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One Hundred Reasons To Leave My Mother
One Hundred Reasons To Leave My Mother
Author: Eternity

Chapter 1

Author: Eternity
I walked into the classroom holding my AP Statistics midterm.

A bright red 98 was written in the upper-right corner. Beneath it, Mom had added:

Carelessness is not an excuse.

My classmates immediately began whispering.

“Sophie got punished again, just because she didn’t get a perfect score.”

“Her mom is the grade dean and teaches her Statistics. If she still can’t get a hundred with every advantage, whose fault is that?”

Olivia rolled her eyes.

“If my mom told me what to study before every test, I could get a ninety-eight too.”

I tightened my grip on the paper and said nothing.

Mom had never revealed a single test question to me. To avoid appearing biased, she would not even let me attend her after-school review sessions.

Ten minutes earlier, she had called me into the glass-walled Student Services office.

Everyone passing through the hallway could see inside.

Mom projected my test onto the screen and enlarged the multiple-choice question I had missed.

“How did you get something this simple wrong?”

“I overlooked one of the conditions.”

“Carelessness is not an excuse.”

She opened the door and called in several other students who had missed the same question.

“Take a look at Sophie’s test. Even though she’s my daughter, I will not lower my standards for her.”

They stared at me. Some looked sympathetic. Others tried not to laugh.

Mom pushed a lunch detention notice across the desk.

“For the next week, you’ll spend every lunch period in here redoing the entire test.”

I looked at her.

“What about the others?”

Her expression hardened instantly.

“Are you questioning my decision?”

“Why am I the only one being punished?”

“Because you’re my daughter.”

She spoke slowly, emphasizing every word.

“Everyone is watching to see whether I’ll favor you. You have to do better than the other students, and you have to accept harsher consequences.”

Just then, Olivia walked in.

She had scored an eighty-seven. During the test, the proctor had also found several statistics formulas written on the back of her water bottle label.

Under Westbridge policy, that should have counted as cheating.

“Dean Hart, I wrote those formulas while I was studying last night. I forgot to remove the label.”

Olivia lowered her head, her eyes quickly filling with tears.

Mom’s voice immediately softened.

“I know you’ve been under a lot of pressure with Student Council. This time, you’ll receive a warning. Don’t let it happen again.”

“Thank you for believing me.”

Olivia took the bottle and smiled at me.

Believing her.

She had brought formulas into an exam, yet Mom was willing to believe she had simply forgotten about them.

I had scored a ninety-eight, but Mom needed to humiliate me in public to prove how impartial she was.

As I left the office, I heard someone whisper,

“Dean Hart is really strict with her daughter.”

Another student laughed.

“She should be. Sophie gets every advantage. There’s no excuse for her not to get a perfect score.”

Mom heard them, but she said nothing.

Back at my desk, I pulled a palm-sized notebook from my backpack.

It contained a record of everything that had happened over the past few years.

Picked up a classmate’s calculator. Received a conduct notice for disrupting testing conditions.

Ate a protein bar when my blood sugar dropped. Spent a week in the glass office during lunch.

Olivia lost the assignment log. Mom blamed me for not reminding her to bring it.

I added a new entry.

Scored a ninety-eight on the AP Statistics midterm. Wrong answer displayed in front of other students. One week of lunch detention.

Then I wrote:

99.

Mom had used me to prove her impartiality ninety-nine times.

One more, and I would take this notebook to the school board, transfer out of her class, and move into the apartment my father had left me.

In a few months, I would leave Westbridge Academy for good and go somewhere no one knew Dean Hart—or assumed I had been given every advantage because I was her daughter.

“You’re actually keeping track?”

Olivia was suddenly standing beside my desk.

“You have a grade dean for a mother and private tutoring all summer, and you still couldn’t get a perfect score.”

A few students nearby laughed.

She leaned down and lowered her voice.

“Dean Hart treats me more like a daughter than she treats you. You’re just the tool she uses to prove she’s fair.”

I finally looked up at her.

“Are you so desperate to steal my mother because your own didn’t want you?”

Olivia’s smile disappeared.

Her mother had left when she was four and had never come back. Everyone at Westbridge knew it.

“Say that again.”

“No wonder you’re always trying to steal someone else’s mother.”

Her face flushed red.

“You’re going to regret that, Sophie.”

She turned and walked out of the classroom.

She would go straight to Mom, cry, and twist everything I had said.

Before, that would have frightened me.

This time, I simply put the notebook back into my bag.

Ninety-nine.

