Sweet Harmony (24 page)

"I will." Jaiden squeezed her shoulder.

After Jaiden headed in the direction of the girls' dorm, she followed Daniel and Boris into the main school building. The lights were off and everything looked bleak and haunted. She wouldn't have been surprised if a ghost streaked across her path…Or worse yet, Nathan.

She balled her fists, ready for a fight.
No way was she letting anything get her down. She was concentrating so hard on the idea of a potential fight that she didn't notice Daniel had stopped and accidentally plowed right into him.

"Ouch," she said. "
What are you doing?"

"The way to Mrs. Carmichael's
room is this way." He turned left and she followed, muttering under her breath.

Unlike the rest of the hallways, this one was illuminated by a golden light. She'd never been back this way before, likely because it wasn't a place where classes were held. She peered
around Daniel and saw an unmarked door. When he reached it, he knocked hard. A few minutes passed and the sound of scuffling came from inside. The door opened with an ominous squeak and Mrs. Carmichael stuck her head through the opening.

The woman had her hair in curlers and wore a mint green facemask. She didn't look nearly as intimidating
as she normally did. If the situation had been less serious, Annamarie might have laughed.

"I need to talk to you," Daniel said.

"I should have listened to my mother and stuck with being a librarian," Mrs. Carmichael muttered under her breath.

"It's important," Daniel said.

Mrs. Carmichael barked, "Fine. Let's go to my office."

She opened the door
and marched down the hall. Annamarie followed behind the woman, staring at her skinny grey legs that looked like they'd never seen sun a day in their life. Mrs. Carmichael opened the door to her office and everyone filed inside. The woman let out a deep sigh and then settled behind her desk, grumbling.

"What is it now?" Mrs. Carmichael asked. "Please tell me
it's good news. If Ms. Chadwick has lit the school on fire or caused some other mischief, I'm not sure my heart can take it."

"Hey," Annamarie cried. "I didn't do anything."

Not this time, anyway.

"
I'm here because I have news. Nathan and Bridget had some sort of deal," Daniel said. "Bridget was the one who has been trying to hurt Annamarie."

Mrs. Carmichael went rigid in her seat.

"You mean that odd girl that tried to get me to approve a fan club based on you and some of the other boys at school?" Mrs. Carmichael puckered her lips. "I always thought that was an odd, indecent thing to want to do. I disapproved at once."

"Well, she went ahead with it anyway." Daniel wrapped an arm around
Annamarie's shoulder. "It seems she dislikes my relationship with Annamarie and has been trying to sabotage us."

"Hmmm." Mrs. Carmichael groaned. "Kids these days. This never would have happened when I went to school. At any rate, I'll have to s
end for her. She'll be expelled, just like that Nathan boy. We'll see about formal charges too. This is a musical school for refined ladies and gentlemen. I will not allow this type of behavior to go on. If that young lady had focused on her music like she was supposed to, none of this would have happened."

"My thoughts exactly." Daniel's jaw tensed. "
Jaiden is already attempting to bring Bridget here."

"I can only hope
she'll tell the truth about what she's done." Mrs. Carmichael wrinkled her nose. "This situation will only be made worse by lying."

"I don't know how
Bridget will react." Daniel's jaw tensed. "She's pretty psycho."

"At any rate, we'll find out soon enough." Mrs. Carmichael turned her hawk-like gaze on Annamarie. "Ms. Chadwick?"

The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Why was it as soon as the woman fixed her beady gaze on her, she immediately felt like she was in trouble?

"Yeah?" she
said.

"
It's 'Yes, Mrs. Carmichael,' remember?" the woman said. "I see you haven't made much improvement in your mannerisms since you came to this school. I've heard nothing but strings of complaints from the teachers about you."

"Yes, Mrs. Carmichael," she echoed, fighting to keep her temper under control.

I will not explode,
she chanted inside of her head. It was harder than normal to maintain her self-control. Probably because she'd had only a couple hours of sleep and was running on adrenaline and sheer spite.

"I wanted to inform you that your father has been notified of all the recent problems with Nathan Dawson
and Bridget Winters," Mrs. Carmichael said. "I've been trying to reach Mr. Chadwick for the past week after I was told what was happening to you. I finally managed to reach him last night. He seemed stunned to hear the news. I'm surprised you didn't think to call your family to alert them of your hardships."

"What?" She had no idea how her
parent would react. "You called my dad?"

Her poor dad
had more than enough going on at the moment. He didn't need to hear about this.

"You should
n't be shocked by the fact I called him," Mrs. Carmichael said. "It's my duty as a school facilitator to inform your guardian that there are problems at school."

"What did he say?" She exchanged worried looks with Daniel. Judging by the guy's shocked expression, he hadn't known that Mrs. Carmichael
called her dad either.

"He reported that he'll
cancel his engagements and will fly down this week to collect you. He's removing you from the academy," Mrs. Carmichael said. "I can't say I blame him. I'm not proud of how this incident reflects on the school. I'm aware that Mr. Chadwick sent you here to keep you safe. Instead you're in more trouble than you would have been with him. I offered your father my sincerest condolences, but that was not enough. He insisted you leave the academy at once."

It was like an anvil had been dropped on her heart. She staggered backward and ran straight into
Daniel who steadied her.

"My dad is coming to take me
home?" she asked, her voice soft.

Daniel made a sound like a strangled cat.

"Yes." Mrs. Carmichael let out a sigh and nodded.

"He can't do that!" Daniel yelled.

"He very well can." Mrs. Carmichael turned her unyielding gaze on Daniel. "He's her guardian. If he wants his daughter taken out of the school, then he has one hundred percent right to do so."

