Broken Prodigy | COMPLETED ✓

Chapter 5

A heavy silence hangs over Gus and I as we head after Doug. I'm surprised to see Gus so solemn. I didn't think anything could wipe the smirk off his face, but as we follow the man leading us to our fate, his head is bowed and his features expressionless.

Doug opens the door for us. "Let's go," he says gruffly. We walk in and each take a seat in front of the desk. Doug closes the door and sits in his chair.

"Sir-" Gus starts.

"You can wait, Angus, until I'm done talking," Doug says sternly. Gus nods reluctantly. "Now, this morning, you both had the duty of mucking out the stables, yes?" We both nod. "Okay. Well, one of our regular clients noticed you, Olive, throwing manure at Gus!" he exclaims. "Is this true?"

I nod. There's no stopping where this is heading now.

"But Sir-" Gus tries again, and I wonder what on earth is so important that he is trying to stall my firing.

"No buts." Doug turns to me. "Olive, I was wary of you at first. But then you showed your maturity, and I thought I was wrong about you being trouble. Now, I can see I wasn't wrong at all. I'm sorry, but I can't have you as an employee."

"Sir!" Gus bursts out. Doug freezes, but this time he doesn't prevent Gus from continuing. "She shouldn't take the whole blame for this! I started it."

"But the client said-"

"I don't know what the client said, but I'm telling you, I started it," Gus insists. I'm stuck to the spot, stunned at Gus' interference. "Olive has manure on her, too. I caused her to spill it over herself. You can't fire her without firing me. We both know that's unfair."

Doug's forehead creases with stress, and he lifts his hand up in exasperation. "I can't afford to lose you, too."

"Then you'll have to keep us both. I promise we'll make up for it. No more messing up," Gus swears, nothing in his serious expression revealing a lie.

Doug seems to inspect Gus as well, looking for any sign to give him doubt. Then he sighs in resignation. "If I hear anything, anything bad about you two kids, then I won't hesitate to fire the both of you. Understand?" he asks. A smile creeps across my face, and Gus' face breaks into a victorious crooked smirk, before he clears his throat.

"Uh, yes sir," Gus says, then sneaks a look at me, grinning as if he knew all along how this would play out. I scowl. Whilst I'm grateful that I still have a job- for now- it's irritating that Gus is the one who saved my ass.

"Okay, then," Doug interrupts our somewhat silent challenging. "Out. I've got work to do," he says. He obviously isn't happy that Gus found me a way out of getting sacked on my first day.

We both jump out of our seats and leave the room before Doug can change his mind. I'm smiling like an idiot who just won the lotto and Gus' smirking as if someone just told him he's the best person in the world. He's not, obviously. But he did save my job. Annoyingly. The question still remains as to why.

"You helped me," I state. "And called me Olive, for once."

"Don't get your hopes up anytime soon, Olivia. And don't worry, I won't make you thank me in front of the others," he answers, nodding towards Elliot, Georgia and another younger girl heading our way. "But you're welcome anyway."

I glower at him and he laughs. "Whatever," I say as I walk over to the others, Gus following behind me. "Georgia, are you okay?" I ask her.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but what happened to you?" Georgia asks. "Oh my god, he didn't fire you did he?"

"No, but I'm still on probation."

"Are we missing something here?" Elliot asks, gesturing to the girl and himself. I now recognise her as the girl who got Doug for me yesterday. "All I know is that you were called to Duggie's office. And poor Kayla hasn't even been introduced to you yet."