Lent Him Sunscreen; Man-Pleasing Advisor Punished Me

On the first day of the new term, I didn't want any special treatment, so I pushed through the discomfort of my condition and made my father drop me off for orientation drills.

That morning I noticed a male classmate whose skin had blistered from the sun, so without thinking I pulled the sunscreen spray out of my bag and handed it to him.

The girl standing next to me in the line went pale and opened her mouth, but before she could say anything

The advisor patrolling the field came charging straight at me.

"Bad character on the very first day, chatting up male students. Is this the kind of shameless behavior your family taught you to bring to school?"

The boy was about to speak up for me, but the advisor already had me by the hair and dragged me off to the office.

Forcing back the pain in my scalp, I explained,

"Ma'am, you've misunderstood. I don't even know this student. I just lent him my sunscreen spray."

I didn't expect it, but hearing that only wound her up more.

"Don't know him? First day and you're already flaunting yourself for a boy you don't even know. I really underestimated you!"

She slapped a withdrawal form down in front of me.

"I, Catherine Lambert, won't have a little slut like you in my class. Hurry up and drop out, before you offend my eyes any longer!"

I stared at this completely unreasonable advisor and actually laughed out of pure anger.

This withdrawal form? Even if I dared sign it, she wouldn't dare accept it.

...

I looked coldly at the withdrawal form tossed in front of me.

Running into something like this on the first day of school really did disgust me.

But there was no way I would take the fall for something I never did and drop out over it.

"I'm not signing this withdrawal form. This is slander."

Catherine Lambert was so infuriated by my attitude that she laughed, snapping out a string of "fine, fine, fine."

"Since a shameless thing like you insists on clinging on and refusing to leave, then I'll just have to call your parents to come take you away!"

She opened her computer and started pulling up my new-student file.

I frowned without meaning to.

It wasn't that I didn't want her to call my father.

It was that if my father found out about the scene she was making today, no one would be able to save her.

I was about to open my mouth to warn her when she looked at me with a cold sneer.

"What? Scared now?"

"Clearing out girls like you, who go around throwing themselves at boys, that's my duty as an educator!"

I looked at her smug, self-righteous face and rolled my eyes, done with it.

Someone like herthere was no telling how many female students she'd already hurt.

Well, since she'd run into me today, I'd see her off.

The call connected on the first ring. Catherine Lambert shot me an arrogant look and said into the phone,

"Is this Victoria Winfield's parent? Your daughter has been deliberately seducing male students at our school. After review, the school has decided to expel her. Come and take her home right now!"

"What?"

The voice on the other end asked back, disbelieving.

Catherine Lambert repeated it, smug all over again. "I said your daughter was seducing a male student, and I caught her at it. Come take her away immediately!"

"Our school is a century-old institution. We can't let one bad apple spoil the whole barrel!"

The line went silent for a good dozen seconds.

Just as Catherine Lambert was about to lose her patience, Chester Lambert's voice came through, strange in tone.

"Are you certain?"

"We're right near Ashford University at the moment. We can be there in about fifteen minutes."

It suddenly came back to me. When my father dropped me off that morning, he'd mentioned he was coming to inspect the universities in this area today.

No wonder his phone had been answered by his secretary, Chester.

Catherine Lambert rolled her eyes, all impatience.

"Of course I'm certain. What, you think I'd wrongly accuse her?"

"If you're not here within fifteen minutes, I'll announce what your daughter did to the whole school!"

Chester paused, and his voice turned grave.

"We'll be there within fifteen minutes. But until we arrive, you have no right whatsoever to lay a hand on this child."

"We'll be bringing the most professional team to investigate. And if you've falsely accused our child, we will not let this go."

The line went dead.

Catherine Lambert was thrown for a second by those few sentences.

Then she scoffed coldly.

"Your family's got quite the nerve."

"They want proof, don't they? I'll give them proof."

The cold, ugly look in her eyes told me right away that this was going wrong.

Out on the field, all I'd done was lend a classmate a can of sunscreen spray. That was nothing. It proved nothing.

But now it was clear Catherine Lambert meant to nail me to the wall.

While I was still processing it, she grabbed me and hauled me over to where the drills had been running.

Then she flung me down hard onto the sun-baked track.

The instant my palms hit the surface, the heat seared into my skin like a burn.

I cried out.

The classmates drilling nearby all turned to look.

She stamped her foot down viciously onto the back of my hand.

"Hurts?"

"Ground this soft, and you're crying like it hurt?"

"I think you're faking it on purpose, trying to get the boys and the instructor to look at you."

And with that, she ground her foot into the back of my hand, twisting hard.

The pain shot straight up into my skull.

I couldn't hold back. I threw out my other hand and shoved her off me.

She clearly hadn't expected me to fight back.

She froze for a beat, and then that wild, unhinged look flared up in her face again.

"I was going to leave you some dignity, and instead you dare to assault a teacher!"

Then she snatched the microphone straight out of the instructor's hand and turned it on every student on the field.

"One of the girls in our computer science department spent her very first day of school doing everything she could to seduce the boys!"

"This school has stood for a hundred years, and we will not tolerate someone with a corrupt heart like this!"

"After careful review, I, as your academic advisor, have decided this student is to be removed from the program."

"Except this student flatly denies she was seducing anyone. So whichever of you can provide evidence and help your teacher out, I'll max out your credits for the semester!"

Catherine's words set off a furious wave of muttering across the field.

Watching her shovel filth onto my head like that, I actually laughed.

I felt sorry that a school with a hundred-year name had a teacher like her.

