New Life : A Second Chance

The entire hall was silent, shocked beyond belief.

From the start, Principal Dobbins had been verbally attacking Kyle and Xing Han. She had been calling them all sorts of names and making derogatory comments as she 'revealed' that they were homose*uals. Now, she was standing smugly on stage as she showed them 'undeniable' proof of Kyle and Xing Han's 'crime'.

"I can see how everyone is shocked. The should be! Two half naked boys hugging each other so intimately! It's disgusting!"

"I think that's quite enough, Principal Dobbins," a deep baritone voice was heard. Principal Dobbins snapped her head up, and saw a man in a grey suit standing at the entrance of the Hall. She was dumbfounded.

"Mr Robins? What are you doing here?" she asked, her eyes wide in surprise. Mr Robins was the District Representative who was in charge of the school's administration. Every school was under the purview of a specific District Office, which is dependent upon its locality and in each District Office would have a team responsible for school management. Mr Dobbins was the Head of that team. Simply put, Mr Robbins was her 'boss'.

Mr Robins was quiet, and started walking towards the stage, his steps even and steady. He stood at the podium and introduced himself, "Good morning everyone. I am Robins Grey, the District Representative of Sakura Academy. I would like to apologize to everyone ... " and he looked at Kyle and Xing Han, "but most of all towards Kyle and Xing Han, for having to endure such treatment. I was a bit late in arriving, so I could not stop this sooner."

He then looked back at everyone in the Hall, "I hereby am announcing that Principal Dobbins is relieved from her position, effective immediately. The Vice Principal will take over temporarily until a new appointment for a Principal is made."

Principal Dobbins stood there, her mouth gaping open and then shutting, then opened again. What just happened"?

"But Mr Robins! You can't do this! I didn't do anything wrong!" she protested, her eyes wild as she pointed at Kyle and Xing Han, "It's those two abominations! They're the ones who are at fault here!"

"BE QUIET!" Mr Robins roared and she stepped back, gulping nervously but was still not satisfied.

As she was about to protest again, Mr Robins pointed to the picture that was screened on stage, "It is bad enough that you've been inciting hate and hostility towards two young boys, you are basing it on your own sense of prejudice! You have been so blinded by your hate that you've started making things up!"

Principal Dobbins was shocked. Was he blind? Why did he say she was blind? She turned towards the picture, intending to point out what was so blatantly obvious when she stopped. Wait. That was not the picture she had picked. No, it was, but it was different.

On the projector screen, it was the scene of a swimming pool. Xing Han and Kyle were in the pool, and the water reached up to their waist. They were bare-chested and hugging while laughing. In the background, you could see Sam and Ali - also hugging each other by the waist - as they were holding water balloons and running towards Kyle and Xing Han. It could be seen clearly that Sam's left leg was tied to Ali's right leg, and they were holding on to each other for support. Kay was seen at the lifeguard post, a bullhorn in her hands as she appeared to be egging on Sam and Ali.

It was quite obvious that the whole picture showed a friendly game being played at the swimming pool. Sam and Ali were probably chasing after Kyle and Xing Han, who escaped into the pool. From the looks of it, Kyle and Xing Han's legs were most likely tied together as well, hence the hugging aspect.

Principal Dobbins was flabbergasted. Just what happened? It was true that that was the picture which she had chosen, but she had actually cut out everyone else from the picture. So the picture would have been only of the laughing Kyle and Xing Han hugging each other while being half naked. On its own, it was a very damning picture.

She quickly looked through all the pictures in the envelope, her face pale. She didn't know what happened. In each and every picture, everything seemed to have been restored. No longer did it show irrefutable evidence of inappropriate behaviour between two boys. Instead, it all appeared like harmless fun.

Principal Dobbins was livid. She just knew that those two were homosexuals. They just hid it very well. She had cut out the pictures because it was the only way to show them the truth. Only she could see it clearly, while everyone else would have been blinded and sidetracked by the background. That was why she had cut them out. It was to make it clearer. And she was right. Everyone was blind!! How could they not see something so obvious?!

"You are no longer fit to be an educator of young minds, Ms. Dobbins. We are here to guide, not preach. We are here to help them expand their minds, not limit it. We are here to help them find their way, not impose our own views on them. You, Ms. Dobbins, have not only failed as an educator, but you have also failed as a decent human being." Mr. Robins was saying.

