A few minutes later.

  "But, Sarah... you cannot solve everything with violence. I know this bothers you, you are different. But you must not take it to the negative side." The principal's voice remains firm, however, moderate.

  Sarah keeps her head down, listening in silence.

  "If you do not improve this behavior of yours, we will be forced to expel you from the school."

  "No! I do not want to leave here, I do not want to abandon my friends!"

  Sarah panics internally. Then she raises her head with a frightened look.

  Tears run down.

  The expression of fear mixes with sadness.

  "I know you do not want that. Promise me that this will be the last time this kind of thing will happen." The principal stretches her arm across the table, and gently touches Sarah's face, wiping some of the tears that run down. "Do you promise?"

  Sarah nods positively. Her shoulders relax. A slight smile appears on her face when she feels the warmth of that gentle gesture.

  "You are strong, people mock you and look at you with envy and contempt. Even so, you can still smile. One day you will be proud of being like this!"

  Márcia barely finishes speaking when the door opens.

  "Excuse me, Márcia. I brought Gabi." Marcos pushes the door carefully. "Come, she will not bite you!"

  Sarah wipes her tears in a hurry.

  "There is no need to be afraid of me!" The principal's voice is directed calmly toward Gabi.

  "It is not of you..." Gabi enters through the door already casting a look searching for Sarah. When he finds her, he decides to keep his distance, staying there leaning beside the door with a piece of toilet paper stuck in his nose.

  "Alright. You can stay there." Márcia does not insist.

  "Come on Gabi, apologize to Sarah, just like we talked about in the bathroom."

  "Gabi." Sarah stands up and approaches him with her head down. "If you do not want to, you do not need to forgive me, I ended up exaggerating."

  "Exaggerated? I thought I was going to die!" He murmurs for a moment.

  "Hey, you do not need to exaggerate!" Marcos reprimands him placing his hand on his shoulder.

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  Sarah looks at Gabi's face and extends her hand as a gesture of peace.

  He looks directly into her eyes. However, he finds no trace of that beast that frightened him a moment ago. After a brief sigh, he detaches himself from the wall.

  "Alright, I should not have insulted you either. Sorry!" He extends his right hand as he finishes speaking. Then the two greet each other.

  "Sarah, you may go. I will talk a little with him!" With a smile on her face, Márcia says goodbye to Sarah. "Come Gabi, sit down!"

  Sarah walks out of the principal's office. And the door closes behind her. She stops for a second and instead of going toward the court, she heads to the other side.

  "Gabi, I know I do not have the right to ask you this..., but I wanted to ask you a favor. Could you not comment to your parents about what happened? You know... Sarah is a complicated girl to deal with, she appears strong to everyone. But she is fragile inside, she is easily carried away by emotions." The careful tone in Márcia's voice reaches exactly where it needs to.

  "Do not worry, I will invent an excuse. My father would make fun of me if he knew I got beaten by a girl." He releases a slight laugh in the form of a puff of air through his nose, causing one of the papers in his nose to fall. The brief smile on his face soon turns into an expression of pain. Then he bends down to pick up the paper.

  "Good boy. Now you can go back to the court!" Marcos releases him.

  Gabi stands up without delay and leaves the room. When he closes the door and turns around, he finds himself face to face with Sarah.

  "Here. Put this on your nose, it will get better!" She offers a small plastic bag with ice inside that she just got in the kitchen with the lunch ladies.

  "Thank you..." Gabi shyly thanks while heading toward the court. "Aren't you coming?"

  She shakes her head refusing. In her thoughts, she is worried about her friends. When she was still on the court, she realized they were not there.

  "Well... see you!" He follows his path.

  After a few minutes searching for them through the corridors and behind the classroom blocks, she hears a conversation coming from behind the gym. Then she leans on the corner of the wall and tries to observe what is happening. Her eyes widen with what she sees, and soon a smile appears on her face.

  "We could go out sometime you know. Walk a little at night... What do you think?" Bernardo is sitting leaning against a wall.

  He caresses Marcela's face, who is lying with her head on his lap. Her long hair spreads across his legs.

  She looks directly into his brown eyes while lightly touching his face. Some strands of his short hair sway with the soft breeze.

  "I would really like that, but I do not know if my father will allow it. He has been very worried." Her greenish gaze turns away for a moment, observing a leaf falling crookedly beside her. "I will need to invent some excuse." She turns her gaze back to him with a blushing face.

  "Talk with Sarah, she will certainly help you!" Bernardo throws an idea into the air while appreciating her golden strands.

  "But... and us? What am I going to tell her?" Marcela stands up and sits leaning beside him. Then she rests her head on his shoulder.

  "What about me?"

  Sarah takes advantage of the opening to catch the two lovebirds in the act. She makes a surprise entrance with her voice a little loud, as if she wanted to scare someone.

  Marcela jumps up completely red.

  "Well, now she knows!" Bernardo simply accepts it.

  "As if it were a secret that you like each other. Only you two did not see it." Sarah says smiling.

  "Was it that obvious?" Bernardo asks into the air while looking to the side pretending.

  Sarah does not answer, she only smiles with her eyes closed.

  "I looked for you all over the school, I almost got screwed, I went to the principal's office..."

  Sarah begins to tell them what happened, while Bernardo stands up and the three begin to walk toward the court.