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“And this! I found it in your bedroom. What, are you turning to alcohol now? You know what’s next? You’ll be doing drugs and getting into trouble and flunking out of high school. All the colleges you applied to will pull your application, and you’ll end up being like the rest of Redwood’s deadbeats.”
My eyes widened, and I had the sudden urge to smack her across the face. She had never once made it seem like she was better than anyone on the bad side of Redwood. We donated to them all the time and volunteered together to help them out, but her calling them deadbeats …
It did something to me.
“Don’t you dare call them deadbeats.” I seethed through my teeth. “If you don’t remember, you and Dad grew up on the bad side of town! You know that it’s so fucking difficult to get out of their situation. How dare you belittle them.”
Her words had done more than offend me; they had enraged me.
“And look where we are. Everyone we grew up with is still living in the slums, Imani. The Abaras aren’t deadbeats like them, and neither are you.”
Maybe João and Landon and Kai were right. The Redwood rich were pieces of shit. I hadn’t thought so before tonight, but seeing Mom like this … it made me change my mind. Her true colors had come out.
“You’re grounded until you can bring your grade back up to an A-plus.”
My eyes widened. “Are you serious?!”
“You’d better get used to being in that room of yours without the alcohol because we’re locking it up. All you’re going to be doing here is studying for Biology. My daughter will be the top of her class, the valedictorian. Nobody, not even Allie or Akio, is going to pass you up.”
