"Ms. Pierce, thank you for coming," Dr. Gatskill said. She was a formidable woman who, when standing, was close to six feet tall. She wore suits that were custom tailored to fit her wide frame and a string of pearls that were triple looped around her neck. The only thing she varied was the color of the silk blouses she wore buttoned up under her suits. Today she was wearing a coral colored blouse that gave off the appearance of spring, but I didn't feel it in the air. "Please have a seat."
I sat down in the chair across from the three and waited. The conference room felt large and intimidating with its glass windows and large, rolling chairs. I felt dwarfed by the grandness of it all, and I swallowed hard to keep my breakfast from making an appearance.
"Ms. Pierce, it has been brought to our attention that you and Ms. Baker have been accused of cheating on the practice nursing exam," Dr. Gatskill began. "Our aim here is not to accuse or exonerate you, but to find out what happened and evaluate the evidence against the claim. Do you understand?"
"Yes, ma'am," I nodded as I swallowed again. The entire process made my stomach turn, and being certain of whether Liz had cheated or not made me feel even more queasy.
For the next hour, the committee asked me questions about the class, the exam and my knowledge of the material we'd been tested on. I felt confident that I had prepared well, so the questions posed no problem for me and I answered with ease, but when they started asking questions about Liz, I found myself hesitating. I ended up telling them very little about Liz or her state of mind, mostly because I didn't know it.
"Thank you, Ms. Pierce," Dr. Gatskill said when they'd finished asking questions. "We will evaluate the evidence and let you know our decision within two weeks. Please be aware that all scholarship money and financial aid will be held until such time as we make our decision."
"Wait, what?" I said not sure that I'd heard her right.
"We cannot, in good conscience, disburse funds when we aren't not certain that you will be allowed to stay in the program," Dr. Gatskill explained.
"But I need to pay my tuition and rent!" I said. "I can't be late with either one or I'll lose my place in the class and be evicted from my apartment."
"I'm sorry, Ms. Pierce," Dr. Gatskill said. "It's truly unfortunate, but we have to follow university procedure on this and part of that procedure is temporarily placing a hold on money to be disbursed."
"This isn't fair," I said as I looked at her helplessly. "If you find I'm innocent, then I'll have lost my place in the class anyway and I won't get to graduate."
"We'll do our best to work quickly, Ms. Pierce," one of the other administrators assured me. "I'm sure you can ask your family for help during this time."
I shook my head as I gathered my things and walked out of the room. My entire world was crumbling down around me and I had nowhere to turn for help.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Cam
I woke up the next morning with Alex on my mind. Over coffee, I planned the dinner I would cook for her and called to have groceries delivered on Friday morning when I got home. As usual, Tesla sat patiently waiting for me to get ready and drive her over to visit her buddies at the station.
"I'm going to bring a woman over on Friday night," I told her as I opened the passenger side door and motioned for her to hop in. "I want you to be a really good girl, okay?"
"Woof," she huffed as she impatiently looked over at the driver's side and pawed my seat.
"All right, all right, we're getting there," I said shaking my head.
At the station, Tesla hopped out and ran into the lounge where she jumped on the sofa and licked Danny until he was laughing and crying uncle.
"Down," I said pointing to the floor. She shot me a dirty looks she slinked off the sofa and sat at Danny's feet with her head in his knees as she stared up at him. I shook my head, "I think my dog is in love with you, Newsome."
"Wouldn't be the first one!" Mike yelled from the kitchen.
"Fuck off, Kelly!" Danny yelled as he patted Tesla and said, "They have no idea what they're talking about. Don't listen to them, good girl."
"Hear anything about Vangel's promotion?" I asked Mike.
"Yeah, I heard he's out blackmailing everyone he can in order to lock up the nomination process," Mike said as he stirred the eggs he was cooking. "That bastard is up to no good. Did he come after you?"
"Me? What would he have on me?" I asked with as much shock as I could muster.
"No clue, but he was laying it on thick earlier," Mike shrugged. "Just wondering who he's targeting."
"No idea," I said as I walked back to the locker room to store my bag. I'd just opened my locker when Victor spoke.
"Made a decision, Connor?" he asked as he peered around my locker door with his creepy grin.
"Yeah, I have," I said. "No thanks."