Chapter 42 Flora
Flora
Stomach pain and the distinct feeling of being weighed down accompanied my every step. My meeting with Professor McCreevy had lasted all of two minutes. After the advanced statistics lecture had finished, he and I sat down and discussed my most recent grades.
“I’ll be honest, Miss Hewitt, I don’t recall you having any failing grades, but when I looked at your student portfolio in the system, it seems your last paper was marked as an F.”
My stomach dropped, and I shook my head, perched on the edge of my seat. “I don’t understand. I did well on that paper! I got a ninety-seven. I took a picture.”
He looked through his laptop for a moment, humming to himself. “I can always go back and manually check. Actually, I’ll have to, because once a student is put on academic probation, we have to triple-check their grades. I must say, I was shocked when I got the email about it.”
I forced myself to remain calm, sucking in a breath as my eyes burned. “As was I. I just want to figure out what’s going on. I feel like I would know if I was flunking all my classes.”
“Well, for now, I’ll give you a make-up assignment, if you’re okay with that?”
Sure, it was a lot more work, but if it would help claw me out of the hole I was apparently in, I would do it with a smile on my face.
If this had happened when I was living in my old apartment, I would have probably had a complete meltdown.
Looking after myself while getting a bunch of extra work done would have been nearly impossible.
But I knew my guys would back me up and support me. So I nodded.
It was kind of nice, in a fucked-up way.
Ugh, I need a snack.
Peeling off to the right, I headed toward the vending machine. Sure enough, Spencer was on my tail, hurrying to catch up as I beelined for the beacon of carbonated wonder and salty goodness.
“How’d it go?” Spencer came up alongside me, leaning against the soda machine.
“About as well as expected. I just don’t understand what’s going on.” I looked from him to the bags of chips in the vending machine. “And I need a snack. Don’t judge me.”
Spencer chuckled, holding up his hands in surrender. After I inserted a dollar into the slot, I chose my junk food, noticing halfway through that Spencer was getting me my favorite soda from the other machine. My jaw dropped, and I nearly forgot all about my chips.
“You’re… buying me a soda?” My eyes were wide, my brows all the way up to my hairline. “Did I… did I miss something? Who are you? Do you need to see a doctor?”
Rolling his eyes at me, Spencer shook his head, a smirk creeping up the corner of his lips. He handed me the drink and crossed his arms over his chest, casual as ever.
“It’s been a rough day. Even I can understand the need for comfort food.”
“No way. Who are you, and what have you done with Spencer?” I couldn’t help but laugh, taking the soda and twisting open the cap so that I could take a long swig.
“Haha.” Spencer narrowed his eyes at me. “Enjoy your snack, princess.”
So I did—a lot, actually. But I wasn’t done trying to iron out all the wrinkles in my academic catastrophe.
I still had a meeting with Lyle to discuss my international finance grade.
A class that, up until now, I’d been pretty damn sure I was acing, or at least getting a B in.
I munched on my snack, watching Spencer type a message to the guys.
“So?” I asked, looking over his shoulder at the phone as I sat on one of the windowsills in the finance building.
“Just letting them know how it went. You still have another meeting?”
I nodded. “Yeah. One I am not looking forward to. Not that any of them have been great, but this class matters a lot. I’ve been putting more work into it than the others, and I even took extra classes and study sessions to make sure I understood things correctly. The fact that I’m…”
I couldn’t even bring myself to say the word. It was too strange and horrible. How the hell was I flunking?
“Just talk it out calmly. Remember how hard you’ve been working and provide all the information you have as evidence in your defense.”
Snorting, I patted Spencer on the shoulder. “Amazing pep talk, buddy.”
He glared at me, hoisting me off the window ledge and setting me on my feet. “You know what I mean. And besides, you’re not in this alone. We’ll help you however we can. Hell, maybe Chase can look into the back end and see exactly when things got away from you.”
“No, no. I’m not pseudo-cheating. I’ll figure this out. Just like you said.”
“If all else fails, I’ll get Chase to hack into the university system and give you straight A’s.”
“Let’s just see if I can handle this the proper way!”
Straightening my shoulders, I packed up what was left of my snack and slung my bag over my shoulder. The meeting was in ten minutes, and I needed to get to the opposite side of the especially wide building.
“All right. I’m off.”
As I began walking, Spencer dropped a hand on my shoulder. “Look, I have to take a piss. I’ll be right there, though, outside the door, waiting, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. Just go pee.” I grimaced playfully. “And stop calling it that.”
Spencer just smirked at me, and I headed off to my meeting with my TA, Lyle.
Feeling cautiously optimistic after speaking with Professor McCreevy—if only because I knew I had a pack to help me figure all this out—I headed to the other side of the building, where Professor Gallager’s office was.
Given how busy the international finance class was, I knew there was next to no chance I’d be able to actually talk to my professor, but Lyle had been grading my assignments all year, so I had booked an appointment with him.
Walking up to the door, I blew out a long breath and knocked. It opened after only a few seconds.
“Hi, Flora,” Lyle greeted as he gestured inside. “Come on in.”
“I’m guessing you know what this is about,” I said as I took a seat on the other side of the desk, watching Lyle circle it and sit in the larger office chair.
“The academic probation you’ve been put on?” he asked, raising a brow.
“Yeah.” I winced, flicking my eyes to my lap and then back up. “I don’t know what’s happened. I was on top of all my classes, and then, all of a sudden, apparently, I failed my last several assignments—assignments that I know I got good scores on. It doesn’t make sense.”
Lyle looked over at the computer screen, his expression carefully neutral. He’d never been a particularly expressive guy, and I found myself watching his finger move as he used the mouse to scroll down.
