Ivy Cordelia Boarding School

Chapter Thirty-Three

The Day of Expulsion

s.

"Selah, what could possibly be so important that it's had you sitting in my office for two hours?" Dean Talbott asks, finally allowing me into her office. 

I stare at her for a full, anger filled minute. My body felt like I had a miniature person using a flame-thrower to incinerate me from the inside out. She starts to look a little wary, shuffling away to mess around with the books on a dark oak shelf that sat to the right of her office. 

"The real question is what could you possibly have been doing in this office to keep me waiting for so long" I say angrily, throwing myself down into what I liked to call the 'hot seat'.

"I do apologize, but I've been dealing with the aftermath of the fire and I had a lot of important calls to make" she explains, reluctantly taking the seat across from me.

"Well, it just so happens that the fire is what I'm here to talk to you about, Dean" I reveal, clenching the arms of the chair so hard, I was sure that if you looked closely enough, you'd see my nail marks in the wood. 

I'd been going back and forth with what I wanted to do since it happened, and telling on myself was never an option until last night.

I know what you did, little freak. Jealous that you're not the only girl living out your fantasy? Stop pretending that you didn't want it to happen. You never even screamed. If you wanted to meet me in the shed, all you had to do was ask. I always knew that you were crazy. My little pyro freak. Text me some time.

"Really? I was hoping that this would be some normal, teenage girl problem. We're ending the investigation today, actually. It'll be chalked up to some freak accident, so any more talk about it isn't very necessary" she says, the look in her eyes warning me away from the subject even though her tone of voice was light.

"I did it".

I was never one to beat around the bush. Things we're always easier if said out-right. It left no questions to be answered about the subject. There was nothing confusing about a direct admission of guilt.

She looks behind me, horrified at the fact that she'd left the door open. I'd never seen her move faster to go and close it, in my years of living in such close proximity with the woman. 

"Selah, you've been having a hard time lately, and don't really know what you're saying. Our counselor's are available for twenty-four hour consultation, so you should go and talk to them about it. But you can't just go around lying about being an arsonist. It could get you sent to juvenile" she says, pressing her back against the door as if the FBI was about to burst in at any moment.

"But, I'm not lying. I set the gardener's shed on fire, Dean Talbott. You should be writing up the expulsion papers right now, and calling my parents to come and pick me up" I tell her, getting out of the chair to stand up and face her.

I never, ever wanted to come back to this place.

My little pyro freak.

"No, Selah. You didn't do anything. Stop saying such crazy things. The cameras weren't working for some weird reason, so there's absolutely no evidence of anyone being out on the school grounds when the fire happened".

My eyes widen. "You KNEW. Why was I never questioned about that night like everyone else? And why wouldn't the cameras be working?".

She doesn't respond, but her eyes flicker to the right of the room, where a plaque boasting a photo of my grandparent's hangs on her wall. Most Generous Donor's. There were identical ones all over the school.

"You saw me on the cameras, and my family had you erase the evidence. But you don't understand! None of you understand. I don't want to be here anymore, okay? I want you to expel me. I want to see it typed out in plain font that I can NEVER come back to this place again. So, DO it!".

"Selah, calm down. They can hear-".

"DO IT!".