I had stupidly thought that maybe I’d get to stay at school if she couldn’t reach me. But I guess not.
My throat is tight, and my vision is blurry with unshed tears as I make my way down Kellylynch Hall. I walk slowly, taking in the sight of everything, because this is probably my last time to step foot in this building. I wonder if she’s already packed up my dorm room. If she’s freaked out Belle by barging in there and grabbing all my stuff.
Anger rolls through me. I stop on the second floor landing and grab my phone. I text Belle.
Me: Everything okay?
Belle: Yeah, why?
Me: Just wondering.
Okay good, Mom hasn’t gone there and terrorized my half of the dorm. She’s probably going to make me do that.
My feet feel like heavy anchors as I walk across campus toward the front office. I don’t want to do this, but I have to. When I reach the doors, the same ones I walked through on my first day here, I am so angry and upset that I can barely control my breathing.
My mom isn’t here. Ms. Beverly sits at the front desk. She looks up when I enter and gives me a quick smile. “Sophia Brass?”
I nod.
“There’s a phone call for you.” She nods to the phone on her desk.
I pick up the receiver. “Hello?”
“Sophia Elaine Brass!”
Well, she might not be here in person, but hearing her voice on the phone makes me cringe just the same. “Is your cell phone broken? Is your email broken? I have been calling all day.”
I know she has. I’ve ignored them all. But I try for a more diplomatic answer. “Er… I’m in class. I can’t answer my phone in class. School rules are different than homeschooling.” I throw in that last part just to remind her that me being here is her fault.
She huffs. “I am your mother. When I call, you will answer, do you understand me?”
“Yes,” I say, biting off the word even though I’d rather say a lot more. “Why are you calling?”
“I’m sending a car to get you tomorrow morning. Have your things packed. Eight a.m. sharp.”
“I don’t want to leave. I want to stay here and graduate.”
Ms. Bev gets up and walks into another room, and I get the distinct feeling it’s to give me some privacy. I’m grateful for it. “Mom, just let me stay,” I plead into the phone.
“I don’t understand why you have to be so difficult. Just pack up your things and be ready to go tomorrow.”
“Please, Mom. Just let me stay. I promise I’ll fly to Africa as soon as I graduate.”
Mom breathes a long, annoyed sigh into the phone. “You’ll be eighteen in a few days,” she says, sounding utterly exhausted. “Almost an adult and you still act like a child.”
She hangs up the phone after reciting to me once more that she’ll have a car here at eight in the morning. But I barely hear the words she’s saying, because she’s just given me an idea.
I’ve been so busy with my new life that I totally forgot about my upcoming birthday. I’ll be eighteen. A legal adult.
And legal adults can’t be forced to quit school, or move away, or do anything by their parents.
I just need to stay at Shelfbrooke long enough to turn eighteen.
Chapter Twenty-Two
I don’t bother going backto class. There are still three classes left until the end of the day, but I have other plans to worry about now. Like how I can somehow stay at Shelfbrooke until my birthday, where I’ll get to tell my parents that they can’t force me to go anywhere. My tuition is all paid up anyway, and they couldn’t get a refund even if I did leave now. The only smart choice is to stay and graduate.
And then maybe I can figure out another path for my life, one that isn’t guided by my parents and their greedy intentions. Maybe I can do something for myself, something that makes me happy and keeps me around the people I like.
