I didn't do it

"We have to tell them!"

"Tell them what? I didn't do anything. You however, did do something,"

"I did not. You forced me to do it,"

"Don't bring me into this little cousin,"

"But you were the one who pushed me into the car,"

"Yeah, well you're the one who smashed into the side and made a massive dent in it," He pauses for breath, "Now just follow my lead, don't say anything and nothing will happen. It'll all blow over, the person whose car it was will forget all about it,” he takes a breath, "You'll see," He winks at me and walks back to the school. I begrudgingly follow him. What can I do? We arrive back at the school and walk in through the front gates. The headmaster is there with a frown upon her face. Her car is next to her. A massive dent in the side of it. She stalks up to us and grabs us by their collars.

"You two, in my office, now!" She bellows at us and looms over us like an eagle watching its prey.

My cousin and I walk over to her office. The other children continue playing around us as if nothing has happened. My cousin leans over to me. 

“Just follow my lead, and we’ll be fine,” He winks at me and struts off ahead through the glass doors of the school. I follow him and step into the principal's office. She sits there, a frown upon her face. 

“It has come to my attention that you two have done two very wrong things. The first one being that you left school during school hours with no teacher permission or supervision,” She glares at both of us her eyes looking stricter than ever, she continues “Not only that, but you dented my car when I went out shopping,” My cousin tries to speak up,

“But Miss, it wasn’t us,” 

“Trying to lie your way out of this Bailey?” She shakes her head at my cousin disappointedly. 

“And you Liam, what were you thinking? You’re a good kid, it isn’t like you to do this,” 

“Oh, pray, stop Miss. Why give him the special treatment? What has he done differently to me?”

“Well first of all, he hasn’t said a word this whole time, and second, he has a spotless record. Which you do not. It is out of character for him to do something like this which points all the evidence to you. And I know that it was you two because a certain someone is missing a tie,” My cousin looks down. It must’ve fallen off when he pushed me. 

“It must’ve fallen off somewhere Miss,” 

“Ah, but what about this?” She holds up a diamond stud earring. My cousin’s signature appearance. I see him start to shake and gulp down some air. 

“I don’t know how that got here Miss, but I can assure you I didn’t dent your car,” 

“Well if you didn't, who did?”

“I have no idea Miss, but it seems to me that the person who did do it wants to remain unnamed.” My cousin crosses his fingers and puts them behind his back hoping she will fall for the lie. He gives her one of his “Charming” smiles. Why do I have to be related to him? And if I do have to be related to him, why does he have to go to the same school as me? The principal directs her glare down to me. I stare at the floor willing it to open up and swallow me whole. It doesn’t move. She moves her glasses off her nose and goes back behind her desk. 

“You boys will be suspended for one week, after that you will both attend summer school and an intense training program to get that rule braking instinct out of your heads,” 

We get up to leave. I can’t be out of here sooner. 

“Mr Liam, if you would stay a moment,” She beckons me to her desk. I walk over to the chair and sit back down. My cousin glances at me with a pleading look in his eyes as he walks out of the office. He shuts the door behind him. 

“This is out of character for you Liam, now please tell me what really happened?” She asks me

I take a breath of air and will the floor to swallow me up again. It does nothing. What do I say? What can I say?

“My cousin isn’t responsible Miss, I did it,” 

She stares at me, I hope my cousin is grateful to me after this, “ But why?”

“I was annoyed because of all the homework we’ve been getting recently and I needed to take it out on something,” 

“So you chose to dent my car?” She stares at me. 

“Yes, but I didn’t mean to make it look like it does, honest. I just wanted to get my anger out and I wasn’t in my right mind. My cousin had no part in it, he was just following me around like he always does,” I pause as she takes it all in, “Please don’t punish him. I know he is a bit bad behaved at times but he has potential, please just let me pay for the damage I caused and it can be our little secret,” 

She ponders over it, I hope it’s good enough. She sighs. “Only because you are normally a very good pupil will I allow it. It will be our secret, but one more slip up and you and your cousin are off to summer school,” I nod. We shake on it and she leads me to the door. 

“I’ll give you the price at the end of the week, I would like the full payment by Monday,” I nod and she closes the door behind me. My cousin stands up and hugs me. 

“Thank you Liam,” He squeezes tighter. I gasp for air and he lets me go. The rest of the school can believe that I did it, but I know in my heart, that I didn’t do it.