The Execution: A Reverse Harem High School Bully Romance (Breakbattle Academy Book 3)

by Ruby Vincent

The bed dipped as I sat down. “What was going on with you, Cameron, Heath, and Santiago that day?”

  “How did I know you wouldn’t let that go?”

  “Because you know me.” I nudged his leg with my foot. “What’s up? Why don’t you want to tell me?”

  “It’s Network business. We agreed not to talk about that stuff.”

  “You agreed.”

  He cracked his eyes open to give me a look. “Zela, it’s not a big deal. We were talking about the expansion and what we can do to sway them.”

  “Next year?”

  “Now. We know which members of the board will be making the decision. Instead of them coming here and risking another prank, we’re going to them. The senior members expect us to handle this. There is only so much they can do before it looks like bribing. When they come back next year, their tour and observation will be a formality.”

  I gaped at him. “Why are you going along with this?”

  “We’ve all got our orders, Zee.”

  He made to get up but I grabbed him and pulled him down. “Derek, I’m serious. Is this because of Cameron’s dad? I won’t deny that he’s a scary guy, but I would not follow any orders he gave me.”

  “I wouldn’t either. I’ve got no problem telling Dominick Dupre, his spawn, and his buddies to fuck off. But that doesn’t work with my dad.”

  “Your dad?” I repeated. “He wants this expansion too?”

  He nodded. “Dad told me to do this. I don’t have a choice and that’s all I can say about it, okay?” Derek bumped my shoulder. “Wait here while I get ready. We’ll go down together.”

  I was too mixed up to do anything but sit there as he got his stuff and went into the bathroom. What did it mean that his father wanted the expansion too? Was he one of the leaders hoping to make money off whatever deal Dominick had been brought in to handle?

  Slow down, Zela. Dominick Dupre seems shady but we don’t know him or anything about what they’re planning. Just because he looks like a bad guy doesn’t mean there’s something rotten about the expansion.

  And Derek wouldn’t be apart of anything wrong, I thought. He loves his dad. They may be out to make some money but I have to believe they wouldn’t hurt the students.

  Derek left the bathroom fresh and ready to go like he’d shed his worries down the drain. Tried as I did, I couldn’t do the same. Back and forth I went in my head, trying to convince myself the expansion wasn’t something I needed to worry about, but all I could picture was me standing behind that booth while Dominick Dupre berated his son. It seemed to me like the expansion was already hurting one student.

  TWO WEEKS PASSED BY and I still didn’t know what to do. Derek stuck to his moratorium on Network talk and I didn’t push him. I understood he was in a tough spot with his dad. Despite that, I enjoyed the nights we spent reading in his room, the even later nights in Landon’s room, and the early mornings I spent running with Michael. Everyday, I felt the raw lashings that night in the locker room left in me begin to heal a little more.

  “What time do you leave for the competition?” asked Hunter. He blinked owlishly at me as he slurped his milk.

  “Noon,” I replied. “It’s a four-hour drive. We’ll get there before five, do the competition, spend the night in a hotel, and then be back before lunch tomorrow.”

  Landon pecked me on the nose. “Are you excited, my little nerd?”

  “Your use of pet name tells me that if I say yes, you’ll make fun of me.”

  His eyes danced. “There’s a very good chance.”

  “Well, I’m saying yes anyway. I love this stuff. Math competitions are like my football.”

  “I hope you still have fun even though Cole’s being weird,” said Michael.

  I looked at him, and then past him to where Cole sat at their table—alone. Michael had been sitting with me since we got back from Orlando. I’d seen, and heard, him invite Cole to sit with us numerous times but the blond boy said no every time. Then proceeded to glare at us all through our meal.

  He couldn’t shake that something was off about me, and I couldn’t blame him. So far, he called me out on everything and had been right. That I had given up on my revenge against Landon, Michael, and even him, was something I’d have to prove to him—not that he made it easy.

  “I will,” I said to Michael. “I’m sorry I’ll miss your track meet today. But you’re going to kill”—I looked him the eyes—“and you’re going to win.”

  Michael winked. “I’ll win for you.” He stood, went over to Cole’s table to say something, and then left.

  We finished our breakfast and broke apart for class. My legs jiggled under my table as I watched the clock tick down to noon. When the bell rang for lunch, I was the first one out of the door.

  “Good luck, Mr. Manning,” called Dr. O’Quinn.

  “Thank you!”

  I hurried outside with my backpack slung over my shoulder. I packed it with everything I needed the night before.

  “Hello, Zeke.” Mrs. Peterson waved as I rushed out the main entrance. “Are you ready, Captain?”

