“Sure.”
“How exactly do they work? Does the school somehow keep track of every student at every school in the state and then award the scholarships to the best of them? Or do they go by recommendations?”
“It’s a bit of both. The school keeps track of high-performing students in various ways, but members of the founding families can also issue recommendations. The school will check those recommendations, and if the student is found to be worthy—stellar academics or athletic performance, for example—they’ll receive a place in the scholarship program.”
“How did I get mine?” I asked. I’d been curious about this for months, because my scholarship seemed to come from out of the blue.
“Like I said before, you earned your place fair and square. Your grades at your old school were top-notch.”
“But was I recommended by someone, or was I just discovered by RFA staff?”
She rubbed her jaw. “I’m not supposed to give out that information. Sorry. I’m sure you can understand why.”
“Yes. But I promise I won’t feel like I didn’t earn my spot properly if I find out it was from a recommendation, because like you said, I’ve always had good grades, which means I could’ve been discovered on my own anyway,” I said. “I’m just curious. Really, really curious.”
“Well, I suppose….” She trailed off, one brow rising. “If I went to use the bathroom, and the information just so happened to be on my computer screen, and then you just so happened to glance at it… that wouldn’t be my fault, would it?”
“No, it would be mine for nosing around,” I said, immediately catching her drift.
She tapped away at her keyboard for a moment, and then she stood up. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
As soon as she was out of the room, I went around to her side of the desk and took a peek at the computer monitor.
Scholarship recommended by: Connery
Status: Accepted
I went back to my seat, brows furrowing. Apparently my scholarship recommendation came from a member of the Connery family. But who, exactly?
It couldn’t be Adam. He didn’t even know I existed until we met a few weeks ago.
It couldn’t be Tinsley Connery, either. We’d never met, and from what I’d heard, she’d been in rehab for the last several months (referred to as a luxury spa in Arizona, as was the polite custom in a place like Royal Falls).
That left Charles and Hunter.
Charles knew me, but only vaguely. We’d met a few times years ago, when he dropped my mom off at home after various car breakdowns, and we’d also spoken for a few minutes at the Connery mansion party I waitressed at a few months ago. All of those meetings were brief, unimportant encounters. Nothing worthy of him giving me an expensive scholarship.
There was one thing I could think of, though.
I knew he felt awful for recommending that piano teacher to my family after he heard what happened to me, because he gave my mom two months off work with full pay at the time, along with a heartfelt apology. But if he felt guilty enough to arrange a scholarship to RFA for me, he probably would’ve done it years ago, when the incident actually occurred. Not just this year. It didn’t make a lick of sense for him to wait so long.
So that left Hunter.
I frowned and chewed my lip. If Hunter pushed for my scholarship so he could get me here, why was he trying to get rid of me now? What the hell was I missing?
An old conversation I had with Adam suddenly popped into my mind.
‘About two months ago, I went to borrow Hunter’s keys because my car was playing up and I needed to go somewhere. I walked into his room and saw a photo of you.’
‘A photo?’
‘Yeah. I asked him what it was, and he said… Fuck, I can barely remember it now. Something about meeting you at the party and thinking you were hot. So he got someone to track you down.’
That meant Hunter was definitely aware of me several months ago. Aware enough to have someone track me down and take at least one photo for some strange, unknown reason. So I guess he could have decided to arrange a scholarship for me as part of his weird Laney-stalking campaign.
But again… why? Why follow me? Why bring me to his school when he seemed to hate me so much?
Ms. Flores finally returned. “Everything okay?” she asked, noticing my confused expression.