The still-bald Morganna was on one side of the office and I was on the other. Mr. Barron had marched us both to the Headmistress’s office and told us not to come back to class until we “straightened this mess out.” So now, here we were, and I was dreadfully afraid I was about to get expelled because Morganna very much looked like the victim in this case.
How could she not? She was bald as an egg, as my mom would say.
The Nocturne Headmistress was dressed impeccably, as always, in a black sheathe dress that clung to her tall, slender frame and high black heels. She was staring at both of us with fire in her piercing blue eyes.
“What,” she said slowly, “exactly happened here? Miss Starchild, you may speak first.”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with her, Headmistress—she must be crazy!” Morganna exclaimed. “All I did was raise my hand to tell Mr. Barron that Emma had something on her shoe and she went berserk with her magic! First she threw the dog poo she stepped in at my face and hair and then, when Mr. Barron told her to take it off, she…she…” Her blue eyes filled with tears as she clutched at her bald head. “She took off my hair!”
With her newly bald head and her eyes full of tears, she looked like a pitiful patient with a terminal disease. I felt my stomach drop to my feet. There was no way Headmistress Nightworthy was going to listen to my side of the story! I was so expelled—I just knew it.
And I fully expected the Nocturne Headmistress to tell me as much any minute. So I was actually surprised when she turned to me and said,
“All right, Miss Plunkett, let’s hear your side.”
“What side? How can she have a side when she did this to me?” Morganna wailed. “She’s crazy! You ought to kick her out right now, Headmistress! She deserves to be expelled!”
“I will decide matters of expulsion here, Miss Starchild,” Headmistress Nightworthy snapped. “Now kindly be quiet and allow Miss Plunkett to speak, as she was quiet while you were talking.”
Morganna got a sulky look on her face and crossed her arms over her chest but she shut up for a minute, at least, so that was something.
“Miss Plunkett?” the Headmistress said, frowning at me. “I’m waiting. Please explain to me how this happened?”
“First of all, I didn’t step in the, uh, dog stuff,” I said, lifting my chin. “Morganna magicked it onto the floor under my shoe, just so she could raise her hand and make fun of me in class. And then I got mad because she’s been messing with me all semester and I…” I cleared my throat. “I threw it in her face. But I didn’t mean to snatch her bald,” I added quickly. “I was just really upset and I’m still learning to control my magic and it just…happened.”
“Why, you little liar!” Morganna seethed. “You did this on purpose! You planned it!”
“How could I plan for you to put a huge puddle of dog crap under my foot?” I demanded, getting angry again myself. “If you’d ever just leave me alone, this would never have happened! Why can’t you just stop messing with me?”
“I was messing with you? Why, you were the one that sent all those awful cats after me in the Dining Hall the other day, when you know I’m allergic to them!”
Morganna put a hand on her chest, her eyes widening in a wounded expression. Really, she ought to get an award for this performance, I thought.
“And you were the one who sent a whole pack of vicious dogs after me and Megan,” I said, glaring at her. “And put a bunch of poisonous spiders in my bed! One of which bit me!”
“You little liar!” Morganna gasped. “Headmistress Nightworthy, she’s only lying about me because she knows that I know what she did to her mother’s landlord! And she was performing magic outside of school grounds!”
“I didn’t mean to! I didn’t even know I had magic at first!” I protested, feeling put on the defensive.
“She’s lying again,” Morganna exclaimed. “She knew exactly what she was doing when she made his nose and his penis change places—just like she knew what she was doing when she made me bald! All she ever does is lie and lie and lie! She—”
“Enough!” Headmistress Nightworthy’s voice crackled like lightning and we both shut up.
At that moment, there was a light tapping on her office door. Striding over, the Headmistress threw it open and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Ah, Ms. Yasmeen! Exactly who I needed to see!”
“Mr. Barron stopped by my office just a moment ago,” the Elementary Casting teacher said, stepping through the doorway. Her bright orange hair was accented by the tight pink dress she was wearing. “He said I might be needed.”