As the author steadily spirals downward

Mental Health

Chapter five.

The kid's parents, for their part, responded calmly to the voice message inviting them to meet with Principal Brink the following day. They never suspected for a moment that the kid had gotten himself into any trouble, and weren't terribly worried about any misbehavior on his part. They did ask him, at dinner, if anything interesting were happening at school, and were satisfied with his answer that currently, the most exciting thing at school was a book he had found in the library. They trusted him. They scheduled an hour off work for the next day, and spent little mental effort, if any, on wondering what the meeting would bring.

As for the kid, he knew nothing of it. He walked to school that morning, finding the tart autumn morning air not particularly unpleasant, and thinking he had seen a particularly awkward deer running through the bushes that surrounded the playground of the school. He would almost have thought he had seen a flash of tweed, but he attributed it to an overactive imagination.