“I am willing to give your children the benefit of the doubt. I believe they had good intention. But I cannot deny the negative impact of what they did,” Principal Colan states. It’s like he is puffing out his chest, which he probably thinks makes him look tough. In reality, it makes him look like a bird. A bird trying to show off.

Lou rolls her eyes. Fen nudges her to stop, but she can’t help it. Humans are so weird. They say one thing but obviously mean something else.

All their parents told them before coming to school to let the adults talk.

To Lou that is rich since adult humans are the ones that wanted to use them as experiments and take away their soulmates and powers. But they all agreed to let them handle it.

“Give me a break. You agreed to have our children experimented on,” Marco, Ria’s dad exclaimed.

She sees where Ria gets her outspoken nature from. It’s something she always admired about her. She isn’t afraid to roar.

“This is much bigger than our children,” Jeremiah’s mom points out.

“We are here to talk about your children,” Principal Colan tries to get them back to what he wants them to talk about. Good luck with these humans.

It’s a roomful of angry parents. And if Lou knows anything from her experience with animals, you don’t mess with their children.

“You just want to blame our kids,” Liam and Zac’s dad accuses. Lou’s never met them before, but from what they say, their parents will always be in their corner. It’s a good quality to have.

“I want them to receive appropriate consequences for their actions,” her principal explains.

Jones next to her snorts. She can’t tell if he partially shifted into a pig to make that noise but it makes her chuckle either way.

“Appropriate consequences? There would have been nothing for them to find if you hadn’t used our kids for some government program,” Jones’ mom, Heather, says.

She sounds like she is as confused as Lou is.

Seeing that he isn’t gaining any ground or favor, he hangs his head in defeat.

“What kind of consequence do you think is appropriate, Mr. Colan?” Wren asks with a polite tone, though Lou can tell she doesn’t like any of this at all.

“Well…um…I think with the school shut down, they deserve a suspension at the very least,” he stumbles through his answer, clearly not expecting to be asked that. He’s like a baby bird learning to fly.

“With the school shut down, should they be punished at all?” Lou’s mom brings up. If it were socially acceptable to clap, she would, but she would be chastised by Fen if she did. So she stays still, silently applauding her.

Greg, her lizard friend, would too if he were here but she had to convince him to stay home.

He would be like a devil on her shoulder, telling her to follow her worst instincts.

Though his commentary on human dynamics would be funny and make this time more interesting.

“They are the reason for that!” Principal Colan burst out.

Everyone in the room just glares at him. “No your decision is,” Roman’s mom, Madge, says firmly, putting a hand on Roman’s shoulder in support.

“Look, the school is going to be in a lot of trouble. Do you want to add suspending the children that uncovered it all?” Cross’ dad negotiates.

Their principal appears to be put off by all the opposition.

He obviously didn’t prepare for this conversation.

“They illegally trespassed to uncover it,” he weakly argues. His tone isn’t as ferocious as before so he must realize how lost this fight is.

“Uncovered it nonetheless. No one is talking about how they got the information. You suspending them would actually draw attention to how easily it is to steal it,” Amelie’s dad points out, practically interrupting him.

Throughout this entire discussion, Lou can feel her dad’s presence behind her. His hatred for her principal is almost tangible. “Maybe you should put more effort in your statement to these concerned parents. Not on our kids,” he hisses with venom laden in his voice.

Bell’s dad, Hai, steps forward and says, “You’re lucky you haven’t been sued by practically experimenting on our children.”

All of their parents circle their prey, closing in.

Lou could tell from the shaking Colan that he is giving in. These momma and papa bears showing their verbal claws to him.

So she wouldn’t be suspended.

But would the school administration and the government face any backlash for what they’ve done.

What happens now?

———

(I had a couple of finished stories piling up that I almost released one that comes after this first! Anyway, I’m sorry if this seems confusing. I realized there are a lot of characters and their parents, so a lot of characters in this story. But it felt like I needed to have this part in.)