Page 84 of Eleanor & Grey

“Everything’s in order. Plus, I signed you up for some extra credit in every class,” he told her, standing tall.

“Extra credit?!” she hissed, her nose flaring wide. “But I did the homework!”

“Yes, you did—after lying for weeks to do God knows what on your own time. You made a choice the moment you forged that paperwork, Karla. Now I’m making a choice to keep you from thinking about ever doing something like this again. Unless…”

“Unless what?” she asked.

“Unless you tell me where you’ve been going every day,” Greyson said.

Karla’s eyes watered over and she shook her head. “This is bullshit!” she shouted.

“Language,” Greyson and I said in union.

I smiled at him.

He didn’t smile back.

It seemed things were back to normal.

“Don’t you have a meeting or some crap to get to? Can’t you just leave me alone?” she asked.

Greyson glanced at his watch and nodded. “As a matter of fact, I do.” Then those eyes looked at me. “Thank you for bringing her to school today, Eleanor. If you could please take her to room 102 for her science class, that would be great.”

Oh, he was really playing up the embarrassing father routine.

“Of course, Mr. East,” I replied.

“It’s Mr. Ea—” He stopped his, realizing I had indeed called him by his last name. “Right, of course. Well, then, goodbye.”

He walked off and I continued walking Karla to her first class, even though she was completely against the idea.

“I hate when he does that,” she complained.

“Does what?”

“Tries to act like my father.”

“He is your father.”

“You’ve been with us for almost two months now—tell me how much parenting you’ve actually seen.”

She wasn’t wrong. Just as I was about to drop her off at her classroom, another student walked up and paused in front of us. I watched Karla tense up as he looked at her.

He was adorable, a cute boy with a curly blond Afro and blue eyes that would make any girl his age melt. “Hey, Karla. Haven’t seen you around lately,” he said. “A few people thought you switched schools.”

She shifted on her heels and wouldn’t make eye contact with him. Her left hand rubbed up and down her right arm. “Yeah.”

“Have you been doing okay?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.

Before she could reply, another girl called out to him. “Brian! What are you doing?” I looked up to see a sassy girl wearing more makeup than anyone her age should’ve ever worn, standing there with both hands on her hips.

Brian turned to the girl and shrugged. “Nothing. I just thought I’d say hi. Did you see Karla’s back?”

“Saw it, don’t care,” she muttered. “Now get away from that thing and walk me to class,” she growled.

Every hair on my body stood up as the rude little demon spoke about Karla like that. “What do you mean that thing?!” I started, but Karla quickly tugged on my arm.

“Don’t, Eleanor.”

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