Ousting of Principal Isa

The Ousting of Principal Isa takes place in High School Story, Book 2 and it serves as the climax of the second book.

Prelude
At the beginning of winter quarter, Maria Flores gets permission to start a morning news program called Tiger News, with Michael Harrison acting as cameraman. During the first newscast, a video pops up showing Principal Hughs and Coach Burke kissing under the Berry High bleachers. The video continues playing for some time as Michael struggles to shut down the hijacked newscast. When he finally succeeds, Maria accuses him of sabotaging her but he insists he had nothing to do with the video.

The scandal ensuing after the video causes Principal Hughes to step down, with Vice Principal Isa becoming the new principal. She quickly begins making a number of restrictive and controversial rules, including the establishment of the hall monitor program, limiting the amount of students who can gather on school grounds, and cutting funding to many school activities. Cuts to activity funding in particular puts a strain on many student friendships, but they are able to compromise and agree to hold a winter carnival to raise funds for the activities now facing budget cuts.

Stirring Trouble & Disaster
Things take a turn for the worse when Isa tries to force you to tell you why Koh Sunya was cutting class, although you have the chance to defend Koh's actions (thereby revealing her secret and betraying her) or to lie and say you don't know (thereby keeping her secret).

During the winter carnival, Luis gets hurt while riding on the sledding hill. As Aiden was in charge of the sledding hill during the accident, he is wrongfully blamed for Luis' injury and is later suspended. Soon after, Payton calls an emergency meeting of the band, basketball team, and cheerleaders and tearfully explains that Isa ordered her to turn over the money from the winter carnival to pay for Luis' medical bills. The members of the various activities argue, and Autumn Brooks and Wes Porter break up.

At the Berry-Hearst basketball game, Aiden arrives and tries to join his friends, as it is lthe last day of his suspension. Isa orders him to leave and orders Frank Walter to escort him out. For many members of band and cheerleading, Isa's continued mistreatment of Aiden is the final straw and they decide to cheer for Hearst instead of Berry.

After the basketball fiasco, there is a food fight at the cafeteria. When Isa arrives to break up the food fight, Caleb defects from the hall monitors. He throws food and shouts at Isa, saying he lost all of his friends because of being a hall monitor. Outaged, Isa orders him to clean the entire cafeteria and contacts the school board to begin expulsion proceedings against Caleb. You continue to gym class, where Andrew Isa has the class watch his favorite movie. As a diamond choice, you can choose to leave gym early to Caleb clean up the cafeteria, also getting the opportunity to talk to him about his choices while on the hall monitors.

Investigation
Michael and Maria explain that they have been investigating Isa ever since she made an example of Maria and ask for help taking Isa down. The group breaks into Isa's office and finds out that her real name is Ashley Faris. She had previously worked for Mansingh Transglobal, ClickIt, and Hartfeld University as an accountant under different aliases. During that time, money was mysteriously missing and stolen from each company during the time she was employed there.

While searching Ashely's emails, they also discover that Andrew's true name is Bruce Faris, and he was in on the scheme to embezzle money from Berry High. In a diamond scene, you and a few members of the group also discover a secret room in which Isa keeps files on many members of the student body, including one stating her desire to get you expelled. The group travels to San Franciso and finds out everything about Isa's forgeries and her embezzlement scheme in the files she left when she was fired from ClickIt. They travel back to Cedar Cove and let Ms. Hughes know what Isa has been doing since taking control of Berry High.

Aftermath
The group decides to expose Isa, live on Tiger News, with the help of Maria's adoptive father Stephen Flores and Ms. Hughes. When you confront Ashley and Bruce on camera, she realizes that her jig is up and orders her brother to run. Isa tries to escape but everyone at Berry High joins in the chase as you follow her through the school and into the parking lot. Ashley manages to reach her car, but Caleb and the other hall monitors surround her car and prevent her from leaving.

Principal Isa and Andrew Isa are arrested for forgery, fraud, and embezzlement. After the police take them away, all the students who helped chased down Isa are taken to the gymnasium, where you have the chance to convince Hughes to return to her position as principal, and school is then canceled for the day. As you leave for the day, Glen & Bridget Zhou arrive. They apologize to you and Aiden for falling for Isa's schemes.

Following Isa's arrest, either Hughes or Principal Rivera takes over leadership of Berry High. The school board promises to provide funds to the extracurricular activities that Isa stole from so that they can attend their spring break trips, but say that they cannot have the money in time for Berry High to have its winter dance. Instead, Payton Saunders plans a party for the whole school, and everyone celebrates at her house.