Mystery Loves Company

Chapter 10 - File #3.2: The Ups and Downs

Avery

The last thing I would ever do was to disappoint the only parent I had. It turned out to be a bull when I revealed to her that I didn't apply to Bensworth. She tried to understand, but I could tell from her frowned face that she was disappointed.

When I told her that Mrs. Dench had asked me to apply, she was all excited. When I added that I might have a chance for scholarship because Mrs. Dench would personally write me a recommendation letter, she jumped and clapped like she just won a lottery. Nothing made me happier than to see my mother was proud of me like that.

But it all vanished into thin air in a mere minute.

"Mom, I just want to be a normal student." I had said that a million times before—and this was the second dinner we discussed it over since I got back empty handed from Bensworth. Even a broken radio sounded nicer than those words in repetitive mode.

"You've skipped 5th and 7th grade. How is that normal?" Alex, who was enjoying his evening cartoons, spurted.

I struck him with a stare, though I couldn't bash him because he was right. With my intelligence, I should've skipped more grades. Hell, I should've graduated college by now. But as cool as it sounded—a 15 years old girl graduated from Bensworth University with a perfect 4.00 GPA—it was too overwhelming for me. I knew what became of genius kids who went to college in such young age. They were bullied, often by their 5-years older friends. I didn't want it to happen to me, and Mom of all people should understand.

"Okay. That's your decision. I don't have a right to mess with it," said Mom. She turned her back and continued cooking tomato soup. "Although... Full scholarship offer doesn't come often..."

"Mom," I sighed. I didn't know to explain my situation in a way that she would fully understand. "All this offer—the admission, the scholarship, the letter... It's all just a scheme to kick me out of school."

Mom's blond hair swiveled back as she turned around. She giggled, "Scheme? What is this—a robbery?"

"The whole school hates me, Mom. They want me gone. The easier way other than killing me is sending me off to college," I said.

"Hate is a strong word, Avery," she turned off the stove because the soup was boiling. And 'killing' is not? "It's natural that people don't always like the smart one."

Hearing what she just said, I realized that the word 'smart' started to offend me.

"I raised you to be an open-minded person. Negative thinking isn't really what an open-minded person will have."

"Then be open-minded. I told you my reason about not applying," I asserted, "and I really mean it."

She smiled. "What changed your mind?"

I furrowed my eyebrows.

"You were on fire when writing the essays. That time, I knew that you really wanted to go to Bensworth," she added. "Was there something that bugged your mind?"

Not 'something', someone. No, scratch that. Some people. The first went by the name Danna Jennings, packed with her annoying snicker and over-the-top outfit she'd worn to school, preparing herself in case some fashion magazines would stop by and took her pictures. She wasn't the school's center of attention—Bridgewald High had a better student for that, hello—until her father stepped up for the election.

The second person was the guy who dragged me into his own mess, Rhett Carver. All I wanted to do was switch back our folders, so I could do my interview, and he could do whatever weird thing he was doing. But no, he had to make it a little more complicated by running after a man, which I had to follow by running after him, only to have us arrested later. Although it wasn't exactly an arrest, getting in and out of a police car wasn't a nice thing to look at.