FAMILY

02| New School

McCoy High School was one of the most elite private schools in the country, according to my mom. I was supposed to enrol a few days, but I first had to do an entrance exam. My mom failed to mention this to me when she gushed about this school on the plane. So now here I was, in the principal's office taking an exam and it was only mid August! My mom was waiting outside of the office. When I gazed at the clock, I noticed that I only had thirty minutes left.

"Are you finished, miss Jones?" The principal caught me playing with my pen.

I've been done for the past twenty minutes, but I always get anxious about handing something in before the time limit was over. He caught me now, so I nodded and handed him the paper. Afterwards, he instructed me to wait outside with my mom while he corrected it. I got up from my seat and walked out. My mom was on her phone but looked up when I stepped out.

"How did it go?" She asked.

"Fine." I shrugged.

My mom didn't ask further, because academics truly bored her. She never forced me to get good grades, I'm sure that she didn't care. Despite my procrastination issues, I was quite good at school. I'd feared that the exam would be difficult but it was rather easy. School has always been easy for me, therefore boring which led to me procrastinating a lot.

"I took a look at the uniforms. They're quite cute. They're navy blue, which goes well with your eyes." My mom showed me pictures of the school uniform.

I was used to wearing school uniforms but I really didn't care much for them. My mom was the one who always made sure my uniforms were ironed and fresh. She always got so mad when I tied my tie wrongly. It really isn't that deep. But appearance is everything for her.

"Miss Jones?" The principal opened the door with wide eyes.

He'd looked very indifferently at me. He went on an entire rant about how he didn't like to welcome latecomers to his school and how serious and prestigious this school was. Basically, he had a thick stick up his ass. But now he looked at me like I was Jesus or the first drops of rain after drought. It made me feel uncomfortable.

"Please, come inside my office!"

He can smile? I glanced at my mom who nodded and pulled me along. We sat down in his office and he clapped his hands together. He gave my mom a set of papers and continued to look at me with a radiant smile. This man is starting to scare me.

"Your daughter is a genius! I've never seen such a high score before in my entire career!"

I leaned closer to my mom and noticed that the papers were my results. I got a lot of my answers correct and I suppressed a smile when I saw my mom's face. She was annoyed with me. She turned to me and rolled her eyes before handing my results back.

"Our school has a very special program for children like your daughter. It's designed to-"

"I'm not interested in that. She'll attend normal classes." She cut him off.

My mom really hated it when teachers or principals approached her with special classes or gifted courses. They all saw potential in me but my mom always refused. She didn't want me to take an IQ test nor did she allow me to compete in contests. She's been like that my entire life and it made me turn into a procrastinator partially. If my mother didn't find education important, why should I? That's how I used to think about it, but I've changed my mind.

I'll get to do whatever I please when I get to college, but that's in three years. By then I'll have met my father and I felt like he would support my education.

"But-"

My mom shook her head firmly. I looked at the principal. This man looked like a disappointed puppy. He slowly took the results back and stared at them for a long while before speaking again. It was as if someone crushed his dreams right in front of him.