Page 38 of My Heart to Keep
Principal Sanders arched a dark eyebrow. “Quinn, explain.”
I rose to my full height. “The pigs are mine, but I have no idea how they got here.”
“Why do they have numbers painted on them? I see one, two, and four. Does that mean we’re missing a pig?” She pinned her gaze on Celia, Tessa, Dustin, and then me. “Is this your idea of a senior prank?”
I shrugged. I had no clue what the numbers meant.
Beast pushed his snout into Principal Sanders’s leg, getting snot on her slacks. She didn’t flinch in the least.
“I doubt there’s a third one,” Dustin said with Lola at his feet.
The principal glowered at him. “How do you know this?”
“The numbers on them are designed to confuse you so that you think there’s a fourth pig. I only know this because I saw this prank on some TV show.”
Principal Sanders wasn’t buying his theory, as indicated by the crinkles around her gray eyes. “Let’s get them out of the school before I have the health board here, shutting us down. Quinn, call your father.”
“He’s not home. My parents went up to New Hampshire for the day.” They were looking at a new horse, and Momma wanted to shop for some new items for the farm store. She’d even closed up for the day to go with Daddy.
“I have my truck,” Dustin said. “If I had a ramp, we could get them in.”
The principal pulled out her phone from her suit pocket. “I’ll check with the janitor.”
I peeked into a classroom. “This one is empty right now. Let’s get them in here.”
Celia wrangled Godfrey. Dustin had Lola, and I got Beast. Tessa bit her nail as she watched.
Once inside, I sighed. “My dad is going to have a cow, literally.”
Celia brushed her palms on her shorts. “My money is on Sloane. She’s probably getting back at you for punching her.”
That made sense, and she had lived on a farm. Therefore, she knew how to wrangle animals. But I didn’t understand how stealing my pigs and dumping them in a hallway at school would be any type of revenge. The whole charade of a senior prank was just that—a senior prank. Unless she thought I would get expelled or suspended.
At the moment, it didn’t matter who was responsible. I needed to call Daddy, and he wasn’t going to be happy.
Dustin and I managed to get the pigs back to the farm and return to school just in time for our last two classes. I’d probed him all the way to the farm, but he hadn’t seen anyone dropping pigs off at school or lighting off fireworks. I tried to remember if I’d seen anyone in the hall, but I hadn’t.
On the way back to school, I called Momma and Daddy to fill them in. Daddy was grunting and growling as Momma informed me they would be cutting their trip short. I told her not to since the pigs were okay, but I knew Daddy wouldn’t listen. The farm and the animals were our livelihood, and Daddy didn’t take kindly to anyone messing with his property.
I didn’t either. The pigs could’ve gotten hurt or killed. I adored my animals. Momma had always said not to name them. “Once you do, honey, you’re attached, and with pigs, you can’t let that happen, since we use them for food or sell them.”
She was right, although Godfrey, Beast, and Lola had been with us for a couple of years. Daddy knew I was attached. I think he spared them just for me.
Now as I sat in class, I tapped my foot on the floor at my desk, waiting impatiently for the bell to ring. The first day of school was a complete success.Not!I’d been wracking my brain on who would have pulled such a prank.
Celia was certain Sloane had a hand in it. My theory was that anyone could’ve done it. Dustin agreed with me. And Tessa? Well, her money was on me. I’d wanted to stuff a sock in her mouth. The girl wouldn’t shut up about how disgusting the pigs were. She’d almost tagged along with Dustin and me earlier, but she’d had some cheerleading thing at lunch.Thank God.
The intercom crackled in English class before a sweet lady’s voice came through. “Quinn Thompson, please report to the admin office.”
I doubted Principal Sanders was going to be that sweet. Sometimes I wondered how she put up with a school full of teenagers.
Kids peered over their shoulders at me, snickering. They probably thought I was in trouble. I didn’t see how I could be. But stranger things had happened. If anything, Daddy would give me the stink eye and then grumble about how teens had no respect for their elders or other people’s property. Plus, I could hear him say, “If we didn’t have that darn party, we might not have kids stealing pigs for their own enjoyment.”
Guilt burned like acid in my throat. I should’ve taken the hint that parties were a bad omen for me. After all, every one I’d attended so far had ended in some type of disaster. At Tessa’s holiday bash two years ago, I’d ended up in the pool during the dead of winter. Homecoming last year had resulted in Maiken getting hit by a car.
I scurried out before the throng of kids packed the halls. I was anxious to find out who I needed to yell at. Oh, I was going to rain down on someone’s parade.
As mad as I was, the others in school seemed to be enjoying the video that had gone viral of Beast pushing out his snout and holding the blond girl hostage.
