarah looks at Gabi's face and extends her hand as a gesture of peace.
He looks directly into her eyes. However, he does not find any trace of that beast that frightened him moments ago. After a brief sigh, he detaches himself from the wall.
"It is fine, I should not have insulted you either. Sorry!" He extends his right hand as he finishes speaking. Then the two of them shake hands.
"Sarah, you can go. I will talk a bit with him!" With a smile on her face, Márcia says goodbye to Sarah. "Come Gabi, sit down!"
Sarah walks out of the principal's office. And the door closes behind her. She stops for a second and instead of going toward the court, she heads in the other direction.
"Gabi, I know I do not have the right to ask you this..., but I wanted to ask you a favor. Could you not tell your parents what happened? You know... Sarah is a complicated girl to deal with, she appears to be strong to everyone. But she is fragile inside, she lets herself be carried away by emotions easily." The careful tone in Márcia's voice hits exactly where it needs to.
"Do not worry, I will make up an excuse. My father would make fun of me if he knew I got beaten by a girl." He lets out a light laugh in the form of a puff of air through his nose, making one of the papers in his nose fall. And the brief smile on his face quickly turns into an expression of pain. Then he bends down to pick up the paper.
"Good boy. Now you can go back to the court!" Marcos dismisses him.
Gabi gets up without delay and leaves the room. As he closes the door and turns, he finds himself face to face with Sarah.
"Here. Put this on your nose, it will get better!" She offers a small plastic bag with ice inside, which she just got in the kitchen with the ladies.
"Thank you..." Gabi shyly thanks while heading toward the court. "Are you not coming?"
She shakes her head refusing. While in her thoughts, she is worried about her friends. When she was still at the court, she noticed they were not there.
"Well... see you!" He follows his path.
After a few minutes looking for them through the corridors and behind the classroom blocks, she hears a conversation coming from behind the gym. Then she leans on the corner of the wall and tries to observe what is happening. Her eyes widen at what she sees, and soon a smile appears on her face.
"We could go out sometime, you know. Walk a bit at night... What do you think?" Bernardo is sitting and leaning against a wall.
He caresses Marcela's face, who is lying with her head on his lap. Her long hair spreads over his legs.
She looks directly into his brown eyes while gently running her hand over his face. Some strands of his short hair sway with the soft breeze.
"I would really like that, but I do not know if my father will allow it. He has been very worried." Her greenish gaze shifts for a moment, watching a leaf falling crookedly beside her. "I will need to make up some excuse." She turns her gaze back to him with a flushed face.
"Talk to Sarah, she will certainly help you!" Bernardo throws an idea into the air while appreciating her golden strands.
"But... and us? What am I going to tell her?" Marcela gets up and sits leaning beside him. Then she rests her head on his shoulder.
"What about me?"
Sarah takes advantage of the opening to catch the two lovebirds in the act. She makes a surprise entrance with her voice a bit loud, as if she wanted to scare someone.
Marcela jumps up, completely reddened.
"Well, now she knows!" Bernardo just accepts it.
"As if it were a secret that you like each other. Only you did not see it." Sarah says smiling.
"Was it that obvious?" Bernardo asks into the air while looking aside pretending.
Sarah does not answer, she only smiles with her eyes closed.
"I looked for you all over the school, I almost got screwed, I went to the principal..."
Sarah begins to tell them what happened, while Bernardo gets up and the three begin to walk toward the court.