There, at the end of the hall, was the Dean’s door. Waiting in a chair just to the side of it, was Borden.
He looked at me with wide eyes, though he was fighting very hard to keep his calm and composure. But as we approached, he stood, standing by my side.
And I knew.
Dad knocked on the Dean’s door and he called for us to come in.
All of my guts had settled in my pelvis by this point, dead and unrevivable. I walked in, and I had no doubt from the very first moment what would happen in the next few minutes.
The Dean’s expression was dark and serious. I could see disappointment dripping from every bit of him.
We walked in and sat in the chairs across from him, Dad standing next to the door as he closed it behind us.
“I don’t want either of you to say one word,” Dean Lowell said, keeping his tone very even and calm, but deadly with their seriousness. “Because I don’t care what you think your reasoning was, what your justification was. There were multiple witnesses who saw you two coming and going from the Society Boys’ house on Sunday, and then the school. There was no one else. And it is a well-known fact, the rivalry and contention that has been going on between your group and those Boys. So, I don’t want the story. I don’t need the explanation of how you did what you did.”
Dean Lowell grabbed two pieces of paper from his desk and extended one to each of us.
“Effective immediately, you are both expelled from Alderidge University,” the Dean said.
My eyes scanned the page, and it reflected what he just said.
I felt heavier and sicker than I’d ever felt in my entire life.
Expelled.
That was what the word read, easy and clear.
“Borden, you will not graduate come the end of this semester,” the Dean said. And now his voice shook, just slightly, with disappointment and rage. “Margot, you will not retain your faculty scholarship. Borden, you are to immediately leave the Society Boys’ house.”
“I’ve already moved out,” he said hollowly. He stared at his expulsion letter, looking dead and empty.
Dean Lowell nodded curtly. “I wish to express my exceptional disappointment. The two of you have been nothing but model citizens at this school. You’ve gotten excellent grades, been examples of what this university stands for. You should have had a bright future. But trespassing on school grounds, in an administrator’s office, is something that cannot be tolerated. And this kind of playground drama will not be excused. A bit of school-ground drama could have been settled in a much more civilized way.”
“A bit of school-ground drama?”
I finally snapped. The words bit out of me harsh and loud. I stood up, placing my hands on the Dean’s desk. “The Society Boys tried to kill Nathaniel Nightingale. They stole from us, on multiple occasions. They’ve turned everyone against Borden. You talk about model students, yet you’ve done nothing about those walking nightmares. Why? Because they have money? Because you don’t want to lose funding from their parents?”
“Margot,” my dad said under his breath.
“Yes, it was me who posted the proof for everyone to finally know the truth. It’s time someone started calling out the bullshit that happens at this school,” I said, shaking my head.
“You do not run this school, Miss Bell,” Dean Lowell said, the volume of his voice rising slightly. “You do not get to make the calls. Now, my decision is final, and since you are no longer a student at this school, I will ask the both of you to leave the campus grounds immediately.”
I felt as if I’d just been slapped, and for the first time, it really sank in.
The school where I had lived my whole life, had just kicked me out.
I was no longer welcome at Alderidge.
I tried to swallow around my dry mouth, but my tongue stuck to the back of my throat.
So, I turned, and with Borden, we walked out of the office.
By this time, there were a few students in the hallways. I felt as if I had a huge flashing sign above my head that said EXPELLED. I felt ashamed. I felt angry. I felt…
I felt…
I didn’t know. Maybe I was in shock.
But I felt some satisfaction when they looked at the pages we’d hung. When they started whispering to each other.
The three of us made our way down the hall. And when we turned in front of my dad’s classroom, he stopped.
“I think you know we’ll be talking some more after school,” he said, his tone very controlled.
I just swallowed and nodded.
As I turned to walk back out, I found Nathaniel coming down the hall. His expression was serious, dark and guarded. I was a storm of emotions as I looked at him.
He stopped just in front of Borden and I, and I wondered what he was seeing. Did we look ashamed? Scared? Angry? I didn’t know what I felt, so I had no idea how I might look to someone outside my own head.
“You two alright?” he asked. And I had never heard his tone so measured.
Automatically, I nodded. Borden did the same.
Nathaniel took a deep, slow breath in through his nostrils. He let it out, his eyes drifting away, and I knew, he was at a loss for what to say.
“We need to talk later,” I said. “Can I come by the solarium after your shift is over?”
It seemed as if he were having a hard time meeting my eyes when they came back to mine. He didn’t say anything, but he nodded, and then he walked away, headed toward his first class of the day.
Borden and I stood there for a minute, watching as all the students we were no longer a part of walked around us, on their way to classes we were no longer allowed to attend.
I’d made my decision weeks ago, that this would be my last semester. So really, this didn’t matter. It didn’t really change anything.
But it felt like the two smallest fingers of my hand had been chopped off. They’d been a part of my identity my entire life, and now someone had ripped them away.
I took slow steps forward, counting each and every one of them as I went. Because they were my last. Yes, I might step foot back in this school. I would have to. I was going to have to clean out my mother’s office now. But after I left, everything would be different.
The front doors were within sight, when through them, walked David Sinclair, flanked by all of the other senior Society Boys.
And it truly was like magic, because their gaze only slightly floated over me and Borden, before they moved on. They walked down the hall, and hardly even seemed to notice that we existed.
They walked right on by, not a second glance or a word spoken.
As we watched them go, Borden and I looked at each other, our eyes widening with awe. It was almost as if we could read each other’s minds.
It worked.
We both glanced back and watched as the Boys turned right down a hall and disappeared out of view.
It had worked. We’d finally rid ourselves of them.
But at what cost?
I looked back at the doors, and together, Borden and I slowly walked toward them. And as we walked through them, we both seemed to be holding our breath.
And when we stepped outside, everything did feel different.
I felt…free. I felt a little wild. Untethered. I felt like I wanted to do a million things all at once. I had no time schedule, no restrictions. Suddenly, for the first time since I was five years old, I had no homework.