I didn't even know homeroom attendence was that important

In history my class went to the library to work on our research papers. Then I had English, in which I was also working in the library. So I went to the room that my English group meets in. A few minutes later, one of my group members came in and said, "Rebecca, like four of the housemasters are looking for you."

"There are only four housemasters," someone said.

"Well, I mean, some of the people are campus aides and stuff."

I thought that was weird but I didn't have any idea what it was about. So I just stayed in the room until a couple minutes later a campus aide came into the room and asked me if I was me. I consented and she told me to come with her. She didn't know if I needed to bring my backpack, so I brought it.

"Just go to the house office," she said. "Your dad is there." Hmm....what is going on??? I was rather woried; was there some kind of emergency and my parents had to come to school and tell me about it? I walked along to the office, full of curiousity and fear.

Let me stop this thrilling tale here and back-track a bit, this time telling the story as I later heard it from my dad.

The phone rang. Expecting to hear news of a bomb threat or something, my dad picked it up. Instead, he was informed by a recorded message that his daughter Rebecca was absent, and please remember to call the office when your children are absent.

This was a surprise, Rebecca had gone to school. Ah, but she walked to school by herself today. What if something happened to her and she never got to school? Even if it was just a mistake on the attendence, he thought he'd better check.

So, arriving at the school office, he asked the secretary if there was some way to check if I was in class. The secretary said that I had been marked present for chemistry, but not for homeroom.

"So she was definately in chemistry?" asked my dad.

"Well, that was on the computer, so if you don't make an entry it automatically marks you as present. The homeroom attendence is on paper."

Could someone call the classroom she's in and ask if she's there? Alas, the secretary has a twisted ankle so she can't run up to the fourth floor and look for me. Eventually someone went to my classroom, but it was empty. (Recall that my history class was in the library.) But, as it was right at the end of the period, they assumed we had already switched classes. So they went to my next class, English, but that was also empty because we were also in the library. All through this process, the secretary was reminding my dad, "She's probably not even cutting class. You'd be surprised how often there's a legitimate excuse." Yes, that's what we're all worried about.

Eventually they figured out that I was in the library. This brings us to the part of the story you've already heard. So it only took a moment for the situation to be explained to me. "Were you late for homeroom or something?"

"Yes," I said. "I got out of chemistry late and I was late for homeroom."

"Oh, okay. Check with your homeroom teacher tomorrow to make sure she fixes that."

I went back to the library.

"Are you in trouble?" Someone asked as I came in.

"No. I mean, yes. I got expelled."

She started at me for a second in shock. "What?! Are you joking? Yes, you're joking."

Yes, I was joking. I briefly told them the actual story, and then we got started with our work.

-Rebecca