Ryland Academy Rules: A High School Bully Romance Box Set

by Mya West

  I quickly head to the female changing room. I still can’t believe this property. Two guys live here, but they have a female changing room. I suppose when Mrs. Cain was alive, she would use the gym often, or maybe some staff use it.

  I place my cellphone in my locker, quickly take off my workout gear, and jump in the shower. The shower is massive, with a rock backsplash. It looks like it deserves to be in a five-star spa.

  I wonder what my friends have planned for tonight. The Outsiders take on the town of Ryland. Part of me knows we are probably going to just eat, talk a bunch of shit about kids at school, and go home, but I’m still looking forward to it. Every now and then an image of Lance working out enters my mind. Sometimes I let my mind tell the story of how I wish things would have played out.

  I wonder how Jaxson and Chase would look while working out. I imagine I would have the same primal fantasies with them too. I will somehow need to take more pictures of all the flirty men in my life.

  I have to remind myself that Chase almost got me killed, and Jaxson made a fool out of me in front of half the student body.

  Compared to those two, Lance didn’t seem so bad suddenly.

  I turn off the shower, wrap a towel around my midsection and use another to dry my hair. I open the clear door and walk out of the shower. I take a few steps out and realize Lance is in the women’s changing room staring right at me.

  From the way he’s looking at me I can tell he’s having the same primal thoughts I am. I slowly lower my towel from my head and cover my breasts. He watches my movement like a hawk when I do.

  “No need to do that.” He says. “I’ll be seeing you naked soon again, anyways.”

  Why must he always ruin a moment. “What the fuck are you doing in here?”

  He raises his hand, with my cell phone firmly grasped. “I don’t mind you drinking in my body with your eyes. That’s fine.” He wipes my cellphone to the ground, smashing it into several pieces. He picks what remains of the cell and throws it into a toilet stall. “But no flash photography.” He storms out of the changing room. It sounds like he almost kicks the door down when he leaves the gym.

  Chapter 12

  Bryce throws a french fry at my face. Although my mouth is wide open, it smashes against my cheek and flops to the floor.

  “Pitiful!” Bryce exclaims. “Danna, show her how it’s done.” Bryce throws two fries towards her and she catches both.

  I slow clap. “Guys, truly. Amazing. Start booking road trips.”

  Danna laughs. “Don’t be jealous. All it takes is having too much time on your hands and you will be a pro too.”

  “My life had no meaning until now.”

  I reach down to my pocket for my cell, then remember it’s not there.

  Danna laughs. “You must feel so naked right now.”

  I sigh. “It feels weird not having it with me. I know it’s just a phone, but I had important pictures on there, you know, of my family.” I’m not sure why that matters to me. It’s not like my family and I had too many fun moments that were truly picture worthy. I thought of Candice. I have no fucking clue what her number is without looking at my cell. From the amount of times I’ve called her you’d think I would. “I don’t know how I’m going to keep up with my friends back in the city.”

  Danna smiles. “You still have us. That is until you realize you should be hanging out with cooler people.”

  I snap at her. “Shut up Danna! I hate it when you talk like that. I wish everybody had a Bryce and Danna in their life.” Bryce sips his fountain drink, until it’s obviously empty. He moves the straw with his mouth to try and find a spot in his drink to continue sipping. The sound is driving me crazy. “Well, at least Danna.”

  Bryce stops sipping and makes a funny face at me. “Danna’s right though. You got a lot of people talking at school.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Word is you’ve been making moves on Jaxson, Chase and Lance. You got some of the girls jealous.”

  I laugh. “Do they somehow forget about the pies incident? Maybe some of them don’t know about adventure in the woods. Pissy Pants I believe is my new nickname.”

  Danna snorts while taking a sip of her drink. “I heard that one but didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”

  Bryce rolls his eyes. “What a bunch of macho shit. If anybody else was in your shoes, they’d have PTSD for life.”

  Danna looks at me. “So did the police find out anything? Did they figure out who shot at you, find poachers in the woods?”

