Chosen By My Mate's Father-in-law
Chapter 45: Phase One

Chapter 45: Chapter 45: Phase One

Adrenaline pumped through my veins as I opened my mouth to put Gwen in her place.

“Good morning, everyone,” a loud voice greeted from the front of the room.

Our professor bustled into the room, placing his leather briefcase onto his desk. When he looked up and saw that a few people—me, included—were still standing, a small frown crossed his face.

“In your seats, please,” he demanded, nodding to his assistant to pass out our notes for the day.

Gwen and I glared at each other, but then she tossed her curtain of red hair and flounced to the back of the room, her friends following after her.

“Gwen’s an idiot,” Mindie muttered when I sat down. “She could never think for herself. She’s just mad that her leader got expelled, and now she’s running around like a chicken with its head cut off.”

“I have a feeling that Clarissa’s friends are not going to give up easily,” I whispered back. “That won’t be the last I hear from them.”

Mindie nodded and took the stapled packet that the assistant handed her. I took mine and skimmed through it as the professor was setting up the projector.

My head tilted as I looked through my notes. The assistant must have handed me the wrong packet. This didn’t look like the usual ones we had for lessons. The font was much larger, and the packet contained mostly pictures photocopied from our textbook. There were barely any words on my pages at all.

My stomach jolted when I saw that my full name was printed on the front of the packet.

“What the hell?” I muttered to myself, confused.

I raised my hand just as Professor Hunt stood in front of the class.

“I only take questions at the end of class, Ms. Lowett. You know that,” he said with disapproval in his voice. “Now, let’s get started. Everyone, refer to the first paragraph of your notes to read the definition of the Chaos Theory.”

Annoyance shot through me when I looked at my packet to see a picture of two circles intersecting each other in the middle. How was I supposed to follow along?

I glanced over at Mindie’s notes. Her first page was filled with blocks of text. Her paper looked like the usual notes that we received at the beginning of each lesson. Why had I gotten a different outline than everyone else? I frowned as all the possible reasons flooded my brain, overwhelming me.

Mindie noticed that I wasn’t taking notes, and her forehead wrinkled in confusion when she saw my outline. She placed her packet between us so we could share it.

“You’ll have to explain all this to me anyway,” she whispered as our professor droned on. “I don’t understand half of what he’s saying.”

I gave her a grateful smile.

An hour later, Professor Hunt dismissed the class, and I went up to talk to him. Mindie came up to his desk with me.

Professor Hunt frowned when he saw me approaching. “Could you not keep up with the lesson, Ms. Lowett?”

That made me stop short, and I was momentarily speechless.

“If you have any trouble, you can request more accommodations. Or we can even get you a specialized tutor to sit with you in class to help you keep up,” he added, packing up his briefcase.

My cheeks heated at his insinuation that I had learning disabilities. Sure, I did have dysgraphia, but I learned to live with it years ago. I worked extra hard to be the best in all my classes despite my disability.

“I‘ve been keeping up with the material just fine using my past notes,” I said, hating that my voice shook slightly. “I’m one of the top students in school, Professor Hunt. That’s how I got my scholarship. Why did you give me an outline with mostly pictures on it?”

He let out a condescending sigh. “There’s no need to be embarrassed. All of your professors were informed that you have a learning disability. The dean called us into his office this morning. The college has ways to help students like you.”

My mouth dropped open. My secret was out. Now, everyone knew that I had a learning disability. Clarissa had basically revealed it, but I thought most people would forget it after her expulsion.

I raised my chin and looked Professor Hunt in the eye. “I am more than capable of learning using the old outlines. This is just going to slow me down and cause me to be behind in class.” I laid the packet with all the pictures on his desk.

“Yeah, she understands what’s going on in this class way more than I do,” Mindie added.

After some hesitation, Professor Hunt handed me the outline with the blocks of text.

“Thank you,” I said, putting it into my folder.

But the day just went downhill from there.

I had my next class without Mindie, and I was treated even worse. My professor spoke to me like I was an incompetent child.

In every class, the whispers kept getting worse. The cruel words followed me like a shadow wherever I went. Even when I was washing my hands in the bathroom, two girls were muttering about me from two sinks away.

“She had to have cheated to get that scholarship. She’s too stupid to have done it on her own,” one of them said.

“Or she slept with Gareth Laken,” the other murmured while looking at me out of the corner of her eye.

“Either way, she didn’t earn that scholarship fair and square.”

My economics professor started her class by assigning the girl who sat next to me, named Lizzie, to help me with my reading and writing.

As I blushed furiously, Lizzie rolled her eyes.

“This is a waste of time. It’s only going to make me fall behind on my work!” she complained loudly.

“I don’t need the help,” I snapped, harsher than I meant to.

“Fine, I won’t help you then.” Then she moved seats.

Halfway through class, the professor asked someone to analyze a case study about a wealthy pack’s economy.

“Well, their economy was obviously good, right?” Lizzie twirled a piece of her dark hair around her finger. “Since they were wealthy.”

Professor Snow crossed her arms. “Care to elaborate?”

“Um...” Lizzie trailed off.

I raised my hand as determination flooded through me. I was going to show them all that I had earned that scholarship fair and square.

When Professor Snow hesitated before calling on me, that just fueled me to make them eat their hateful words. Finally, she called on me.

I cleared my throat. “The case study suggests that the pack only has a more successful economy because the average income is higher.”

“Do you disagree?” Professor Snow raised one eyebrow.

“I do. I think there are many contributing factors to a more successful economy. It’s not just about how much money an average citizen in the pack makes,” I argued. “An economy is about a pack’s goods and services and how those are dispersed. Even if a pack is wealthy, if they don’t have a good distribution system, the entire economy could fall apart.”

The room was silent for a full minute.

“That is exactly right, Ms. Lowett,” Professor Snow said with surprise in her voice.

I turned to the shocked faces of my classmates. “I am perfectly capable of doing my own work. Even if I did need extra help, that wouldn’t make me stupid. So, you guys can think whatever horrible things you want about me, but just know that your assumptions are all wrong.”

As my class erupted into mutters, a sudden thought made my stomach sink. Elliot had to have something to do with my learning disability being leaked.

It was probably only phase one of his plan to force me into doing what he wanted.

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