Page 61 of One Breath After Another

One more thing to get through, then.

That’s all that mattered to Penny.

13.

Penny

LEADING up to the meeting at the school with the principal and Penny’s caseworker—who decided when they walked into the office that everyone should call her Amanda—Roz continued to tell her not to worry about anything. Naz wasn’t any different. Despite how they tried to calm her fears, she still headed into that meeting feeling like the whole world was about to crash down around her.

She sat between Naz and Roz on a chair that didn’t look—or feel—nearly as comfortable as the ones provided to her guardians for the meeting. The principal observed them from her seat behind the desk. All the while, the caseworker flipped through her file, seemingly fine with being silent while the principal laid out every single issue that had been noted about Penny since the last time she was there.

Yeah, it was still a whole list.

Penny could apologize ...

It was probably the right time.

But she didn’t.

“However,” the principal said, making Penny look up from her hands to meet the woman’s gaze from across the desk, “we’re also aware that this latest problem was not entirely ... Penny’s fault.”

“She shouldn’t have hit him, though,” Roz said to her left. “Right, Penny?”

“Well—”

“Penny,” Naz murmured.

“I could have handled it better,” she settled on saying.

After she hit him.

He did deserve that.

“And I apologize for Caleb’s insensitive words that I’m sure hurt and did nothing to help you with moving beyond the things you’re currently dealing with, Penny,” Mrs. Tippens added. “Taking all of that into account, and everything else, we’ve decided that a two-week suspension is most appropriate—”

“Two weeks—”

“And,” the principal said, arching a brow to silence Roz, “while it’s what we would do to any student for the same behavior Penny has shown, this is also to her benefit. It will give her more time at home with people who clearly care about her and have been making progress with her where it counts. I do notice those things despite what you two might think. During her two-week suspension, she is expected to do daily online classes. It’ll allow her to still graduate on time. When the suspension is up, she can continue classes online and report to the school twice a week for two hours of in-class work.”

Hey.

Penny didn’t mind that at all. She would have done that from the beginning had someone given her the option. For the most part, they kept pushing her to be at school more than outside of it. Like being around people and other students her age would ... help.

It hadn’t.

“As long as she passes her classes and finals,” the principal continued, “then she will be allowed to walk in the graduation ceremony with her class. Or we can mail her diploma, but I will leave that decision up to her, and you. That’s all I have to say except, Penny ...”

“Yeah?”

Mrs. Tippens smiled softly. “I am trying to give you the legroom you need to move and make this work. Please, make it work.”

Fair enough.

“I will.”

“Good. I’ll allow you four to finish this meeting without me as I have other things to attend. Miss Carine, you can take my seat if you would like, or stand. That’s up to you.”

The principal gathered the items she wanted from her desk, and then left the room without a glance over her shoulder at the people she left behind. The caseworker, Amanda Carine, didn’t take the seat behind the desk that had been offered to her. Instead, she rounded the front of the desk and leaned her backside against the edge as she opened a folder and pretended like she was actually reading the contents inside.