  “Heck yes.” I punched the air. “Are you ready, team?”

  Joey and Baker cheered, whooping it up with me. Cole, on the other hand, rolled his eyes and stomped off to the bus.

  The ride to Villanova was pleasant. There wasn’t a lot of us so Mrs. Peterson read her book, Baker and Joey chatted in the back, Cole listened to music, and I watched the hills and trees go by outside of the window. Eventually, those trees were replaced by red brick buildings, traffic, and shopping mall parking lots. The regional competition was held in Villanova High School. Ten schools competed in a game show style math quiz. The winners advanced to the next rounds until there is only one champion school left to represent the state in the national tournament. That team would be us.

  I twisted around in my seat to gaze at Cole. What started as a way to drive him mad, resulted in more than I bargained for. My grades were so amazing Mom sent me to Orlando. I was in the best shape of my life due to competing in those battles to get on his level. I was captain of the best team on campus, and I enjoyed Future Leaders club more than I thought I would.

  Although, I’ll most likely drop Science Club. Complete snooze fest. Other than that, riling Cole up has been good for me and I don’t need to get into what I got by going after Michael and Landon. Jordan is right. It’s my forgiveness to give and... it may be time to give it.

  “Why are you staring at me?”

  “No reason,” I said without skipping a beat. Cole was four rows back. “Do you want to sit up here so we can talk?”

  “Nope.”

  “I’ll tickle you. You like being tickled.”

  Color stained his cheeks.

  “Fuck off,” we said at the same time.

  “You have to come up with a new response,” I added. “That one is getting stale.”

  His eyes narrowed. “It gets my point across.”

  I sighed. “One of these days, you’re going to unwind that tight, ball of grumpiness and intensity and remove it from your ass. You’ll be a whole new person then.”

  Cole flipped me off.

  Giggling, I said, “I’ve seen that guy and I like him. When he’s ready to come back and apologize for what he did to me, let me know. I’d like to be friends with him again.”

  “I’m not friends with people I don’t trust.”

  “You lost my trust first. If you want me to give it, you have to earn it.”

  “I feel the exact same way.” With that, Cole popped his earbuds back in and shifted to the window.

  I didn’t try to talk to him for the rest of the drive. I wasn’t going to beg. He might think he was wronged, but I wasn’t For All, and I didn’t have him beaten. When he woke up and realized who owed who the apology, I’d be willing to forgive him.

  “Alright, team. We’re almost there.” Mrs. Peterson put her book away and got to her feet. “Let me run down the rules quickly.”

  We li
stened up as she explained how the competition would go down.

  “...we’ll be the winners,” she finished as the bus turned into the school parking lot. “This is a great team and I have nothing but faith in you.”

  The bus pulled up to the entrance and let us out. My ears perked up as I climbed off. In the distance, I heard the faint, persistent thumping of a bass. Whoever was playing that music was playing it loud.

  “It looks like we’re the first school to arrive,” Peterson said as she glanced at the near empty parking lot. “Not surprising as we’re an hour early. Wait here, everyone, while I get us checked in. If we’re lucky, we’ll find a spot to run some last-minute drills.”

  “Okay,” we replied.

  She went inside while the rest of us hung out. Cole wandered a bit away from us as Joey and Baker looked around.

  “So this is what a regular high school looks like?” Joey said. “Breakbattle has us warped.”

  “You rather go here than have a sweet dorm room, pizza for lunch every day, and movie nights on the weekends?” challenged Baker. “No one wants to go to a regular high school.”

  “I don’t think it’d make much difference for me,” I said.

  Baker winced. “Right. Sorry.”

  “These regular kids have good taste in music though.” Joey bobbed his head. “What’s the name of this song again?”

  The music was getting louder and closer. It reverberated inside of me, bouncing a beat off my bones. The windows rattled as the music got louder still. I turned away from the boys just as the car whipped around the corner.

  “Cole!” I sprinted past the guys onto the street . Cole froze in the wake of the deafening convertible bearing down on him. Grabbing him around the waist, I yanked us back and we collapsed onto the pavement to shouts and cursing—most of it Cole’s.

  “Fuck! Fuck!” he bellowed. “They almost killed me! Zee? Zee, are you okay?!”

  He scrambled off of me. Cole lifted me onto his lap with more gentleness than I knew he possessed. “Are you okay?”

  I couldn’t answer. Cole landed on me hard. His weight punched the air from my lungs and smacked my head into the pavement. Something wet trickled down my neck into my shirt.

  “Zee?”

  “I’m fine,” I croaked. I tried to sit up and pain rocketed through my skull.

