Hello everyone and welcome to my blog! For the ENTIRE month of December, we'll be seeing content like this from both myself, and from the Featured Authors (going all the way back to the beginning!). Along with each of us sharing first chapters from our novels (all on, or soon to be on, Wattpad!), we'll also be getting an inside look into everyone's writing process, book reviews, and even better - getting to know the contestants trying for Featured Author of The Year 2019! Stick around for the fun!
But what do we have here today, you ask? As most of you know, I've been in the process of rewriting my Chick-lit chart topper, Something Real. This new and improved draft will be coming to Wattpad in January of 2019 - but, because I would love everyone's reaction - I'm sharing the first two chapters on my blog along with the Featured Author's Get Together!
I hope you all enjoy chapter 2!
Also posted today:
© Shay Spencer. All rights reserved.
Something Real #NaNoWriMo
Chapter 2 [ Hayden ]
SHOCKING AS IT SOUNDED, all eyes were on me; and for once, I didn't like it.
"Verdict." The word came out rushed, inexplicably unimportant. Dean Ruckman impatiently tapped his wrinkled fingers against the stained fold out table in front of him, never once chancing a look in my direction. I could tell deep down that he never imagined he would be in this position; punishing his prized student's son for a crime he didn't commit. Not that anyone cared enough to find out who had done it.
That was for me to know and them to never find out.
A clump of his greasy dark grey hair fell when he shifted in his seat, the strands covering that of his wrinkled mess of a forehead. Even the age spots that were forming around his eyes and over the portion of his neck that lay exposed above his judges' robe told me all I needed to know. He was a part of the generation that didn't give a damn whether I'd done a thing, or if I'd burnt the whole school down in doing so. He just wanted justice, and he was ready to serve it out on a silver platter.
"The Honor Council of University of Pennsylvania has come to find the defendant, Hayden Pennington, guilty, of all charges against him." Her words echoed around the empty lecture hall, one that had been long forgotten during the last renovation. The room smelled of dust and lust, enough to make me wonder just how many children were conceived in this very room. The few windows that adored the wall to my right had been coated in spider webs and a fine layer of dust, while the floor was dingy enough for you to track dirt from the room, outside, and onto the pavement. The chairs had been tossed aside by the previous generations of our school's marching band before the program had been shut down for good, and the tables came from the dining hall of thirty years prior. Since then, this side of the building had been condemned at least three times for asbestos, but no one ever got around to doing anything about it.
As far as I was concerned, this was the last place to have a meeting like this. Yet, here I was, ready to receive my allotted lashings before these numskulls raced out for their long awaited summer va-cay.
This so called honor council, this room, this asshole of a Dean; they assumed they had the right to decide my future while they simultaneously fucked it up within less than an hour. I doubted even one of them gave a second thought to my rather unbelievable predicament. If I was being honest, though: I wouldn't have, either. They'd looked my track record up and down and found out I'd turned a new leaf once hitting campus grounds. The boy who was once the picture perfect student and adoring son was now the lesser known bad boy of UPenn.
"What punishment do you believe fits the crime, Ms. Abernathy?" Ruckman tossed the phrase over his robe-clad shoulder, his eyes narrowed in one the screen of his seemingly prehistoric iPhone. Not once did he chance a glance in Melissa Abernathy's direction, or my own.
It wasn't like this meeting was about me, or anything.
The aging man continued tapping, scratching even, the table in front of him, only stopping to wince in disgust when he came across a rather wet mark left behind by the coffee mug of the actual Dean of UPenn.
Our resident Dean of Students, Alexander Ruckman, had been fated to oversee all charges brought against me and any other student dumb enough to get caught. Along with our nerdy honor council, he was to have the final say in whatever punishment they sought fit for my so called 'crime of the century'.
Unlike our trusty leader, I dared to meet Melissa Abernathy's eyes, watching as a bead of sweat broke out on her forehead with my gaze. Mere months ago I would have been teasing the girl about her unrequited crush on me. I would have smiled in a way that made her heart flutter, while also coaxing a laugh off her pink lips and a blush onto her brown cheeks; all before breaking her heart in a single sentence. Over and over again we played this game, but it never ended any different. The shy girl that sat behind me in my first business lecture of the day would always fawn over me, day in and day out. The thing was, I would never see her that way, and it was becoming clear she had since rid herself of all things leading back to me since this seen her last.
Taking note of our long time apart, I couldn't help but to notice she'd cleaned up quite a bit. Melissa's dark hair was straightened, her makeup looked like that of the hot secretary in the Dean's office, and her clothes actually highlighted her curves for once. The sheer purple top left little to the imagination and her pencil skirt cut off at just the right place on her thighs. Those matching purple heels helped ten-fold in making her ass look better than it ever had, and I had to admit, I was checking her out a bit. My eyes skimmed over her body, her face, her eyes, but it didn't faze her like it used to.
"The honor council feels explosion is the only way to reprimand such an atrocity."
That was a stab in the back.
"Melissa-" I tried.
