Only You (Wild Creek Ranch Series Book 4)

Chapter Twenty-Four

The next two weeks passed by quickly, with everyone being busy. Yet Renée and Sawyer took time out after dinner and went for their stroll. It was the best moment of their day, and they both eagerly looked forward to it.

Rex was home and looked too overworked and tired. He announced Rhett and his uncle would return in another ten days to celebrate Renée's eighteenth birthday. Renée couldn't be happier to have all her brothers at home for her birthday.

Ryan was a little different from before, and no one knew why. It was buried deep in Ryan's heart! Feeling confident of his hard work, his project work, Ryan went to college in brighter spirits.

Georgia walked into the Applied Nutrition classroom, ready to face the humiliation. Her brother had crashed her laptop and along with it, her incomplete project had also been destroyed. With Ryan not even responding to her, she lost all her hard work with absolutely no time to redo it again. She would fail miserably in the subject not to speak of the insults that professor Harrisburg would throw at her in front of the entire class.

Apprehensive, she sat near the door so that if he threw her out of class, she could just slip out easily. She didn't look up when Ryan walked in, looking confident as ever. She didn't look up when the professor walked in.

After teaching a new chapter, towards the end of the class, professor Harrisburg started discussing the marking scheme of the project. Finally, all the students were asked to submit their work, but Georgia sat quietly, trying to draw as little attention to herself as possible. She wanted to disappear from the class, but sadly, it wasn't possible. Everybody submitted their work and settled back in their seats. The professor counted the number of submissions and found one short as expected.

He looked up at all the students. "There's one submission yet to come in. Who hasn't done the project work?" he asked, scanning all the students. Georgia's heart started beating fast with nervousness. She knew he wouldn't let this go. She stood up slowly, with her eyes cast down. There was a pin dropped silence in the entire class.

"Ms. McLean, may I ask why you didn't think it necessary to do the project assigned to you?" asked the professor, showing his displeasure.

"I had done it, sir. My older brother broke my laptop and now I lost everything that was saved there," she explained to him truthfully.

The professor laughed sarcastically, not believing a word she said. "A new excuse. Do you realize you will have to repeat this semester? Your marks are so low that you would have to re-appear in all the exams taken so far," he growled out.

Georgia hung her head in shame. "Yes sir. I know. I can complete it if you give me a few days' time to redo it," she asked hopefully.

"I've given enough time and I won't give more. Your partner had complained about your lack of enthusiasm for the project. He had to complete it on his own, so I don't think you even want to study. Stop wasting your parents' money, Ms. McLean," shouted the professor.

Georgia stared at him in disbelief. She wasn't enthusiastic about the project? How could Ryan lie about it? She had to battle at home to continue with her studies. For her, every day was a nightmare, and yet she battled it out and attended college regularly. Tears accumulated in her eyes.

"That's not true, sir. I'm very much interested in studies. I loved doing the project," she started, but the professor shut her up.

"I can see your enthusiasm, Ms. McLean. You will not get any marks for this, which only means that you will repeat my subject in the next semester," said the professor, collecting his things. "That will be all for today, class. Ms. McLean, meet your academic counselor today before you leave." He strode out of the classroom and Georgia sat slumped in the chair as the tears fell from her eyes.