The Georgia Rule

Chapter Ten

           

RECAP: (because it's been a year and then some- believe it or not, it's more for me than you, because I, author, have forgotten the events of my own book. It's a skill really.) :

Georgia Holden had been Radford Preparatory's resident "queen bee." With golden boy Jared McKlean at her side, high school life was perfect- until Jared publicly dumped her in the school cafeteria for the girl no one knew.

Tired of moping at home, she took her dog Winnie for a walk, which quickly went sour as Winnie took off and led Georgia to an unfinished stadium. There, she is caught in the middle of a dangerous race and comes face to face with an agitated stranger who refuses to give her the time of day.

Low and behold on her first day back to school after having fallen from her throne, she learns that said stranger is the grandson of her academy's founder, and son of her principal, Mr Radford.

Following a massive argument between Georgia and one of her best friends, Breanna, an article was posted on their school's website that was owned and controlled by the Radford Prep's Website Club consisting of other students. This article basically kicked Georgia while she was down, and gave us our first look into how other students felt about Georgia's "queen bee rule."

Lauren, the second part of the trio however, asked to borrow Georgia's phone and deleted the article notification before she could see it. Not long after Georgia is called to the principal's office, where Finn Radford introduces the article to Georgia and escorts her off campus for lunch. During this, Finn informs Georgia that she must join the Website Club as it is mandatory that each student at Radford Prep be involved in an extracurricular activity. Georgia then returns to school as her post break up self, after having her confidence restored by capturing the attention of an elderly couple in the coffee shop.

****

I was greeted by the familiar dimly lit main hallway that housed only a scattering of students. There was only a few minutes left of lunch, but my renewed confidence surged through my body and made me feel like I was floating ten feet above the ground. 

The little heel on my nude flats echoed throughout the desolate hall as I found my way to the notice boards. Furrowing my eyebrows I dragged my finger down the carefully pinned lists until it stopped at the very club I needed. The Website Club.

With a grimace on my face I made my way towards the room as indicated by the notice board that was dedicated to the nerd club. Finn had made it clear that it was mandatory that I made my cameo at the club the day after, however if I was being forced to join rock bottom, I was doing it on my own terms.

Apparently the Website Club had an entire room that was designated to them. The door was littered with tacky article clippings of the times their articles were printed in the school's actual paper, before it was discontinued. I scoffed at the sloppiness, relishing in every little detail that added to the club's negative image within my head.

With a forceful push, the oak door swung open and I was assaulted by harsh artificial lights. Turning up my nose at the bland interior, I ignored the look of disbelief painted across the few persons who were present.

Rows of white table tops were joined together, and pristine desktops were resting atop, sandwiched between stacks of unkept files and hardcopies of data. Black and white cables littered the walls and floors as they tangled into beastly shapes connected to routers and modems. The wastebin, which happened to be the least claustrophobic thing to look at, was empty as bits of paper was scrunched into balls and thrown randomly throughout the room. And of course, the theme of self-centeredness continued onto the walls of the classroom as article clippings and posters of their accomplishments were half stuck to the paint.

"Where is your leader?" I groaned after having recovered from my initial disgust towards interior.

"Oh for the love of- What is it doing here?"  Jeffrey Higgins stood two inches below me with his greasy hair and a crooked pair of glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. The screech of his voice boiled my blood way more than it ever had, probably due to the fact that I was currently disgusted by everyone and everything.

My face contorted on its own accord, if the days of draining my body's water in tears hadn't aged me prematurely, the wrinkles I would get from twisting my face surely would.

"Listen here loser-" I struggled to control my breathing "- I want nothing more than to explain to you exactly why I'm needed here, but there's not enough money in the world you could pay me to even tolerate your sorry excuse for a personality."

The cold exterior he painted was far too weak to be believable, and maybe it was the partial dry-eye syndrome that I had self-diagnosed with, but I swear the corners of his face twitched.

"That would be me." She pushed herself within the doorframe narrowly squeezing past Higgins, "Andria Watson, but everyone calls me Wattie."

"I'm not everyone." The sickly sweet smile dropped off her face, quickly replaced by obvious annoyance.

"Look- Can you just tell me why you're here so we can get this over with?" She pleaded while crossing her arms.

I cocked an eyebrow. Of course Finn hadn't told her. Contrary to the administration's hopes and dreams, they aren't as well as an oiled machine as they had thought.

A shrill scream erupted throughout the classroom, appearing to bounce off all four walls. The seven of us jumped, startled by the interruption. I clamped my hands to my ears and squeezed my eyes shut in attempts to block out the noise. One guy fell to the floor in panic.

"What the hell is that?!"

My question fell on deaf ears – quite literally – as the rest of the room recovered. "Jenny what the heck!" exclaimed a girl with a flower crown haphazardly placed on her head. Jenny, I noticed had the exact same eyes and dusting of freckles across her nose as the girl who mentioned her.

"Sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!" She exclaimed while rubbing her ears. "With all that was going on-" she paused, not so subtly gesturing to me with her eyes, "- completely forgot to time the bell."

"So which one of you is going to explain to my doctor exactly why I'm partially deaf?" I drawled.

"Right Barbie- that sound means that lunch is over, so are you going to tell us what you want now or are we going to have to stay here whole day?"

"Did you just-"

"Time is really of the essence here!" she sang, raising her voice a few octaves as she bustled about the room sloppily gathered books and other materials. Seeing as Finn had not carefully thought out his plan of trapping me with this niche in society, I smoothed my uniform and picked at my nails.

"Oh you know just wanted to see how the other life lives," and with that, I spun on my heels and trotted towards my next class.

*****

author's note:

waw. i have some nerve showing my face- er writing? here.

truthfully i had all intentions of discontinuing this novel, but i know that back in my wattpad-binge-reading days, if a novel i was really enjoying got discontinued halfway through my reading, i'd feel empty inside. so i can't do that to you lovelies.

to those of you, if any, who are still here after all these years. i thank you. and i love you. thank you to my old and new readers, whose votes and comments in my absence have given me renewed love to continue this messed up piece of amateur writing.

with that being said, this is a super duper extra short chapter- sort of a transition for Georgia, myself and you, the readers, to re-connect with this novel.

xx