When Summer Ends (55 page)

He nodded, obviously accepting my story and started talking
to Ryan who had come over to hang out with Amy before class. I relaxed. Just a
couple more days of doing Erika’s bidding and then I’d be able to stop being
her ‘personal bitch’. In the mean time I was just going to screw up everything
that she gave me to do. Strangely, I was actually looking forward to it.

The next couple of days passed incredibly fast. True to my
plans I messed up slightly on everything that she gave me. If I had to get her
coffee order I asked for full fat milk, if I had to bring her lunch then I
accidentally sprinkled some pepper or something over it. If I had to pass a
message to her friends then I omitted a couple of details – which actually
worked out pretty perfectly because she ended up leaving one of her friends at
the school when she was supposed to be driving her home. The catty argument in
the hallway the following day was entertaining to say the least.

Her hair was losing some of its blonde brilliance, only
slightly though, but Amy and I could tell the difference. Over the two nights,
I let Will make amendments and changes to her assignments. She obviously hadn’t
had any feedback about them yet though because she hadn’t said anything. As far
as she was concerned I was her perfect little slave. I did everything she asked
of me, and never once complained.

But three days later was when the poop really hit the fan.

I heard her before I saw her. I was walking down the
hallway, and I could hear a frustrated screaming sound coming from behind me.
Amy and I turned, as did everyone in the hallway, only to see Erika screwing up
a piece of paper, her face the picture of rage as she almost growled in
frustration. People were milling around her, trying to soothe her but she
wasn’t having any of it.

She looked up and her eyes met mine. I actually flinched at
the anger that I saw there. She sneered and stalked up to me, every step was
taken with determination and confidence as she walked right up in front of me,
glaring into my face.

“You little bitch!” she spat venomously.

I gulped.
Is she going to hit me? She looks like she
wanted to rip my head off or something.
The way she was looking at me sent
a cold shiver down my spine. I wondered what she had discovered, it had to have
been the assignments that I’d been doing for her, there was nothing else I had
done to get her this angry.

“What?” I asked, my voice a little weak. This was the part
that I wasn’t looking forward to; this was the part that I was dreading. It was
fine doing all of those things and messing with her when she didn’t know, but
the way she was looking at me made me feel nauseous. I kind of wished I’d just
stuck to the original plan and done her damn chores properly.

“What?” she repeated sarcastically. “What?” she sneered at
me again. “Are you serious? That English assignment that you did for me on
Monday just got me two days’ worth of detentions! Now I can’t practice with the
squad and our cheer routine is going to be ruined for the game on Friday! You
really have the audacity to ask me
what?
” she ranted.

I shrugged. “I’m assuming that you accept my resignation as
your personal bitch?” I offered, raising one eyebrow, trying to appear more
confident than I felt.

She stepped closer to me. “What the hell kind of game are
you playing? You know I have you and Mr Morris by the balls. How is he going to
feel when he loses his job because of a cheap little bitch like you?” she asked
quietly, I was confident that no one else heard.

I looked at her in the eyes and pretended to be confused.
“I’m not quite sure what you are going on about, Erika. What does Mr Morris
have to do with me?” I asked, faking innocence.

She scowled. “You really want to go there?” she asked, her
voice threatening and cold.

I shrugged. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,
Erika,” I lied, going for unconcerned and aloof. I wasn’t sure if I was pulling
it off, Amy was glaring at Erika like she wanted to kill her in front of
everyone.

Erika laughed, pushed her hair over her shoulder
dramatically, and smiled sweetly at me. “Say bye bye to your education at this
school, Chloe. You and Mr Hottie Teacher are out of here,” she said softly, as
if we were talking about the weather. She turned on her heel and marched off
down the hallway. I flicked my eyes to Amy and willed myself not to cry. What
if she said something? She was bound to say something to someone, I knew what
type of person she was, she would definitely do this.

Amy slung her arm around my shoulder, pulling me close to
her as everyone started to whisper and talk about Erika’s little outburst.
“It’s fine, Chloe. Everything’s going to be fine, she has nothing on you, and
Sam’s plan is genius. Just chill,” she whispered, rubbing her hand on my arm
reassuringly.

