How To Rule Your High School

Chapter 14: Consequences

"Do you have any idea how mortified we were?"

My mother was practically screaming as she and my father paced in the living room in front of me. To call them livid would be an understatement. When my mother had shaken me awake that morning I'd been half sure she was about to throw me out of the house she was so mad.

"And it's not just that you left, but you slapped Will Dawson!" my mother wailed, throwing her hands into the air as if supplicating the gods for a more malleable and less willful daughter.

"You realize we were asked to leave? In front of all of those people," my father grumbled, unable to look at me.

"I'm sorry, okay? Geez, you'd think you'd take my side in all this instead of throwing me at Will Dawson like I'm a piece of meat!" I snapped, glaring at both of them in turn. My stomach lurched when my words seemed to have no effect whatsoever on them.

"You are grounded, young lady, until you apologize to Will and make amends for your actions!" my mother retorted, "I know I've raised you better than that!"

"You didn't raise me, Rosa did," I said flatly, hopping to my feet and sprinting up the back stairs before either of my parents could say a word. I hoped that hit them hard and deep so they could understand how awful it felt to be pimped out by your own parents.

Grounded. I knew how this would go because I'd seen it happen to Brett countless times. They'd lock my car keys in the safe and freeze my credit cards until I did whatever it was they asked. In Brett's case, it was make the football team in his first year of high school. In their eyes, there was no higher pinnacle of teen success than to be a starter on the school team. Apparently in my case it was to kiss up to the rich asshole so that one day I might land him as a husband. Considering that was never, ever in a million years going to happen, I had to come up with some sort of plan so I wouldn't be forced to be a recluse for the rest of my high school life. But I couldn't stop my brain from running circles around the idea that my parents clearly thought the only way I could succeed in life was by landing a rich man. I wanted to dig up my last report card and throw it in their pompous faces so they could see the parade of A's and B's that any college applicant would kill to have.

I stormed into Brett's room and collapsed on his couch with a huff. He and Brandon didn't even look up from their video game.

"And?" Brett asked finally, his eyes riveted to the screen. He'd figured out that I'd left Will's party early and of my own accord, but he still had no idea exactly what had transpired the night before.

"Grounded," I groaned, rolling over to watch whatever carnage they were creating on the screen.

"Until?" he prompted.

"Until forever. Because there's no way in hell I'm apologizing. Will deserved to be slapped and I'll stand by that until the day I die," I replied, rolling back over and staring up at the ceiling. The game binged on the screen and I looked over to see two sets of eyes on me.

"They want you to apologize?" Brandon demanded, livid, at the exact same moment Brett said, "You slapped him?"

"Okay, what's going on? What happened that I don't know about?" Brett asked, shooting Brandon a look as he set down his controller. I blew out my cheeks and recounted the whole tale, from Will pawing at me all the way up to the cocaine episode. By the time I'd finished, Brett was on his feet.

"If they think you're ever setting foot near that jerk again, they have another thing coming," he growled, his footsteps pounding down the back staircase. Brandon and I shot each other wide-eyed looks as a shouting match ensued downstairs.