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I stared at him in disbelief, wondering when he’d get to the punch line, but the joke never came.
“You can’t do this to me. I would be in those classes if I could. That’s not my fault.”
“I’m sorry, Penelope, I really am.”
“You’re sorry?” I gaped, my normally quiet demeanor dissolving in a pit of despair. My hands fluttered uselessly in front of me, the anxiety in my chest, a living, breathing thing. “What am I supposed to do?”
This couldn’t be happening. My mind reeled, searching for a solution. There was no way my father could come up with the tuition on this short of notice.
A lump formed in the back of my throat, but I forced it down. Now was not the time for tears, but, boy, if this wasn’t a kick in the crotch. Day one of my senior year and I might get booted from Lakeview. All because of a technicality and the inability to fork over the ridiculous sums of cash they called private school tuition.
Transferring was unfathomable. It was like leaving a game in the last inning when you played for the best team in the league and the score was tied. It meant having to start over.
My thoughts drifted to this morning with Topher and his friends. Some might think leaving Lakeview would be a reprieve, but to me, it meant the possibility of being ridiculed by a whole new set of students for my name. At least here, I’d grown used to the Topher Elliot’s of Lakeview. Transferring elsewhere meant wading through the chaff of jerks to find one good bit of wheat in the form of friends. And it had taken me months just to talk to Scarlett, my best friend. The thought of not graduating with her was devastating. I may as well kiss my top Tier schools goodbye.
Principal Bell rubbed a weathered hand over his forehead. “I can help you get into a great alternative—”
“No,” I yelled as I slammed my fist on his desk.
Bell flinched, startled by my uncharacteristic outburst, but there was no way I’d back down now. If there was ever a time to find my voice and stop being so afraid to speak my mind, it was now.
“Lakeview is the best, andthisis where I’m getting my diploma,” I said, stabbing a finger toward the ground. “I’d have to leave my friends. This could affect my college applications. It could change everything. I’ve already written Stanford and Brown preemptively and received promising responses. I won’t let my life get sidetracked because of a couple stupid AP classes.”
I shook my head, refusing to give in to the tears stinging the back of my eyes. “There must be something you can do. Some way I can earn the tuition money.”
“You want to work it off?” Bell asked like this notion never occurred to him. Probably because most of the Lakeview prima-donnas had never heard of such a thing as hard work.
I nodded, biting my lip against the rise of emotions. I was winging it, but it sounded like as good a plan as any. “Sure. Maybe I can do something after school to pay my debts.”
An image of me scrubbing the profanities from the bathroom stalls and mopping floors came to mind. Taking on janitorial duties wouldn’t exactly garner bonus points for my social standing, but it was something.
“Actually,” Principal Bell’s eyes brightened as he stood and rounded his desk, then shuffled through the paperwork in front of him. “Something crossed my desk this morning, and it just may be a solution.”
He set a couple folders aside and thumbed through a few papers before he paused, his gaze flickering over the text.
“Yes!” He snapped the paper with his fingers, and I jumped. “We just had a tutoring position open up. It’s paid. If you work as a tutor, it might not be quite enough to pay the tuition, but I can find a way to work the rest out. Does that sound like something you could do?”
Tutoring?Easy.
“Yeah, definitely. Yes.” Hope squeezed my chest. This was far better than scrubbing toilets.
“But there are stipulations. You’re replacing our current tutor, which means you’ll be helping several students each week and need to accommodate their schedules.”
Um, did I look like a person with a hopping social life?
I carefully concealed my pleasure with a wan smile and a perfunctory nod of the head. “I can make some sacrifices.”
“Okay, then.” Principal Bell clapped his hands. “Here’s the list of students you’d be tutoring. I’ll be in touch with them today to get their schedules. . .”
Bell handed me the paper, droning on about how happy he was that he managed to kill two birds with one stone. Or something like that. I wasn’t sure, because I was no longer listening. Instead, my eyes had scanned the names on the list, the paper suddenly heavy in my hands as I zeroed in on one in particular.
There, at the bottom, was Topher Elliot. It was probably the first time in his life he’d ever been at the bottom of anything.
“Penelope?”
Bell’s voice broke my trance, and I glanced up to his frown and his laser-sharp gaze.
“Uh, sorry,” I said, wondering what I missed.
