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"And what are you doing here?" Mr. Garner demands, focused behind me.
Brendan is standing in the doorway. "Helping to clean up." He holds up a box of garbage bags.
"I've got it!" Ashton proclaims, still in the hall. "This is the perfect bed for your ..." Her excitement deflates when she stumbles in to find Mr. Garner. "I have permission!" she declares, holding up the tablet with a furniture site on the screen.
Mr. Garner sighs. "Why does everyone know, but me? Lana, I'm supposed to be the person you go to when things like this happen."
"I knew you'd be worried," I tell him. "And look, you are. So I was right!"
He sighs. "Let's go." He directs me out of the room. "I also came to escort you to your first drug test."
Brendan laughs. He seriously laughs. I really am going to punch him in the face. At least Ashton is kind enough to look horrified on my behalf, which probably isn't helpful either ...
I'm really hoping I get a free pass and they use it as my baseline test, as Mr. Garner thought they might when we first met in his office. I honestly have no idea what they're going to find, especially after last night. Mr. Garner walks me into the nurse's clinic inside the administration building in silence, although I can tell he's internally battling with whatever it is he wants to say or ask.
Blackwood doesn't mess around when it comes to their drug testing. That's apparent as soon as I see the test tube next to the rubber tourniquet. It's basically impossible to hide drug use in a blood test.
"Meet me in my office when you're done," Mr. Garner requests and disappears out the door, leaving me with the emotionless nurse.
She doesn't say anything other than directives. She doesn't even warn me when she's about to insert the needle. And for the benefit of thoroughness, she administers a saliva test as well. I've only ever provided urine tests in juvie, and those can easily be switched. So this is intense. Guess I'm going to be sober for the next five months.
I automatically think of Grant. Suddenly sobriety isn't a bad thing. Not at all.
The nurse must think I'm high. I'm still sitting, all dreamy-eyed with a stupid smile on my face when she's done.
"You can leave," she tells me with a scrutinizing squint of her eyes.
Mr. Garner's office looks nothing like the cavernous space I first entered a few weeks ago. It almost resembles a guy's dorm room with its comfortable furniture, a basketball hoop hung on the back of the door, and photographs of Mr. Garner with random people on mountain tops, in a kayak in what looks like the jungle, and other exotic locations covering the wall. Except he has a desk in place of a bed.
"Well, hello, Mr. Garner," I say, admiring the space. "Who knew you were an actual human being."
"Shut the door, Lana," he instructs, sitting down behind his desk. I comply. "Tell me what's been going on? You've had quite a few mishaps in the short time you've been here."
"What are you talking about exactly?" I'm getting nervous about how much he knows, or what the security cameras may have caught.
He starts counting them off on his fingers. "You almost miss curfew on your second night. You get locked out of the building because your phone wasn't charged properly a week later. And now, your room is completely vandalized by someone who you've obviously upset. What else am I missing? Oh! Right, the drugs that you claim that we'll find in your system after being here for only a weekend. I won't make you tell me where you got them, but c'mon, Lana! Any fights you want to confess to while we're at it?"
I look down.
"Really?" he exclaims in exasperation. "I am obviously sucking at my job."
"This has nothing to do with you," I protest. "You're doing great! Dragging me out of my bed first thing in the morning to make me hit stuff, or seek inner peace. It's really helping, I swear. I don't want you to lose your job over me."
Mr. Garner closes his eyes with a shake of his head. "That's not what I'm worried about. Being here is supposed to be your opportunity to experience something better. Not to bring all of your chaos with you."
"Maybe I am my chaos," I offer with a shrug. "It comes with me wherever I go."
He rubs a hand over his face. "You exhaust me."
I bite back the smile. "I could say the same. I will only get out of bed at crack of dawn for you, Mr. Garner."
"Do you know who is targeting you?" he asks with a sigh, ignoring my snarky retort.
I shake my head.
"I need to hear you say it."
"No," I state clearly ... for the record ... in case his office is bugged and that's why he insisted I say it out loud.
