Clever Girl

Chapter 26: "Whatever it takes."

It looks smaller than I remembered. Almost like its walls have sucked themselves into a worthless void. I stand at the outset of the walkway that leads to the front doors, my feet heavy and my mind weighing me down even more. How can I summon the strength to go through with this day? This week? The next few months? Maybe if I'm lucky, the administration will refuse to allow me to re-enroll, and I can finish high school by some other means, at another place, one that doesn't put all its emphasis on money and reputation but rather on the well being of its students. Maybe I can convince my parents a GED will be sufficient enough.

Has it only been two weeks since I left? It feels like a lifetime ago. 

I try to look past everything, and focus on only my promise, on graduating. For having to fulfill that promise, I'm still angry with my parents  - so angry that I haven't spoken more than two words to them since they gave me the verdict. Though starting today I know I'll have to change my attitude. A constant terrible mood is not the ideal character for my mother to be around right now. I've had a few days to accept this decision, and now I have to deal with it like the adult that I've convinced myself I am.

Shelley glances up at me as I enter the main office, her black-rim glasses sliding down her nose just a little, "Veronica Boniadi? What are you doing here?"

Before I had quit, I had walked up to her desk on my last day and told her I wouldn't be coming back, that I was turning eighteen on the Sunday, and that by law she has no right to make me stay or to contact my parents. She had stared at me with contempt, but hadn't responded with anything other than a simple, quiet "Understood." Today that same contempt shadows her face, though I force a smile regardless, "I'd like to re-enroll, if possible."

"Very well, please have a seat," Shelley says, then leaves for a few minutes. She returns with several notes, a clipboard and a pen. "Here are the re-enrollment papers. Please fill them out. Once you're done, you can follow the same schedule you had before. You'll have to catch up with the assignments you missed in the last two weeks, and make up any tests or quizzes. I suggest asking a fellow student from every class for help as well. Please take these notes to each of your teachers, permitting you back. Also, if you could come back to the office during your lunch period that would be great. Principal Cranston would like to speak with you."

"Wait, that's it?"

"That's what, Miss Boniadi?"

"You're going to let me come back. . .  just like that?"

"Of course. It's a good day when a student who dropped out decides to give education another try. You're lucky you only missed two weeks, or you might have had to repeat the year." Her words are drenched in sweetness but something about her tone hints at sarcasm. She walks back to her desk and begins typing away, not paying me anymore attention, not even looking up when I place the completed forms back on her desk.

When I step out of the office, it's like I've headed into an unforgiving vacuum. The air is stale with callous intention, and even though I can breathe just fine, every breath I take numbs me more and more, chipping away at my soul. Stop it, Veronica. Stop being so dramatic. It's just high school. You've been here before, and nothing's changed. 

The hallways are almost empty as students have nearly filled the first classes of the day. I shuffle my way towards Biology, dreading the moment I'll have to write a test or answer a question. With any luck, no teacher will call on me for anything. I was an unmoving, silent, practically non-existent student before, so there's no reason for anyone to think I'm different now.

"Veronica Boniadi, what brings you back to Apollo?" the Biology teacher asks as I hand him the note from Shelley. The class has already started, and most students haven't noticed me. A few, like Grizz, stare at me with curiosity.