Chapter 241

“He’s been gone for a while,” I said. I sat on the edge of the bed. I couldn’t keep from tapping one foot.

Chase was typing away at the computer. He was almost finished with his article. In another couple of days, it would be published.

“It’s only been an hour. Patience is a virtue,” Chase said.

“I can’t have patience with him out there alone. What if something happens to him?”

“Don’t tell him I said this, but my brother is a smart man with a lot to come home to. I can guarantee he is not out purposefully endangering himself. In fact, I’d be surprised if –”

A key jiggled in the lock on the door. I hopped to my feet.

“Ah. Speak of the devil,” Chase said.

My anxiety only lessened when I placed my eyes on Asher’s physical form.

He came in through the door, closed it behind him, and then approached me.

“Everything okay, little bro?” Chase asked from the desk chair.

Asher wrapped his arms around me and exhaled. “Better now.”

“Asher?” I whispered.

“Just give me a moment,” he said back, softly. “I want to stay like this for a minute more.”

I held him back. “Recharging the batteries?”

His mouth twitched against my neck, an almost smile. “Something like that.”

Two days later, Chase’s exposé was published in the paper. Ten minutes after 9am, I received an email from the Academy’s administration office requesting a meeting for that afternoon.

“They can’t have made a decision so quickly,” I said. I stared at my phone in shock.

“Don’t be so sure,” Asher said. He stood behind me, peering over my shoulder. “They’ll want to tackle any bad publicity right away, and being purposefully prejudice against a pregnant student is really bad publicity.”

“I hope so.” I wasn’t too keen on going back into the administration building. The last time I was inside had been to see the Vice President, who had then tried to kill me.

While I didn’t think the administration now would want to end my life as he had tried to, I was still nervous returning inside the building and reliving that experience.

“I’ll stay with you,” Asher said. Maybe he felt my stress through the bond? Or perhaps he just saw it on my face. I was never very good at hiding my emotions, especially from him. “I’ll go where you go. You won’t be alone.”

“Thank you,” I said. I found comfort in his assurances, but things were still a bit tense between us. He seemed to be leaving me alone more and more often for long periods of time. And when I asked where he’d gone, he never gave me a straight answer.

Plus, he hadn’t been sleeping. He paced the room a lot, and seemed jumpier than before. He would never tell me what was wrong.

I didn’t suspect him of anything nefarious, but he clearly carried burdens he didn’t want to share. I understood. My doctor’s orders was no to overstress me, but it seemed unfair for him to harbor everything alone.

Therefore, I decided to keep my love confession to myself for now. I didn’t want to add to his burden. I only hoped it would break soon and he would return to being my solid rock, my anchor from the storm.

The problem was, I wanted to be his anchor too. Right now, I felt helpless.

We walked over to the administration building around noon. Asher was extra anxious, constantly looking around. I understood his concern. The last time we’d been here, someone had thrown a bottle at me, and Nicole had needed stitches.

Yet despite his diligence, or perhaps because of it, we arrived safely in time for my meeting.

Inside, we were led to an elevator and then taken to a meeting room on the third floor. A table in the center of the room was already occupied by ten separate administration members. Only one chair at the end of the table was left empty.

A woman at the head of the table gestured to the seat. “Please sit, Cynthia. Asher, I apologize but we had not anticipated your… accompaniment. We should have, at this point.”

“I prefer standing,” Asher said.

I lowered myself into the offered chair and Asher took point behind me.

The woman at the head of the table held her hands together on top of the table. She was wearing a crisp business suit with her hair up in a bun. Others at the table looked at me curiously, but they all deferred to her.

“You must know why we asked you to join us today.” She spoke with professionalism, a no non-sense kind of tone.

I appreciated her straightforwardness. The Vice President had liked to play games. This woman seemed not to.

“Yes,” I said. “This is about my transfer exam.”

“It is.”

A man on the woman’s left leaned in to speak with her. I caught none of what he was saying, other than when he addressed her as “Ms. President.”

My breath caught. This woman was the president of the Academy?

I was suddenly much more nervous than before. I hadn’t suspected that my issue would make it the whole way to the top. Perhaps I should have. Chase’s article had been damning.

The President shook her head at the man whispering to her and straightened.

“I’ll come straight to the point, Cynthia,” she said. “Between the petitions we received and now this… article in the paper, the circumstances of your exam have been investigated. It seems the discrepancy came down to the final question.”

“I’m aware that I didn’t answer quite how the Academy would have liked me to,” I said. “But I would have thought such a prestigious school would value individuality over an answer that panders to the potential test scorers.”

It was ballsy to be so blasé to the President herself, but after everything I’d gone through, I was at wit’s end. What more could they take from me?

Some of the people at the table openly glared at me. Asher started to growl.

The President rubbed her temples. “None of that, please. From any of you.”

Those that had been glaring looked down in shame. Asher quieted himself, slower.

Only when it was quiet, the President continued.

“We at the Academy pride ourselves on our elitism. We don’t simply allow mediocrity in our ranks.”

I swallowed hard, a feeling of failure rising in my chest. Bu she wasn’t done.

“However, you, Cynthia, are anything but mediocre. Your story and your spirit has captured the hearts and minds of not only a large portion of our students, but also many of those in the community and beyond. This morning alone, we have fielded many phone calls reprimanding us for what happened.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I reached my hand onto my own shoulder, asking Asher for comfort. I found it when he placed his hand over mine.

“Due primarily from your ability to rally people to your cause, we have decided to make a rare exception and revisit your exam. With careful consideration, we have reached a near-unanimous decision to compromise.”

“Compromise?” I asked, when she fell silent a moment.

She looked at those to her left and right. One after the next, they all slowly nodded at her.

“Yes,” she said. “We have decided to remove the grade for that final literature question. With this adjustment, your score has raised high enough for you to pass the transfer exam.”

Asher squeezed my hand. I realized I wasn’t breathing and forced a sharp breath.

“Congratulations, Cynthia,” the President said. She offered a small smile. “You are the first athletics-based student to pass this exam.”