Ms. Mason sits me down outside of Dr. Baxter’s office and keeps a side eye on me while I wait. I know her well enough by now to know that she never misses a beat. That woman knows just about everything that’s going on in the school, and almost nothing gets past her. I feel bad for ruining her things. It was an accident, but there’s no way to apologize without admitting my guilt.
And I’m not quite ready to do that yet.
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It’s just over a five minute wait, which of course in my seat feels like an hour and a half. I’m so nervous when I go in to see him that I trip over my own feet and I have to catch myself on a chair before I fall to the floor. He gives me a wry look.
“Ms. White. Thank you for coming in. Please, take a seat.” He offers one of the two leather bound chairs before his desk. I take one and sit in it, as instructed.
“Do you happen to know why I’ve called you in here?” he asks, leaving it in my lap.
Ha. I know this trick. He’s hoping I’ll just confess under the pressure, but this isn’t my first rodeo. I keep a slightly confused look on my face and shake my head.
“You’re here in my office today,” he says evenly, leaning forward and opening a file before me. It’s a thick file, and thick files are rarely good things. He continues, “because your grades have taken a serious dive, and you need to find a way to bring them back up before you flunk out of class.”
He indicates the pages he’s flipped to and I sit forward in the chair and look down at them. The letters I’m looking at stun me. They’re the lowest grades I’ve ever gotten. I may have had a crappy home life, if you could even call it that, but my grades have always been good. Or, at least, as good as can be expected. Sadie might have struggled like this all the time, but this is new territory for me.
I’ve been working on getting my grades up, but it turns out those first few weeks did a lot more damage than I thought. Math, French, English Lit, even sailing … I’m doing fine. But my biology and history scores are abysmal, even after all the work I’ve been putting in.
Dr. Baxter is watching me. He wants to see my reaction before he drops the next bomb on me.
“Miss White, you have a mid-term coming up the first Monday of November. If you fail it, there’s no possibility for you to pass these classes. I need you to fully understand the gravity of the situation.”
“Yes, of course,” I say, a little too quickly. He narrows his eyes and studies me. One hand reaches towards the phone.
“Do you really, or do I need to get your parents on the phone?”
My heart drops clear out of my chest. “N—no! That won’t be necessary,” I say. “I promise. I won’t let you down.”
Mr. Baxter grunts and doesn’t look completely convinced, but his hand does move away from the landline.
He regards me for a moment and then nods. “I certainly hope that’s a promise kept. It’s not uncommon for students to find themselves more challenged here than they were at old schools, but I have notes here from several teachers that you’ve been going through some difficulties with your peers. Is there anything that you wish to tell me?”
What am I supposed to tell him? That his precious heir to Hawthorne Academy has been bullying the living daylights out of me these last two months? That would go down well.
I’m right on the edge of a cliff, and there’s nowhere to go. If I fail the class, he’s going to call Mr. and Mrs. White … and there’s no way that will end well once they tell him that they buried their daughter before school even began.
Terror and panic paralyze me as my mouth goes dry. I insist that nothing’s going on, and he looks a little relieved. I see him make a note on his paper, probably to protect the school in case I decide to off myself over my bad grades. It makes me feel a little better, remembering that I am just another student to him. Another body. Another name.
Still, my heartbeat is nowhere near back to normal when I leave. I can’t believe that I’ve let myself fall so far so fast. I’ve never let myself down like this before. I’ve always been the only one in my life that I can ever really, truly count on, and now all of a sudden, I’ve let myself down.
And for what? For the opportunity to hang out with the popular kids? With shallow Victoria, and the constantly hot and cold ‘holy trinity’? I can’t believe how much I’ve screwed up. I have one chance to do this, to make my future what it could be, and I can’t lose it now.
Especially not for the people who I’ve been giving so much of my time, of myself to. That has to change, and it has to change now. I promise myself that school is going to be my number one priority from here on out, no matter what.
I’m so concerned with the issue that just landed in my lap in Dr. Baxter’s office that I’m not thinking of anything or anyone else, until I run smack into Blair coming out of a classroom. A grin forms over his face and he reaches for me, but I pull away fast.
“Hey, Bunny,” he coos softly to me. “I’ve missed you.”
I stopped speaking to him after the photos of us went up on the wall. He was in on it. Astor and Wills and him. All of them working together to humiliate me in front of the whole school and start a rumor mill that could catch the whole academy on fire.
“Don’t speak to me,” I warn him and look away. He grabs my arm and pulls me to him, his dangerous green eyes dancing as he stares at my face.
“I need to speak to you. Come with me to Victoria’s Halloween party. Be my date for it. We can even get matching couples costumes.” He gives me a flirtatious wink and that dimple of his deepens.
I glare furiously at him.
“I know you’ve heard what people are saying about us. You started the rumor yourself, you jerk! Everyone thinks we had sex! It’s all over the school!”