Chapter 7

'Woah, someone call off this party,' I said sarcastically as I slunked through the door to the boardroom where the meetings were always held. The assistant principle had gone to collect the principle and other members of the Senior team in charge of all of these things, but had deposited me in the board room with my family. Mom and Dad sat on the far end of the table, and they were talking quietly as I walked in. There was a chair in the middle, clearly meant for me, and to the right three welcome faces next to one not-so-welcome. Victor, Uriel, Will and Xav all sat there. Victor gave me a slightly sideways look as I hesitated in the doorway. Uriel and Will smiled at me, and Xav put his feet onto the table and gave me a camp wave – like that video of a waving bear in a zoo. I grinned at them all, so glad that at least someone within these meetings would be on my side. Vick normally attends these meetings and it normally consists of him telling me I am more than capable of sitting in normal lessons – kinda true, some I could, with Saul and Karla arguing to allow me more rooms so I don't break again. Of course, the school knew about my attempted suicide, which happened soon after I joined this High school, and behold the monthly meetings became a thing to discuss my progress and what needs to change.

'I know, they're wild.' Will joke, flicking Xav's feet. 'Dude, new shoes – those stink.'

'Who say's they're my feet. Little sister over there had just walked in. Who knows – it could be her that stinks,' Xav joked, taking his feet down off the glass table. He leaned forward as he noticed he left a dirt mark on the otherwise pristine frosted glass.

'She's older than you, Xav, she's not so much of a little sister,' Uriel said softly.

'Not much older.'

'Mate, I'll still take it,' I said, throwing my back into the far corner of the room hearing the satisfying booft as it hit the concrete wall and then the floor. Victor rolled his eyes at my childhish behaviour as I sat down on my vacant seat, spinning around slightly.

'I thought you learnt how to behave, I thought you grew up over summer,' he said snappily.

'Ooh, someone's not happy I cut his beauty sleep, is he?' I joked, ruffling his hair as he slapped away my wrist but I saw the small smirk on his face. He pretends that he is steel, and above his level but it's not hard to see that he is human.

'You better not argue with me this meeting, Ella.' Victor patronised me, turning in his chair to me as I stuck my feet up on him, showing my new converse. 'You joke about my suit; do you ever not wear Converse?'

'Arguing is half the fun though, and I get to bunk lessons even more,' I said, shrugging. 'I wear Nike's when I go running, occasionally my Karrimor's, but no mainly Converse. We're lucky they're authentic as well, we know my soft spot for just canvases,' I told him as he pivoted around as my feet dropped to the floor.

'We know,' Vick said to me, pulling out a folder.

'At least it makes Christmas and birthday present shopping easier, though,' Will joked, looking around the boardroom.

'Ella, you're not using these meetings to bunk school, are you?' Saul said to me, touching my shoulder. Err.

'Even if she was, Dad, it wouldn't matter – these are compulsory until she's eighteen on records,' Uriel quipped for me and I nodded at him, clicking my fingers at him to show him my approval. Of course I used these to bunk lessons, but he covered it up. Sure enough, the school thinks as Yves' twin I'm seventeen, eighteen in July. They don't know is that I'm nineteen, edging on twenty in March. So eighteen on record meant until July these ones a month meetings were compulsory and I would have to attend. From there on, the meetings can be held when I wasn't present.

'Welcome, Mr and Mrs Benedict,' The Principle said as he walked into the room, his entourage following in close pursuit. You could see Mr Loft doing a clear triple take at the amount of brothers that had turned up for this occasion, and the slight fear. One way or another, our family had driven fear into the teachers. Mainly because we knew what we could get away with and played with those borders. Vick was particularly bad when he was seventeen and had to get the entire science and technology wing evacuated as he thought it was funny to let loose over 100 crickets within a science room. Not only that, he had frequent arguments with teachers, with students, a worse attendance history than me and so on. He had to have anger management classes. Xav was bad, but was more of a joker and kept everyone in neutral. Uriel was the smart and acedemical one, so he was only ever in this office to praise his target grade record. Will had been sent to the board room for parental meetings after he punched someone in the face during P.E. when they threatened to bully me and several other instances. Honestly the amount of times Karla and Saul had been in this office for our behaviour was gold medal worthy. 'And welcome to your sons, too. I thought we had seen the last of you, Xavier,'

Xav clutched a hand to his heart dramatically, holding a handful of his shirt as he pretended to be sad.

