I was not aware that I was squirming in my seat until three pairs of eyes snapped to my face. My hands were clammy and my heart spasmed to its own un-choreographed beat.
The unusual décor of Mr Radford's office was something that I had hoped to have never had to endure again. Students were never summoned to The Headmaster's wing of the school unless intervention was necessary, and it was a known fact that a meeting with The Headmaster meant that you were in violation of the school's most prided rules of conduct.
Two files were placed neatly on the left hand corner of Mr Radford's prestigious oak desk, the only noticeable deviation from the otherwise pristine chambers. Mr Radford assumed his position behind his desk, leaning ever so slightly to neatly fold his hands onto the surface.
"So, Miss Holden" the man in the suit began, as if cutting the silence confined within the walls of the room with a knife, "It's lovely to finally meet the girl who has been troubling my father"
"Excuse me?" my eyes snapped towards his, and I gulped at the look in his eyes that apparently, no one else seemed to notice. Mr Lachey was too busy twiddling his thumbs and Mr Radford was mindlessly skimming through the files from earlier.
"Ah yes"
Mr Radford snapped his fingers, a gesture that seemed too mundane to be coming from someone with such high authority.
"I completely forgot. Miss Holden, this is my son, Finnegan" the movement of his mouth indicated that he had continued his introduction, however I was too busy repeating his words in my mind.
Son
Son
Son
"I was planning on formally introducing him to the entire student body during assembly, however I may have caused a ruckus instead by having him prance around" Mr Radford explained with laughter in his eyes.
"I for one, can tell you that the girls in my class are without a doubt having a field day, especially since they are currently unsupervised" Mr Lachey contributed as a subtle prompt to clarify the situation at hand.
"Ah yes. Let's get down to business shall we?" Mr Radford leaned into his chair, "I've already listened to both your sides' of the situation and to be a bit honest here, I just want to get this over with. I'm sure that you both do as well"
"Yes"
"Of course sir" we said at the same time.
"I would like to take full responsibility for what occurred and I apologize for reacting the way I did. It was not only unprofessional but incredibly inappropriate" Mr Lachey said, moving his attention from the Headmaster to myself.
"Me too" I answered hastily, "I mean- I apologize as well. For what I said" I silently cursed myself for not attempting to sound as put together as Mr Lachey had.
"Well" Mr Radford said, gaining our attention, "I do believe that that has been settled"
"That's it?" Finnegan blurted, piercing the silence, "Isn't there like a punishment or something?"
"Now son, do you really think that it's wise to cause unnecessary drama within this establishment?" Mr Radford countered with an air of superiority. "Especially since you're only essentially damaging yourself, seeing as Mr Lachey here-" he paused with a gesture, "-will essentially be one of your new bosses"
"What?!" I spluttered. "I'm sorry sir, but am I to assume that he will be working here?"
"Ah yes. Sorry for the confusion Ms. Holden, but it appears that I am terrible at keeping secrets" Mr Radford added with a chuckle. "You see, he won't be working here per se, more like, training."
"I'll basically be every teacher's lap dog for god knows how long" Finnegan injected, rolling his pale blue eyes.
"Never mind that Ms Holden, all will be explained during lunchtime assembly" countered Mr Radford, ignoring his son's interruption.
My mind struggled to process the fact that Finnegan, the same lunatic I had the displeasure of meeting at the stadium, was the same guy who was currently standing next to his father, the Headmaster of my school. Pulling myself together, I forced a smile at Finnegan, whose eyes were following my every movement like a hawk.
"So um, may I be excused?" I asked, anxious to bolt out of the room. Mr Radford's exquisite arm chair was no longer beckoning me to stay, as I was too bothered by the level of professionalism that was meant to be observed.
"Actually you may all be excused" Mr Radford openly ignored the glare sent by his son, who was clearly displeased with the dismissal and began rummaging through the drawers of his desk, a clear sign of the end of conversation.
I stepped out of the office and took a breath of relief, feeling the tension slowly roll off of me in waves. Mr Lachey exited afterwards and headed to the staff room, which made complete sense seeing as though we only had a few minutes left of the period. I stood awkwardly in the hallway, unsure of whether I should return to class or spend my time elsewhere.
"Well isn't this the best of surprises"
I jumped at the unwelcomed voice and came face to face with Finnegan, aka the creep from the stadium, aka Mr Radford's son. I had hoped to never meet him again, and hearing his dry words I could tell that he had hoped the same.
"Listen we-" I started
"You know, I could really use a tour of this school" he interjected, leaving no room for objections.
I rolled my eyes in annoyance at being interrupted once more and muttered a non-committed reply while gesturing for him to follow me with my hands.
****
We walked until the bell rang for lunch- only about ten minutes or so- with him acting as though I was explaining to him the history of a paper plane, and me growing more and more exhausted by his presence by the second. In reality I had only shown him the library and a few classes, one being my own to retrieve my books, but in the short time we had spent together, the reluctance to engage in actual conversation on both our parts seemed to stretch the feeling of time longer than it actually was.
"And that concedes our tour for the day" I drawled, stopping in front of my locker.
"That wasn't even one quarter the actual school" he complained, sounding equally as bored "You really need to brush up on your touring techniques."
"Yeah, I'll remember that when I'm training to become a professional tour guide" I said, rolling my eyes for effect.
"Anyways, about last time we met-" he dropped his voice to a whisper and unconsciously leaned in closer.
