Making it.

Chapter 5 - How ironic.

"Are not even a little bit excited about going to school here in London?" Mom asks from the passenger seat in Mike's car as we drive towards the place she wants to send me off to.

"If you did not force me, then maybe I would have been, but, oh well. Guess that chance is gone now." I answer, munching on my chocolate croissant in slight annoyance.

"It is not considered forcing, if it's for your best and you even made a deal with me to get 'some benefits out of this' as you like to call it." She argues and I smile sweetly.

"I am glad you remember those because I thought that I would have to remind you by the end of this dreadful morning." I answer her and she rolls her eyes.

"Would you like to enlighten me about those new benefits of yours, Hailey?" Mike asks, looking back and forth between the road, mom and me, a slight hesitation in voice.

"Yes. Basically, I get to choose my dance studio and she has to pay for it and I get to go out without permission as long as my grades are staying on top." As soon as I finish, mom jumps in.

"I said maybe to the last one, so don't try to twist it as if I agreed on it already."

"That's it? You didn't ask for anything else?" Mike sounds surprised as he says that and I raise my eyebrows.

"No?"

"This sounds pretty simple and kind of obvious to me. I thought that you would ask for like a huge amount of money to spend or something. I mean, what you want is something normal and essential for a eighteen-year-old, don't you think so too?"

I shake my head at his question, "No, it does not because mom would have not allowed it if I did not force her to. She would have either forbidden me to dance or make me pay for it like she did the past three years."

"You did what?!" Mike asks and looks at mom with pure shock written all over his face.

"We can talk about that later. You watch the road." She dodges his question and shoots me a death glare over her shoulder.

"I can't believe you would do that." Mike mutters and I lean back in my seat, watching the unfamiliar buildings through the window instead of focusing on the two of them.

The tension in the car is so thick that you could cut it with a knife and I notice how Mike is gripping the steering wheel a little bit tighter than before which makes my gut twist.

Calm down, Hailey. I tell myself over and over again while using all of my energy on trying to catch the street names that we pass by.

The car comes to a halt in front of a huge brick wall lining, that soon stops at a golden gate.

"We're here." Mike says as I look around seeing a whole lot of cars parked around us. We step out and move towards the back in order to get my suitcases out. Again, I sling my backpack over my shoulders and take two of the three suitcases while mom takes the last one and my dancing bag.

"Alright. The dorms are the last building on the far-left side. You have room 218, if I remember correctly, the door will be unlocked so you can just walk in. While you do that, I will get your schedule and papers from the secretary and meet you in the room in a few minutes." Mike tells us and we nod, parting ways after walking through the gate.

As I continue towards the last building on the left with mom, I look around and try to make myself familiar with my surroundings. I see a few small groups of teens talking and laughing and think how the hell I will ever fit into this place. Something that I regret doing now is not waking up earlier in the morning and taking the time to make myself look a little bit more presentable as all the other students apparently did. My outfit is the same that I put on yesterday after showering, the only thing that I did change was putting my hair up in a messy bun that I am pretty sure is ruined already. Thank god mom forbid me to put on a hoodie over this outfit because she said that it was too warm outside, which it is indeed but I think she simply did not want her daughter to look like she just rolled out of bed.