“He won’t let you leave Saint Lucas. He has some weird obsession with that school,” Jaxon told me.

“Huh?” I voiced out.

“I think it’s because he studied there or something,” Jaxon revealed.

“… what?” that was definitely a detail not revealed in the novel. 

‘Kenneth went to Saint Lucas?’

“I didn’t know that.”

“I could tell,” Jaxon snorted.

“But why wouldn’t he let me leave? There’s nothing he’ll be losing if that were to happen.”

Jaxon sighed.

“Putting dad aside, there’s something else you forgot. And that’s the scholarship that you won before you joined the school.”

My ears perked up at that. 

“The way it goes, the person signs a contract before they get the benefits. Do you remember the terms and conditions before signing it?"

I furrowed my eyebrows at that. Moreover, a sinking feeling began to develop in the pit of my stomach.

"No," I said, my eyes widening in horror as the possibility occurred to me. “Don’t tell me there’s a stupid clause that involves me paying them back--”

“There is,” Jaxon filled in. "From what I have heard, if you decide to leave Saint Lucas at any point during your studies, you will be charged for the amount spent on your behalf until the year you decide to leave."

“No…”

“You’ve stayed at the school for two years now. So that makes it about… 130.”

“Dollars?”

Jaxon gave me a pitiful look.

“It’s not 130 dollars… fuck.”

"Roughly around that amount. The debt can be taken over by the parents. But since yours are in jail and your current guardian is my dad, he’ll be stubborn about you leaving Saint Lucas. Which means you might as well kiss that idea goodbye.”

130K. That was the amount I would have to pay back to the school.

I felt like an object attached to another object by an inclined plane wrapped helically around an axis.

Screwed, basically.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said. “I’d rather go to public school. I wanted to go to public school. That would have been better than this crap I'm hearing!”

Jaxon remained quiet as I ranted.

“Can they do this? Can the school or whoever’s in charge of the scholarship really do this? Is it even legal?”

“It’s been going on for decades. Also, there hasn’t really been a case where someone wanted to leave the school early, since the scholarship covers the four years of high school and can even get you in college scot-free.”

‘Wait, what?’

"It even includes college tuition?"

“As long as you graduate high school with a good GPA. It covers dorm room and other fees that would be included in whatever college you choose. It’s just that good. Didn’t you know about this when you agreed to the scholarship?”

I could now see why the scholarship recipients did not question it much. I was even tempted to stay at Saint Lucas for free college.

However, I knew what lay ahead of me if I were to follow the novel's flow.

I sighed as I felt a headache coming on.

None of what I was hearing was revealed in the novel. I doubt it was considered important enough to be revealed in the first place. 

However, I should have known that the novel would not mention specific characters or go into detail as it primarily focused on the main characters. 

At that point, I wanted to curse Emma for not reading the fine print of the scholarship contract. The girl might not have read it. But, even if she did, I had a feeling she would still have signed it. Her parents would have even coerced her into it.

Especially because of the college part.

“So considering everything you’ve just told me, I will get… student debt?” I spoke to Jaxon, in complete and utter disbelief.

I wasn’t even in college yet, for Pete’s sake!

“Yeah?” Jaxon replied with an uneasy smile. 

‘What the fuck is this shit?’

“If it helps, I also didn’t want to go to Saint Lucas.”

That was something else I had not expected to hear. 

“Why not?” I asked.

“It’s boring, and also kind of predictable. Most rich kids go there too,” he shrugged.

A couple of seconds passed where neither of us said anything to each other. I could only decide on one thing.

“… I should just leave,” I said.

“Hey, I don't mean to be repetitive, but where will you go?” Jaxon inquired. “Where will you stay? Will you get a job to support yourself? And even if you manage to do that, will you be able to handle work and school at the same time?"

“I– Ugh,” I sounded, not knowing what to say because I hadn't thought that far yet.

“Emma, if you stop to think about it, you’ve endured half of high school so far. What’s wrong with going through another half?” he then said.

‘The other half will get me involved with the male lead.’

My mind felt jumbled at that point. I didn’t even know what to think about, or where to even start.

All I knew was, I had to go back to the drawing board. Planning to escape the flow of the novel was not going to be as easy as I had hoped it would be.

“Oh, I didn’t know it’s gotten this late,” Jaxon suddenly said, having checked the time on his phone. “Emma, please think about what I told you. You’ll realize and understand I’m right.”

I didn’t say anything to that.

Jaxon gave me a supportive look as he rose from his seat to head to his room. A maid appeared to swiftly take away the remaining plates on the dinner table, and I was soon left alone with my thoughts.