  I shrug my shoulders. “Beats me. I haven’t talked to Chase or principal Aldridge about it. Something tells me they both would prefer if I forgot about it.”

  “How was it being with Chase before- everything went bad?” Danna asks.

  “We were having a fun time, until, you know.”

  “You pissed your pants?” Bryce says. I burst out laughing, not being able to control myself. I feel like if most people had said something like that after what I’d been through, I would have at minimum, stormed out of the restaurant. Worse shit has happened to me though.

  I’m still here.

  I reach for my jeans pocket again. “Fuck!”

  Bryce looks at me weirdly. “I sincerely still don’t understand this. So, you took a pic of him, and he just smashed your phone to itty bitty pieces?” I nod my head. “Fucking anger problems.”

  “Right before it happened, he was kind of flirting with me too. I don’t know. He’s been kind of dick to me the whole time I’ve been out here, but I thought things were changing.”

  Danna waves her head side to side. “My gawd girl. You seriously have all the hunky guys going gaga for you. You either make them fall for you or make them go crazy. Teach me your ways! How?”

  Bryce raises his hand. “And when you’re done with her, show me next.”

  We continue to joke around. We’ve probably been sitting in the back of the diner for over an hour. Even though I had just met them, it feels like I’ve known them forever.

  Danna hits the table with her fist. “Okay, lets get the fuck out of here.”

  “Where to next?” I ask.

  “A hike in the woods.” Bryce says.

  I look at him playfully. “Not funny.”

  Danna laughs. “We can do a movie night at my place. I’ve got Netflix.”

  Bryce rolls his eyes. “I hate watching Netflix with you. You take like thirty minutes to even find something to watch. Then you put it on and decide you don’t want to watch it after five minutes, and take another hour to find something else.”

  “That only happened like one time! Before we go to my place I just need to stop by the school.”

  “It’s past curfew.” Bryce says.

  Danna mocks his voice. “Past curfew. So what? I got a key. I need to grab some shit for the article I’m finishing.”

  I raise an eyebrow at her. “So, after movie time you’re going to write? When do you sleep?”

  Bryce laughs. “She has one cup of coffee and her skinny ass is up all night.”

  She nods her head. “Sleep. Over-rated.” She says in a robot voice.

  ∞∞∞

  Danna drives close to the school grounds and parks on a nearby street.

  “Why don’t you just park in the lot?” I ask.

  Danna rolls her eyes. “Past curfew, remember? I don’t actually want to get caught.”

  Bryce looks at me. “Detention sucks. You have to sit around after school for a minimum of an hour. I mean you can look at your cell and stuff- oh sorry.”

  Danna laughs. “You’re the mysterious city girl, Elle. Let’s give people a reason for your hard rep. I’ve got the password to turn the security system off too.”

  Bryce looks at her. “How’d you manage that?”

  “Some good journalist work.” She says with a smile. “Let’s go.”

  I put my hand up. “Wait. Big fancy school must have a security guard at night.”

  Danna rolls her eyes. “B
ig whoop. One or two security guards watching porn in the back office somewhere. The classroom is in the main hallway by the entrance. It’s like right there when you walk in basically.” I give her an uneasy look. “Fine. Bryce are you cool with staying in the car with Elle?”

  Before Bryce can answer, I do. “Okay! Let’s go. Just try not to be seen.” I look at Bryce, who looks bloated from the junk food we ate. “That goes double for you.”

  He squinches his face. “Me? I’m a fucking ninja.”

  The three of us walk towards the school. Even though it’s still summer, the night is cooler than usual. Danna tells us that there’s a low dip in the brick wall on the east side of campus.

  “How many times have you broken into school after curfew?” I ask.

  “Not my first rodeo.” She says with a smile.

  When we get close, we notice the front gate is wide open.

  “Seems inviting.” Bryce says. “I’m not jumping over a brick fucking wall when the gate is open.” I agree with Bryce. We wait and watch the front gate area but see no activity. When we feel comfortable that the coast is clear, we stroll through the entrance nonchalantly.