We headed to the lunchroom, but I wasn’t hungry. I felt
sick. All I could think about was Will getting into trouble because of me. I
needed to tell Will what had happened, but I didn’t want to go anywhere near
him right now in case someone saw and it added fuel to the fire. I looked up at
Amy and forced a smile. People were looking at me worriedly, Nick was frowning
at me.

“You feeling all right?” he asked, putting his hand on my
forehead, checking my temperature.

I nodded and pushed his hand off. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied.
I looked at Amy. “I need to tell er…” I trailed off, hoping she would
understand what I was getting at.

She nodded. “Want me to?” she asked, cocking one eyebrow.

I smiled gratefully.
I really have the best friend in the
world.
I nodded quickly. “Do you mind?”

She shook her head and picked up the rest of her sandwich.
“Of course not.” She turned and kissed Ryan lightly. “I’ll see you after
school, okay? I just need to go speak to Mr Morris about my calculus assignment
for today’s lesson,” she lied smoothly. He kissed her back, his hand trailing
down her back to slap her behind gently as she walked away.

I sat there picking at my sandwich, trying to join in with
the conversation going on around me, but I just couldn’t concentrate. All I
could think about was Will getting into trouble, him hating me and never
wanting to see me again because of how much hassle I was to him. We were
literally going to have to be ten times more careful from now on. That probably
meant no going out in public at all until school finished, we probably couldn’t
even risk heading to the next town over just in case someone saw us.

I just prayed that Sam’s genius idea held up if Erika
decided to go to the Principal.
Maybe she won’t even do it, maybe she’ll
decide that she’s going to be the bigger person here for a change and let me
off. Maybe she’s going to turn over a new leaf and everything will be fine.
Wow, that’s a lot of maybes!

The sound of my cell phone ringing brought me out of my
worried thoughts. I pulled it out and glanced at the screen and saw Amy’s
number flashing there. I gulped and answered, not sure if I wanted to hear what
she had to say. What if she told Will about Erika and he went crazy and hated
me?

“Hey,” I said into the phone, my voice barely above a
whisper.

“Hey, Cutie.” The sound of Will’s voice on the line instead
of Amy’s made my heart race. I felt my eyes fill with tears, and I looked up
that the ceiling quickly so they wouldn’t fall.

“Hi. Did you hear what happened?” I asked, trying to keep my
tone light and my words noncommittal to anything so that people wouldn’t know
what I was talking about.

He sighed down the phone. “Yeah, Amy just told me. It’s
okay, Cutie. We were expecting this, so it’s no big shock. Just don’t worry
about anything; everything’s going to be fine, I promise. You trust me, don’t
you?” he asked, his voice soft and comforting. I smiled and closed my eyes.
I
really don’t deserve this guy; everything about him is too good for me.
He
was being so tender and caring even though he was facing jail, or at the very
least, he was facing losing his career that he worked so hard for. Yet, he was
still comforting me. He amazed me.

“Of course I do,” I whispered.

“I’d better go. Just stick to the story; no one is going to
believe her. It’s fine, Cutie, I swear we’ll be fine. Just don’t worry, and try
to relax,” he instructed.

I nodded and took a couple of deep breaths. “All right.”

“I love you, Chloe.”

I smiled at the sound of those words, I still wasn’t used to
it, and I didn’t think I ever would be. “You too,” I answered.

The call disconnected so I slid the phone back into my
pocket. He sounded so confident that it made me feel confident too. I did trust
Will, and if he said everything was going to be fine, then I believed him. I
just prayed his belief was justified.

The rest of the day I was on edge. Every time I passed
Erika, she smirked at me knowingly. Amy was great; she didn’t leave me for a
second, supporting me and telling me how everything was going to work out.

