Chapter 4

Holden

       I was glad I was out of the hospital because I had spent way too many days in there, and it was starting to get boring.

       The only downside about being out of the hospital was having to go back to school. I had to do a lot of work to catch up before the semester ended and it did take a lot of work but in the end, I was all caught up.

       And I surprisingly didn't fail any of my classes.

       I may have gotten exactly fifty percent in my biology class and I should have actually failed that class, but Julian and Noah were a complete pain to him albeit not being in his class, so he probably passed me to get rid of any Eaton in his class.

       Now it was time for the second semester and I was looking forward to it only because I was so much closer to being done with school. However, I wasn't looking forward to going to school at all.

       At least I would finally have a friend at school with Jane being there.

       Since it was Jane's first day of school, I went over to her house to pick her up so we could walk there together. Shortly after I knocked on her door, an elderly woman, her grandmother, answered the door. "Hi," I said. "Is Jane here? I promised I'd walk her to school."

       "She is," Jane's grandmother said. "I'll get her."

       And by getting her, she meant slightly closing the door before yelling for Jane to come to the door. 

       She then opened the door again to look at me. "I don't believe I've seen you around the village before," she said. "I'm Avril."

       "I'm Holden," I said. "Holden Eaton."

       "Eaton," Avril repeated. "Are you by chance related to Calvin?"

       "Yeah, I'm his cousin," I said, finding it quite amusing that every single person in the village knew who my cousin was. He definitely knew how to make himself known around here. Then again, it helped that he was married to the mayor's grandson.

       "Are you new to the village?" Avril asked.

       "Kind of," I said. "My family moved here about five years ago, but I was in boarding school until a few months ago. That's how I know Jane. We went to the same boarding school."

       "Oh, interesting," Avril said as Jane walked over to the front door. "Jane, you never told me you were friends with this fine, young gentleman. Such a thoughtful person to pick you up and walk you to school. Tell me, is he single?"

       "No, he's not, Grandma," Jane said. "And I already dated Holden. I'm not going back there."

       "Ouch," I said, though I couldn't help but have a smile on my face since I knew exactly what Jane meant by that.

       "Now Jane, don't be rude to him," Avril said.

       Jane rolled her eyes and walked outside. "Bye, Grandma."

       "Have fun at school!" Avril said before closing the door.

       "I like her," I said. "And I was very insulted you said you would never date me again."

       "Yes, be insulted that I would not want to date my gay ex-boyfriend," Jane said. "Makes a lot of sense."

       I just shrugged and we started walking to the school. When we got there, Jane pulled her schedule out so I could show her where her classes were. 

       "My first class is English with Mr. Aniston," Jane said.

       "Hey, that's my class too," I said. It was a good thing Jane was going to be sharing that class with me because I bet I was going to either forget everything, or fail anyway no matter how hard I tried.

       It would be nice having some help from someone in the class.

       We first went to the office so Jane could get her locker number and combination. Afterwards, we went to her locker so she could drop off the school supplies she wouldn't need until after lunch.

       We still had a bit of time left, so Jane showed me the rest of the schedule so I could show her where the classes were.

       Though I ended up getting lost in the school.

       "Are you sure you know where the classes are?" Jane asked.

       I sighed. "Yeah, sorry. My mind's all over the place."

       "Well, then don't worry about showing me where my classes are," Jane said. "I'm sure I'll find them. I don't want you putting stress on yourself after your injury."

       I smiled. "Thanks. I guess we'll just look for our English class then."

       We, thankfully, found our English class not too long before the bell rang. Some people were already in the classroom, so we decided to go in there as well to pick out our seats. I liked sitting in the back so if I couldn't concentrate properly, which was most of the time, it would be easier to nap without all eyes being on me, or the teacher noticing right away.

       The first bell rang and the students began to pile in, but there wasn't a teacher here yet. The teacher ended up showing up right as the tardy bell rang and when he did, I felt like sinking in my seat. This was officially my least favourite class, and I hadn't even been to every other class.

       He welcomed everyone to the class before he started taking attendance. He stopped right before a name and I assumed it was mine. He then cleared his throat before saying, "Holden?"

       "Here," I said. He looked over at me before going back to the attendance.

       Jane looked at me. "What was that about?" she asked in a quiet voice.

       I sighed. "That's Shaw's ex-boyfriend, Jordan. Let's just say he wasn't so happy when he found out Shaw was dating someone who's still in high school."

       This was going to be such a great class.

       The school day got even worse because at lunch, I was suddenly called down to the principal's office for whatever reason. I already promised Jane we would hang out for lunch, so I sent her a quick text to tell her that I would be a bit late.

       I then headed to the principal's office and once I walked inside, I almost groaned out loud. The principal, Mr. Griffith, was already there sitting at his desk. And sitting in one of the two chairs across from the desk was none other than my father.

