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He spins around. “I can’t help you if you don’t help yourself.”
“But—”
His thick brows furrow. “Who did this?”
I bite my tongue and silently curse the three stooges. If they wouldn’t make my life infinitely worse, I’d gladly say their names.
Dad shrugs. “You’d better pull yourself together. Academy is tougher than high school.”
“Like you’d know.”
“Excuse me?” His eyes flash yellow.
I back up.
Mrs. Middlebrooks makes a giddy noise. She’s as bad as the mean girls. Worse, even. She’s supposed to be in charge.
Dad slowly nears me, his eyes growing yellower. “You will respect me as your king. Do you understand?”
I gulp.
“Do you understand?”
I nod.
“You’d do good to remember that. Follow the rules. I expect you to do better than the other students. Being new is nothing more than an excuse. I have enough to deal with at the castle without having to worry about you. Get your act together, or you’ll regret it.”
“Regret it?”
He taps his trident on the ground and the whole floor shakes. Then he turns to Mrs. Middlebrooks. “You won’t have any more problems with her.”
She purses her lips and bats her eyes. “I’m sure we won’t, your highness.”
Dad glares at me before leaving.
Mrs. Middlebrooks turns to me. “You really should bow to him. He’s the king, even if he is also your father.”
I clench my jaw and bite my tongue so I don’t tell her what she can do to herself. That’s when I realize she didn’t bow to him either. She was all goofy and weird, not acting at all like anyone else has toward him.
Maybe she’s just weird. Thinks she’s king of the academy. I don’t know, and I don’t care. I just want out of the office. “What’s my punishment?”
“Over the weekend, you’re going to scrub the gym floors. Make them shine.”
“My back aches, and you’re going to make me do that?”
She rests her chin on her palm. “Unless you want to tell me who supposedly beat you up in the name of initiation?”
Supposedly? Anger rises in my gut and nearly explodes out of my chest. It takes every last bit of my self-control to keep from yelling at her. The woman has lost her mind. “Never mind. I’ll just clean the gym floor.”
“Your choice.” She shrugs and turns back to her paperwork.
Green electricity buzzes around my hands. I release them and hide them behind my back.
She glances up and lifts a brow.
I want to ask why she was acting so strange toward my dad, but I’d rather leave. I have homework, anyway. And I can’t wait to get to bed. Barely made it through the rest of my classes, going without any sleep.
“I’ll check with the custodian to make sure you did a thorough job,” she says.