Maybe Olivia was about to help me reach one hundred.
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  • One Hundred Reasons To Leave My Mother   Chapter 10

    At the police station, Margaret gave a statement that lasted nearly four hours.She described the exam, the lunch detention, the forced apology, the false accusation, and the moment she learned Sophie was innocent. She admitted she had refused to restore her daughter’s Honor Society membership because protecting her reputation mattered more than clearing Sophie’s name.She did not ask the detectives to leave anything out.When she finished, she returned to Westbridge and placed her resignation on the principal’s desk.Classes were changing, but the hallways were unnaturally quiet. News of Sophie’s fall had spread overnight.Students stepped aside when Margaret passed.“Is Sophie going to die?”“Olivia pushed her.”“Dean Hart knew Sophie was innocent.”Each whisper followed her to the AP Statistics classroom.Sophie’s seat was empty. The surface had been wiped clean, and her name was still taped inside the corner of the desk.Margaret stood in the doorway for a long time.She did not gi

  • One Hundred Reasons To Leave My Mother   Chapter 9

    The operating-room doors opened just before dawn.Dr. Price looked exhausted. “We controlled the internal bleeding and removed the hematoma. Sophie survived the surgery.”Margaret’s knees gave out with relief.Then the doctor continued.“The injury to her brain is extensive. The next seventy-two hours are critical, and even if she stabilizes, we don’t know when or whether she will regain consciousness. If she wakes, she may face serious neurological impairment.”Survived.The word should have felt like salvation. Instead, it came wrapped in may never wake.When the ICU allowed a brief visit, Margaret stood beside Sophie’s bed without touching her. Tubes and wires covered the girl she had expected to sit quietly through lunch detention the next day.“Sophie, I’m here.”Sophie’s eyes did not move.Margaret curled her fingers into her palms. “You were trying to protect yourself. You were going to the board, and I called it an attack on my career.”The ventilator answered for Sophie.“I kn

  • One Hundred Reasons To Leave My Mother   Chapter 8

    The red light above the trauma operating room burned for hours.Margaret sat outside with the principal and one of the school board members. No one tried to comfort her.Shortly after midnight, a trauma surgeon came through the double doors.“I’m Dr. Price. Are you Sophie Hart’s mother?”Margaret stood so quickly that the chair struck the wall. “Yes. Is she alive?”“She is, but her condition is critical. She has an acute subdural hematoma, a lacerated spleen, a severe lung contusion, and an unstable pelvic fracture. We need to operate immediately to control the bleeding and relieve pressure on her brain.”Margaret gripped the back of the chair. “Will she wake up?”“I can’t answer that yet. Tonight, our job is to keep her alive.”A nurse handed Margaret a consent packet, but before she could sign, a hospital social worker approached with a folder from the school nurse.“Mrs. Hart, because Sophie is a minor and this injury occurred during an alleged assault, we’re required to complete a

  • One Hundred Reasons To Leave My Mother   Chapter 7

    Sophie lay on the asphalt between two parked cars.A campus security officer knelt beside her, keeping her neck still while a teacher held a folded jacket over the blood near her head. Sophie’s eyes were closed, and her left arm rested at an angle that made Margaret stop breathing.“Sophie!”She dropped beside Sophie, but the security officer blocked her hands. “Don’t touch her. The paramedics are almost here.”“I’m her mother.” Margaret’s voice broke. “She gets low blood sugar. There should be glucose tablets in her bag. Please, she needs—”“Right now, we need to keep her still and breathing.”The ambulance turned into the lot. Paramedics rushed over with a trauma board and oxygen, forcing everyone back.Margaret stood a few feet away, shaking so hard that the principal had to hold her upright.One paramedic checked Sophie’s pupils while another cut open the sleeve that had torn on the terrace. They spoke in clipped phrases that Margaret could not understand.“Four-story fall.”“Unequ

  • One Hundred Reasons To Leave My Mother   Chapter 6

    For one second, Margaret Hart didn’t move.She remained on her knees beside the broken railing, staring into the empty space where Sophie had been.One of the security stills fluttered against the yellow caution tape.“Sophie?”Her voice was barely audible.Olivia backed away, both hands pressed to her mouth. “I didn’t mean to—she slipped.”Mason grabbed her arm. “The railing broke. That wasn’t our fault.”Margaret turned toward them so slowly that everyone fell silent.She had seen Olivia shove Sophie.She had seen the torn sleeve, the stolen notebook, and the evidence scattered across the terrace.But the last thing Sophie had heard from her mother was an order to back down.“Sophie, let go of Olivia.”The principal and the two board members reached the terrace entrance. One of them looked over the edge and immediately called emergency services.The other board member ordered campus security to seal the terrace and keep every student there. Mason tried to step toward the door, but a

  • One Hundred Reasons To Leave My Mother   Chapter 5

    Olivia rushed into the office, snatched the security stills and my notebook from the floor, and ran.Mom started to stop her, but the principal and two school board members appeared in the doorway.She stopped.I didn’t.I chased Olivia through the library and onto the terrace overlooking the parking lot.Mason and two other students were waiting for her.Olivia immediately handed him my notebook.“She’s going to use this to destroy us.”Mason flipped through several pages. Along with the record of all one hundred times Mom had punished me, the notebook held my library records and stills from the security footage.“Give it back.”Mason blocked my path.“If you admit you were the girl in the equipment room, Olivia and I won’t lose our college recommendations.”“So you decided to destroy me instead?”I reached for the notebook.In the struggle, my sleeve tore and the notebook fell to the ground. The wind caught the appeal documents inside and scattered them across the terrace.I managed

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