sitting in the middle of the table. “We were just reviewing your application.”
“Have a seat,” a woman with dark hair and a firm smile said, gesturing to the small table in the middle of the room. Unable to shake the feeling that he was on trial, Sebastian nodded as he made his way to the table and sat down.
“Can we get you something to drink before we start?”
“No, thank you,” Sebastian said, hoping to get this over with quickly before he did something to make this worse.
“Why don’t we get right to it then?” the man sitting across from him suggested.
After a slight hesitation, Sebastian nodded.
“We heard about the incident at the middle school. Would you like to tell us what happened?” came the question that he should have expected.
“I made a mistake,” Sebastian admitted, licking his suddenly dry lips as he slowly took in all the people staring at him.
“You seem to do that a lot,” a woman sitting at the end said as she opened a file, probably his, and read something.
Not sure how to answer that, Sebastian glanced at Uncle Jason for help only to find his uncle frowning as he read through his file. God, why did he come here? He should have told Mrs. Blaine that he’d changed his mind and went home when he had the chance.
“Destruction of property, suspensions, detentions, truancy, the list goes on and on,” a man at the other end of the table said, taking off his glasses as he sat back and gestured to Sebastian’s file. “I honestly don’t understand why you’re here wasting our time with this.”
After a slight hesitation, Sebastian nodded slowly as he pushed his chair back and stood up. “I’m sorry for wasting your time,” he said as he turned around to leave only to have the same man stop him with a question.
“We have thousands of applicants this year, all of them have worked hard to get where they are and all of them have better records than you. Why should we even consider giving you a chance?”
“Because no one else will,” Sebastian said, meeting his questioning gaze head-on.
“Why didn’t you accept the full scholarship from Radcliffe?” Uncle Jason asked, drawing Sebastian’s attention.
“Because I didn’t deserve it,” he answered honestly.
“And your brother did?”
“Yes,” Sebastian said firmly.
“Why?”
“Because he wasn’t the one that made our mother cry,” Sebastian said softly, forcing himself to look away from Uncle Jason before he said too much.
“What was your score on Radcliffe’s entrance exam?” the man sitting across from him asked, sounding bored.
“A perfect score,” Sebastian said, watching as the board members looked down at his application and–
“You earned a perfect score on both tests?” the woman at the end of the table asked, looking surprised as the rest of the members looked down at the files in front of them.
A nod.
“Do you know Mikey Campbell?” one of them asked, making him frown in confusion.
“Yes, she’s my best friend,” Sebastian said, wondering what that had to do with anything.
“So, you know that she applied as well.”
“Yes, we applied together.”
“Did you happen to see the essay that she wrote for her application?” Uncle Jason asked.
“No, she wouldn’t let me read it,” Sebastian said, suddenly wishing that he’d pushed her harder to show him.
Nodding, Uncle Jason opened another file and pulled out a paper. He pushed it toward Sebastian. Frowning, Sebastian walked over to the table and picked it up, absently noting that it was two pages stapled together. When he read the title, he glanced up in confusion.
“Keep reading,” Uncle Jason said, gesturing for him to continue.
Sebastian looked back down at the paper in his hand and read the title again, wondering why Mikey wrote her essay about him when this essay was supposed to be about her. When he came to the first paragraph, his stomach dropped.
Although, this essay is supposed to demonstrate why I would make a wonderful addition to Latin Scribe High School, I can’t do that. Not when I know that there is someone else that should be there instead.
I want to tell you about my best friend, Sebastian Bradford with the hopes that you will read this letter before you have the chance to read his file because that will only tell you about the mistakes that he’s made and I want to tell you about the boy…
“With your school record, you would have automatically been rejected, but with your test scores, we would have seriously considered you. Your recent situation would have forced us to