Never Gonna Happen

10

The assembly had ended and everyone was filing out of the assembly hall. Every little group separating to go their own ways. My little group of friends stood outside the assembly hall, watching everyone leave and finding the new people. 

Rick scoffed from next to me, slinging his arm across Mindy's shoulders, "I hate those freshmen. Who do they even think they are, coming in here and acting like they own the place...? They'll get what's coming." 

"All due respect, Rick, but those kids did win a gold medal in the child Olympics. They earned their spot." 

Rick shoots a glare at me, "Tell that to Henry." 

I roll my eyes at him, "Alright, listen. I love your brother, and he definitely would've gotten on the JV team but we can't really change anything now, can we?" 

Rick's lips quirk up into a sly smile, "Well..." 

I point a finger at him, "No murders. Anyways, I should go talk to my dad. See you guys later." Everyone says bye to me as I walk away and towards my Dad's office. 

When I get there, I see a group of kids checking out the office, "Hey, check it out. He knows Wayne Newton." One of them says. 

"Charlie, man, this is not a good start to our year." 

Charlie scoffs, "Don't worry Kenny. These prepsters aren't gonna do anything to us." 

"I wouldn't be so confident in that." I say, bouncing my shoulder off of the doorframe that I was currently leaning on, "Varsity already hates you lot, plus, us prepsters are a lot less preppy than you might think." 

Charlie crosses his arms, "Who are you?" 

"Jess Buckley." 

"Buckley?" 

"My daughter." My dad says, cutting into the conversation. 

"Woah, look. Antsville." Another one of the kids says, staring at the ant farm that my dad likes to keep. 

Everyone becomes fascinated with the ants and I roll my eyes. They probably don't mean to ignore my dad but they are, "You can learn a lot from ants." My dad interrupts them, "These Brazilian fire ants can teach you a lot about successful societal structure. You see, there's one queen in there. The rest are dedicated worker ants. Everybody pulls their weight. Nobody complains. There's harmony and growth. Same here at Eden Hall. Only you are the workers, the backbone."

"And you're the queen?" The snarky kid from before, Russ I think, asks. 

I can't help but snort as I relax on the sofas, "Some times the ant talk doesn't work on people, Dad." 

My Dad turns around with a tight smile on his face, "Yes, thank you for that observation, Jessica." 

My Dad dismisses the team, leaving the two of us alone in his office. He sits down behind his desk and I put my legs up on the table that are in between the two sofas, "So, what's up Dad?" 

He uncaps his pen and starts writing things, "Shouldn't you be eating breakfast, Jess?" 

I shrug, "Not hungry." 

"You're always hungry." 

"Am I?" 

He looks up from his paperwork and pulls his glasses off of his face, "Is there anything you need me to do?" 

I bite the inside of my cheek, "Can't I just enjoy your company without wanting something, dearest father?" 

"No." 

I frown and take my legs off of the table, "Ok...I'll just leave then."

Dad looks down at his paperwork again and starts writing, "Goodbye." I shake my head as I leave the office and make my way back to my dorm room.