Chapter 34
Hawthorne Hill High School
Bridgewater, MA
“Why?” Reed finally asked, truly at a loss for words as he rubbed his hands down his face, wondering how they got to this point.
“That’s what I’d like to know,” came the answer, followed by a long-suffering sigh that had him dropping his hands away so that he could glare at the teenage girl who was put on this earth to make his life a living hell as she searched through his candy bowl.
Never taking his eyes off the reason why half the teachers at the school drank, Reed reached down, opened the bottom desk drawer, grabbed the Ziploc bag filled with individually wrapped chocolate fudge brownies that were labeled, “Jen’s ‘Special’ Brownies,” and tossed them on the desk.
“What’s this?” Jen asked, selecting a chocolate kiss as she sent the bag of brownies a curious look.
“If I had to guess, I’d say the reason why Mrs. Hanson thought that she was invisible,” Reed drawled, watching as Jen’s lips twitched before she managed to bite it back.
“And probably the same reason why Mr. Jorgenson thought his sandwich was out to get him,” she said with a heartfelt sigh.
“Probably,” Reed murmured in agreement as he leaned back in his chair while he considered her. “But you know what I couldn’t help but notice?”
“What’s that?” Jen asked, tossing the chocolate kiss back in the candy bowl and focused on the brownies.
“That those brownies look a lot like the ones that my wife made last night,” Reed said with a pointed look at the brownies in question.
“I thought so, too, but I didn’t want to say anything just in case it brought back painful memories,” Jen said with a sad shake of her head as she helped herself to a brownie.
“And what painful memories would those be?” Reed drawled, wondering what the hell he was going to do with her since detention, suspension, and the threat of expulsion never seemed to work.
He’d hoped that a stint in summer school would help, but all it did was end with an emergency evacuation, two teachers quitting, and a new schoolwide policy on wildlife.
Since she’d moved in with her uncle last June, she hadn’t missed any school, but that probably had something to do with the fact that Aaron drove her to school every day and walked her to homeroom, where he waited by the door until first bell, sipping his coffee while he waited for her to try and pull her usual bullshit.
Her grades were better, mostly because she’d taken it upon herself to drop by his house every day after school to piss Matt off. Since that worked for him, he allowed it. That, and his incredibly beautiful wife decided to take the little pain in the ass under her wing. She-
“Last night, when your brother made you cry,” Jen whispered with a pitying look that had his eyes narrowing.
“First off,” Reed said, “he didn’t make me cry. He pissed me off enough to put him in a chokehold and take him to the ground until the little bastard threatened to tell our mother.”
“Because he made you cry,” Jen said, taking a bite of her brownie as she released a heartfelt sigh. “There’s no shame in crying.”
“And there’s no shame in admitting that you waited until everyone was distracted before you swiped the brownies that Joey made so that you could screw with the student body for your own entertainment,” Reed said as he reached over and plucked the brownie out of her hand and finished it off in one bite while he waited to see how she was going to talk her way out of this one.
“I didn’t have a choice,” Jen said, releasing a shaky breath as she reached into the Ziplock bag and grabbed another brownie. “Not if I wanted to get into Harvard,” she added with a helpless shrug.
“Jesus Christ,” Reed muttered as he once again found himself rubbing his hands roughly down his face. “Harvard?”
Nodding, Jen said, “They’d be lucky to have me.”
“You have a 2.5 GPA and your permanent record has its own drawer in my filing cabinet,” Reed pointed out as he dropped his hands away.
“Which is why I had no choice but to take matters into my own hands,” Jen said with a helpless shrug.
“By making everyone believe that your brownies were ‘Magical’ and charging them twenty bucks?” Reed asked as he helped himself to another brownie.
“First off, the brownies are magical. Your wife’s an amazing cook,” Jen said, and since he couldn’t argue that, he didn’t. “Secondly, supply and demand dictates that I had to sell them for twenty dollars each when my only competition was the slop they serve in the cafeteria.”
