The Teaching Assistant, Part 59

It was Ashley.

Amelia wasn’t sure who else she had been expecting. She was assuming that Summer and company didn’t know which dorm room was hers. Maybe a prefect was coming by to give her a lecture after the events from earlier? In the end, it made sense that Ashley was checking on her, no doubt to make sure that Amelia was still going along with all of this after being left to her own devices for a while.

“Hey, Millie!” Ashley exclaimed. She started things off by giving Amelia a big hug, which the petite blonde was not expecting in the slightest, before pulling back and gently gripping her upper arms. “How old are you, again?”

Amelia was already slightly blushing from the embrace, which no doubt worsened as she replied with the full phrase. That’s what proper Westridge girls were supposed to do, after all. “I’m thirteen years old,” she muttered. It hadn’t been long enough for her to internalize the phrase or believe it, though it was already getting more natural to say out loud due to repetition.

“That’s right,” Ashley smirked, “You’re a transfer student, and my little cousin. Aren’t you going to invite me in, Millie? We need to talk about your time as a schoolgirl.”

It wasn’t as if Amelia could complain. A one on one conversation with Ashley was far preferable to having to deal with both her and Claire at the same time. Then again, Ashley was the one prompting it, which wasn’t a great sign. Amelia really doubted it would be anything like ‘well, this has been fun, but it’s time for you to be an adult again.’

As for letting Ashley in, that was more of a formality. She had already more or less invited herself by showing up and launching into the patronizing embrace. Amelia doubted that it would go over well if she told Ashley to leave, considering how much the devious eighteen year old had done without being antagonized in the slightest. Besides, appealing to Ashley’s good nature, if that existed, was the only option Amelia had at the moment. She had already tried and failed with her other attempts, and it was unlikely that Sunday would be any different than Saturday in terms of fixing this by herself.

Stepping back and making room for her ‘older cousin,’ Amelia belatedly said, “Come in.” Just in case her movements weren’t enough.

Ashley did just that, then proceeded to shut the door behind her. “Alright,” she said, “Let’s talk.” Placing her hand on the small of Amelia’s back, Ashley walked her towards the bed, only letting her go once they were a few feet away. “Sit down, Millie.”

“But-” Amelia started to protest. She hadn’t put up a fuss as she was guided across the room. It was difficult to process anything when the twists and turns of the ‘transfer student’ roller coaster kept her perpetually on her back foot. And not only did Ashley hold most of the cards, but her height advantage and casual dominance in a situation like this caused Amelia to naturally follow along.

The dark haired senior was only more intimidating when she was the only girl standing. Not only that, but Ashley was in her full uniform, while Amelia looked less put together due to her blazer resting on the back of her desk chair. Getting right into things, when it wa clear only one of the two girls was prepared for the impending talk, Ashley said, “Do you remember what you were supposed to be doing today, Millie?”

Vaguely. Something about being a model student, which she had thoroughly failed at achieving. She had earned so many infractions, which Ashley had surely heard about due to being best friends with a prefect. It was painful on a personal level as well, since Amelia always had been a model student, until Westridge.

Capitalizing on Amelia’s hesitation, Ashley continued, “You claimed to be a mature girl. Today only proves that I was right about you.”

“I- I am mature!” Amelia insisted, “I just-”

“You just got in trouble the second I took my eyes off of you?” Ashley summarized, cutting her off, “Millie, you’re my cousin. Your actions reflect badly on me as well. Clearly you still have a lot of growing up to do, so here’s what’s going to happen. You’re staying here until Friday; that should be plenty of time to develop like we talked about. If you pass your aptitude test, we can have another discussion about this. If you fail . . . well, I guess you’ll have to wait another week and try again.”

Amelia’s eyes widened. “W-what?” she stammered. This was only supposed to be for the day! Staying the night had already been a whole thing, considering that she wasn’t actually a student. As she had been told several times, her next attempt at the aptitude test would be Friday. Except she had always brushed that date aside. It was Saturday, and it wasn’t as if she planned on keeping up the transfer student act for an entire week. “Ashley, I-” It took a moment for her to find the words, “I have rent to pay! Job applications to submit. You can’t, umm . . . “ She was about to say ‘keep me here,’ but that made it sound like she was admitting that Ashley had the power to do just that. “I need to go home.”

Ashley sighed. “We’ve already been through this, Millie. You are home. Westridge is a boarding school, and this is your dorm room.”

But, not really! “Ashley, that’s not fair,” Amelia replied, sounding a little more whiny about it than she meant to, “You said-” She couldn’t actually remember what had been said at this point.

“I said that you need to develop physically and intellectually,” Ashley crossed her arms, “So. Here’s the deal. You are staying here for a full school week. Go to class, wear your uniform, and stay out of trouble. If you can manage that, I’ll know that you’re actually growing up properly. Do you understand?” Not waiting for a response, she went on, “But if I hear one more lie about how you’re not a student, or if you try another stupid escape like you did earlier . . . Trust me, Millie. Things can get a lot worse for you here if you keep acting as bratty and difficult as your file says you are.”