“By doing what, exactly?” I was vexed. “I worked in the diner for three summer vacations and saved up for it, and now you are telling me to be responsible for it.How?”
He, of course, didn’t reply. I groaned and looked out of the window, wishing Mom was alive and would let me have a car. It wasn’t like I couldn’t just go in a car shop and buy it since I would become an adult soon, but he was my father, the only person who I was really close to, and I didn’t want to do anything without his support.
Or cause him any disappointment.
I looked at the expensive cars that lined up outside the Saint Helena Academy. Sons and daughters of actors, models, and businessmen getting dropped off by the intimidating tall gates. The academy was built on the grounds of the old Saint Helena Palace, with a church on the academic grounds. It was in shambles until a rich billionaire restored the palace and turned it into a private academy for rich kids.
“Have a great day, Pumpkin. Love you!” My father yelled at me as soon as I opened the door and got out, scowling at him.
I quickly showed him my back and walked through the gates, eyeing the intimidating, looming towers of the school. It even had freaking turrets. The palace had three official buildings, and each had their own division for the students and teachers—one for junior high, the biggest one for senior high, and the other one for teachers that also held a gym, an ice rink, and a pool for our sports classes. There was rumored to be an old church somewhere in the trees behind the teachers’ building, but it was supposed to be haunted and securities lurked around it as it was off grounds for everyone.
I didn’t have a thing for haunted churches in the forest, but my curiosity for it burned me.
My eyes flickered to the vast parking lot where more luxurious, shiny cars were parked with assigned spots for teachers, and students whose parents donated a large sum to keep the academy running.
“Funny to see you alive and sulking on this fine morning, Mia!” I greeted my friend, Summer Hayes, with a grin as she wrapped her arm around me and walked with me to the hallway. “I finished the entire fantasy series last night, and the descriptions of his dong were just chef’s kiss.”
“You did not just say dong out loud.”
“Dong.” Summer grinned, “See? I did it again. Oh, look, there’s Emma. I will scare her.”
I giggled when she ran over to Emma, hugging her from behind and screaming dong in her ear. The poor girl squeaked, making the other people laugh around her for messing with her.
“I hate you,” Emma grumbled, rubbing her ear and fixing her beige cardigan. “You are annoying.”
Summer poked her tongue out at her. “If you truly hate me, then I won’t share the delicious Thai curry my mom cooked for us.”
“Summer, you shouldn’t yell dong out loud in the hallways or a teacher will scold us.” I shuddered, thinking about getting a detention ticket for that. “Or even suspend us. Did you hear what happened to Thomas last year?”
“He skinny dipped in the school pool and Ms. Laxmi found him. Big deal.” Emma said as we leaned against her locker, her pastel-colored nails matching her lilac pink purse and the bow pinned on her hair. Her locker was filled with pictures of the three of us, and her and her boyfriend.
“I have heard there’s a new faculty joining us this year.”
I looked away and found my locker, stashing my books in it and checking my course list again. I did not want to get involved in the talk of James Fox and—
“Yeah, the dude’s name is James Fox,” Summer said. “It’s such a porn star name. Sounds sus, if you ask me.”
You and me both.
“Summer.” I elbowed her and nodded at Ms. Laxmi, who was walking past us, checking if the students of Saint Helena academy were behaving or not. “You are asking—no, begging for a detention slip. Do you want a mic?”
“Girl,” she drawled out, sighing and clutching one of her fantasy books in her arms as she went off to la-la land, “The only begging I will do is for his perfectly sized twelve inch do—semester!”
She yelled out and straightened up when the dean of our academy gave her a pointed look. I suppressed a shudder when her dark eyes slid to me and Emma. She kept her chin high until she walked away, disappearing between other students.
“Whew, that was close.”
I deadpanned, “You think? She will expel you without any thoughts if she had heard you.”
She rolled her eyes at me. “Come on, we can’t even talk about our fantasies out loud?”
“Sexual fantasies, Summer.”
“So? If my mom paid a bit more of a donation, she would forget she ever heard me.” She flashed me her teeth and pulled out her notes for the subject.
The bell rang, followed shortly by asking the students to visit the auditorium hall for the first day and get inspired to study more. It was a given that most of us would go to Ivy League universities as soon as we graduate from Saint Helena academy, and get high paying jobs just seeing the name of the academy in our CV.
My mother wanted me to study here and if it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have joined the academy last year… so soon after she died. In a way, I had to thank James and my father for helping me pass the entrance exam for the academy, and fit right in with Emma and Summer.