The Garden

by Amy Sparling

  “Or maybe I’m in huge freaking trouble.” I heave a sigh and open my closet, pulling out a Shelfbrooke uniform.

  “What are you doing?” Belle asks.

  “I’m going to go face my fate.” My shower and nap and cake for breakfast will just have to wait. There’s no way I could enjoy those things with this mysterious email from the dean hanging over my head. I tug on my uniform and brush my hair and give Belle a weak smile.

  Then I walk to the front office.

  Ms. Bev’s blonde bun is tight and neatly tied on top of her head. She smiles warmly at me, and I wonder if it’s just an act, or maybe she miles like this at everyone.

  “I’m here to see the dean,” I say, drumming my fingers on the counter. “He, uh, emailed me asking me to stop by.”

  “Of course,” she says, glancing at her computer. “I think he’s free right now.”

  I walk on shaky legs as I step past the three chairs that sit just outside Dean Thomas’ office. The door is mostly closed, the frosted glass panel making it impossible to see inside. I step up and knock lightly on the glass.

  “Come in,” a deep male voice says.

  I swallow. I’ve never been to a real school before. I’ve always heard of the phrase ‘getting sent to the principal’s office’ but I didn’t realize how scary it would be to experience it in real life. Plus Dean Thomas is a dean, not a principal, and I’m pretty sure that makes this whole situation even scarier. If he kicks me out now, I’ll have nowhere to go. My mom would just love it if I had to come crawling back to her.

  The Dean is wearing a crisp suit with the Shelfbrooke Academy crest embroidered on his blazer. He’s not terribly tall, but he has a commanding presence. His salt and pepper hair makes him look slightly older than he probably is.

  “Ms. Sophia Brass, I assume?”

  I swallow. “How did you know?”

  I glance at his computer, but the screen is facing away from me so I have no idea what it says. “You opened my email five minutes ago.”

  I nod and draw in a breath. “Good ol’ email read receipts.”

  “Have a seat,” he says. I drop into the chair across from his desk. The window behind him shows a picturesque view of the campus grounds. It feels mean to have such a beautiful sight in the office where I’m assuming a lot of students get handed punishments for breaking the rules.

  Dean Thomas props his elbows on his desk, lacing his fingers together. He takes a long time to talk. I’m guessing it’s some administration scare tactic they teach in graduate school.

  “Ms. Brass, you’ve had quite an adventure lately.”

  “I have?” I say, because what else am I supposed to say?

  He nods once. “I have never seen a student hide out in the gardens to avoid being taken out of this school.”

  Chills slither down my spine. “You knew?”

  His smile makes him look… impressed?

  “Of course,” he says. He taps his keyboard. “All devices connected to the Shelfbrooke Wi-Fi have GPS capabilities, as well as student log in information. When your mother burst into my offices unannounced, accusing me of losing one of my own students because the student was not in her dorm room, I was concerned. I did a little research and found you and another student, your roommate, logged in and located somewhere in the gardens.”

  It feels like a knife has been shoved straight into my heart. He knew my location. He knows my secret garden. This is a nightmare.

  “Why didn’t you come get me?” I ask, my voice weak.

  He chuckles. “Those gardens are huge. As long as you and your cousin were safe, I didn’t see the reason to send a search party. The GPS is only accurate to within hundred meters, anyway.”

  “Oh.” I breathe the biggest sigh of relief of my life. He doesn’t know my garden. He didn’t even come looking for me. “Thank you,” I say, realizing these past few days could have gone a lot differently.

  “You are quite welcome, Ms. Brass.”

  “Am I in trouble?” I ask.

  “You have straight A’s and nearly perfect attendance,” he says. “Plus I hear you are taking good care of another student who has been confined to her room for three years. Your aunt has said nothing but great things about you. So no, you are not in trouble.”

  I burst into the biggest grin possible. “Thank you, sir.”

  “One more thing,” he says, standing up and walking me to the door. “There are just a few weeks left of school. Please stay in your dorm and abide by curfew for the rest of them.”

  “Yes, sir,” I say. “I will.”

  Epilogue

  It’s graduation day at Shelfbrooke Academy. Declan and I meet in the gardens right at dawn to watch the sunrise in our favorite place. I can’t believe we’ve kept our secret romance a secret so well. Word on Knight Watch is that Chad Stokes got arrested for selling prescription pills. He lost his acceptance into Harvard, and now he’s scrambling to do something with his life because his parent’s money can only get him out of trouble so many times. I’d like to say that I feel sorry for him, but I don’t.

  The great thing about graduating high school is that we can all move on with our lives. The whole world is opened to us now.

  “I kind of wish we weren’t graduating,” Declan says. We’re sitting on a blanket on the plush grass of our garden, me leaning against his chest. He props himself up with one hand and runs the other hand through my hair.

  “Why on earth would you say that?” I tease. “Getting out of high school is the best thing ever. And I only had to do it for a few months. I don’t know how the rest of you survived four years of it.”

  He chuckles. “I’m going to miss the garden, that’s all.”

  “Babe.” I sit up and put my hands on his shoulders. “If you think I am above breaking and entering, you are so wrong.”

  His gorgeous face crinkles in confusion. “What?”

