Breaking Rules

33.

Harper's POV:

I was half way through my finals and not completely hating life which says a lot. 

There were 2 weeks until my 19th birthday which I was pretty excited for but I wouldn't be able to see my family this year. We had spent so much money on the plane tickets around Christmas, as well as all of my hospital bills, that I couldn't fly out to see them.

Thalia helped me see the positive as she always did and it meant I could spend time with her on the actual day which would be special. It was going to be the first annual type of celebration we'd spend together since we had been so busy this year.

I was sitting in the library at school, taking a break from the busyness of studying, when I got a phone call from the woman herself.

"Hey, love." Apparently I answered the phone loudly enough to need to receive a death glare from the librarian. I responded with a sarcastic smile.

"Hi, are you busy right now?"

"Well, I'm in school but I'll be out within an hour since we've been finishing earlier. Why what's up?"

"Oh, yeah of course sorry. I forgot you had school... Nothing's up but can I see you after you're done at school?"

"Of course, I can finish up here pretty quickly."

"Okay. See you then."

We hung up and I packed away my things, to make my way around the school. I had been told to visit the school's counsellor at some point in the week so I thought I may as well now.

"Hey, Mr Dunphey. You free right now for the meeting thingy?"

"Sure, come on in."

I sat down in his office. It was pretty cosy but not too personalised. There was a brown leather sofa in one corner of the room and 2 matching chairs on the side of the desk opposite Mr Dunphey. Multiple plaques and certificates hung on the wall. I noticed he had the right qualifications to possibly be an actual counsellor which was comforting.

Mr Dunphey and I had spoken a few times before, firstly when I first joined for the classic 'It's always scary being in a new place.' talk. Secondly, for the 'Don't get into any more fights.' talk. And the most recent was the 'How is your physical and mental health.' talk after the whole being shot situation.

"So, Harper." The man began, snapping me out of my daze. "We're here to talk about your future, more specifically colleges."

My leg bounced naturally and the speed only increased when watched it. "Okay, what about them?"

"I see you've applied to a few colleges already, have you heard back?"

"Yeah, I've been accepted to 2 for soccer, one for English and one for Psych." I had options, and an awful lot to write about in each essay so I had been accepted to good colleges that would get me where I needed. The problem was I didn't know where it was I wanted to go.

"Nice, you've got options. Do you know what it is you want to do with your future?"

"No. I mean, I do. I think I would like to work with children but that's about as much as I know at the moment."

"Okay, we can work with that." The cheery man said as he got up various scholarships and job options up on his computer. I ended up spending longer than I was meant to with Mr Dunphey and since I was on my skateboard it had almost been 2 hours since I told Thalia I would 'finish up quickly.'

"Hey, Thal." I shouted out into the big space as I let myself into her house and closed the door behind me. I put my backpack and skateboard on the floor by the door and went looking for the woman when I didn't hear a reply.