Page 101 of S.O.S. Perk

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The shower hadn’t been as quick as it should have been, but by skipping breakfast, they’d both been able to get on the road in a timely fashion.

Perk was pulling up to the school, now, and for the first time since this assignment started, he wasn’t filled with dread as he got out of his car and walked in through the front doors. This would be his last few hours in these dreary hallways, and he was going to make the best of it.

He entered the front office. “Hi. I don’t know if you got my paperwork yet or not, but I’m transferring out after today because my parents have been relocated again.” He rolled his eyes like this was par for the course for him, but also a pain in his ass.

“You’ll need to see Ms. Phillipoff about finalizing that,” the nice lady whose name he’d forgotten, said with a smile. She was unable to keep her eyes off the bandage on his head while theyconversed. “But first, I’d like you to take this with you to each of your classes today.” She turned to retrieve a piece of paper from a cubby, handing it to him. “This just alerts your teachers that you’ll be leaving. Often, they like to do an exit interview…that is if everything is okay with you.” She couldn’t help herself. She finally pointed at his boo-boo.

“Oh. This? Just a slip on the ice yesterday as I was getting out of my car. I whacked myself good on the doorframe and had to get ten stitches,” he fibbed, not about the stitches, but about how it happened.

“Oh, my. I hope you’re okay. No concussion?” she asked. Clearly, she was a mother who’d seen it all.

“No. I’m clear. Just a little dizziness every now and then,” he assured her.

“Well, if you have any difficulties, don’t hesitate to bring yourself to the nurse’s office.”

“I will,” Perk answered, taking the piece of paper from her. “Thanks.”

“And I’ll let Ms. Phillipoff know that you’ll be in to see her after your last class.”

“Great.” He gave her a smile and walked out into the stream of students who were heading to their first classes.

The day crawled by, but only because Perk was full of anticipation for what would happen later.

As ordered, he’d spoken with each of his teachers, said goodbye to a few of the students with whom he’d actually become friendly—all of whom wanted to hear about his head injury—and cleaned the meager things he had out of his locker.

By the time the final bell rang, he was more than ready to move on.

Perk trotted into the front office again.

“Ms. Phillipoff is waiting for you,” the woman behind the desk said chipperly. “Go right in.”

“Thanks.” Perk tried to keep the grin off his face. This was going to be fun.

When he walked through the door into Melissa’s private space, Perk was greeted with a wry smile gracing the woman’s face.

“Well, it seems like you’ve spent very little time with us, Mr. Perdudan. This is highly unusual. I’m sorry you couldn’t have enjoyed our school a little bit longer.”

Perk shrugged. “It’s what my life is like. I go from place to place, meet a few people, get to know my environment, then boom. I’m on to the next thing.”Yup. That described his job pretty well.

“That can’t be easy.” Melissa gave solace, indicating that he should sit down. “Would you consider speaking to our school psychologist about it before you go?”

“No need,” Perk assured her, taking a seat. “I have access to one if I need it.” He wouldn’t tell her that SOS always had someone on call they could spill to when things got to be too much for an operative to process.

He noted that Melissa had been staring at his head, just like everyone else he’d run into today. He pointed at his cranium with a raise of his brows.

“Yup. What happened there?” Melissa asked concernedly.

Perk gave her the same excuse he’d given everyone else, and she accepted it, but with a caveat.

“You know, youarestill bleeding,” she told him.

Perk reached a hand up and felt that his bandage was, indeed, soggy. A bummer, but this would play right into what he needed to do next.

“Oh.” He feigned concern. “They told me at the hospital that if I started bleeding again, I should come back in.” Perk stood, and pretended to have shaky legs. He grabbed the back of thechair and abruptly sat back down. “Whoa. I feel a little light-headed.”

Melissa gave him an authoritative stare. “Stay put,” she ordered. “How will you get to the hospital?” she asked.

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