"Yup, it never happened. Got it, Finnegan" I interjected while awkwardly pushing him out of my breathing space.
"Call me Finn" he twisted his face into a scowl, clearly displeased with the use of his full name.
Just then, students began filing out of their respective classrooms after being dismissed by their teachers, and amidst the crowd, I spotted Lauren walking in my direction. Finnegan took it as his cue to make his departure after giving me a halfhearted nod of thanks.
"We'll continue this tour another time then Ms Holden!" he turned and shouted over the crowd, smirking as he saw me growing annoyed with the extra eyes turned in our direction, no doubt sparking the local rumour mill.
"Well hello to you too, stranger" drawled Lauren as she leaned against the locker beside my own.
"I could almost say the same" I deadpanned, upset by the absence of my best friends.
"What are you talking about?"
"You disappeared for a week and told nobody about it!" I yelled, harshly slamming my locker shut, the sound of the metal upon metal collision ringing throughout the cluttered hallway.
"That may be true this time, seeing as I was indeed absent, but how would you know when you yourself were home all week?" she countered. "Besides, I did tell you guys. I texted both you and Breanna stating that I had to go to the Caribbean for a family funeral. I didn't know the guy though, so it wasn't half bad"
"Oh"
"Breanna knew. If you'd read your messages you would too" she stated while crossing her arms, "Anyways, I received a really weird video from one of those nerdy kids that Breanna can't stand"
"Higgins" I added
"Yeah him" she stated absentmindedly, "What's up with that Georgia? It isn't like you or Mr Lachey." Lauren had gone off on her 'mother hen' mode, and I that knew she was genuinely worried about me.
"It's no big deal, really. We just settled it in the Headmaster's office actually."
"That serious huh?" I shrugged my shoulders in response and watched as her eyebrows furrowed in thought. "Wait, why were you absent so long in the first place?"
My eyes fell to the floor with the realization the she hadn't heard about the breakup while she was in the Caribbean, and my shoulders sagged with the thought of having to explain to her the situation. "It's okay honeybee, your mom called" she whispered and pulled me in for a hug.
"She was really worried about you G, I was too" her eyes softened as she waited. I suppose she was waiting for me to break, but I had used up all my tears during the past week, and I was not planning on shedding any more.
"Did you just call me honeybee?" I added with a weak smile to diffuse the tension.
"Whatever punk, let's just get this assembly thing over with. I'm starved."
****
The auditorium was swamped with already seated students by the time Lauren and I arrived. We sat to the very back of the hall, sandwiched between underclassmen that were sitting too close for comfort. Glancing around the space, I spotted a familiar mop of almost honey coloured hair that was sat between his best friend and the owner of an undeniably flat, brown head of hair.
I was thankful for the distraction as the Headmaster introduced himself from up on stage. The covered balcony overhead was home to the staff of Radford Preparatory, all dressed in relatively formal attire, waiting for the Headmaster to continue.
I scoffed at the formality of the entire event, knowing fully well that the impromptu assembly was dedicated to no other than Finnegan, or Finn, as he so kindly ordered me to call him.
"... My son will be training alongside your teachers. He will be somewhat of a teacher's aid per se, as he learns the business from the ground up, before he can take over as Headmaster in the future" Mr Radford's authoritative voice echoed through the speakers, however it didn't stop me from zoning out and focusing on Finn, who sat precariously too upright to be comfortable, a little way behind his father.
I could see the curiosity among friends as they subtly turned their heads to whisper to their neighbours, Lauren even elbowed me the moment Finn took to the microphone to make his feature address, and I knew from then on, that Finn's presence was going to be very distracting to my female classmates.
The assembly was thankfully shorter than I had initially expected. By the time it was over, Lauren and I were practically doubling over from hunger. We managed to rush out of the auditorium before the crowd due to our seating near to the exits, however on our way to the cafeteria, Mr Lachey stopped us, or particularly me.
"Hey Georgia, I was thinking, maybe if you hand in that assignment tomorrow I'll be able to grade it and submit it alongside your final mark. I really do feel horrible for causing you any unnecessary inconvenience."
"Woah thank you Mr Lachey. I'll hand it in first thing tomorrow"
"Hey what was the reason you blew up on her in the first place?" Lauren interjected quite rudely and I shot her a look telling her to drop it.
"I found out that that-" he gestured with his chin "- kid was taking the job I had my eye on" I followed Mr Lachey's line of sight and watched as Finn proceeded to no doubt impress members of the faculty with his expensive suit and false professionalism, "Guess I didn't take it too well. Sorry about that, again" he said sheepishly.
"Promise me one thing. You'll make his life here a living hell" I smirked, remembering how coldly he had treated me at the stadium, how he insisted that Mr Lachey and I suffer some sort of punishment for our incident, and how he had embarrassed me in the hall.
"Oh you can count on that" he smirked, with a devilish gleam in his eyes.
****
Author's Note:
Hello everybody! A massive sorry for the three-month wait, however, I GRADUATED ! :D
Chapter Seven will be posted quite soon as a declaration of my apology, because you actually remembered the last five chapters and continued reading this and that's all I can ask for, so thank you :)
This is dedicated to anonlyss because she's quite lovely and so are her works. she's also one of the first persons i actually spoke to on here x
Also, the next chapter will be dedicated to someone who has been voting and commenting throughout the past chapters and I do have a list of you guys so be sure to keep checking for your dedication.
Feel free to vote and comment if you've enjoyed this chapter.
Much love x