With her final warning delivered, Penelope turned and walked out of the office.
The guidance counselor hurried after her, apologizing profusely.
“My coming here isn’t the issue,” Penelope said calmly. “But this incident could give other students the wrong impression of my brother. I expect the school to publicly clear his name.”
“Of course. We absolutely will.”
“Good.”
She didn’t want to push it further. Her brother still had to attend classes here, and making enemies of the faculty would do him no good.
Mrs. Winters, however, had no such concerns. Realizing they were in the wrong about the accusation, she dropped the subject entirely. But her son had lost a laptop on school grounds, and she latched onto that, demanding the school take responsibility.
Eventually, the exhausted administrators apologized and promised to help find the missing computer just to get rid of her.
Once they were gone, one of the deans slammed his fist on the table. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. What a shameless, awful family!”
As Penelope walked down the hallway, Colin suddenly rammed into her.
The impact sent her stumbling forward, and she had to grab a pillar to keep from falling.
Colin glanced back as he ran off, flipping her the middle finger. “Your brother’s an idiot, and so are you! Your whole family is trash!”
He was gone before she could react. Penelope seethed, looking back just in time to see Rebecca and Mrs. Winters scurrying away.
Orenth University was huge. Two of Colin’s dorm mates escorted the Winters family out.
As they reached the main gate, their eyes were drawn to a stunning red sports car parked by the curb. Forgetting Mrs. Winters and Rebecca completely, they ran toward it excitedly.
“Whoa, is that a Porsche?”
“It has to be! That’s my dream car!”
“Hey, can we… can we touch your car?” one of them asked shyly.
Penelope smiled, then a thought occurred to her. “Did you two help Colin bully Timothy?”
Both boys looked guilty for a second before quickly promising it would never happen again.
“Good,” she said playfully. “You wouldn’t want to get on my bad side.”
She tossed them the keys, telling them they could not only touch it but sit inside as well.
Not far away, Mrs. Winters and Rebecca were still waiting for a taxi, occasionally glancing over at her with undisguised envy.
Penelope ignored them, planning her trip to find Timothy. Suddenly, a boy in a bright pink tracksuit zipped toward her on a skateboard. Just as she braced for impact, he skidded to a perfect stop, tilted his head, and grinned.
“I sense a dark cloud hanging over you. Disaster is imminent. To put it simply: you’re about to have a very bad day!”

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