A/N: This is un-beta'd and the chapter that I like the least, so far. Please give feedback, good or bad so I know what I'm doing wrong.
"You were expelled?!" Derek yelled as he stepped on the gas. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
Aden sighed. 'What's wrong with me? God, Derek, there's too many things. Where would I even begin?' She chose not answer him and, instead, turned her attention to the scenery passing by. She knew how this was going to end. It was bad enough that she was expelled and that he'd been surprised by her showing up; now that his girlfriend was pissed at him would only make things worse. Aden knew she'd receive the brunt of his anger; hell, she'd come to expect it after all these years.
"Do you have any idea how much you're throwing away? You go to the best prep school in the country and you get expelled?!" Derek continued his rant as he turned onto a side road. "I spent so much money—"
"That's right, Derek, I did it just to throw all that money you invested on my education down the drain," Aden interrupted sarcastically. In fact, the cost of her tuition had been the last thing on her mind when she had done all the things she did. Why did he always make everything out to be all about him?
"What did you do, Aden?" Derek asked, forcing himself to calm down, and not bothering to mention her sarcasm yet again. "And why didn't I get a phone call from Dean Wilkes or anyone else at Berkely for that matter?"
Aden shrugged. "They called Addison; guess they thought the absent mother in New York was better than the absent father in Seattle."
Derek was so pissed that it didn't even occur to him that she had just referred to him and Addison as her parents for the first time in years. All he cared about was that Addison knew and hadn't bothered to call him. He understood that she didn't want to talk to him; he didn't want to talk to her either. But this involved Aden; he had a right to know what was going on.
"What did you do?" Derek repeated, coming to a stop in front of his trailer.
"You live in a trailer?" Aden asked, incredulity clouding her expression, as she took in his residence. "You make two million dollars a year and you live in a trailer?" 'Great, this just keeps getting better.'
Drying her hair with the towel, Aden started to push the bathroom door open. She stopped when she heard Derek's voice. Leaving the door open just a crack, she sat down on the toilet sit. Normally she wasn't one for eavesdropping. But since she was the topic he was talking about, she figured what the hell.
"It's only one month into the semester and she's expelled! Don't tell me you don't know what she did, Addison." Aden listened, trying to piece together what her mother was saying on the other end of the phone. As far as she knew, Addison had never been told why she'd been expelled. If she had, then she was surprised it hadn't been brought up on that two hour car ride back to the Brownstone in Manhattan.
It had only been six hours since Aden was told she was being expelled from Berkeley Prep. Ten hours ago she had been detained by several of the campus security guards and forced to wait inside Dean Thomas Wilkes office. After a painstakingly slow hour of waiting, he showed up, holding a thick manila folder; her student record. Hers was thicker than most; it contained numerous records of academic merits, scholarships won, internships awarded, perfect test scores. Simply put, she was one of the most intelligent students to ever walk through the doors of the school. Had everything been based on academic record alone, she'd still be enrolled. But where most people would use their above average intelligence to get ahead in life, Aden used it to come up with creative ways to break the rules. And, in the end, instead of being her most useful ally, her intelligence became her downfall.
Addison showed up at seven a.m. sharp this morning. Aden's bags were packed and she was sitting once again in the Dean's office. Expecting Addison to meet with Dean Wilkes first, Aden had been surprised when she picked up her backpack and told Aden to get her butt in the car now. Aden had no choice but to pick up her duffel bag and follow.
As they pulled out of the parking lot, Addison began yelling. "Do you have any idea how many appointments I had scheduled for today? Not to mention the surgery I'm supposed to be in right now!" Before she could continue, her cell phone rang. Grabbing it out of her purse, Addison answered it. "I know, I know. Look, it's going to take me two hours to get back to the city, then I have to drop my kid at the airport. I'll be back for my 11 o'clock."
When she hung up the phone a few minutes later, Aden wasted no time opening her mouth. "You're taking me to the airport?!"
Addison merged onto I-87, heading south towards Newburgh. "Yes; you're going to stay with your father."
"No!" Aden had protested. "That's not fair!" They continued to argue the entire rest of the car ride. When they pulled to a stop outside of the Northwest Airlines terminal at JFK, Aden grabbed her ticket out of Addison's hands, and jumped out of the car. She had been so angry she wanted to get as far away from Addison as possible, even if that meant having to go to Seattle.
'God, I can't believe that was only this morning.' Aden thought as she heard Derek's voice raise once again as he yelled at Addison one last time before hanging up. Aden waited a few minutes before exiting the bathroom. When she did, Derek was standing at the stove, finishing dinner. She walked past him, to her bags on the floor near the door.
"Dinner's almost ready," Derek told her as she began rummaging through her backpack. "And, if you're looking for the pack of cigarettes I got rid of them."
Aden stood up and turned to face him, fire in her eyes. "You went through my stuff?"
"You don't need to smoke."
"I don't care! That's my stuff. You have no right to—" she began yelling.
"Like hell I don't!" Derek interrupted, turning off the burner. Facing her, he continued, "As long as you're living in my house I have a right to know about everything pertaining to you. What you're doing, who you hang out with, if you're smoking, why you got expelled…" he trailed off.
"Since when do you care what I'm doing, what's going on in my life?" Aden asked. "You haven't talked to me in over a year!"
"Aden," Derek started.
"Just send me back to New York and we'll both be happy!" Aden screamed.
Derek took a deep breath to calm himself. "I can't do that, Aden." His eyes met hers for the first time all night.
"You operate on people's brains everyday and you can't send me back home? That's bullshit."
"First off, watch your mouth. Second, I'm not sending you back to New York," Derek told her, turning back to the stove. "Now, come over here and fix your plate."
Aden shook her head. "No."
Derek looked at her again. "Don't tell me no."
"Why not? You had no problem saying no to me. 'No, I won't be able to make it to parents weekend.' 'No, you can't come home for the weekend.' 'No, you—"
Derek interrupted. "Aden," he started. "Please, let's not do this. Let's just eat dinner and get through tonight in peace. Please."
Aden stared at him for a few moments. Then, her voice barely above a whisper, she said, "I just want to go home. Please."
"I know you do, Aden. But, you're…" he started, then rethought what he wanted to say. "Look, I'm trying here, Aden. Okay?"
Aden shook her head, both to dispute his statement and to clear her eyes of the tears threatening to fall. "It's a little too late for that, don't you think?" she muttered, before opening the door and heading out into the rain.