America 1982-Chapter 53 - 10: The Reluctant Principal_2

Tommy Hawk looked toward Ottilia and said to the principal, "We need to confirm some information first, Mr. Principal, then we can judge whether it’s true. Please give Miss Farell and me ten minutes."

The two left the principal’s office and returned to Ottilia’s office.

Tommy shared his conjecture with Ottilia.

"Are you saying that I’m deluding myself? That my godfather actually didn’t help us?" Ottilia’s eyes widened. "Is that what you concluded from Dennis’s remark?"

Tommy Hawk nodded. "I think so, at least it’s more than a 50% chance, maybe even 55% or 60%? You’re deluding yourself, just as you did back then."

"Are you saying my godfather only has 40% love for me?" Ottilia glanced at Tommy with dissatisfaction.

Tommy tilted his head toward the phone on the desk. "Make a call to your father or your godfather, and we’ll know how much they love you."

"Tommy, I think you’re being disrespectful to my godfather, and I’ve called before. Although they didn’t admit it, we can’t find any other reason," Ottilia said, though she sounded displeased, she still picked up the phone and dialed her godfather’s number.

An unemotional female voice came from the other end of the line: "This is the Rhode Island State Director of Public Education’s office."

"Oh..." Ottilia, sounding a bit nervous, covered the receiver and whispered to Tommy, "This is the first time I’m calling him during work hours."

"Miss?" the voice on the phone followed up.

Releasing her hand from the receiver, Ottilia said, "I’m Ottilia Farell, college enrollment adviser at Warwick City’s Lincoln High School, I would like to speak with Mr. Frank Chafee."

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No."

"Is this call for official or personal matters?"

"Personal."

"I’m afraid Mr. Frank Chafee is unavailable to take your call at the moment. He flew to Switzerland earlier today with the Secretary of State for a week-long visit. I can take down your number and inform him upon his return," the voice explained.

"Alright, thank you." Ottilia hung up the phone and looked toward Tommy Hawk, "He’s gone abroad with the Secretary of State."

"But I can still call my father. I feel that if my godfather had helped me, he would surely know," Ottilia mused and then, after telling Tommy, dialed another number.

Soon, a gentle female voice came through: "This is the office of the President of Oceanline Shipping."

"Daisy? It’s Ottilia." Upon hearing the voice, Ottilia spoke, "Is my father there?"

"Of course, he’s looking at documents, but I think he won’t refuse a call from Miss Farell, Mr. Farrell, your daughter is on the line, line one." After connecting the call, the secretary disconnected her own line.

"You rarely call during my work hours, Ottilia, what’s the matter?" Father’s voice came through quickly on the other end of the phone, accompanied by the sound of flipping through papers.

Ottilia said, "I know you’re working, Daddy, but I have something I need to figure out now, I... I sent a proposal to my godfather’s office a few days ago."

"Then you did not give that high school student a chance for a deal as you said you would, right? You didn’t make any changes and sent it directly to your godfather. Yes, he called to ask me about it earlier, and I’m sorry the deal wasn’t completed, but your godfather said he could still offer some necessary support. After all, Lincoln High School is too stingy. I’m sorry I didn’t admit it last time you asked me. I thought, since you didn’t do as I said, I didn’t want to spoil your and the students’ enthusiasm," Farrell said while flipping through documents.

"But what my godfather did was a bit too much; you scared me and my students, Daddy," Ottilia, upon receiving affirmative from her father, cast a provocative glance at Tommy, seemingly still dissatisfied with him questioning her father’s and godfather’s favoritism.

"I understand, the poor kids from public high schools would indeed be scared, but shouldn’t you thank your godfather instead? It wasn’t me who supported you," said Mr. Farrell, clearly distracted. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"I will call him again to thank him, Daddy. You know the situation between public high schools and Princeton..."

"Daughter, I have an internal meeting in five minutes. I need this time to finish reading the material, then I have to fly to the yacht show in Miami to meet clients. You can thank your godfather. I’ll be quite busy before the summer officially arrives. After all, the wealthy are eager to buy yachts to start their vacations..." Seeing his daughter ready to continue the conversation, Farrell had to confess that he was very busy with work at the moment.

"Alright, Daddy, goodbye," Ottilia said, knowing when to end the call.

"Hawk Yacht Industry? Wow." Tommy Hawk, who had been listening, expressed his admiration.

He was no stranger to this brand—Bessie’s foster home had two boats made by this company, and Tony had once helped tune them up. One was a leisure boat for river fun, and the other a coastal motor-sailing boat for family fishing and sailing out at sea, which made it a fairly famous brand for leisure boats in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

"Can we now confirm that the Princeton incident is related to my godfather? My father admitted it," Ottilia looked down, exhaling, and turned to Tommy: "Even though you doubted them just now, Tommy, I still have to say, I won’t change your proposal. It was your idea, and you heard it, my father might have been arrogant before, but just now he didn’t insist on putting my name on it."

"I’ll go and make a detailed and complete plan," Tommy Hawk walked out of Ottilia’s office, mulling over the information he had just learned, and subconsciously lit a cigarette in the hallway: "I always feel that something in the process must have been different from what we assumed."

The solemn dean happened to pass by and saw Tommy Hawk standing like an experienced smoker, lighting up within the school premises.

"Sorry, Mrs. Walton..." Tommy fumbled to discard the cigarette on the ground, trying to explain.

Mrs. Walton looked at Tommy expressionlessly and turned back the way she came: "Mr. Tommy Hawk, if the proposal catches a college professor’s eye, you and that cigarette on the ground will be placed in the school’s hall of honor. That’s a sign of your maturity. But if it fails, I will arrange for the most stringent youth psychology instructor to care for you, to teach you what it means to abide by school rules."

At this point, Ottilia also stepped out of the office: "Tommy, I think I know what the principal’s surprise is now."

"What?" Tommy picked up the extinguished cigarette from the ground, put it in his mouth, and lit it again.

Ottilia handed over a note she just wrote: "The administration called me, asking for information about our summer camp, because apparently parents from the schools the principal boasted about earlier have been contacting the administration office, inquiring about our summer camp."

"The principal leaked it on purpose?" Tommy’s eyes brightened: "That’s right, the principal taught me a lesson. It doesn’t really matter whether the Princeton professor comes or not. If he does, great; if not, we still need to make money, and even take the money from those high schoolers who once humiliated him. Mr. Mendes is too good to be just a principal. If the President asked him to be an economic advisor, perhaps the American economy would be better off."