Archie returned to school despite his mother's protest. He wanted to make sure that he got his papers and graduated when he was supposed to so as not to give Ryder any leverage. He was warming up to Bailey who was beginning to get frustrated so he kept staring at her and waiting to see how long she would stay without breaking.He promised to tell her the next week and was prepared for her to break down and tell him that he was cruel then he would take time to explain what he wanted to achieve. He knew that she was going to pass the test but as a business person, he still needed to test her. "Do you still remember how to solve this assignment?" Bailey asked him quietly when she saw that he was staring at the board in confusion. "No, I don't." He replied sincerely. He had lost touch with his calculative side and he made a mental note to visit the doctor later today. He needed to be well. He didn't want this memory loss to become true. He stared at her tiredly and she began to teach h

The students were seated in the classroom, waiting almost impatiently for the teacher to come in. Geometry was a required subject for them and they were anxious about the test that they had written in the previous class. "Good morning class," Mr. Lexington said as he walked into the class. The anxiety levels in the classroom seemed to rise exponentially and they all murmured their greetings in response. "Fucking finally," someone muttered at the back of the class but thankfully for them, Lexington did not hear. "Well it seems you are dull today," the man said sarcastically in his exaggerated British accent. "I have your tests," he said and a wave of murmurs fell over the room. Lexington was a teacher that students could typically walk over, just like in those high school movies because he was nice. But he had a strict side to him and he did not joke with grades. The students knew this so as much as possible, they kept their mischief from him. Geometry was important. He started di

Miss Rose walked into the principal's office without knocking. She silently stood in the space across from the principal's seat and crossed her arms, glaring at him. "What do you want?" He asked, letting out a sigh. "You can't just suspend the students," she said, shaking her head and letting herself into one of the two seats across from him. "What do you mean? They are guilty. They were bullying a fellow student. That warrants suspension," the principal said, glancing at her once and then going back to what he had been writing before she came in. "You're supposed to follow the nude process whether they're guilty or not. Their parents are supposed to be brought in so they know what their children are involved in," she said and paused. "Archie's father needs to know too. He needs to know what is happening to his son," she said, pressing her lips together. "Archie's father must not hear of this," the principal said, aggressively dropping his pen on the table and glaring at her. "Why n

"But wait, " Bailey said again after they had left the building and had been walking for a while, "who exactly is he? What's your business with him? " she had tried to just ignore it and take it out of her mind but that proved to be extremely difficult, perhaps because of how the man had spoken to her as if she did not know the man she was walking with, as if she did not know Archie. And perhaps that is what she was really afraid of, she dreaded she thought of such a thing that one day she would find out that everything she knew or thought she knew about Archie, that everything about him which she thought to be true was nothing but a huge lie, if that day ever came she was not sure she would be able to live with herself. "I told you not to worry about it, " Archie said again, but would not let it rest, and his hesitation to tell her did not make her feel any less worried or concerned, on the contrary it made her want to know what happened even more so she continued pestering him. "

Ryder, River and Meg sat together in the living room staring at their father with unreadable expressions on their faces. "What did you just say?" Ryder asked in a quiet voice. This was his worst nightmare coming through. It was his father saying the very worst thing he had imagined. In fact, he had not even imagined this. In all of his bad thoughts, he had not imagined that his father would do this. "You heard me the first time, Ryder," his father, Marshall said, eyeing him carefully. "Well we need you to say it again so we know we did not hear wrong," River said. Meg hit him in the side so he would not speak to their father in that tone. He was already making a bunch of rash decisions and she did not want him to make worse ones just because he did not like the tone with which River spoke to him. "Archie will be taking over as the CEO and head of the Consortium," he repeated the words that had been a bombshell to the three of them earlier. Even though they had heard it before, it st