"First, I would never be bored enough to seduce anyone."

"Second, you can't handle the consequences of framing me!"

Catherine was so furious it looked like steam was about to come off her head.

Her brows shot up and she lunged to claw at my mouth.

"You little slut, you still dare to threaten me."

"A shameless little fox, and you still put on airs in front of me. I'll tear that skin right off you!"

I frowned and clamped a hand around her wrist.

I looked at her like she was trash.

"I'm warning you. Don't lay a hand on me!"

In a few more minutes, she'd be banned from this profession for good anyway.

Easygoing as I am, I wasn't about to indulge a woman who threw tantrums and refused to listen to reason like this.

Being pinned by her own wrist in my grip drove her completely over the edge.

"You little slut! You drag the school's name through the mud and you still dare to threaten a teacher!"

"If you don't let go, I'll have campus security throw you out right now!"

Watching her put on that fierce front to cover her fear, I let out a cold laugh.

She hadn't expected me to be this strong.

It was obvious she knew she couldn't beat me, so now she wanted backup.

I was about to say something when her sharp eyes caught a red spot on my neck.

She lit up like she'd just discovered a whole new continent.

Jabbing a finger at my neck, she shrieked for everyone to hear:

"And she says she's innocent! What's that on your neck?!"

"So young and already this loose! I'm going to let the whole school see what you really are!"

With that, she lunged at me.

She tore at my training uniform with everything she had.

The jacket zipper broke under her hands, baring most of one shoulder.

To defend myself, I kicked her straight in the stomach.

Catherine, caught off guard, dropped to the ground.

Then she came at me again, wild with rage.

At that moment Chester came rushing up, seized Catherine's wrist, and shoved her back hard.

She hit the ground on her backside again.

Seeing Chester in his sharp suit, a flicker of caution crossed Catherine's face.

Before she could get a question out, Chester pulled out his card and held it in front of her.

"The dean's secretary?!"

The color drained from Catherine's face in an instant.

She pointed at me, trembling.

"She's your daughter?!"

Chester shook his head, furious.

"No. She's the dean's daughter!"

Catherine froze for a good few seconds.

Then she looked at Chester and me like we were a pair of clowns and burst out laughing.

"I have to say, if you're going to make up an identity, at least make it believable."

"You think I scare that easy?"

"The dean looks like he's barely in his thirties. How could he have a kid almost twenty years old?!"

"And you, actually dragging your daughter around to impersonate the new dean!"

Hearing Catherine's little theory, the students down below started pulling out their phones and searching.

When they saw a photo of my father, they looked at me with the same contempt.

"Back in school someone pretended to be an official's kid too. Never thought I'd run into it again in college!"

"If her dad's really the university dean, why wouldn't he come himself?"

Hearing the students, Catherine looked at me with a sneer of her own.

"I remember I'm the one who called your dad."

"You can't produce the real thing, so you dig up some so-called secretary to con me?"

"You think pretending to be the university dean's daughter means I won't expel you today?!"

I looked at this crowd of self-righteous people and sighed, at a loss for words.

That photo online was taken by my father more than ten years ago, so of course he looked young.

Catherine thought she'd caught me red-handed with something huge.

Smug all over, she pulled out her phone and called the dean's office.

"You shameless little tramp, this time I'll leave you with nowhere to run!"

"Impersonating the dean. You and that idiot dad of yours can get ready to rot in a cell!"

The call connected.

Catherine's face slid into something fawning at once.

She bowed and scraped down the line, spilling the whole story to whoever had picked up.

When she finished, the person on the other end paused.

I spoke up right away.

"My name is Victoria Winfield. I'm nineteen, a computer science student here at Ashford, and the only daughter of your dean, Timothy Winfield."

Catherine clapped a hand over the receiver and snarled at me.

"You dare keep spouting nonsense!"

"Today I've done the school a favor rooting out a shameless little slut like you, and I've dug out a fraud passing herself off as the dean's daughter!"

"Victoria, you've really handed me a gift."

Chester stood off to the side, his face darkening, and just as he stepped forward to snap at her I put out a hand and stopped him.

The voice came back down the line.

Catherine listened, then bobbed her head, agreeing over and over.

When she hung up, she turned to me, smug all over her face.

"They said it themselves. The dean's already nearby, doing an inspection right by our department."

"They've told him in person, and he says he's coming here himself."

I watched her practically bouncing, unable to hide her excitement, and gave a calm little nod.

"I'd like to see exactly how you earn this promotion and raise of yours today."

Before long a group of men in suits came walking up from the far end.

At the front, the year-level coordinator bent slightly at the waist, his face nearly splitting from smiling.

When he took in the scene on the field, he froze for a second.

Then he turned on Catherine, displeasure written all over him.

"Ms. Lambert, what is going on here?"

Catherine trotted forward at once.

"Sir, you don't know the half of it. There's a girl in my class who was seducing a male student on the very first day of school. Her private life is a complete mess."

"She and that idiot father of hers even had the nerve to impersonate the dean and the dean's only daughter!"

The coordinator's expression changed sharply.

He gave a cold snort and started to order her to handle it strictly.

But the man standing in front of Catherine didn't spare her so much as a glance.

The moment he saw me, he strode straight over.

Seeing that my clothes were more or less in order, he let out a breath without thinking.

Then his face went hard as he turned to Catherine, who was creeping along behind him.

"Weren't you the one saying my daughter's private life was a mess, that you were calling her parent in?"

"I'm her parent. Whatever you've got, say it to me."