Home / I Dropped Out For Forty-Three Dollars / Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

All Chapters of I Dropped Out For Forty-Three Dollars: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

8 Chapters

Chapter 1

The day my hearing aid ran out of battery, my math class teacher, Anna Wood, called me three times. I did not hear any single one of them. I only looked up after someone poked my back from behind with a pen.The entire class was staring at me. Mrs. Wood slammed her book against the desk. “Zoe, if you don’t want to pay attention, you can leave.” I touched the hearing aid on my ear. The indicator light was not on. I had already finished my last spare batteries last week. The convenience store was selling one pack for twenty dollars. I had stood before the rack counting in my head for a really long time before leaving without buying it.My nanny, Nancy Andrew, had told me that the electricity bill had gone up this month, and that it would have to be deducted from my living expenses. “Mrs. Wood, her hearing aid ran out of battery.”The classmate seated behind me explained on my behalf. Someone seated at the front of the class laughed. “She’s wearing a hearing aid t

Chapter 2

The next morning, I had my period. I only had one tampon left in the cabinet. After I put it in, I gave Nancy a call. She did not pick up the first time, and she hung up the second time. Then, she sent me a voice message. [You called to ask for money to buy food yesterday. Today, you’re calling again for money to buy things!][How can you be so careless with money?][If you’re requesting more money, I’ll be deducting it from your next month’s allowance.]I asked if she could transfer me twenty dollars. Then, she sent me another bill. My father gave me two thousand dollars every month. Four hundred dollars were deducted for rent and utilities. Another two hundred dollars was deducted for transportation fees. There were also miscellaneous deductions like my student card top-up, laundry, and room cleaning. After all the deductions, I had no allowance left. However, the school’s utility bill was included in my monthly rent amount. I took the bus every single da

Chapter 3

On Friday morning, my hearing aid stopped functioning. I took out the old batteries and tried to clean them. Then, I put them back. The indicator light flashed and dimmed very quickly. There was an English listening test this morning. When the speakers played, I could only hear some buzzing noises. After all the questions were played, my paper was still empty. The English teacher, Jane Spencer, stopped at my desk. “Why aren’t you answering?”I pointed at my ear. “My hearing aid ran out of battery.” “The exams were announced a week ago. Didn’t you prepare spare batteries?”I did not answer. This examination carried weight in the total course grade.She marked me an F. “Zoe, you can’t always use your health as an excuse.”Her statement made me feel worse than being scolded. During class, Mrs. Anderson brought me the expulsion letter. “Today is the due date.“If the outstanding fees are not paid, you’ll have to move out by next Monday.”I asked, “Can you gi

Chapter 4

When I was brought to the office, Lilian was already there. I had not seen her for six years, and she had lost a lot of weight. Her hair was messy from the wind, and she had even missed a button on her coat. When she saw me, she immediately looked at my hearing aid. “Zoe.”I could not hear her clearly. I could only see her lips moving. She wanted to touch my face. I took a step back. Lilian’s hand froze mid-air. Someone opened the door. Gloria walked in with the parcel that had been taken away by Nancy. The down jacket was still in the box, but there were only five boxes of batteries left. She placed the box onto the table. “Why were these things at Nancy’s place?”I looked at her. “Didn’t you ask her to take them away?”Gloria looked shocked. “Why would I take them back?”“Because you’re afraid that I’ll covet the Johnson family’s money.” She stared at me intently. “Who told you that?”No one answered. Mrs. Anderson placed the overdue bill and ex

Chapter 5

When Peter walked in, he looked angry. “Why can’t the school contact me first?“Why did you have to ask both of them to come over?”Lilian held up the twelve transaction slips. “Peter, you told me that you had passed the card to Zoe.”Gloria also stared at him. “You said that Zoe was not willing to accept me, so the money had to be saved to her original account.”Peter stopped in his tracks. He looked at the transaction slips and the bank account. Then, he finally looked at me. “Zoe, what did you tell them?”He sounded exactly like he did on the phone. He did not ask why there were outstanding bills. Neither did he ask when the last time I changed my batteries was. He was just afraid of me talking about something that would rat him out. Mrs. Anderson passed him the overdue bill. “Mr. Johnson, due to the outstanding fees, she was almost expelled today.“She only had six dollars left on her student card.“In order to save up twenty dollars, she hasn’t bought ne

Chapter 6

Before the police arrived, Peter struggled to explain himself. He claimed that his company had run into some cash flow issues last year, and that he was only using the money to help him patch it through. He promised to transfer all the money back to me after gaining profit from that project.Lilian asked, “How much did you take?”Peter said, “I can’t remember.”Lilian immediately called the bank. That bank account was opened when I was eight. It belonged to me. As my guardian, Peter had both my bank card and password.Every month, Lilian would transfer fifty grand to my card. Initially, Gloria saved the money in the bank account she had opened for me. Then, three months later, my father said it was hard to manage separate accounts for me, so he asked her to transfer the money to my original bank account. It had been six years. Seventy-two months. They had given me a bit more than seven million dollars. When the bank gave the transaction history, Peter was sile

Chapter 7

Peter and Nancy were brought back to the police station for investigation. Before they left, Peter was still staring at me. “Zoe, I’m your father.“You’re throwing me behind bars; do you think this will benefit you?”I did not answer. He only claimed to be my father whenever he needed me to listen to him. The police officer asked me a lot of questions. He asked when Nancy started to take care of me, and how much money I received. He also asked if I had seen the bank card before, and if I had ever used those expensive items. I passed my phone to them. It had all the deductions and bills that Nancy had sent me. There were also records of Nancy’s refusal to transfer money to me.Ten dollars for a meal. Twenty dollars for tampons. Twenty dollars for batteries. The highest amount I ever asked was three hundred dollars. I had a high fever and wanted to go to the hospital. Nancy had answered, [We’ve overspent our budget this month. Just bear with it.]That day,

Chapter 8

Three months later, everything finally came to an end. After Peter transferred my money to his company account, he forged transaction records for Lilian and Gloria. He showed them that I bought new clothes every month and spent thirty grand on therapy. He also lied that he had spent hundreds of thousands on my hearing aid. Besides, he quoted a dozen outstation treatments that I had not been to. Some of that money went to his company. Some other money was used to buy Nancy’s car and house. Then the rest was distributed between the two of them. Nancy sold Gloria’s gifts. The remaining items that she could not sell, she used for her family. When her son went overseas, he took the laptop and luggage that were supposed to be mine. The house and car were seized for investigation. My money was also traced and returned to me. Peter’s company was also under investigation for their accounting discrepancies. Gloria divorced him. Lilian submitted her request for a cha

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