As the color drained out of Daniel's face, her insides burned. It was like she'd swallowed a whole bucket of acid. She looked at Daniel and thought,
This is for the best, isn't it? If I leave, then Jaiden and Daniel will remain friends.
Yet no matter how much it was for the greater good, she was shocked by the amount of heartache she endured.

"You're being surprisingly quiet about all of this, Ms. Chadwick." Mrs. Carmichael eyeballed her curiously. "From your behavior
at school, I assumed you weren't thrilled to be here."

"I don't know what to think," she admitted, scratching the back of her head. "With everything else that
's going on, I never saw this coming."

"There's
got to be something you can do." Daniel marched forward and slammed his hands on Mrs. Carmichael's desk in his frustration. "You can make it so her father can't take Annamarie away, can't you? Maybe pull some strings or something?"

"There's nothing I can do," Mrs. Carmichael said.

"My father will remove you from—"

"This has nothing to do with my duty as a principal." Mrs. Carmichael stood up, her face pink with outrage. "Don't you dare dangle your father in front of me again, boy."

Even Daniel stilled at the harshness of the woman's voice.

"But Annamarie can't leave." Daniel's voice was laced with pain. "I won't let her."

"Don't you think I'd also like for Ms. Chadwick to stay?" Mrs. Carmichael said.

"You
want me to stay?" Annamarie wouldn't have been more surprised if the older woman had given her a sudden hug.

"Of course I would," Mrs. Carmichael said. "
Since you have some unique traits, you've brought diversity to this school. You may be troublesome, but you're also forthright and tenacious. These are traits to be respected; however, as I said, there is nothing I can do about the decisions of a parent."

Silence
overwhelmed the room. She knew her father was almost as stubborn as she was, but if she threatened to unleash a rebellious hell on him, he might let her stay at the academy. The only problem was could she do that if she truly cared about Daniel? She glanced at the boy at her side. Crap, crap, crap. She started hitting herself on the head with her fists again.

"Stop that." Daniel seized her wrists. "You're going to des
troy brain cells and you have too few of them as it is."

She punched him in the arm.

"Who has too few brain cells?" she asked.

Daniel opened his mouth to argue when somebody knocked on the door.

"Mrs. Carmichael?" Jaiden said from outside the door.

"Jay!" Daniel cried, stopping their
fight in its tracks.

"Come in, Mr. King," Mrs. Carmichael said.

The door burst open and Jaiden came inside with Bridget following behind him. If Annamarie thought she'd looked bad that afternoon, it was nothing compared to now. Her face was pasty and dark circles were under her eyes. If somebody added blood to the girl's face, she'd be the perfect addition to a zombie movie.

"Bridget
Winters." Mrs. Carmichael glared at the quivering girl, showing no mercy. "So it was you who started all of this trouble. What do you have to say for yourself?"

To
Annamarie's immense surprise, Bridget let out a sob and turned her swollen, blotchy face toward her.

"I'm sorry." A tear trickled down Bridget's
cheek. "It wasn't supposed to go this far."

Bridget seized her hand and
held on so tight it hurt.

"Hey, let go of me," Annamarie said.

"I'm so sorry." Instead of letting go, Bridget threw herself at her. "I didn't want you to die. I just wanted you to leave the school so Daniel would be mine and I'd—"

"I
'll never be yours," Daniel interjected.

"
—be happy again." Bridget trembled. "I didn't know Nathan was going to try to kill you or that he'd push that boy down the stairs. It wasn't meant to happen."

Bridget let out another sob. The girl may have been an egotistical, psycho brat, but
Annamarie couldn't work up the urge to punch her in the face anymore.

"Fine," Annamarie said. "I'm not saying I
forgive you, but I guess I'll let it go."

Dang, was she nice or what? Bridget
sniffled.

"What?" Daniel sounded outraged. "After everything she did to you?"

"You heard her," she said. "She was trying to make me leave the school, not kill me."

"She's obviously making up a sob story to get her
self out of trouble," Daniel cried. "Aren't you the karate queen? Threaten to strangle her or something."

There was no
use showing outrage toward someone who was doing a pretty good job at punishing herself.

"I don't need to," she said.

Besides, strangling Bridget would be like trying to crush the skull of a half-drowned, diseased rat.

"Man…" Daniel muttered.

"Don't be so angry, Mr. Marino." Mrs. Carmichael crossed her arms. "Ms. Winters will still be expelled from his academy."

"Yes
, Ma'am." Bridget hung her head in shame.

"As you know, this is a matter that should be taken to the police," Mrs. Carmichael said. "Just because Ms. Chadwick is showing humanity doesn't mean I have to. You could have gotten somebody killed because of your foolishness. Like Mr. Dawson, you're eighteen and old enough to be given formal charges."

"Please don't!" Bridget's face was paler than a bed of freshly fallen snow. "My father is a politician. Something like this could ruin him. He'd never forgive me."

"If you tell us everything—and I mean
everything
—then I will simply expel you," Mrs. Carmichael said. "If you hold anything back, I will press charges. Do you understand me?"

"Y-yes, Ma'am." Bridget's teeth chattered.

"Very well." Mrs. Carmichael waved her hand. "Start from the beginning."

The girl nodded, wringing her hands. Even Daniel looked like he
pitied her a little.

"Well, I didn't like Annamarie
from the moment I met her. She had this way of getting under my skin. I didn't truly loathe her, though, until I heard a rumor that she and Daniel were, well, dating." Her fists clenched at her sides. "I've been watching Daniel for the past three years. He always pushed me away, but I thought if I was persistent, he'd like me eventually. He never went out with another girl, so it wasn't like I had competition. The fact he'd suddenly date a girl like
her
—"