When we got to calculus there was no Will. I took a seat and
pulled out my textbook, ignoring the way Erika was whispering with her friends,
shooting me little glances as they all laughed quietly. A couple of minutes
later and Mrs French walked in; she stopped at the front of Will’s desk and
cleared her throat to get the class’s attention. Everyone fell silent, and I
felt my heart sink.
Where is Will?

“Class, Mr Morris couldn’t make class today. I’m
substituting for him because he’s been called away at the last minute. If you
could all just pull up the next chapter in your textbooks and start reading in
preparation for your next lesson with him. I’d like silence please. I have
papers to grade so if you could just get on with it that would be fabulous,”
she requested, dumping her bag on his desk and pulling out his chair sitting
and starting to grade her papers.

People started whispering. I flicked my eyes to Erika; she
was grinning from ear to ear and winked at me. My whole body felt cold, the
hair on the back of my neck stood up. She’d obviously not let it go. Was Will
in trouble right now? Before I had a chance to think of too many questions and
start to panic, there was a knock at the door. A student walked in and headed
up to Mrs French, handing her a note. She read it and then looked up to the
class.

“Chloe Henderson?” she called, her eyes scanning the room
for me.

Oh my God!

I gulped and raised my hand, knowing my voice wouldn’t work
if I tried to speak. Amy gripped my free hand under the table, squeezing so
tightly that it would have been painful if I could actually feel my body, but I
couldn’t feel it, I was numb.

“The Principal would like to see you in his office,” Mrs
French told me, waving at the door for me to leave.

I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t care about myself, but if Will
got into trouble then it would hurt me more than anything. I gulped and forced
myself to calm down. My knees felt a little wobbly as I stood up, not looking
at anyone. People were whispering, all wondering what I had done wrong and why
I was getting called to the Principal’s office. I didn’t say anything; I just
packed my books into my bag, trying to do it as slow as possible so I could
calm down.

When I couldn’t stall anymore I walked through the
classroom. As I passed Erika, she put her foot into the aisle, making me trip.
Luckily I caught myself on the desk in front before I completely fell on my
face, but people still laughed and called me a klutz. I felt my face heat up,
but it wasn’t from embarrassment, it was from anger. I wanted to smash her face
in, rip her head off and chop her into little pieces and feed her to her
horses. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of letting her see that I was
upset and worried sick. Instead, I pushed myself up from the desk I was leaning
on heavily and smiled sweetly at her.

“You might want to be careful where you put your feet,
Erika, that could have been a lot worse. I’m fine though, thanks for asking,” I
said keeping my voice friendly and light.

She grinned at me and nodded towards the door. “Better go
see what the Principal wants, Ice Princess,” she chirped.

I nodded and straightened my shirt, walking out of the
classroom with my head held high. I needed to chill out and be confident. I was
not going to let Will get into trouble for me, there was no way I was messing
this up.

As I got to the reception I was waved through into the
office. As I pushed open the door to the Principal’s office, I saw Will sitting
there, one leg folded over the other, his face serious. He didn’t smile at me,
but he didn’t frown either. I looked away from him to the Principal who was
sitting behind his desk with a grave expression on his face. I felt my heart
rate speed up at the sight of his accusing stare; his beady brown eyes were
boring into mine as if he was trying to ascertain the truth without even
speaking.

Please don’t let me screw this up!

Chapter Thirty-Five

“Chloe, have a seat,” Principal Sherman instructed, nodding at
the empty seat next to Will.

I put on a fake smile and nodded, sitting down. “Am I in
some kind of trouble? Have I missed an assignment or something in calculus?” I
asked, glancing at Will.
Oh man, hold it together, Chloe!

“I just want to ask you a few questions,” Principal Sherman
said, smiling reassuringly but it didn’t quite meet his eyes. I gulped and
tried to keep my expression neutral as I nodded, pretending like I had no clue
why I was brought here in the first place. “Okay, so I had someone come and
report something to me earlier today that is very concerning, and it’s my duty
to investigate the accusation.”

I frowned as my hand clenched in a tight fist on my leg. I
seriously was going to punch Erika in the face next time I saw her. “Accusation?
I don’t understand,” I replied, faking innocence.