“I see. Well, I took a look at your grades when you booked this appointment with me. You really haven’t been doing well these last few weeks.”
My heartbeat kicked hard, my stomach clenching at the words.
How could that be right? I had the physical copies of my assignments returned to me.
I’d seen A’s and B’s on all of them. Why wasn’t the computer saying the same thing?
It felt like I was losing my mind, and as my pulse raced, I thought back to how I’d felt when I first opened the letter from the department.
My world was spinning out of control, and I didn’t have a handle on it. Telling Lyle that the computer was wrong sounded like an incredibly stupid idea. Was I supposed to tell him he couldn’t believe his own eyes? Right. Except that was what was happening on my end.
“Now,” Lyle started, forcing me out of my spiraling thoughts, “I don’t want to be too forward, but the computer also states that you’ve recently taken bonding leave. Is that right?”
“Yes, I did,” I confirmed, nodding as I gripped my bag so hard my knuckles turned white. “I only took a few days off, though. Not enough to derail my entire academic career. In fact, I still studied during the break. I turned in a paper as soon as I got back. I didn’t miss the deadline.”
My voice was pitching higher with each sentence. I was panicking, trying to do anything, say anything, that might convince this man that something had gone wrong and it wasn’t my fault.
Lyle cleared his throat.
“I’m sorry for rambling. I just… I genuinely don’t understand what happened. I know it sounds like I’m making an excuse, but I think something went wrong with the system. Has that ever happened before?”
The TA regarded me, one of his brows cocking up. “It would be a first, as far as I know. And why, precisely, would someone go out of their way to alter your grades? Doing so could get them expelled. Do you think there are many who would take that risk for you?”
I shifted in my chair, swallowing hard. Take a risk for me? What did Lyle mean by that? Anxiety roiled through me, making my stomach twist and turn. There was something about how casual Lyle was being that I didn’t like.
“I’m not sure what you mean, but I’m not saying that someone did this. Computer glitches happen. That’s what I’m getting at.”
Shifting so that he was facing me, Lyle steepled his fingers beneath his chin, gazing down at me from his position without blinking.
“Oh, is that so? So you aren’t saying you have several alphas around you, willing to do God knows what?
” Lyle scoffed, rolling his eyes in the first show of emotion I’d ever seen on him, which was…
odd. “And just how many alphas are you planning on bonding? Because I’m quite certain that any more leaves of absence would damage your academic standing—permanently. ”
The hairs on my arms stood on end, the words leaving my mouth before I could stop them. “Wait, did you flunk me because of my bonding leave? Why would you do that?”
Lyle slid back in his seat slowly, staring daggers at me. But why would he even be that upset? Why would he be upset about the bonding leave at all? It was totally normal for omegas in college to take them. There was a Google form to let professors know, for fuck’s sake.
“I find it quite presumptuous you would assume I have control over your entire academic probation. I merely grade the assignments for this singular class. I think you need to consider your future, Flora. Bonding willy-nilly with alphas who do not support your academic career is a grave mistake. You can’t count on the three of them to understand what it takes to succeed at Avalon. ”
“Lyle, that’s not how it is at all. You need to understand that—”
I stopped, my brain catching up to the words that had actually come out of Lyle’s mouth. Had he said three? No one, except for Percy and Mable, knew who I was seeing, the number of alphas in my pack? Was I going crazy? This was my TA. Lyle had never even looked twice at me.
No, you’re in your head. You’re just paranoid.
“I’m not sure what I have to understand at all, Miss Hewitt. I’ve been the one looking at your assignments. I know precisely what’s happened since you’ve been spending less time focused on your studies. You would be an absolutely perfect student if you just did what you should be doing.”
Sweat broke out across the back of my neck, and I was all too aware of the way my heart pounded against my rib cage. This didn’t feel right. TAs didn’t talk about their students like this. Hell, professors certainly didn’t, and this guy wasn’t even at that level yet.
I stood slowly, lifting my bag over my shoulder. “I’m sorry if my work as of late has been less than exceptional. I’ll do my best to make up for what happened.”
Lyle rose too quickly for my liking, and I shuffled out from between my chair and the desk, heading for the door.
Behind me, I heard a drawer open and close, Lyle’s footsteps clicking across the tile floor toward me.
Every instinct told me I needed to get out of there, an alarm bell in my head, trying to get me to see something I wasn’t putting together.
And then Lyle’s hand was on my elbow. “You really think I’m just going to let you walk out of here like that? Go running back to those alphas. Look at you, not even bothering to cover up that disgusting mark on your neck.”
The screaming in my head reached full volume, and my mouth dropped open.
“You.”
It was all I could say, everything swirling together in a maddening blend of dread and realization. The texts after class, the knowledge of the route I took to get home from campus, and how he’d blended in so perfectly because he was meant to be on campus.
Lyle had been the one haunting me from the beginning, a ghost sitting only ten feet from me every day in class.
The noise of sucking in a deep breath pulled me out of my head—Lyle’s nose by my hair.
“Me. I'm the one who’s been there for you, watched over you, and you thank me by flitting off with them.”
Something snapped inside me, the frozen panic I’d been experiencing evaporating in an instant.
I yanked my arm free and sprinted to the door, gripping the knob to twist it and fling the door open.
But I only made it that far, seconds away from freedom in the hallway and my alpha, who was waiting for me outside, when something soft and chemically sweet-smelling was pressed against my face, making my nostrils burn.
My vision went fuzzy, my head suddenly too light and floating, as if connected to me by a string.
“Ah, ah, ah, Flora. You’re not going anywhere.”