I'll Follow You Anywhere

Brand new day

I woke up tired but my headache was gone. I showered and changed into a nice dress shirt and jeans, I walked down stares to see Dick and mum standing in the kitchen, they were smiling and talking and I couldn't help the anger that rose in me.

'Hi, did you have a good sleep?' Mum asked and I just looked at her.

'Yes.'

'How was your day?' Dick asked as he turned and leant back against the counter, he was in a suit, probably just getting in from work and mum was in a nice dress.

'Fine.' My mum looked at me before looking at Dick.

'We went to the school and got him enrolled.' 

'They accepted you, that's great! I thought we were going to have a little bit of trouble but trust your mother to get you in.' He chuckled and I really had to try to avoid the eye roll that was straining my eyes.

'They've put me on probation, one slip up and I'm out apparently. If so I guess it's military school.' Silence filled the room. Dick's dad was in the military, and made Dick go to military school, but he wasn't a trouble child like me, he was actually an ace student, surprise surprise.

'Yes, well you did say to principal Stark you were going to really try this time.' Mum said with an encouraging smile. Stark, his eyes were such a strange colour, like green and yellow but not an actual hazelnut colour. He looked quite young, especially for a principal.

'Yeah whatever. Are we going to dinner or what?' I muttered not wanting to talk about Stark anymore.

We went to a nice restaurant and were served by a nice enough girl.

'She was kind of cute, maybe she goes to your school.' Dick smiled at me and I looked over my shoulder at her while she giggled with her friend and turned away, they were talking about our table obviously. I hummed and tried to keep the disapproving look off my face.

'She's okay I guess.' This made Dick laugh which made mum laugh and I frowned down at my plate.

'You'll never get a date with that kind of attitude.' He chuckled.

'I never said I wanted one.' I frowned and my mum returned a disapproving look.

'John-'

'No, Miranda, it's okay, he's right. He's never mentioned being interested in dating anyone.' I frowned back down at my plate. 'So, are you excited about going to school tomorrow?'

'Not really,'

'Well, I thought that maybe if you make it the whole week without misbehaving we could all go to the Mino's game this weekend.' I flinched and felt my face contort in pain, anger welling as I tried to hold back my words.

'Excuse me I need to go to the bathroom.' I said standing and turning away.

'What did I do?' He asked softly as I started walking away.

'That was Grey's favourite team. They always went to games together whenever he was home.' I burst into the toilet stall and locked the door, sitting on the lid and holding my head, it hurt so much. I took deep breaths until I calmed and stood up. I walked out and washed my face at the sink.

'Well hello there Mr. McAdams.' I looked up into the mirror to see Principal Stark standing next to me at the sink.

'My name's not McAdams.' I said and he smiled down at his hands as he washed them. My headache beginning to return already.

'My apologies, I wasn't sure you liked me enough to be on a first name basis.'

'I don't.'

'Oh?' He laughed. My head hurt so fricken much.

'What are you even doing here?' I asked as I walked over and dried my face on the paper towel.

'Having dinner like most people who come here. And you? Coming to terrorize the wait staff?' I glared at him.

'No.'

'Ah, no fun then.'

'I'm here with my mum and Di- I mean Richard.'

'Oh yes, I remember your mother telling me about your father, I'm sorry-'

'Save it, I don't give a crap about your fake ass sympathy, you're just waiting for me to slip up so you can kick me out of your precious school. So just leave me alone.' I said a little too loud before exiting the bathroom and going back to the table where Dick sat silently having a sulk.

Mum and Dick carried most of the conversation for the rest of the night. Thankfully I didn't have to see that jackass again. We went home and I headed straight for my room to stare at the ceiling. My mum came in about ten o'clock.

'Hey baby, are you alright.'

'I'm fine.' I muttered still staring at the ceiling.

'What's so interesting on that ceiling?' She asked with a giggle but I just continued to stare. 'He didn't mean to upset you, you know? He didn't know.'

'It's fine, I'm going to go to sleep, it's getting late and I have to start school tomorrow.' I said still not moving, just hoping that she would leave.

'Okay, your uniform is pressed and in the bathroom hanging up okay?' I hummed and with that she wished me good night and left, closing the door behind her. I sighed and rolled to the side looking at the photo of my dad and me before he left on his last tour. We were down at the park, playing ball, that was a good day, I haven't had a good day in a while.

I woke up the next morning, showered and got into my new uniform, which was beige slacks and creamy green dress shirt, the school's logo of a lion wearing a crown embroidered on the left breast pocket.

There was a knock on my door and I turned from the mirror to see Dick standing there.

'Ah, hey, your mother has been called into work early so I-I'll be taking you to school.' I nodded and we stood there for a moment in silence.

'Okay well, be down in five to leave.' I nodded and he nodded and we looked at one another before he finally left. I turned back to the mirror and ran some gel through my hair and sighed out before walking down the stairs with my bag. Dick had a travel mug in his hand as he read over the paper, looking up as I stood in the entrance to the kitchen. 'Did you want anything to eat?' I looked around and grabbed an apple. 'This is lunch money from your mum.' He said holding out cash to me, I was very careful making sure I didn't touch him as I took it. We headed out of the house and I got into his car, he drove a BMW, I didn't like it, it was a nice car but I didn't like being driven around in it.

'So are you nervous about school today?'

'Not really.' I said quietly as I looked out the window.

'I'm sorry about dinner last night.'

'It's fine.' I said as we stopped at a traffic light.

'Look, I know I'm not your dad, and I will never be nor do I ever want to even try to replace him, but I hope you understand that I do truly love your mother.' We turned the corner and started pulling into the drop off zone. He stopped at the front and I got out quickly.

'Thanks for the ride.' With that I quickly made my way from the car towards the front office. I noticed that a lot of the boys had their shirts tucked in, all the girls were in skirts and they were all looking at me.

I stepped into the office away from student's eyes only to be stared down by the staff. I sighed and walked to the front desk.

'Hi, how can I help you?' The lady asked and I looked around at them as they tried to subtly look me over.

'Stark said he wanted to see me first thing today.' The woman forced a smile onto her face and picked up the phone, she pressed one button mentioned I was here and then put the phone down.

'Principal Stark says you're allowed to go in.' She said and I nodded before walking over to the office from yesterday and walking in.

'No knock?' Principal Stark said and I stood there looking at him with a death glare.