  Danna leads us to the main building. She takes out a key and opens the front door. We sneak inside the school’s foyer. Danna heads over to the security panel on the wall nearby.

  For some reason I thought it would be bells and whistles as soon as we opened the door, but it’s silent.

  Danna looks at us. “Silent alarm for twenty seconds. If I don’t punch in the code, this whole place lights up and things get- loud.”

  “So, what the fuck are you waiting for?” I ask, feeling unsure that I should have come on this adventure.

  Danna scratches her head. “Fuck. I thought I remembered it. I wrote it down in one of my notepads.” She looks at Bryce. “Our English teacher, what year was she born in again?”

  “How the fuck should I know!” Bryce says in an intense whisper.

  “Oh fuck, oh fuck.” Danna says looking at the numbers in front of her. “Nineteen, Twenty!” Danna looks up.

  Bryce looks around. I hold my hands to my ears anticipating the loud frenzy of noises about to explode. Instead, all I hear is Danna laughing.

  “Not funny.” Bryce says.

  Danna quickly hits four numbers and hits the de-activate button. “You guys are pussies. Would you believe it’s 4,3,2,1? What a joke.” She looks at Bryce. “Ninja man. Why don’t you wait outside? Text or call me if you see any security guard coming our way.”

  I look at her. “If the classroom is right around the corner, why bother?”

  She stiffens her lower lip. “I sort of lied. Lesson One, Elle. Don’t trust rich kids.”

  Bryce shakes his head. “Whatever. With Danna, you’re bound to get caught.” He opens the front door slowly, peeking outside before leaving.

  Danna leads me through the dark hallways. The moon provides enough light through the atrium that I’m not bumping into walls or the expensive artwork in the halls. After a few twists and turns I notice a sign for the English class.

  “Hey, we passed the English room.” I say.

  “Oh yeah. Danna says not caring, and continuing to walk. I don’t follow. When she realizes and looks back at me, I look at her coldly.

  “What are we really doing here?” I ask. “Enough lies.”

  She smiles. “You wouldn’t have come if I told you. I need to show you something. I promise you won’t regret it.”

  “Never trust a rich kid, right?”

  She sighs. “My dad makes low six figures a year from his fast food chains. Bryce and I are like the poor ones around here.” She continues to walk down the hallway. I sigh to myself and follow.

  She finally stops in front of an office door. I smile, not understanding fully.

  “The guidance counsellor? You want to show me something in the guidance counsellor’s office?” I laugh.

  She smiles, taking out her purse and removing a credit card from her wallet. “Never leave home without one.” She slips it through the door frame and wiggles it around. Eventually she slides it under the tongue of the door and opens it. “Shit. I didn’t think that would actually work.”

  She sneaks into the office. I reach for the light switch, but she stops me and points at a large window. I look around the office, unsure what I’m supposed to find that’s so amazing. All I see is a desk that looks like its refurbished from the early twentieth century, a few leather couches and a fireplace. Am I supposed to be amazed by how nice and clean the guidance counsellor’s office is?

  I also, for some reason, feel a twinge of shame. I broke into this dude’s office and have never met him. I’m sure at some point while I’m here I’m going to need to depend on the guidance counsellor for- well - guidance. At my last school, the guidance counsellor was useful when applying to universities and for scholarships. I feel like I’m already burning a useful bridge down by breaking into this office.

  “I’m just going to wait outside.” I tell Danna.

  Danna ignores me and walks over to a bookshelf. “You saw the carving in the desk in the cafeteria of that monster symbol. You saw the same symbol in the woods. I had heard of the rumours, and seen the symbol before, but never realized how many times I’ve seen it but didn’t care. It’s everywhere. I saw it in the girl’s locker room even. I thought of it just as graffiti before. You saw that light grey leather book, that had no title on its spine or front.” She runs her fingers across the books on the shelf until she finds one. She pulls it out and shows me it with a smile. “Same symbol. Same book. Different owner. I was supposed to interview the guidance counsellor for some fluff piece about him, and spotted the book. He left me in his office for a few minutes, and confirmed it was the same book you told us about.”

