The Girl in the Bar-Rewrite

Chapter 17

The next morning, as I was heading to Dean Frost's office, a wave of nerves shot right through me. Something about this meeting scared me. When I got to the door, my whole body began to shake. Relax Robbins, it's all going to be fine. I tell myself. I inhale deeply, then let it out. I knock gently, then wait for a reply.

"Come in," I hear Dean Frost Call. I open the door and walk in, nerves and all.

"Ah, Ms. Robbins, come on in,"

"Hi Dean Frost," I greet politely.

"Have a seat," she tells me. She flips open the file on her desk and folds her hands on top of it. I take the seat she offered me and silently prayed that whatever she wanted to tell me wasn't going to be all that bad.

"Ok, Ms. Robbins, it was brought to my attention about your behavior yesterday in Professor Green's class.

"Yeah, about that..." I start, but she puts her hand up to stop me.

"I already spoke to some of the students who actually saw everything. So, because of it, I may take some things into consideration, but only with certain conditions,"

"What do you mean?" I asked confused.

"I will get to that in a minute..." she says, "But right now, your language and your behavior towards one of my professors was uncalled for and I'm going to be honest with you Ms. Robbins, I will not tolerate that kind of language, no matter what the situation is,"

"Yeah, but..." I try, but again, she stops me.

"Hang on, you will get your chance to talk, but right now just listen. When Professor Green came to me yesterday, I was a little shocked when he mentioned your name. I was even more shocked when he told me how your behavior has been over the last twelve weeks. He said that your behavior and your attitude had been nothing but disturbing, starting from the beginning of the semester up until yesterday. He said that he caught you yelling at other students when they tried to talk to you or when they asked you for help. He said that you got mad and told them that they needed to do their own work or would just ignore them altogether. He also stated here that he had informed that you needed a passing grade on the final to pass the class, but instead, you got mad, ripped it up, then stormed out."

"I didn't just storm out. I wasn't feeling well and when I asked nicely if I could use the restroom, he straight up said that if I left the room, I automatically failed. So, I just reacted...not in the best way possible, I guess. Look Dean Frost, in my defense, if I had stayed in the class, I would have puked all over my desk... and the floor."

"He didn't mention that to me. He just...." I cut her off before she could finish.

"Of course, he didn't." I snap folding my arms.

"Okay then... Now we got that cleared up...somewhat...let's talk about your grades. I've looked over your transcript and seen that you ended last semester with a 4.0. Then, I compared it to this semester, and it dropped tremendously. Both of your Professors said that you didn't have problem with turning in your work, it was how you actually did on them. Would you care to explain how you went from passing one semester to flunking the next?"

"It's personal," I tell her, "I had some things happen and it took my focus away from everything that mattered to me,"

"Okay, well, we all have personal things going on in our lives, Ms. Robbins, but that is not an excuse to stop caring altogether," She looks down at the file and reads over some of the notes that had been written, then looks back up at me, "Now, since you failed this semester, I'm willing to give have two options, but only on certain conditions,"

"What are they?" I ask her.

"Your first option would be that you can retake them this summer without having to worry about getting behind...."

"...and my second option...?"

"Your next option would be to wait and retake it when you come back from summer break, but if you do that, it will ultimately put you behind for sure. Which wouldn't be good for you because if you fail again, you would be asked to leave and all your hard work would go right out the window,"

"So, what would the conditions be if I decide to retake the classes this summer?"

"If you decide to retake the classes this summer, the conditions would be that you stop with the attitude and disrespectfulness, not only to my professors, but to other students too. And maybe..."

"Maybe what?"

"Maybe talk to someone about what's been going on. You know, someone professionally. Think you can you do that?" I just gave her a small chuckle.

"Look, with all do respect, Dean Frost, I don't need professional help. And I can't really promise that things will change,"

"I see. Well in that case, Ms. Robbins, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to ask you to pack up your dorm and return the keys immediately. I'm so disappointed in you. I was giving you a second chance under the circumstances. You've worked so hard to get where you are now. You were completely on top of things in the beginning but it's like a switch has been flipped and you don't seem to care enough. I mean, you have had it rough when you lost your parents, and now these personal issues you have going on, but this has gotten way out of hand now,"

"Can we not bring my parents into this, please, and whatever I have going on, is no one's business,"

"I understand that it's only your business, Ms. Robbins, but you have flushed all that hard work that you put in, down the toilet." Yeah, mine and Callie's business

After leaving the Dean's office, I made way to the little park that was across from the dorms. I found an empty bench and sat down. Everything that happened between Callie and I that night started running through my mind again.

"Hey, everything ok?" comes a female voice. I look up and notice a beautiful redhead standing next to me.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lie.

"Are you sure? You don't look fine,"

"I just have a lot on my mind right now,"

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asks, moving to come sit down next to me.

"So..that was some final huh?"

"What?" I looked at her confusingly.

"I was in your class. We had professor Green together,"

"Oh...right..yeah, I don't really want to talk about it."

"I understand. You know, I have a friend going through some issues too. Probably not like what you have going on, but I'm sure it's pretty close to it. Want to know what I tell her?"

"What?"

"I tell her that everything will be okay. And to take each day one day at a time. Don't let whatever the problem is get in the way. Let it resolve on its own," I turn my head and look at the redhead. She gives me a smile and nods her head, "I'm not sure what you have going on, but whatever it is, don't let it get in the way," I turn my attention back to the view in front of me. The Redhead lets out a sigh and says, "tell you what, let me give you, my number. May I see your phone?" She asks, reaching her hand out. I pull the device from my coat and hand it to her, "I'm going to program my number in, and whenever you feel like you want to talk, feel free to give me a call, Ok? I'm a really good listener," She hands me back my phone, then stand up from her spot on the bench.

"Thanks." I say to her. Just before she walked away, she turned back around and introduced herself. "My name's Addison, by the way." She says, extending her hand out for me to shake.

"Arizona." I replied, shaking her hand.

"I know," she says with a smile. Anyway, take it easy Arizona," Just like that, the red head walked away.