He faced the hall again, and looked specifically to the Elite Five members, "To have such poisonous words being flung at young, impressionable youths is a crime. Youths of tomorrow, I hope you learn from this. What you say today, can have an impact that you cannot imagine. We have freedom of speech, but it does not mean it allows you to ignore basic, common decency. Respect. Tolerance. These are essential."

"Remember, never be like Ms. Dobbins. Such narrow-minded hatred only serves to twist your own thoughts. She can turn such a harmonious, warm scene between close friends into something twisted and shameful. Never be like that."

Without another word, Ms. Dobbins walked off the stage and back to her office to pack up. She did not want to meet anyone and locked her door while doing the packing. All the while, her head was spinning in confusion and anger. Confusion as to what happened to the pictures, and anger over people who were too self-righteous and blind to see the evils that the boys would bring.

"Just you wait," Dobbins said angrily as she packed, "You are all going to regret your decision! I was the only one that protected this school from such low-lives and underachievers. Without me, this school would have long gone down the gutter. Hah. By then, it would be too late for you. I wouldn't come back even if you begged on your knees! Burn down to the ground! Imagine, if I hadn't kicked out Samuel, would we have reached the top ten in the district? So what if he didn't really steal the money? His scores were atrocious! And Ren. Such a troubled boy with a troubled family. There was no way such a child would ever amount to anything! Framing him for trying to steal the exam answers was so easy. Oh, and how could I forget Gerry? She ..."

And thus, for the entire three hours she spent packing, she was listing out all the 'glorious deeds' she had done over the years.

**--**--**

The reporters were grinning. It was true. There was a scoop, but not what they thought it would be. Who would have thought that such an esteemed Principal would have stooped to such means? They hurriedly went back to their office, itching to start writing.

Mr. Robins went down the stage and personally shook the hands of Kyle and Xing Han, apologizing profusely. Though it wasn't him that had said the words, he felt responsible that these boys were subjected to such unfair treatment. Kyle and Xing Han smiled widely, assuring him that everything was okay.

Mr. Robins smiled, satisfied when he saw how unaffected they were. He then left, thinking that it was a good thing he had rushed over. He needed to berate his secretary, however. Apparently, there had been an anonymous tip for him last night that Principal Dobbins was going to do something inappropriate this morning during Assembly. However, his secretary hadn't treated it seriously and neglected to tell him. In fact, he only found out about it by accident when he saw the note in his trashcan. He noticed little things like this, as he knew the trashcan had been empty when he left the day before. Curious, he picked up the note and frowned.

He was frowning again now. It was not up to his secretary to decide what was to be passed to him, and what was not. He shuddered to think what would have happened if he had not arrived on time. Back at the District Office, a man suddenly shivered, feeling like someone had walked over his grave. He shook his head, then walked into Mr. Robbin's office, placing some files on top of the desk for his perusal.

**--**--**--

That night, Kyle slipped into the Principal's office. Silently, he opened the first drawer and reaching underneath, took out a bugging device to check that it was in good working condition. He continued his checks on his pieces of equipment in the room: one listening device from behind a painting across the room, the bug hidden in the receiver of the phone on the desk, and the three hidden cameras.

Each camera showed a different angle of the room, and together with the two listening devices, he could see and hear everything. It was through this that Kyle found out about Dobbins' plans [remember the 'movie' Kyle had been watching while on Kay's lap?]

Over the duration of the holidays, Kyle had been monitoring Dobbins. He had examined the pictures in the envelope and managed to find the original pictures. He replaced them and put everything back as if nothing had been disturbed. He had known she called up the news reporters for the Assembly, so he had dropped a tip to Mr. Robins.

This was the reason why he had been so moody the past few days before school reopened. He had been angry that Dobbins would drag Xing Han into the whole mess. Kyle sniggered as he slipped out of the room. If she thought being fired was the worst thing to happen, she couldn't be more wrong.

**--**--

In the office of Robins Grey, a thick folder labeled 'Principal Dobbins' was laid neatly on his desk, with a white thumb drive glistening on it. When Robins came in the next morning, his face darkened considerably upon reading the files in the folder.

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