Free Stay With Me by Elyssa Patrick Page B

moment as she finds what she’s searching for. “Ah. There it is.”
    My grip tightens, but I try to not show it. This can’t be good. It’s never good when you’re called to speak to a teacher after class. Even I know that, and I’ve never been in a real class until college. “Oh.”
    “Your paper on Socrates.”
    Ugh. That.
    “How bad is it?” I brace myself for bad news. “Did I even pass?”
    “You got a F.” She holds the paper out to me, and I wince seeing the red inked F.
    An F is horrible. An F is a failing grade. An F is not going to help with my GPA or doing anything for me.
    “It seems you are having a . . .” Professor Clark hesitates a moment. “A difficult time with this particular coursework.”
    “I’m still adjusting.” I know it’s a pitiful excuse, even if it is the truth. “I’m trying to do better, I swear. It’s just . . .”
    “You’re overwhelmed.”
    I frown at that. “Not overwhelmed. I’m not that. I can handle this.”
    “October is a week away, and with that, mid-terms are around the corner.” Professor Clark’s dark brown eyes are shadowed behind her round-framed glasses. “And your work hasn’t been up to par with other students.”
    “Are you saying I’m the only one struggling?” I find that hard to believe; I cross my arms across my chest, the messenger bag sliding with the movement. “Or are you just trying to make a point with me?”
    “Well, Hailey, the truth is, you are famous, and that you’ve had things easily handed to you. You’ve never had to work at anything until now.”
    I draw back, feeling as if I’ve been slapped across my face. “You don’t know anything about me. I know my stuff isn’t as good as everyone else’s. I know who I used to be, but I’m done with that part of my life. I’m a student.”
    Professor Clark holds the paper out to me. “Then start acting like one.”

    P ROFESSOR CLARK’S WORDS ARE STILL burning a deep path of anger in me. They were harsh words, unflinchingly so, and perhaps even crossed a line. But how many other people are just like Professor Clark? How many other professors feel the same way as she does? That I’m famous, had it easy, and am just coasting by?
    I know other students are probably in the same boat as I am—in that they’re struggling with adjustment to college life. But because of my name and how famous I am, I’m being held to a standard most don’t have to meet. Or worry about.
    Maybe it’s unfair for me to think like that, but I can’t help it. But since that’s how it is, I have to deal with it. And fight against the preconceived notions the professors have about me.
    Yes, acting, singing, and dancing did come easy to me. Natural as breathing to me, but I also worked every day at it. I became better with each role, and it’s why my mother/former manager believed from the time I was six and had my first Broadway role that I was destined for winning Oscars, and getting an EGOT, as I had won a few Grammys and Emmy awards by the time I was fourteen.
    But I still worked at my career, because my mother wanted me to be the best—because, at the time, I wanted to be the best and earn my mother’s love.
    I don’t want to be in Hollywood anymore. I don’t want to go on tours and perform for hundreds of thousands of peoples. I don’t want to turn on the radio and hear a song of mine playing or get in yet another argument with record executives about the direction of my career.
    I don’t want to be famous.
    I just want to be able to walk into a room and not have anyone notice me. I just want to be like everyone else, to never have had to deal with paparazzi stalking my every move and rifling through garbage to get the latest gossip. I don’t want to break up with a guy and then see the headlines on papers or read interviews about it. And I never want to read an article again where my turning eighteen was celebrated because I was “officially legal.”
    Ugh. Disgusting.
    But it is