'My kind sir, I thought you missed me so dearly? Must your long days within this sanctuary be so unblessed with my chilled silence,' Xav joked.

The bloody hell is he on? I asked Will and Uriel at the same time telepathically, almost forming a group chat.

We woke him up early. I think he might still be asleep, Uriel commented, but sounded like he was laughing internally.

And attempting to recite poetry or Shakespeare, Uri? Will added, literally laughing out loud at Xav. Mom and Dad looked almost patronisingly at Xav as Vick actually shook his head.

'Er, we meant we miss you Xav, of course.' The assistant principle added for Mr Loft, and Xav leant forward and winked at her, grinning. Was that a blush I saw on her face? That was incredibly disgusting.

'Anyway, the focus at hand is Ella and of course how she is coping within school. This is just the beginning of the school year, of course, so we just set the baselines normally. However, in our clocking in fingerprint screener, it appears to show Ella departure the school ground yesterday during the middle of her ICT induction lesson. Eleanor, is this true?' Miss McGuinne said at me, but smile softly. The head of the library, she always welcomed me to sit in the corner to do my work. Of course she would, though, as she too was a Savant. She knew someone was up with our family, apart from the fact we were all Savant's too, but also the whole Yves twin thing was just bullshit. Bless her old heart, though, she never asked about it as she knew it would upset me.

'Yup,' I simply said.

'Why was that, Ella? You didn't tell us about this,'

'Mr Riddex, the asshole who I was timetabled too, was very misogynistic and unfair to me as I was the only female within the class and actually invited me to leave because I pointed out a fellow member of the class, Phillip Scoff, was rather sexist as well as he invited me to stop doing such a man subject and take up cooking instead,' I said matter of factly.

'What an asswipe,' Will muttered under his breath, causing Dad to look at him.

'Was you not comfy with this, Ella?' Mr Loft asked, knitting his fingers together and leaning towards me.

'How could I possibly be comfy with a teacher who pointed out ICT was not a "feminine" subject as it uses computers, laughs with sexist remarks made by fellow pupils, before inviting me to leave the class as I cleared up some facts with an asswipe, thanks for that word Will, love it, I don't think anyone could be comfy within that class,' I simply said.

'These misogynistic and sexist accusations, Ella, are very serious. You are aware of this,' Mr Loft said.

'Of course I am, sir, I am also very aware that I should be treated as an individual, not simply a unit of my own gender and sexuality, and I am also acutely aware teachers themselves should not hold grudges against anyone choosing their electives, because they know their family history or rather the F next to my name, compared to the rest who have the male M next to their names,' I retorted and Vick put his hand on my knee, stopping me from doing my famous leg twitch. Whenever nervous or scared, I would bounce my knee up and down at such a quick pace it wore out my muscles. The simple gesture away's got me to stop doing it, and realise I needed to calm myself down.

'It's too late to swap electives now, Ella,' Mr Loft said.

'I will allow her access to the library during these periods, and assist her myself if she needs any help,' the librarian said, her glasses bouncing on her full chest. Unable to have children herself, and the three children she adopted now flown the nest, she had adopted out family during school to try and help us knowing that the whole Savant aspect made it worse. She even pushed back her retirement until we finished school to continue to help us.

'Yes, I think that would be the best plan of action for this case,' Victor said, making a note of it for no reason.

Why you writing that down? It's not like I'll forget. I asked Victor.

I got a new pen; I was excited to use it. Also, it helps for them to think we are making notes and not just remembering it all. Victor said and I had to hide my grin.

'I personally believe that the same rules that Ella had with her brother Zed last year should apply this year too. Reinstating Zed, at the moment, appears to be a good choice however he is on his last warning for exclusion –'

'Sure, of course it's my brother's fault for telling you there is a paedophile within the math's department thus he should be punished,' I went to mutter under my breath but it came out a Hell of a lot louder.