“I feel like there’s another part,” Reed drawled, unwrapping the brownie and finished it off in one bite.
Nodding, Jen said, “You would be correct.”
“And I can’t wait to hear it,” Reed said, helping himself to another brownie.
“Well, do you remember that time when we talked about my plans to attend Harvard?” Jen asked, returning her attention to the candy bowl.
“Considering you broke the news to me only a few minutes ago, yes, I seem to recall that deeply disturbing conversation,” Reed drawled, gesturing for her to get on with it.
Nodding, Jen said, “Then, you understand that I was left with no choice, not with the cost of living in Boston these days.”
“And the reason you convinced half the football team that you were selling edibles?”
“That might have been for my own entertainment,” Jen said, clearing her throat before adding, “but in my defense, I didn’t know that they were going to leave the brownies in the teacher’s lounge.”
“And if you had…” Reed said, letting his words trail off.
“I probably would have rethought my marketing strategy,” Jen said, only to follow that up with a heartfelt sigh. “But I feel like this should only go to help with my application to Harvard.”
“And how’s that?” Reed asked as his gaze darted past the teenage girl who was about to spend a month in detention to the stack of paperwork he had to finish tonight, thanks to her latest stunt.
“I proved without a doubt that the placebo effect works,” Jen said as he finished off the brownie and grabbed another one.
“You did, didn’t you?” Reed murmured absently as he glanced at the clock
“Which is why I believe my list of demands are more than reasonable,” Jen said with a heartfelt sigh as she pulled a crumbled piece of paper out of her pocket and held it out to him.
“I see,” Reed murmured, accepting it.
“My lawyer suggested that it would be in my best interest to write them down,” Jen said as Reed took his time smoothing what appeared to be the back of a detention slip.
“Your lawyer?” Reed said, following her gaze as she glanced towards her right at the window overlooking the front office and lobby and found himself wondering what his cousin was doing here. Reed reached over and hit the call button for the front desk.
“What can I help you with, Principal Bradford?”
“Could you ask Mr. Bradford to join us, please?” Reed said, shifting his gaze back to the little delinquent.
“Just a moment,” Janine said as Reed shifted his attention to the list of demands and-
“You want immunity for all your past transgressions?” Reed asked, feeling his lips twitch as he glanced up to find Jen nodding solemnly.
“And a permanent late pass,” Reed said as he read over the rest of her demands.
“So that I’m not forced to rush my social experiments.”
“Social experiments?” Reed asked, tossing the list on his desk as he sat back while he debated his options.
“For Harvard,” Jen said with a helpless shrug and a long-suffering sigh as though she really didn’t have a choice in the matter.
“I see,” Reed murmured absently as he watched his cousin, Garrett, walk into his office and sat down in the chair next to the little delinquent.
For a moment, neither one of them spoke as they slowly narrowed their eyes on one another until finally, Reed said, “One month detention, a fifteen-page paper on the placebo effect, and she cleans the damage Mr. Jorgenson did to the teacher’s lounge in his attempt to protect himself from his sandwich. ”
“Is that your best offer?” Garrett drawled as he reached over and helped himself to a brownie while Jen sat there, folding her arms over her chest as she sent him a smug look that was just fucking sad at this point.
“One and a half months of detention, a twenty-page paper on the placebo effect, she cleans the damage that Mr. Jorgenson did to the teacher’s lounge, and she joins the track team to keep her out of trouble,” Reed said, watching as Jen’s smug expression turned confused and-
“Deal,” Garrett said, taking a bite of his brownie while Reed watched Jen’s expression turn horrified.
“What do you mean ‘Deal’?” Jen demanded on a gasp of outrage.
“And if she doesn’t get back to class in the next five minutes, I’ll call Joey,” Reed said, watching as the realization of what that meant seconds before Jen released a strangled curse as she grabbed her bag and quickly made her way to the door, the threat of calling his wife apparently enough to get her to move her ass.
Not that he could blame her, Reed thought as he glanced back at his cousin and-
“I need a favor.”