Capítulo XXV- Nadie se va

Bree, Leo, and Patience burst through the lab doors. Mr. Davenport whipped around, furrowing his eyebrows at the incoming teenagers. "Mr. Davenport, you're not gonna believe what we just saw!" Bree said, halting in front of him.

Patience spoke fast, curling her fists on his jacket, "Principal Perry killed one of the lunch ladies, Flo. We saw it with our own eyes."

"Principal Perry whacked her," Bree motioned the movement of Perry hitting Flo.

"Yeah, they were arguing all day, and then Perry just snapped," Leo explained. "Come with us, we can prove it to you."

Mr. Davenport removed Patience's hands from his jacket, calmly replying, "Okay, guys, I know Principal Perry has done some awful things, but this is obviously a big misunderstanding. I mean, do you really think this is something she's capable of?"

Bree crossed her arms, "It's Principal Perry. Think about it."

Mr. Davenport folded his arms and tapped his chin. He thought back to when he first met Principal Perry and the suspicious things she has said:

"Come with me. There's something under the bleachers I need dug up and re-buried."

"Let's pull up the school. I want to see if the sheriffs are still sniffing around for me."

"They're at my house trying to make something look like 'an accident."

Mr. Davenport clutched Bree's arms, "What's wrong with you two? Of course, she did it. Let's go."

Mr. Davenport, Bree, Leo, and Patience stormed into the school's cafeteria. Nothing was out of place, the lunch tables were neatly set with seven chairs, no blood splatter was on the floor nor was Flo's corpse. Everything was fine.

"I don't get it. There's no evidence anywhere," Bree motioned around the room.

Leo faced Mr. Davenport, "She must have cleaned up to cover her tracks."

"She's too good at covering her tracks, she must've done this one too many times." Patience squeaked out, "I knew that health inspector didn't just leave right away."

"No, I'm sure that was a mistake. This was a complete waste of time. The only crime here is that I'm late for Pilates class," Mr. Davenport pointed at himself. "You guys got me all worked up over nothing-"

Principal Perry shouted opening the doors to the cafeteria. Mr. Davenport, Bree, Leo, and Patience let out yells as they were jumped scared by the older woman's presence. The three teens hid behind Mr. Davenport, forgetting about their bionic and martial arts abilities.

Patience couldn't believe it. Just two weeks ago she wasn't afraid to retort back to Agent Graham, a government agent, but she couldn't say anything to Principal Perry. Then again she was pretty riled up at the time. Patience didn't know why she was afraid of Terry Perry, maybe it was because she knew her for nearly three years.

"What are you doing here?" Perry asked, carrying a mop. "School's been closed for hours." She placed the mop into its bin and she dusted her arms off.

"Why are you sweating," Leo examined her, "more than usual?"

Principal Perry gave them an uncertain look. She lied, "I was... cleaning up. There was an accident."

"An accident?" Remembering Patience was bionic and capable of many things, she straightened herself up. She wasn't going to actually use her bionics on Perry unless she needed to. Patience didn't want to use unnecessary force. She interrogated, "What kind of accident and where's Flo?"

Bree stepped forward, "We saw you fighting with her earlier."

Principal Perry elaborated, "Well, we patched things up. She's in a better place now."

Leo inaudibly gasped, "A better place!"

"There's nothing to see here. Move along," Perry shrugged them off. She moved in front of the tables that displayed the warm lunch food. Two trash bags were behind Perry.

"So then you won't mind if we take a look around?" Bree questioned.

Leo added, "What's in the bags, Terry?"

Perry kicked the bags behind her, "Bags? What bags?"

A gushing noise made Patience gagged. Bree covered her mouth to keep Patience from squeaking. Bree blurted, "We know what's going on."

Bree let go of Patience. "We saw you with our own eyes."

"You were yelling at Flo and then you started pounding," Leo explained.

"You saw that? Oh. Well, now you know too much." Perry sprinted to the cafeteria doors and blocked them, "No one's leaving."

Bree, Leo, and Patience cried out, "No one's leaving!" Perry chained up the doors and locked them up.

Principal Perry had them locked in there for a very long time. Patience couldn't tell you because she stopped counting after ten minutes. Perry didn't do anything to them just yet, she stalked off where lunch was served. Mr. Davenport, Bree, Leo, and Patience were on the other side of the gym.

Mr. Davenport jiggled the doors for a try at escape. He then approached Principal Perry, "Okay, this has gone far enough. Let us out."

Perry stood in front of a table with a top covering a tray. "I'm afraid I can't do that. At least not until I jam this down your gullet." She removed the lid, four hamburgers were neatly placed on the tray.

Patience furrowed her eyebrows, "They're just burgers?"

"She wants to watch us eat first." Leo pointed at Perry, "You are one sick lady!"