'Ella,' Victor, Karla and Saul all said, but there was shock in Karla's voice, amazed I would say such a thing out loud at such volume, whilst Saul and Vick were just warning me to watch my words. They didn't mind if I argued because we always knew Zed was right – he was it with his gift so we knew how trustworthy he was. I had gone through Hell to get him reinstated which included taking after math lessons with the paedo teacher, waiting for him to start "hitting" on me as I changed the view of the CCTV telekinetically. Eventually, we found a sketch book full of drawings of younger girls.

'Miss Benedict, your brother should have told us in a more sophisticated manner.'

'No, my brother did. I was outside; he came up to the office, knocked on the door and sat down to tell you. You were the one who should have responded in a more sophisticated manner, if you don't mind me saying so, Sir. You should have taken my brothers words into account, filed a report and investigated it like you would do in another other situation if another pupil said the words to you. However, you didn't. You excluded my brother for false accusations without even any proof. You waited until he started hitting on me and I found the sketchbook of the six Freshman year girls drawn out to even act upon in. You put more people at risk, including myself and any other female pupil at this school, to try and get even with my family. When you reinstated Zed, you never apologised to either one of us and said if he acts that way again; he'll be suspended yet again. I fail to see how this is fair?'

'Ella, stop.' Mr Loft said.

'Make me stop pointing out the injustice of your actions, Sir.'

'You're raising your voice at the Principle, Ella, I have no quibbles suspending you as well.' Mr Loft said.

'No, Sir, I am not raising my voice. I believe I have kept my volume within plus or minus five decibles of my normal projection rate. But if you want to suspend me, go ahead. You know who was in the wrong with the whole paedophilia case, and you know it wasn't my brother, it was your fail to not do an enhanced background check.' I said matter of factly, crossing my legs. 'Vick, who would be in the wrong here?'

'It would be the school or the hiring committee for not doing the correct background checks and keeping them up to date for any undeclared criminal records. My brother has nothing to do with this if it ends up in court, apart from being the catalyst to bring this case to light,' Vick said and the second the word court was mentioned, everyone back down.

'We will issue a formal apology to your brother, Ella, and pass him on his final's in the summer semester that he missed during his suspend from school,' Mr Loft said slowly and I nodded.

'Thank you,' I said knowing that Zed passing him finals would mean a lot to him. He had worked so hard last year to focus on school, despite causing mayhem along the way.

'So, you can now go the library during any period you would like too, Ella, as long as you clock in there and clock out when you leave so you can mention. The same sibling rules apply as last year,' Mr Loft said, hitting the paperwork on the table,

'And I look forward to reading the formal apology within the post, and seeing Zed's passes on his next grade cards.' I said finally, standing up, my brothers copying my swift moves to grab my bag. The administration senior staff all walked out quietly murmuring among themselves. The second the door closed, Will hugged me, lifting me off the ground spinning me around as we both laughed, Uriel's hand on my back once we stopped spinning as Xav bumped fists with me.

'You bloody nailed that, girl,' Xav cheered, hugging me around my shoulders after Will put me down.

'Eleanor,' Karla said softly, clearing her throat. 'Whilst what you did was lovely for Zed and will mean something to him these meetings are meant to be about you and your mental health,'

'I've only been back in school for a day – there's nothing much to change apart from that idiot in IT which has been sorted.'

'Bless McGuinne, she's been lovely to us all.' Saul said, and we all nodded. She had been nothing but wonderful to any of us, always bringing fresh food to the house when she was alone. Her husband died ten years ago after a stroke, and nine years ago her eldest adopted kid moved out so she was lonely, really, so we all became her kids. She would randomly appear and talk to us about her memories of her travels, or her kids.

'You should get back to lessons now, Ella,' Victor said, putting his hand on my shoulder. 'We'll all still be around tonight, so we'll see you then. Make sure younger brothers get home safe and don't do anything stupid like speeding again.'

'Ha, even I can't control Zed's anger.'

'You're better at it than us,' Uri said. I guess so.

'Get your ass out of the room so we can talk about you,' Xav quibbled, and I stuck my middle finger up to him and he made a heart out of his hands as Mom and Dad hugged me quickly, kissing my forehead before I left the boardroom and headed for my next lesson.

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Just for you, Sabinethafangirl, for always reviewing on my books and creating good writing yourself (and also asking so nicely)! Thank you! :)