  I wave my head. “You told me the Beasts are real but likely just a silly boy’s club now.”

  “I think I was wrong.” She says. “I think it’s time we do some reading. I’m taking this with us.”

  “He’s going to notice a large gap in his shelf where his book was. If it’s such an important book, which for some reason is in plain sight, won’t he notice?”

  Danna nods her head at me. She looks at the shelf and moves her head down. She takes a book from the bottom of the shelf and puts it between the gap. She seems happy with herself that it seems like a perfect fit.

  “You’re a shitty Lois Lane.” I say, half joking.

  She opens the book and looks at its dark pages. Danna takes her phone out and uses the screen to read the first page. She looks at it strangely then back at me. She smiles and waves her head.

  “What is it?” I ask.

  Danna raises her head, but something catches her attention outside the window. She turns off her cell screen. “Hide!”

  I take a deep breath. Instead of hiding, I only manage to slide against the wall. I hold my breath with anticipation of being caught.

  Two dark figures pass by the window. They both hold a stick with a bright flame in front of them. The flame illuminates the grey hooded cloaks they are wearing. I can’t make out their faces. It only takes a couple seconds for them to walk by, but I feel like I’ve been holding my breath for minutes.

  “Time to go.” Danna whispers.

  “We need to get back to Bryce, quick.”

  We sneak our way back through the dark halls. The moonlight makes the school much more eerie now. We get closer to the main hall when we see a bright light. The light is getting closer.

  We hide behind a large statue. I peek my head around it and see a man holding a torch in the school hallway. He is walking fast and seems to be in a hurry. Is he looking for us? The man continues to walk straight through to another hallway opposite of where we are, thankfully.

  When it seems he’s gone, we stand up. I look at the statue and realize it’s a large mock of the famous Thinking Man, only this one is dark and has horns. Opposite it, is a large white one with a halo over its head. I look at Danna and she seems jus
t as taken back.

  We sneak up to the front door. Danna opens it slightly and peeks outside. She waves me and we both leave the school.

  “Bryce.” I whisper, but hear nothing. Danna tries but all we hear is the slight sound the breeze makes.

  In the distance I see three people wearing cloaks, heading toward the watch tower.

  Danna is looking at the front gate. “Do you think Bryce left us here?” She whispers.

  I tap on her shoulder and point towards the watch tower. We observe the three men open the door at the foot of the tower and walk inside. When they open the door there’s multiple red-lights flickering inside.

  “Holy shit.” She says with a smile. “Now this is interesting.” She suddenly doesn’t seem so worried about Bryce anymore.

  A loud shriek coming from the school is blinding loud. I cover my ears. It seems like the school’s security system has been triggered. I’m not sure how that could have happened when I saw Danna deactivate it.

  I look over at the clock tower. It’s only a matter of time before whoever is in there comes pouring out to see what’s happening.

  I turn to Danna. “I hope you run fast.”

  ∞∞∞

  I smile when I spot Danna’s car. My smile grows when I spot Bryce leaned against it, breathing deeply. It seemed like the big ninja got out of there before shit got bad.

  I look back and see Danna not too far behind. Thank god, she isn’t a terrible runner. When running here, I thought I heard movement from behind us, but maybe I was just imagining things with the adrenaline rampant through my body.

  I breathe deep and look behind Danna for any movement but see nothing.

  Bryce spots me and smiles through deep breaths. “Thank god! I was going to try and warn you, but well- did you see? They had fucking torches. One of them even went into the school.”

  I nod my head several times, trying to catch my breath. “Yeah. I vote we no longer listen to any of Danna’s bright ideas.”

  Danna runs up beside us and puts her arm over Bryce’s shoulder. She looks like she’s trying to defend herself from my comment but is struggling to make any kind of a sentence. She finally manages to say something. “It was worth it.” She takes out the light grey leather book with the monster symbol on its cover.