"Go ahead, dig in."

Mr. Davenport excused himself, "Oh, I would, but I'm on a low carb thing-"

"Eat the meat, Don."

Patience gradually grabbed a hamburger from the trey and bit into it the same time Mr. Davenport, Bree, and Leo did. The fear embodied on her face was replaced by awe from the burger's taste. She wondered if this was what a Krabby Patty tasted like.

Mr. Davenport however was grimacing. Bree asked, "What's the matter?"

He pulled out something from his mouth, "It's a ring. 'Rusty and Flo forever," he read the band.

Leo's eyes grew wide, "That's the lunch lady's ring."

Patience gagged and quickly spat out the food in her mouth. She set her burger back on the table, trying to keep her lunch in her stomach.

"Okay, she did it. Let's get out of here," Mr. Davenport pushed the three teens forward.

Leo grabbed the chains and shook them. "Nobody's going anywhere!" Perry demanded.

"I can't unlock it!" Leo shouted, jiggling the handle.

"You have a bionic arm!" Patience reminded. "We're both bionic!"

"Right! We are bionic!" Leo switched arms and opened the door. Meanwhile, Patience pulled the other. The chains broke apart, splattering to the ground. They bolted out of the cafeteria to the outside of the school.

Patience turned around and Mr. Davenport wasn't following them to the car. "Guys, wait!" she called out.

Bree asked, "Where's Mr. Davenport?"

Leo managed to get out, "She got to him!"

"We have to go save him!" Patience gestured to the school.

"What? Have you lost your mind? That's like three people against five grizzly bears?"

Bree sighed and reminded him, "Leo, You're bionic."

"Gah! I keep forgetting. So what? Are we just gonna storm in there?" Leo crept Behind Bree and Patience. They snuck back into the school and stood outside the cafeteria doors.

Patience stated, "Well, Bree's the one with super speed, she could run in there and grab Mr. Davenport."

"Good idea," Bree nodded. "You guys should head back to the car."

Before they could proceed with their plan, Perry rose her sledgehammer. "This is it, Donny. Say goodbye to everything you ever knew," she shouted and repeatedly slammed it over Mr. Davenport's head.

Bree, Leo, and Patience lunged forward, screaming, "No!" Patience barged through the door and stopped in her tracks. Mr. Davenport was okay. He had his hands clasped over his ears to cancel out the noise.

Perry slammed the meat with a meat mallet, "It really makes a difference when you tenderize the meat with lots of brute force."

Unlike Bree and Leo, who were washed over with confusion, Patience was washed over with relief. "You're okay," she engulfed Mr. Davenport into a hug. He wrapped his arms around Patience, knowing her feelings would be hurt if he didn't hug back.

Patience let go of him and Mr. Davenport pointed to the meat Principal Perry was smashing, "Oh, hey, you're just in time. Perry's showing me how to pound some round. It's really disturbing. You can't look away."

"Wait," Leo shook his head and rose his arms. "So this whole thing was about making hamburgers?"

"Yeah," Mr. Davenport put his hands on Perry's shoulders, "she and Flo are opening a food truck."

"Oh," Bree, Leo, and Patience dragged out. Mr. Davenport bit into another burger.

"We were gonna open a regular restaurant. Then we figured the health inspector's gonna come after us anyway. Might as well put some wheels under us," Perry chuckled.

Patience gave a have shrug and spoke what everyone was thinking, "That's a valid point."

Perry nodded, "She's picking up the truck now."

Still chewing on his burger, Mr. Davenport said, "They came up with the perfect recipe."

"There was a lot of arguing but we finally got it. My secret ingredient is rage." Perry clutched on the meat mallet with her two hands and struck the meat at a steady pace.

     It was the next day after Bree, Leo, and Patience accused Principal Perry of murder. When Patience got home, she told everything about what happened to her father. Dante was quite amused by the story and Patience got a couple of laughs from him as she told the story.

But what Patience realized as she told the story, she didn't know why Principal Perry was acting so paranoid. She hadn't seen Perry that paranoid since she tried to lie her way into a golf club.

Bree, Leo, and Patience trekked to the cafeteria.  Flo had given Perry a stern look and walked away. Perry must've told her that she sold her ring. "So there's one thing that's still bothering us," Leo began.

Patience continued, "How come you were so paranoid when we caught you?"

"Because Flo and I may have borrowed 1,600 pounds of cafeteria meat," Perry answered.

Leo said, "I guess that all actually makes sense."

"Did you three really think I would brutally dispose of someone and hide the evidence?"

"Yes."

"Absolutely."

"100 percent."

"Wow." Perry teared up, "You really get me." She covered her face and put an arm on Leo's shoulder. Patience patted Perry's back and Bree and Leo stayed in place, unable to deal with Principal Perry.