"Mr. Pennington, you have no say in what punishment you receive, or in how you take it." Her voice sliced through the already thick air. "The honor council has deliberated continuously since the incident occurred in March, and since then, you've gone unpunished for one of the most highly illegal acts against campus property this school has ever seen. We do not take this lightly, and neither does our university."
The sound of my back hitting the cool metal chair was all that could be heard after she spouted off at me. Giving her a quick smirk, I turned my attention to Alexander Ruckman.
"Can she do this?" I asked. "Can they just expel me-"
"They're not just expelling you, Mr. Pennington," Ruckman paused to look at me, "I'm expelling you. The Board of Directors, are expelling you. Dean Ackerman, is expelling you. It's a decision that should have been put in action two and a half months ago. There's no room for question. The addition of the council and the formality of deliberation was just that: a formality."
I bit into my tongue so hard I drew blood, but I couldn't care less. The taste of iron filled my mouth as the irony of the situation filled the remainder of me. The good little boy I left behind in high school would be balling his eyes out right now, but even he had no say in this. They were boxing me up and shipping me off, didn't care to listen to my side of the story. As long as three rich and reasonable alumni had an alibi, I was screwed. Case and point, as Dean Ruckman would say.
"Will I receive credit for the classes I attended the last semester?" It was my last ditch effort. I would be the shameful secret of the family, the one no one spoke of again, but if I could do anything to remedy it, no matter how small, I would. I'd transfer in a heartbeat in an attempt to not return home and have to face the wrath of Elias Pennington and that of Mary-Anne Welsh.
"You will not, as the infraction occurred during the last semester." The words felt so final as they settled in my head. "And as it goes, every school on the east coast will soon have word of exactly what you've done. There won't be a chance of transferring, Mr. Pennington, as you've already used up what luck you've had here at UPenn."
I couldn't look at him, I couldn't look at Melissa, and strangely enough, I didn't know how I was going to look at myself after today. I was the only one I could blame, after all, despite how badly I wanted to blame the idiots who'd joined me in this room today."
Now, if you would be so kind as to leave and never return, that would be greatly appreciated, Mr. Pennington."
The metal chair screeched against the hundred-year-old wood floor as I stood, my legs feeling more restless than I'd anticipated. It was enough adrenaline for me to rush out the doors without looking back. Though I did catch Melissa's little smirk on my way out. If only she knew the truth. She'd be begging on her knees for me again.
In my hurry I passed the man who claimed he was my father, sitting there and waiting for my dismissal. It wasn't until I was nearly to the car that he caught me by the arm with the grip of Thor himself.
"What is the matter with you!" He yelled, whipping me around to face him. Elias' beat red face was a stark contrast from his gray fox exterior. His eyes lowered, my father stopping just inches from my face before making himself heard a second time, "you're expelled, aren't you?"
My silence sufficed, as the lawyer dropped both hands to his sides and took a step back from me. "Hayden-"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"So you've said," Elias agreed. He ran a hand through his gelled hair before casually readjusting his navy blue blazer. It didn't take a genius to find out who'd bought it for him. The name Reynolds was written all over the damn thing. "Lucky for you, I don't want to hear it."
"Good." I turned on the heel of the dress shoes that were a size too big, being hand-me-downs from my dick of an older brother. Elias caught up, walking in stride with me to the car he treasured more than he ever would Jay or myself. The sound of the locks clicking open prompted my urgently jerky movements to open the passenger's side door. It seemed things weren't going to be easy even after the hell trial I had just endured.
The door wouldn't open."Elias-"
"I am your father, Hayden," his tone was stern, "you will address me as such."
The gruff laugh came out of my mouth before I could stop it, "okay. Dad? Open the fucking the door."
He rolled his eyes at me, resting his elbows on the roof of the gold dusted Lincoln. "About that; when you get into this car, you're staying in it until we get home. And I'm not talking about that rat infested dorm room you share with God knows who, I mean the house I bought in Virginia."
"I'm staying here."
"Not if you want to live to see tomorrow," Elias cracked a grin. "I've gathered your things. What was presentable is in the trunk. Your now ex-roommate was rather helpful in light of the situation. You'll be staying with me, your brother, and my fiancé for the summer in Virginia. Her daughter may join us, as well. I believe she's around your age."
"Your fiancé," I scoffed. "It wouldn't be the secretary you've been screwing since before you and mom split up, would it?"The glare I received was only compatible to that of literally being shot.
"Watch your tone. Angel Blaine is a lovely woman, and happens to work as a clerk at the courthouse. You will respect not only her and her daughter, but your family, while you're under my roof."
"And if I don't?" The challenge was nothing new. Elias and I hadn't seen eye to eye since I was a kid, and even then, I knew he had an agenda that didn't exactly jive with mine.
"You won't get the chance to," he said. "You'll be interning at my law firm all summer long. You know, to make up for this little atrocity."
There we have it! Tomorrow we'll see the second chapter coming from Hayden following his official explosion from UPenn. If you guys are liking this version, remember to check out the book where it all started - Something Real (Old Version), and keep in mind that this story will be posted to Wattpad in January 2019!
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