I see red. “My clothes and belongings were stolen from the bathroom while I was showering after PE. I can hardly be blamed for that. In fact, I want to report a theft. I still haven’t received my belongings back.”
“That’s a tall story, Oceania,” he growls, “and I will not put up with it. My students are outstanding young men of this community and do not take part in these ridiculous little stunts.”
This is just getting absurd. No matter what I say, I’m always going to be the one in the wrong. Hell, I’m sure had Jude actually gotten his hands on me, that would have been my fault too.
I shake my head in astonishment and scoff at how pathetic this little meeting has been. “I’m out,” I say, making sure Milo’s shirt is pulled all the way down before abandoning the used towel on Dean Simmons’ office floor.
I head for the door. “I am not finished with you, Oceania Munroe.”
“Well, I’m more than finished here.”
“I only accepted your admission because of your connection to Carrington. If you walk out that door I will not hesitate to terminate your enrollment.”
Fuck that. I don’t care if this embarrasses Charles, or if Mom has an issue with it, I’m not sticking around a second longer. I’m sure once Mom calms down and lets me explain, she’ll be more than on my side. Most of the time, she’s all about shutting up and doing what you have to do to get by, but sometimes the line of what’s acceptable gets crossed and she’ll never expect me to just take it like that. No doubt this means she’s going to hear all about what happened with Jude yesterday and that’s only going to worry her. She already has too much on her plate to worry about bullshit like that.
I can only imagine how Nic is going to handle this. Maybe it’s best to keep this one quiet, after all, I said something yesterday and look how that escalated.
I hold my head high and walk out the door of Dean Simmons’ office, making sure to slam it behind me as the anger pulses through my veins. How dare he blame all this bullshit on me. Okay, so yes, I kicked the ball at the coach, but he had it coming. Apart from that, I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong. This is complete bullshit.
I storm down to the student parking lot and don’t miss the way the students stare as I go. It only manages to fuel my anger more. It’s their lunch break and I’m distantly aware that I teased Charlie about some ridiculous lunch date that I had absolutely no intention of seeing through. It served its purpose of getting under Jude’s skin and that’s all I needed.
I drop down into Milo’s Aston Martin and my emotions are too wild to even realize what I’m doing. This is one of those cars on my list and I’m about to drive it, yet right now, I couldn’t care less.
I hit the gas and the Aston Martin peels out of the parking lot.
Within minutes, I’m shooting down the drive to the Carrington mansion and bringing the car to a screeching stop on the expensive drive, most likely leaving two thick rubber lines behind.
I fly up the stairs and push through the door into the huge foyer. I can’t really remember all the ins and outs of this place just yet, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to do something about this. It’s not right. I get that it’s a boy’s school but that doesn’t mean the way I’ve been treated today is acceptable.
I find Charles’ office and storm through the door. His head instantly whips up and at that moment, the similarities between him and his son are almost uncanny. There’s a phone glued to his ear and upon taking in the look on my face, he lets out a frustrated huff. “I’m going to have to call you back.”
Damn straight, he will.
Charles finishes up his call, not once taking his eyes off me as he hangs up and raises from his office chair. “Ocean, what is the meaning of this? That was a very important business call you just interrupted.”
“Couldn’t have been too important if you hung up to speak to me. You could have just told me to fuck off.”
“What has gotten into you?” he demands. “Where is this attitude coming from and why the hell are you not at school? Where is your uniform?”
“My uniform was stolen from me while I was showering after PE and I was forced to walk around the school in nothing but a towel until I was offered a shirt.”
“Excuse me?” he questions, looking shocked which I’m hoping is a good sign for me.
I continue, needing to get it all out before I go back and answer questions. I start pacing his office. “Yeah, this comes after that ridiculous coach demanded I strip down and change in the locker room with the eyes of thirty prying teenage boys watching me, and the kicker is if I refused he was going to fail me for Physical Education. I only got saved from that when Milo pointed out that it was a sexual harassment case waiting to happen. Can you fucking believe that? It was humiliating. Then he told me to sit out because I was only going to slow down the game. I mean, I might not be as fast as those boys, but I can still kick a fucking soccer ball up and down the field.”