As expected, he momentarily showed he was caught off guard by this, which was good.
What was not expected was his reply that followed, which completely did an 180 of what he had said before! The fear she had partially pushed back in order to think more clearly was slowly prodding the back of her mind again, though it was for now blocked by the stronger feeling of frustration that was starting to boil inside her. She had guessed his intentions wrong, and was now costing her. On top of that it felt humiliating!
What was this man's deal? Was he playing games with her in a situation that was so serious for her? Was he laughing behind that death stare? Whatever the truth behind his words was, she just couldn't like that sadistic man!
"....but you said just before..." she unconsciously mumbled.
He was implying that he wouldn't want to punish her, neither make her repeat the year or drop her out, which should be true to an extent, because if he just wanted to do any of those he could have just announced it already. After all it was the decision of the board as well, so why was he dragging this out? Besides an explanation and apology there shouldn't be much one would expect to fish out of a 12 year old girl. She couldn't discard her previous hypothesis that he indeed wanted something from her. But more importantly, the danger of not graduating was not gone at all, yet.
That last thought opened a path for the fear to resurface again for good, and made her panic. She had worked hard that year, she didn't want it to go to waste over a last moment fumble! Anxiety also made its unwelcome visit and she started to shake a little.
"P-please, I worked so hard for this, she continued, if I didn't, i would just accept this, but I did! Not graduating-"
("just yet" ) what does this even mean... are they (1) planning to make me repeat the year or are they (2) expecting something from me before they let me pass?
She also couldn't disregard her previous conclusion that his man still wanted to gain something out of this. Case (1) was hopeless anyway so she just went by (2) and hoped it's not the first.
"-would be so cruel! Please! Is there really nothing I can do to prove I deserve at least some reconsideration for my efforts before this incident?"
Oh, how she hated this man already for making her be begging him like this after what felt like a humiliation!