Georgetown Academy, Book One

Book 2, Chapter 1

Hey all,

Thanks for the social media sharing! If we hit 2k Georgetown academy FB likes and/or tweets using #gtscandal, we'll price drop Book 2 across all platforms!

Tell your friends. #GTScandal and bk 1 free on wattpad... spread the news

--------------------------------------

Friday, 10: 35pm.

Ellie Walker was frozen in front of the computer screen, as she had been for the last ten minutes , staring at the damning photo of her and Gabe Mills kissing. It was grainy and dark, but there was no mistaking the two of them in the photograph.

Questions flashed through her brain at rapid speed. Who had taken the photo? Did Gabe have something to do with it? How could she have been so naïve? What would Hunter do when he saw it? And what about her mother…

That last thought filled her stomach with bile. Her mom was downstairs in her home office at that exact moment. Did she know yet? If she didn’t, she would, no doubt, hear about it in the next two minutes from Jasmine, her chief-of-staff, or even worse, see it herself on one of the millions of websites posting it faster than Ellie could keep track. The thought catapulted Ellie out of her chair. Though she loathed confrontation, she would rather her mother hear it from her than anyone else.

She nervously twirled her long chestnut hair into a messy bun on the top of her head, her green eyes filling with panicky tears as she practically tripped over her flannel pajamas on the way out of her room. Time to get this over with.

She padded down the staircase in their cozy colonial -style house, her tall, slender frame taking the steps slowly, and she strained to hear the conversation that was coming from her mother’s office. Better to have an idea of what she was about to walk into.

“… going to be difficult… control the…constituents…” Ellie couldn’t tell if these snippets of conversation had anything to do with her or if they were part of a run-of-the-mill Senatorial discussion.

She reached the oak doors and walked through them without knocking . When her mother looked up, her face pale, her usually perfectly blown -out hair askew and her eyes full of hurt, anger, Ellie got her answer.

“She just walked in, Jasmine,” her mother said into the speakerphone. “I’ll call you back.”

“I’m on it until then, Senator Walker,” Jasmine’s voice crackled over the line.

A few balled up tissues lay next to the phone. Had she been crying? Another wave of guilt washed over Ellie and she lowered her head, not willing to meet her mother’s eye again.

“Ellie, how could you?” her mother said, her voice breaking. “How could you do this?”

“Mom,” Ellie said softly, barely able to get the words out, “I’m sorry.” And she meant it. When Gabe had come back to town, Ellie had done everything in her power to avoid him, despite their intense connection (and ridiculous attraction). Gabe was the son of Senator Mills, her mother’s biggest political enemy, and therefore, off-limits. Not only had Senator Mills paid a girl to lie about having an adulterous affair with Ellie’s father over two years ago, leading Ellie’s parents to get a divorce, but just this week he had unearthed a scandal involving Marilyn’s assistant campaign manager treating her donors to lap dances. Even though this had been going on behind Marilyn’s back , she was still dealing with the fall-out from “Strippergate,” as the media had annoyingly taken to calling it.

“How do you think this makes me look?” her mother railed at Ellie, her voice growing louder.

Ellie hung her head in shame. She knew how it made her mother look. Like an idiot. And even worse , she knew how it made herself look. Like a traitor.