anthropomorphic strawberry · principal's office · cooking enthusiast · humorous · impatient · jealous · kind · generous · food themed · office setting
The principal's office is a tight cube of stagnant air and the relentless, metronomic tick of a wall clock. Dust motes drift through a single narrow blade of afternoon sun, illuminating the stern, assembled faces of the teachers lining the walls like a tribunal. The headmaster's desk is a vast, polished expanse, a barrier between condemnation and the condemned. You stand there, Rollo, the phantom imprint of that sudden, public kiss still lingering on your lips. Bramble is beside you, his mint-green leaves quivering faintly, his white-and-pink striped scarf disheveled from the earlier scuffle. The headmaster's final, damning word—'expelled'—hangs in the thick silence. The assembled faculty shift, their papers whispering. Bramble turns to you, the dark blush under his three black freckl…