Play No More (Player Next Door sequel) ✓

92 | Long List

Thank you @Meitorei for the beautiful poster!

And a shout out to @tvesha04 for writing Millie's eulogy in last chapter's comment section: "Here lies Mildred Ripley, Messiah to raccoons, Grim reaper to laptops and a Comedic muse to mafia men. Now reunited with Winnifred"  

~Please vote~

Chapter 92: Long List

RIP Cearra, you will be missed. I loved you dearly, but nowhere near as much as you loved BTS.

It had started out with good intentions. Months ago, Austin convinced Cearra's mom that she should come to Dubai with us. He succeeded, by pretending to be Chad's dad and putting on an accent.

A Swedish accent.

And now the house of cards was crashing down. Not just for Cearra, but for the rest of us too. The Principal said she would punish everyone and that it would impact our academic records.

I didn't grow up in the warmest of homes. Literally, we didn't have heating for a few years until my mom started earning more. I always told myself that if I studied hard enough, I could get a better life. But I got distracted. My grades were sinking and here we all were.

"Sweden?" Chad's dad asked, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"It's a figure of speech," Chad said.

"It's not," Cearra's mom replied, "I'm dead serious."

Chad's dad took a moment before he replied, "I don't know how this would be handled in Sweden, but I'm trying to get my son out of trouble in this country, and I understand you're trying to do the same for your daughter."

Cearra went into a meltdown and dropped into her chair. Austin turned his head away, trying to keep a low profile. And I tried to keep so straight faced that my eye started to twitch.

They were moments away from being busted.

"Except that it sounds like my daughter had a very small part to play in this incident, unlike your son and his whip," she gave Chad the side eye, "But he's getting away with it because of your bank account, while my daughter is still in the hot seat. That's the definition of privilege."

New voices sounded outside, interrupting the debate.

"Gloria, it's this way. Trust me, I know my way around this school," a voice said, "I've been here enough times by now."

I perked up the moment I recognized her voice. A few seconds later, the door swung open and Dr Taylor walked in with Gloria. Before the door shut behind them, I saw Doz's face in the hallway, trying to peek in.

Dr Taylor was wearing blue hospital scrubs. She waved at the Principal like they knew each other and marched towards her son, "Austin Taylor, what did you do now?"

They swarmed him; Gloria started patting his hair down while his mom tried to adjust his shirt. Austin brushed them off, but couldn't say anything. He still wasn't speaking in front of Cearra's mom. He glanced over at Luke and Chad, his eyes pleading for help.

Luke got the cue and said, "Dr Taylor, there's been a misunderstanding."

"There's always a misunderstanding when it comes to you three," she replied, "I know my son and if he's in this office, he's probably done something wrong."

"At least someone is admitting it," Art muttered from his chair, before his dad glared at him to stay quiet.

"Can we wrap this up?" Mr Dawson asked, "I have an appointment at four that I don't want to miss."