Page 36 of Frayed Owner

I was probably always going to be overloaded.

I answered my phone when Jasmine called, frowning at what she told me. “Could you repeat that?”

“Your sister ordered all the ice cream in the state practically,” she drawled. “We don’t even have the freezer space for it all plus toppings. It seems she wants to celebrate with ice cream but says she’s drowning herself in it.”

“She’s giving you a warning about the change,” I said cryptically since others were around. “If she’s not drunk, listen to her. Things did not get better for us today.”

She was quiet a moment. “Understood. I’ll see what I can get out of her. She’s not drunk, but I doubt she’s sober either.”

Probably not. I really wished I had that option.

When someone else was dismissive a bit later, I got fed up and called the one person I knew would really hear me and take things seriously. I asked him to please drop everything and meet me—begging him to believe me as he had before or something bad could really happen.

He promised he heard me and would absolutely believe me but he couldn’t meet right now. That he was already involved with something and it could wait—that nothing would happen so fast.

Ahhh silly man. Bad people didn’t react well to being told no or being made fools of.

That was apparent when I received a summons to the headmaster’s office the next morning. Luckily, I had seen this coming as well and Mrs. Reid was ready too.

We walked into the lunch meeting and Coach Dunham did a double take when he saw her, steam about coming out of his ears.

“I’m filing a formal harassment complaint with the school, and if there is a third time that Coach Dunham involves me in rumors or slander, I will take legal action,” I told Headmaster Kerwynn as I handed over the official paperwork.

“Is that so? I was informed you targeted him as retribution for the ‘misunderstanding’ before and used the Wicked Challenges as the excuse,” he said, his eyes dancing with amusement.

“Well, after that ‘misunderstanding,’ there were cameras put into the rec center and his office. So we don’t have to wonder,” Mrs. Reid said sweetly before Coach could say anything. She handed the tablet over to the headmaster with the video we’d already gotten from security.

“You can’t just get that video without my permission or—” Coach started to bitch, but the headmaster cut him off.

“Allclasses are handled this way which I reminded the board and that I was annoyed you were left off for so long. All our teachers are held to this standard, and it was a joke that you were left untouched when I have piles of issues with your classes, people accusing you and your aides of basically being a pack of werewolves, you are so ill-behaved.”

Whoa. This was getting serious.

I was glad to help in any way I could.

I thought the headmaster’s head was going to explode as he listened to the bile Coach said, the cameras picking it up perfectly. His face got red so fast that—it was actually scary.

“You not only—you implicated anotherteacherin your crap?” Kerwynn blasted. “There is no relationship between Professor Wyatt and Ms. Millen. They are advisor and student. Both have formally said that to me and the council.” The shock on Dunham’s face was disgusting. He’d never considered otherwise after Wyatt had stood up for me.

“But since you attacked Professor Wyatt, others have as well because too many here don’t use their own brains,” Mrs. Reid added. “As such, he asked me to review all of Ms. Millen’s assignments and instruction for her independent study. He didn’t want it being his first one being used against both of them and tarnishing her any further.”

“You’re too amused to not have found something good,” Kerwynn muttered, studying her.

“Yes, apparently, Professor Wyatt is a bit of a sadist if not given parameters by the university.” Her lips twitched when I snorted. “Ms. Millen has done enough work to complete the full semester already and he has more planned. I’m going to submit everything requesting that she receive more class credit for that workload.”

“Really?” all three of us asked.

Mrs. Reid nodded, shooting me an amused look. “You’ve done full papers on overtwelvewitches and warlocks who are recorded as being able to speak to animals. Clearly, we understand better why you wanted that project given you have rare magic focused on animals and familiars. It’s not unreasonable to hope you might develop the talent as your magic grows.”

“That was where my head was and also why I didn’t have a familiar,” I mumbled, shocked we were saying this in front of Coach.

Right, he was a huge gossip. It would be all over school by end of day.

“The papers are fantastic and I’m only halfway through them. With your permission, I would like to work with Ms. Millen and Professor Wyatt on how to get her published.”

Kerwynn’s eyes flashed shock. “As a freshman?”

“She isextremelygifted in extrapolating data and cross-referencing materials. She found gaping holes in some of the stories of the ones she researched. I believe three will be losing their perch of being able to hear animals once her study is published.”

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