       "Holden, perfect timing," Mr. Griffith said, gesturing for me to sit down. I hesitated before walking over and sitting in the chair beside my dad. 

       "Will this be long?" I asked. "Because I promised I'd meet my friend for lunch since it's her first day here."

       "Don't worry, it won't be," Mr. Griffith said. "It will be five minutes, tops. This is your last semester of high school, Holden, and you were close to failing all your classes."

       "How close?" Dad asked.

       "Well, the highest mark he got was fifty-six percent," Mr. Griffith said. "And the lowest was fifty."

       "Fifty?" Dad asked. "Fifty?! Are you serious, Holden? You could have failed that class!"

       "Yes, Dad, I'm completely aware of that," I said. "It's not my fault, you know that."

       "You're right," Dad said. "It's Shaw's."

       Of course Dad would blame my low grades on Shaw, and not the fact that tests were basically memory-based. If anything, it was my short-term memory's fault. I wasn't good at retaining any kind of information.

       "Let's not point fingers here," Mr. Griffith said. "I just wanted you to be aware of your son's grade and make sure he hands in all his assignments on time. And, if you want, I can set up tutoring for him."

       "I don't need tutoring," I said. "It's not going to help anyway, so there's no point."

       "Tutoring does help," Dad said.

       "It's not happening," I said. "If I ever need help with my assignments, I'll get Josh to help. Getting a tutor will be just a huge waste of money."

       "I'll talk to my son about this later," Dad said to Mr. Griffith. "We'll sort things out."

       I looked away from my dad, trying my best not to roll my eyes. I was not going to enjoy us talking things out because it would mostly include blaming Shaw.

       "Alright," Mr. Griffith said. "Again, if you ever decide for him to get a tutor, I'll sort set one up for him. You can leave now."

       Dad thanked Mr. Griffith before I got up and left the office. Dad followed me out, calling my name. "Don't think we're done with this," Dad said. "Almost failing your classes? Really?"

       "It's my memory," I said. "I can't remember anything when it comes to exams, so getting a tutor will be pointless. I'm not going to university after I graduate anyway, so all I have to do is pass the classes and that will be good enough."

       "No, it won't be good enough," Dad said. "You need to move back home. Living with your temporary boyfriend isn't going to do your education any good?"

       "Temporary?" I repeated. 

       "Yes, temporary," Dad said. "You really think things will last between you and Shaw? He's twenty-four with three kids. He's a recovering addict. He causes a lot of damage and it's only going to drag you down even further in the gutter."

       "I don't have time for this yet again," I said. "No, I'm not going to move back home where I'll be confined in my bedroom and not allowed to leave anywhere. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go meet up with Jane so save your criticism for someone else."

       I walked away, now in an even worse mood than I was before. Dad didn't go a single day without criticizing me whenever he saw me and I was getting really annoyed. If he really didn't want me and Shaw together, he should just ignore it.

       The rest of the school day was even worse because I couldn't concentrate on a single thing, both because my memory was starting to fail and because I was in a bad mood. I couldn't wait until I was done with high school.

       When school ended, I walked Jane home before heading to my house. I walked inside, taking off my shoes and jacket, dropping them as well as my bag on the floor before walking over to the living room and flopping on the couch.

       "How was your day?" Shaw asked from the kitchen as he was making something at the stove.

       "Horrible," I said. "I'm so tempted to drop out since I'm not going to university anyway, but I also want to prove my annoying dad wrong."

       "Uh oh, your dad was involved with something?" Shaw asked. "What happened?"

       I told Shaw about the meeting with the principal, and then my and my dad's conversation afterwards. 

       "Of course he still has no doubt in us," Shaw said. "I don't think he ever will."

       "Yeah, same here," I said. "You know the worst part of the day? Well, second worst part since anything that involves with my dad will be first. Guess who my English teacher is?"

       Shaw immediately knew who I was talking about. "You've got to be kidding me. Really?"

       "Yeah, really," I said. "So that class is forever going to be awkward."

       "Hey, it could have been worse," Shaw said.

       "How could it possibly get worse?" I asked.

       Shaw didn't answer for a bit before saying, "Yeah, you're right. It's pretty bad."

       I groaned and grabbed one of the pillows on the couch before shoving my face in it. "I'm quitting everything. I'm never going back."

       "Alright, drama king," Shaw said. "Why don't you come over to the kitchen and help me prepare this stew? Castiel's sick so I'm going to bring this over when it's finished. If you want you could come. I know seeing you would make you feel better."

       "And seeing him would make me feel better so it will be a win-win."

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woo drama. can't wait for my baby calvin to show up and either make things worse or watch the drama while eating popcorn. it will most likely be the latter since he doesn't really cause drama. he just observes it.

i'm loving this book so far. IT'S GOING TO GET EVEN MORE DRAMA FILLED AND I CAN'T WAIT WOOOOOOO.