Chapter 12 - 'I. Know. Who. You. Are...'
The bell above Mr Lanes office shrieks as he leads me towards the door. A shimmering, spotless golden plaque carefully sits against the door, clearly and proudly displaying the headmaster's name. My stomach churns in anticipation.
I'm in trouble.
Struggling to maintain a cool exterior as my cheek's flush red and a self-conscious heat races through my chest as I internally stress; did he see me swearing at Archer? Has Reese reported it? Has Archer? Damnit, Mums going to kill me this time.
Keep it together Scarlett, for all you know this is just a 'don't break any rules and you can stay on school grounds' talk. My fingers curl around my bag strap.
Keep it cool.
Once we're inside the decently sized room he waves a hand towards the two chairs facing his desk and silently moves around it with ease. I play with the loose thread hanging from my sleeve, wrapping it around my finger as I nod, pursing my lips. All anger from this morning is long gone as I sit in the brown cushioned chair debating whether Mum will shoot me or scream at me first when she hears about me being in the Head Masters office within the first two minutes of setting foot on school grounds.
That's got to be a record breaker.
Sitting opposite me Mr Lanes lifts a thick brown file up and my stomach drops to my feet. That's definitely mine. I groan inwardly realising why I'm here, he wants to ensure I keep a low profile at his school. That I don't fall into my 'usual' accused habits.
Fun.
Relief courses through me as I calmly place my hands in my lap and assess Mr Lanes schooled poker face as he flips through my file, studying each page carefully, a tactic I learned is one that every Head Master/Mistress employs to unnerve me; I give this guy ten out of ten, he's definitely causing a chill in the air and adding to the strong authoritative atmosphere he has going on compared to the other schools.
We sit in silence.
"English literature A, English language A, Science B, maths C, Religious studies B, Art A*, History B, music A and PE A*" Mr Lanes finally states calmly as he drops my file on the desk in front of me. I stare quietly at him, calmly assessing his poker face in an attempt to get an inkling into where he's going with this. I'm actually fairly surprised; normally the Head Teacher looks at the many ways I've managed to get expelled not my GCSE grades.
What's his play?
Mr Lanes laces his fingers together on the table in front of him, leaning forwards as he adds "and it took 25 schools to get there."
There it is.
Maintaining a cool, composed mask I returns Sir's composed expression, refusing to show an ounce of emotion. A flicker of interest sparks in his intelligent but dark eyes before he disengages from the critical staring and leans back in his leather chair, not once allowing his eyes to stray as he picks up the brown leather folder.
"Food fight, fight... fight's plural, spray paint, disruptive behaviour... now, this one's interesting 'deliberately setting the science lab on fire when your experiment exploded' quite a colourful record you have here." I purse my lips at the list which embarrassingly goes on, internally flinching but I remain stoic in the eyes of the headmaster; my family needs protecting. If that means I have to swing from school to school until I get my grades, then so be it.
As long as I get them, I don't care.
There's another pause of silence as Mr Lanes studies my features again before he drops the leather folder on his desk "I'm actually impressed with the rest of the list."
