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“Sebastian has already accepted responsibility for those issues and as for the last, I believe he was coming to the defense of several students that the school decided to make an example of because they didn’t have lunch money and chose to publicly humiliate them instead of showing them compassion.”

“We’re not here to discuss school policy,” the Superintendent cut in.

“That’s exactly why we’re here. You’re refusing to allow Sebastian the right to a full education based on school policy,” Uncle Garret pointed out.

“And virtual school will allow Sebastian to do that,” the principal said firmly.

“It’s not the same,” Sebastian’s mother said. “Sebastian has more than paid for his mistakes and he’s learned from them. He’s not the same kid anymore and he deserves another chance.”

“And the other students deserve an education without having to worry about your son’s disruptive behavior interfering with that,” the Superintendent pointed out while Sebastian sat there, admitting to himself that this wasn’t going well.

“He’s not going to cause any problems,” his father said.

“You can’t guarantee that,” Principal Miller pointed out.

“But I can,” Sebastian said before his mother could answer. “I’m not going to cause any problems. I just want to go back to school. I understand your concerns, believe me, I do, but I’m not going to do anything that will jeopardize this.”

Before the other side could argue, Uncle G

arret was taking over. “The problem is, the school failed to provide Sebastian with access to the programs that he qualified for. Several times over the years, Sebastian was tested and each time his scores indicated that he should have been placed in the gifted program. Instead, they left him in a regular classroom where he went unchallenged. He grew bored and unfortunately for Sebastian, he got himself into trouble. That won’t be the case now. With honors and A.P. courses available, Sebastian will have something to keep him challenged and out of trouble.”

“He can do those courses online.”

“Yes, he can, but he’s not going to,” Uncle Garret said smoothly. Without taking his eyes off the principal, he said, “Why don’t you wait outside, Sebastian, while we talk to your principal.”

Even though leaving was the last thing that he wanted to do, Sebastian knew that staying wasn’t an option, not if he wanted to prove that he’d changed. With a reluctant nod, he forced himself to leave. A minute later, he dropped down onto one of the hard-plastic chairs in the front office and tried not to think about what was going on behind that closed door.

When sitting there became too much, he headed outside, hoping some fresh air would help calm his nerves. To be honest, he really didn’t want to go to this school, but he knew that he didn’t have a choice. Never had. If a public school was fighting them this hard to keep him out, then he didn’t have a chance in hell of getting into one of the private schools.

Granted, he’d known from the beginning that he wasn’t going to get into any of the private schools, but then again, getting in had never been the point. He wanted to give Mikey a chance and he knew that the stubborn pain in the ass would never have applied unless he did. He was going to do everything he could to make sure that she got into one of those schools. He just wanted her to be happy.

She deserved to be happy.

And he deserved…

Everything that he was getting, Sebastian reminded himself, slowly exhaling as he glanced back at the school. God, he hoped they let him back in. If they didn’t, and they probably wouldn’t, then he was going to go through with his original plan. He knew that Mikey would be pissed, but he couldn’t do this anymore. With his history, there weren’t many options left for him.

His best bet was to get his GED, beg Uncle Jared for a job and take classes at the community college, and maybe after a year, he would be able to transfer to–

“You’re on probation,” came the announcement that had him looking back to find his mother smiling.

“What?” Sebastian asked as he glanced at his father to find him looking relieved.

“You’re on probation. They’re going to let you enroll with the understanding that if you screw this up in any way that you’ll–”

“I won’t screw this up,” Sebastian said, smiling as he pulled his mother into a hug. “I promise.”

*-*-*-*

“Well, this is fun,” Mikey said as she watched her team get beaten for the fifteenth time in a row from the comfort of her bench.

It seemed that she wasn’t the only one who’d figured out that the coach’s son and nephews were telegraphing their pitches. Every team they’d come against had figured it out, which was probably why her team kept losing. The only one who hadn’t figured it out was the coach. She’d considered telling him, but he’d probably just make her run laps, again.

Every time she made the mistake of asking him a question, he made her run laps. It didn’t matter if she asked him if he wanted her to play today or if she asked him for a copy of the team schedule so that she wouldn’t miss practice, he made her run and when he wasn’t doing that, he made her sit on the bench. Every day she came to practice, ran drills with the rest of the team, got to warm up with the team and then, it was time for her to sit on the bench and wait for everyone to leave.

Once she’d made sure that everyone was gone, she snuck into the athletic shed, and dragged out one of the football team’s tackling dummies and set it at home plate, grabbed five buckets of old baseballs, and stepped onto the pitcher’s mound, and threw every damn ball as hard as she could until the last bucket was empty. Then, she collected all the balls and did it all over again, and again until the streetlights came on and it was time to go home. She made sure that she worked twice as hard as everyone else on the team, so that she didn’t blow it when she finally got her chance to pitch.

Which wasn’t likely to happen anytime soon, Mikey thought, forcing her hands to clap when the game was called in favor of the other team. She watched as her teammates shook hands with the other team while Coach Dilmore congratulated the other coach and–