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“Miss Hayes, how are you this morning?” he says as he pushes his keyboard away and folds his hands on top of his desk in front of him.
“I’m fine.”
He raises and eyebrow and stares at me. “Are you sure? Because we had a student come report that a locker was stuffed with rotting food and garbage. Turns out that locker was yours. So, I’ll ask again. How are you this morning?”
“And I said I’m fine. I don’t know what you want me to say.” I cross my leg over the other and place my hands over my lap.
“You know those boots are not part of the uniform.” He tilts his head. “Has something happened this week?”
“Nothing happened. And I can’t walk across campus in those damn shoes. I’m sorry I’m not bred from better genetics that allow me to walk all over campus in the most uncomfortable shoes ever,” I snarl as I cross my arms over my chest.
His expression darkens. “First, watch your tone. Second, watch your mouth. You are a student at a prestigious academy, so act like it.”
I snort at his comment. If only everyone at this school would act like they were from some prestigious academy. Instead, they are vile humans who only care about Daddy’s money and who they can marry to get ahead in life.
I see the way people act, the way people talk. It’s nothing but bullshit. In their world, everything has a price and can be bought.
Must be nice.
He straightens in his chair and narrows his eyes at me. “So, what happened with the locker? Why would you stuff the locker with garbage?”
My mouth drops open and I gawk at him in complete surprise. Does he really think I did this? That I would do that? What the actual fuck?
“I’m sorry, did I hear you correctly? You thinkIdid that?”
He nods. “It was your locker.”
“Why? Why would I honestly do that? Why would I humiliate myself in front of everyone? Why would I take gross, discarded trash and put it in my own locker?” My hands grip the arms of the chair, the sharp edges digging into my skin.
He takes a moment and stares at me, then finally letting out a breath, he says, “For attention. You’re new here, and maybe you are trying to find what will help you fit in? Maybe you are trying to pin it on someone?”
“Did I take crazy pills today? I had to have taken crazy pills. No. No. Maybe this is all a dream. Yeah, I’m still fucking asleep. Because in no sane universe would someone suggest that I put garbage in my own damn locker when I didn’t even fucking know I had one!” My voice raises with each word. My jaw clenches shut, and I see nothing but red.
“Detention after school today, Miss Hayes. And you will also clean out that locker.” His face is crimson, and he curls his fists in front of him.
I’m too stunned to even say anything. How did this even happen? My mouth hangs open, and he writes something down and hands it to me. I see that it’s a detention slip.
“Get back to class, Miss Hayes.” He dismisses me and turns back to his computer. In my current state of fucked up confusion, I say nothing and head out of his office.
Before I realize it, I am sitting on the steps in the front of the building with my head in my hands. It’s like I stepped into an alternate universe. It’s not bad enough that I’ve lost everyone in my life that was important to me. It’s not bad enough that I saw my mother dead in a tub. No, we pile on top of that. We strive to make me more miserable by making my stay here nothing but torture.
Pure fucking torture.
A tear falls down my cheek. I have no one to call. No one to talk to about this. No one to take my side. No one to defend me.
I’m utterly alone.
eleven
PHOENIX
Standingin front of the rotting mounds of God knows what in my locker, I hold the garbage bin next to me as rage runs through me. The rotting smell is burning the inside of my nose, my stomach turning with each shallow breath.
The last bell has already rung, and most students have already left back to do whatever it is they do. Some students linger in the hall, and a few have their phones out, I’m sure recording my humiliation to post on whatever social media site they think will make them go viral.
So of course, I flip them off. Because fuck them.
As I let out a sigh, I hear a deep voice coming down the hall that I recognize.