The Education of Hailey Kendrick - Eileen Cook [23]
What Dean Winston seemed to have forgotten in coming up with a plan that he clearly thought would crush me, is that it wasn’t like anyone was going to want to hang out with me. I had to cancel the biggest social event of the year, thanks to my dad, and I’d publically hurt the most popular guy on campus. It wasn’t like my boyfriend was going to want to take me anywhere. I couldn’t imagine what Tristan thought of me. I could pretty much guess that this morning’s assembly had dropped the whole nearly-naked Mandy scandal off the chart. Being stuck in my room by myself actually seemed like a gift rather than a punishment.
“That’s fine,” I said.
“While it might be fine for you, Ms. Kendrick, I doubt your classmates will share your perspective.” Dean Winston leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. “The entire campus will share your punishment.”
I sat straight up. “You can’t punish everyone. That’s not fair.”
“Evesham prides itself on its sense of community. It’s been my experience that the pressure from one’s peers is more convincing than anything I can do. If I can’t persuade you to provide the name of the other person involved, then perhaps a week of no one being able to leave campus will be all the encouragement you need.”
Winston looked really proud of himself. He seemed to be getting some kind of perverse pleasure out of the idea of seeing me ostracized by everyone I knew. I was starting to get the sense that he would see waterboarding as an acceptable form of information gathering too.
“Hailey, you should expect a punishment from me as well. We’ll discuss it this weekend after you’ve had a chance to think about what you’ve done,” my dad said. He might have wanted Dean Winston to think he was giving me time to stew, but I suspected the truth was that my dad had no idea what to do in terms of a punishment and couldn’t be bothered to take more time away from his job to deal with me. I hadn’t given him a lot of practice over the past few years. The worst thing I’d done since my mom had died was forgetting to put the tub of ice cream back in the freezer, resulting in a puddle of French vanilla on his polished marble counter. Destruction of school property was a pretty big step up.
“That’s not all,” Dean Winston said, interrupting my dad before we could end this call from hell. “We expect Hailey to make reparations as to the cost of the statue, of course. However, we feel that true reparations are more than just taking money out of an account. Many of our students come from fortunate backgrounds, and as a result, coming up with funds often isn’t an issue and not a large deterrent.”
“What is it you’re thinking of?” My dad cut him off before Dean Winston could go ahead and call me a spoiled brat, which is what he was hinting at.
“Hard work. Hailey will be assigned to work with the cleaning crew. Her hours will be tracked and those minimum wage earnings applied to repay the statue.”
“You want me to be a janitor?” I had an image of myself in a gray jumpsuit with my name stitched over the pocket and the stench of Lysol following me around like a yellow cloud. After canceling my summer party, cheating on the most popular guy on campus, and getting everyone in the whole school on restriction, being one of the cleaning crew was really going to be the icing on the cake of my newfound leper status.
“When you make a mess, it’s important to clean it up,” Dean Winston said.
“I agree,” my dad said.
“What about school? I have college apps to finish.