“For real?” She nods and I feel so much better.
Once we finish eating, we head to assembly in the main hall. We find a seat and wait whilst the room fills with students. Monty stands at the podium and Sawyer stands next to him. They talk and I find myself staring. Sawyer looks up at me and smiles. My face goes red and I look down.
“OMG!” Elsie says.
“What?” I whisper.
“I didn’t see it before, but I do now.” She leans in closer. “You screwed him.”
“What...no. You’re imagining things.”
“Uh-huh,” she says as Monty starts addressing everyone. “We will be talking about this.”
I refuse to answer her; if she can see it that means others might be able to, and I make a mental note to try and see Sawyer later so we can have a game plan. Monty drones on about being the leaders of tomorrow or some crap. I tune out until we aredismissed. We walk down the stairs to exit at the side doors when Monty calls me over.
“A minute, Amelie.” I tell Elsie I will catch up with her at lunch.
“What’s up?” I say.
“Could you come to my office after your SELF class please?” he says it as a question but we both know he’s not really asking.
“Sure. But am I in trouble?”
“No. I just want to catch up, things have been so hectic and with having to skip a few Sunday dinners, I feel like we haven’t had a chance to talk.”
I agree to meet with him and run off to SELF.
“Sorry I’m late miss, Monty...Mr Knox needed to ask me something.”
I take my usual seat next to Kalen, unfortunately for him we are stuck next to each other.
Maggie doesn’t say anything about my being late, just throws me a dirty look. Kalen sees, but says nothing. He isn’t softening at all. The others have relented somewhat, why won’t he? Surely they’ve spoken to him, explained by now? I thought he’d listen to them, even if he won’t listen to me. I sigh and tune back in, Maggie is going on and on about how important grades are, but I couldn’t care less. My grades are good, I’m naturally smart. I know I don’t have to try too much, but I do work hard nevertheless. I guessed that was why I was put in the second year when I got here; after speaking to Elsie, I knew that my age should have put me in the first year. It’s the only explanation I can think of.
Maggie starts to circulate the class, returning graded papers to the students, she has a kind word of encouragement or congratulations to everyone. When my paper lands heavily on my desk, she tuts. I glance down to see red pen scrawled over every inch of my assessment. What the hell? I flick through andsee huge chunks of my writing scrawled out with increasingly bitchy comments in the margins. I flip to the end to see my grade and comment: Diabolical. F.
Anger surges through me because I know that my work was better than that. I’venevergot less than a B in my life. I try to keep calm but when Maggie stands at the front of the class and makes a speech about how everyonebar onein the class impressed her, I snap.
“What the hell is this?” I demand.
“Hand, Miss Rossi,” Maggie replies tartly. I shoot my hand up in the air but she ignores me for a while. When I don’t drop it, she eventually comes back to me. “Yes, Miss Rossi?”
“Soon to be Miss Knox, actually Miss. Headmaster Knox is keen to welcome me into the family.” I can’t help but jibe her. I want a reaction and I get it. Her face tightens and a vein pulses in her forehead. She throws a panicked look at Kalen. “I want to know why I got this grade.”
“All grades come with an explanatory comment, Miss Rossi.”
“Mine says diabolical.” The class titters. Kalen watches our exchange out of the corner of his eye, pretending of course that he isn’t.
“I’d say that is a sufficient explanation,” she sniffs.
“This is bullshit!” I explode. “My work isnotdiabolical!”
“Maybe if you spent as much time on your schoolwork as you do on your...shall we say social activities...you’d be doing better in my class.” Everyone laughs.
“Looks like fucking Baxter isn’t so good for you,” Kalen mutters under his breath. “Whore.”
“Baxter?” Maggie asks sharply. “Baxter Branson?” Kalen nods.
“I guess this means, son, that Miss Rossi isn’t going to be my daughter-in-law any time soon then?”
