Chelsea pov
Three weeks had passed since the hallway, and my life had shrunk down to the exact dimensions of this house.
Homeschooling now, a tutor arriving twice a week, my mother hovering close enough that I'd started measuring the distance between us in feet rather than rooms. My phone sat in a basket by the front door every evening, some agreement she'd worked out with the lawyer, monitored, restricted, a leash disguised as concern.
The hearing was still pending. No formal charges yet, though the word "possible" kept attaching itself to every conversation my mother had on the phone in the next room, low and careful, like I couldn't hear every word through the thin walls anyway.
Expelled. Officially, permanently, a mark that would follow any future application I ever filled out agai
