Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 48097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 240(@200wpm)___ 192(@250wpm)___ 160(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 240(@200wpm)___ 192(@250wpm)___ 160(@300wpm)
Yeah… I clearly needed a new profession or, at the very least, a new attitude. Nothing seemed to make me happy any longer. Even a move as big as the one I’d made in the beginning of the school year. I thought change would do me good, but so far, the only thing I’d gained was a constant headache and a new thirst for whiskey on the rocks.
Black Mountain Academy had hired me because they felt they needed someone who couldn’t be pushed around by the parents of the student body. We weren’t dealing with the average blue-collar mom and dad at this school. No. We had some of the most powerful people’s kids attending, and the academy was known for blowing through their staff because they couldn’t take the entitled bullshit for long. I, on the other hand, refused to be a casualty because I was shoved out. So, the board was wise in hiring me for that reason alone.
After Corrine Parker left my office, I had been busy the rest of the day with putting out constant fires. Finally, having a moment of time after school let out, I walked over to my computer and found the phone number on file and dialed. I didn’t think Corrine would lie to me, but I’d be an idiot not to at least try. I’d become accustomed to neglectful parents while working in my school in Oakland. Foster kids, or kids in worse situations were a majority rather than a minority, and it was something I was used to working around. But I hadn’t expected it in an upper-class school like Black Mountain.
I guess shitty parents existed everywhere.
When I heard the message that the voicemail box was full, I slammed the phone down in frustration. What kind of mother couldn’t care less about her daughter? I felt sorry for Corrine, and second-guessed my decision about giving her detention until I reached her mom. It was likely I never would. And while my position as principal meant I was considered a mandatory reporter, Corrine was nineteen, so it wasn’t like I could report her to the state to step in for neglect. Basically, this was a girl who no longer was part of the system.
Most likely not part of anything.
Another difference between this school and the one in Oakland was the fact that a Google search offered a plethora of information on the student body’s families. These parents were famous for one thing or another. All were notorious whether it was by celebrity status, crime status, or empire building domination. So, deciding that maybe I could hunt down Corrine’s mother by finding out where she was currently located, I turned to the internet to research her.
It didn’t take long to see that Corrine wasn’t lying. There were tons of articles about her mother traveling around the world with the leading actor from her last movie. They were supposedly in love and living it up on yachts and private jets. Pictures flooded my search of her mother drinking champagne, stumbling in and out of limos and topless in a thong bikini while sunbathing. She was the spitting image of Corrine with her long dark chestnut hair, mysterious brown eyes, and in almost all the pictures, her lips were parted in the same exact sexy smirk I’d seen Corrine wearing when sitting across the desk from me. Candy Parker was fucking stunning, but women like that knew it. Hence all the half-naked photos of her floating around the internet.
There were no mentions of Corrine in any of the articles, but frankly I didn’t dig for long. It made me sick seeing this so-called mother’s face so happy without her daughter by her side.
Having had enough for one day, I packed up my stuff and decided to leave before the sun set for a change. I was due for some booze and couch time. As glamorous as my life was not, it wasn’t like there was a lot to do around Black Mountain anyway. Unless you counted all the dinner invitations and parties I was invited to by every member of the board of directors, the parents trying to get in good with me, or the bored trophy wives who wanted some male companionship, my social life sucked. I abhorred those parties. I despised the dinners. And I detested fake women flirting with me. This world was everything I wasn’t, but unfortunately, I had to play the game and attend many events I hated. Tomorrow there was a board of directors’ gathering at the Johnson estate, and I was dreading it. So, at least tonight I was going to take the evening for myself.
As I walked out to the parking lot, I noticed Corrine bending over her car with the hood up. School had been let out hours ago, but she’d also had detention. The only cars left in the parking lot were mine, Corrine’s, and the janitor’s. Even though the last thing I wanted to do was deal with car issues, I figured that part of the reason she was out here alone was due to me, so the least I could do was offer some help.