Page 124 of Always: A Legacy Novel

The principal snapped straight in her chair. “I beg your pardon?”

“I didn’t stutter.”

Catherine’s mother put a hand to her husband’s shoulder. “Relax, bello.”

More than ever before, Catherine really wished she could hide away from the rest of the world until her biggest screw up yet went away forever.

She would not be so lucky.

Her mother was calm.

Her father was pissed.

The school was … well, two short steps away from kicking her out for the last month and a half of classes, refusing to allow her to take her final exams when they came up, which would effectively hold her back a grade. A full grade, unless she could somehow manage to make up for every single credit she would lose in the span of two years until she graduated. Which was very unlikely. The incident would go on her record, which would effectively screw her chances at getting into a school of her choice because of the very nature of the issue.

This was bad.

All over, entirely, completely bad.

Catherine hadn’t thought of anything when the school called her into the office on Monday morning, and let her know her parents had been called. She didn’t think it was anything too serious until a shot of her and Cross in the hallway started to play, and there was suddenly not enough space in the office for her to sink away in and die.

“Here’s the thing,” Dante said, his tone reverting back to a calmer state, “you’re not going to do anything all to my daughter about this because you can’t. You can try, but I’m going to make it very hard for you to follow through on anything you attempt. See, write her up for the little hallway thing because fuck us all if two teenagers who’ve been dating for almost six months dare to kiss where someone can see them. But fuck you and your administration if you think for one second I’m going to let you write up anything from outside this building. That video shows nothing, and you will not use an assumption to punish my daughter in such a way that could ruin her education for many years beyond this one.”

“Mr.—”

“Try me,” her father interjected coolly. “And watch how fast I can work.”

Catrina glanced over to Catherine, and nodded toward the office doors. Catherine took her mother’s unspoken demand and ran with it, literally bolting out of her chair and from the office before someone could tell her differently. Cross and his parents happened to be in the outside reception area, likely waiting for their turn in the office. She didn’t stop walking until she was out of the damn school and hidden in the backseat of her father’s SUV.

Catherine wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but eventually her mother slipped into the front passenger seat while her father leaned against the driver’s side. He stayed outside the vehicle for long enough that Catherine was starting to get worried, but he eventually jumped in the driver’s seat. His gaze darted to her in the rearview, and he reached for the ignition, but stopped at the last second.

“Catherine.”

“Yeah?” she asked.

“Do you realize how incredibly stupid—”

She flinched.

Her mother stepped in. “Absolutely not.”

Her father stared at her mother, a silent sort of war waged between the two before he spat out, “It’s not okay, Catrina. Not that it happened, not that is probably has been happening, none of it. It’s not okay.”

“She’s sixteen. This is what teenagers do, Dante. It’s normal for them to experiment and these things happen, even if it is stupid. Telling her not to have sex, or giving her an abstinence-only speech will hurt her in the long run, just like whatever you’re thinking about saying in your head right now would do. Don’t you understand that? This is normal. It’s how they become healthy, sexual—”

“That’s quite enough, Cat.”

“Dante, come on.”

“It’s not normal to be caught having sex in a car, when you’re supposed to be in classes, Catrina.”

“I didn’t say that was okay. I said sex is normal. You’re going to pretend as though you didn’t have sex at her age? And hold up before you do because I’d like to ask if it was even with someone you were in a relationship with because she is. I know exactly how you were as a teenager, so please don’t lie to me. I’ve got the rundown to throw back at you.”

Dante’s jaw tightened before he said, “You knew about her and him, I suspect.”

Catherine’s mother looked away. “Dante, she’s been on birth control for years.”

“What?”