  “I already have a plan, you see. You know that gate that leads to the street outside of campus?”

  “Yes…”

  I wiggle my eyebrows. “I shoved a piece of cardboard into the lock.”

  “What!” Declan’s eyes are as blue as the tulips beside us. “Are you sure we can get away with this?”

  I shrug. “It’s just temporary. Until we both get summer jobs as gardeners. Then we can come and go as we please.”

  Declan sighs. “That’s impossible, Sophia. The company only hired me because of my grandfather. Now that I’m graduating, my job is gone.”

  I shake my head. I’ve waited several days to be able to tell him this good news. I’ve been saving it for the perfect moment, and this feels like it.

  My life has changed a lot in the last few weeks. My mom apologized, for one. She called me up and said she had met a new yoga teacher who made her realize that she’d been too harsh on me. She’s still upset that I didn’t want to be her pet perfect daughter in Africa, but she and I are on speaking terms again, which is a good thing. I do love my parents, even if they have different lives than I do.

  And while I told my mom I didn’t want my trust fund because I wanted to pursue my life on my own terms without the help of money, she wasn’t having it. She said she’d earmark the money for me later in my life, when I’d “come around” as she put it, and want my inheritance again.

  So I came up with a compromise.

  I asked her to buy the landscaping contract for the gardens.

  A few lawyer phone calls later, and Mom assured me it was done. Now my dad’s company is in control of the school’s famous gardens, and the first thing he’s going to do is hire Declan’s family back to run it full time.

  I tell Declan the good news and he watches me in awe, his jaw hanging open slightly. “Money really does solve a lot of problems,” he says.

  I laugh. “I hope you don’t mind. I told them I’d like my inheritance in the form of a landscaping company. Dad said when I graduate college, he’ll make me the VP of his newly formed company, Brass Landscaping,”
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  Declan’s arm wraps around my waist. “So I’m going to be working for my girlfriend?” he says, grinning as he kisses my cheek.

  “I was thinking we could run it together. Be like dual CEO’s or something.”

  “Sounds fun,” he says, leaning so close, I can feel his breath on my ear. “Now our garden can be ours forever.”

  I grin. “That’s the plan.”

  Declan takes my face in his hands. The morning sunlight brings out the amber in his hair, and the sparkles in his eyes. “This place is magic,” he says, tipping my face up until my lips meet his. “You are magic,” he breathes against my lips.

  A soft flutter in my heart makes me smile. I didn’t know it was possible to be this happy.

  We both turn as the soft sound of knocking interrupts our mushy love fest. “Sophia? Are you in here?” It’s Belle’s voice.

  “Yes,” I call out, scrambling to my feet. She’d been asleep when I left this morning.

  The door opens up and my cousin steps into our garden, wearing her black and silver graduation gown. “I thought you’d be here.”

  “Did you walk here all by yourself?”

  She nods. “I did. And I’m going to walk at graduation, too.”

  Belle has made a lot of progress lately. We walk up and down the hallway in our dorm every day, and we’ve gone outside a few times, too. We even passed by two students the other day and Belle didn’t have an anxiety attack.

  “Are you sure?” I ask. “We’re going to be surrounded by people.”

  “Yes,” Belle says confidently. “Because I’ve got this.” She gestures to her graduation gown.

  “Everyone will be wearing the same thing,” Declan says in understanding.

  “Yep,” Belle agrees. “I’ll be just another graduating student in a sea of other black and silver gowns. No one will notice me. And I’ll be okay.”

  “I think we’ll all be okay,” I say.

  Declan puts an arm around my shoulders. “I told you this place was magic.”

  Thanks for reading!

  If you loved The Garden, please take a minute to leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Reviews are essential to an author’s success.

  And make sure to check out the next installment of the Shelfbrooke Academy series!

  Love Lessons

  Don’t miss the next book in the Shelfbrooke Academy series: Love Letters by Daphne James Huff!

  One semester. No distractions.

  Simple, right?

  On the verge of winning the biggest literary prize at Shelfbrooke, Rex swears off all girls and parties, and prepares for a distraction-free semester.

  It's the perfect plan.

  But when his grades aren't good enough to participate in the contest, he ends up in tutoring with the new exchange student.

  Zara's been banished to a boring boarding school in America to work on her English.

  She's willing to do whatever it takes to get back to France as soon as possible--even if it means teaming up with the one guy who wants nothing to do with her.

  But as the weeks go by and feelings grow, will he realize some things are more important than winning before time runs out?

  Get Love Lessons here!

  About the Author

  Amy Sparling is the bestselling author of books for teens and the teens at heart. She lives on the coast of Texas with her family, her spoiled rotten pets, and a huge pile of books. She graduated with a degree in English and has worked at a bookstore, coffee shop, and a fashion boutique. Her fashion skills aren't the best, but luckily she turned her love of coffee and books into a writing career that means she can work in her pajamas. Her favorite things are coffee, book boyfriends, and Netflix binges.

  She's always loved reading books from R. L. Stine's Fear Street series, to The Baby Sitter's Club series by Ann, Martin, and of course, Twilight. She started writing her own books in 2010 and now publishes several books a year. Amy loves getting messages from her readers and responds to every single one! Connect with her on one of the links below.

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