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Chapter 1 – Grounded Forever

Saturday

“Dad!” I yelled. “Dad, please!” I ran after him into our apartment. “Mr. Halifax didn’t do anything...”

My mom put her hand up to silence me. “Not now, Scarlett.”

I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard her so stern before. But my dad had ignored me all the way home after yanking me out of the homecoming dance early. And if not now, when were we going to talk about this? My dad thought I was sleeping with Mr. Halifax. And he thought that Jacob had called me a slut. Both of those things weren’t true, and no one was listening to me. “And Jacob didn’t...”

“Scarlett!” my mom yelled. “Go to your room!”

What?!

She cursed under her breath as she pulled my dad into the kitchen. “I think you might need stitches. I’m going to call the doctor...”

“I’m fine,” my dad said and winced. His eye was already swollen shut and the blood on the side of his jaw made me think he needed stitches too.

“You’re not fine!” my mom yelled.

He opened the freezer and grabbed an icepack. “I’m fine,” he said again. “You should see the other guy.” He smiled and then winced again.

My mom threw up her hands in frustration. “I did see the other guy! You and West are both going to be fired if not arrested...”

“Don’t say that asshole’s name in my home,” my dad said.

This whole thing had gotten very out of hand. “Dad, Mr. Halifax didn’t do anything.”

My dad ignored me as he grabbed a towel and wrapped it around the icepack. He lifted it to his eye. “Do you really want to talk about this right now?” he asked me calmly.

“Yes! Mr. Halifax was just dancing with me because...”

“Are you sleeping with your teacher?” my dad asked, cutting me off.

“No!”

“This isn’t the time to lie to me, Scarlett.”

“I’m not lying! I don’t sleep with my teachers. I’m not mom!”

My mom let out an exasperated sigh as she tried to blot some of the cuts on my dad’s face with a cotton ball and some peroxide.

“That’s it,” my dad said. “You’re grounded for the rest of your life.”

“You can’t be mad at me when what I said is true!”

My dad lowered the icepack from his face. “You should have listened to your mom earlier. But you wanted this conversation tonight and now you’ve had it. You’re grounded,” he said again. “Go to your room. Now.”

“Dad! I didn’t do anything! I’m not secretly sleeping with my teacher. I’m dating Jacob!”

“No,” he said calmly. “You’re not.”

“I’m not what?”

“You’re no longer dating Jacob Miller. And he’s no longer allowed in this house.”

“What are you talking about? He’s my boyfriend!”

“He was your boyfriend,” my dad said. “Past tense.”