I'm In Trouble

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Thank you and I hope you're enjoying Chapter Eight of My Second Chance!

"We can't give an inch here," she says to me, five minutes into the conversation and long after the point where she told me just how disappointed in me she really is, "The rules are the rules."

"All I can do is ask for mercy, I guess," I plead, looking at her with my best approximation of puppy dog eyes and then turning them on boy-Kim afterwards in a **** last ditch try at mercy.

The group sat off to one side pointedly pretending not to listen as girl-Kim gave me a dressing down. She went on and on about timeliness and responsibility and generally lectured me in a manner that made me think far more about a parent than a half-invested frosh week supervisor, but I didn't say a word about that.

Instead I withstood it. I smiled and I nodded and I agreed with everything she said out of some hope that throwing myself on the sword might grant me the mercy of some medical attention after she was through with running me through.

"Kim," boy-Kim starts, attempting for probably the fifth time to interject into the conversation only for her to run all over him once again.

"And it's about our responsibility," she goes on, making the point that she's already made four times before, "We needed you on the bus. We're supposed to keep an eye on you. What if something bad happened in the cab? What if something had happened to you?"

I blink three times, pointedly not addressing the fact that I'm a grown adult who is technically responsible for myself and also not pointing out that cabs were a perfectly reasonably and in fact common form of transportation.

I take a deep breath. I prepare myself. I try to put this all to bed.

"I appreciate that," I say instead, nodding, "And I see your point. Really, I do. Ideally I would have been on time and the whole thing could have been avoided. Believe me, I would have appreciated not having to pay out of pocket for the trip down here.

"And I do know that I've technically broken the rules and it wouldn't be great for me to... Look, I know that I should have been there, but I'm here now. Don't I get some credit for that? I want to be here. I want to learn. I want to... to be..."

"To be able to avoid punishment," she finishes for me, rolling her eyes.

"To be a part of the group," I correct her gently, "I want to show I've got team spirit."

"School spirit," she narrows her eyes.

I don't roll mine in return, which I think is really a real growth moment for me.

"Emily," she says, just as I try to say 'Kim' only for both of us to be completely overridden by boy-Kim getting loud enough to make us both fall silent.

"Enough!" he puts his foot down, loudly, making me turn and look at him and for the first time actually notice the guy.

boy-Kim might have been the stereotypical representation of blonde atheletic co-ed, but he did tend to fade into the background a bit. It was easy enough to paint over him with a broad brush of ineffectuality and dismiss him accordingly, reducing him to little more than the school slogan and a bland smile. But he wasn't doing that now.

"I'm in charge today," he says to girl-Kim, "I'm the one doing the tour. That means the decision lies with me and I say that she's fine. And I won't hear any protests about it."

She goes to protest but he doesn't give her the chance. I go to thank him but he talks over me anyways.

"Emily, we're not going to report you, but this is your one and only chance. If you're late again, if you miss something, then no excuse in the world will get you out of trouble. I'm not happy about doing this but I'm doing it anyways because every moment we spend here arguing is one where we're missing time on the agenda, and we've wasted enough time already."

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