  “Don’t move. Wait for Mrs. Peterson.” Cole raised his head. “Don’t stand there! Get help!”

  I didn’t have the energy to fight him. I heard my team yelling their heads off for Mrs. Peterson. Then more yelling as the guys in the car spilled out, bleating that they were sorry and didn’t know anyone was here and please don’t tell their parents. Through it all, Cole held me and told me I was going to be okay.

  “I’m so sorry. I can’t apologize enough.” Villanova High’s principal fluttered behind the paramedics. “Students like to come on school grounds after classes and race around in the empty parking lot even though I’ve warned them about this multiple times!”

  Her students cringed. Everyone was crowded around the back of the ambulance as the paramedics checked me out. Behind them, the other contestants of the math competition arrived and glanced curiously at the spectacle as they made their way inside.

  The guys who almost mowed down Cole didn’t look older than sixteen, but they did look like they were about to shit their pants.

  “I will be speaking to your parents and you will all be suspended.” They winced under her glare. “More so, if the paramedics don’t clear this young man of injury, my first call before your parents will be to the police.”

  Now I think they did shit their pants.

  One of the paramedics shone a light in my eye. “How are you feeling, Zeke?”

  “I’m feeling fine.”

  “Head wounds bleed enough to scare people, but it looks like just a small cut. Did you blackout at any point?”

  “No.”

  “Do you feel dizzy?”

  “No.”

  The man rattled off a list of questions and I answered no to all of them. He leaned back and addressed an anxious Mrs. Peterson. “He’s going to be fine. I suggest he gets some rest.”

  “He will,” she assured him. “I’m taking him back to school right now.”

  “Back to school?” I said. “No, Mrs. Peterson. He said I was fine. I want to compete.”

  She clutched her chest. “You boys can’t compete after this. You were almost hit by a car.”

  “But we weren’t hit. We’ve worked so hard and we’ve been waiting for months to earn our place in nationals. We can’t miss our chance because these dummies wanted to play speed racer.”

  “I don’t know...”

  Baker inched closer. “If Zeke says he’s okay then—”

  “Excuse me,” Peterson snapped. “You do not get a vote.”

  “Sorry, ma’am.”

  Her lips pressed into a thin line as she studied me. “Are you absolutely sure he will be fine?” she asked the paramedic.

  “At this point, I say yes, but if he develops any symptoms later on, pull him out.”

  “Fine. That’s what we’ll do.” She leveled a finger at me. “If I get even the inkling that you’re unwell, the competition is over and we’re going back to the academy.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am.” I hopped out of the back and hurried inside—too fast for Mrs. Peterson because she hauled me back and told me to walk with the team.

  Together, we entered the gym that would be our competition space. Two tables were set up on either side of a podium. Above it all, Archimedean Regional Finals blazed proudly on the banner.

  One after the other, our team faced the best students the schools in our region had to offer. One by one, we beat them.

  “For the ten points and the title of regional champion,” the moderator said. “Find the domain of the function x plus three over parentheses x minus one and parentheses x plus two. Teams, you have ninety seconds.”

  We almost bonked our heads leaning over my paper as I scribbled the question.

  “The expression is not equal to zero,” Cole offered.

  Baker added, “Not if x doesn’t equal one or negative two.”

  My mind worked faster than it ever had in its life. “I got it!”

  Joey banged the buzzer before I could and I shouted the answer.

  “Breakbattle Academy...” The moderator said.

  We collectively held our breaths.

  “You are the winners of the—”

  We didn’t hear the rest as we shouted our heads off. I jumped up and down with my team until Mrs. Peterson barked for me to sit down.

  After receiving our trophy, we rode the bus to the hotel and she ordered me straight to bed with instructions for room service to bring up my meal.

  My roommate, Baker, got on the phone to his mom to tell her about our win. I settled in bed and decided to heed Mrs. Peterson’s order to rest. A night of Netflix and room service sounded nice after such an adrenaline-inducing day.

  Knock. Knock.

  I climbed out of bed to get my food. Cole greeted me instead.

  “Cole? What’s up?” I glanced over my shoulder. “Baker is on the phone.”

  “I’m not here to talk to him.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Can you come out here, please?”

  More than anything, it was the please that pulled me out of the room. I’ve never heard Cole say that word before.

  “What is it?”

  He rocked back on his heels, looking everywhere but at me. “I just wanted to say... thank you for saving my life.”

  A smile tugged at my lips. “You don’t have to thank me.”

  “I do. I also”—his eyes suddenly locked on mine—“have to apologize for the locker room.”

  My smile disappeared. “Are you only apologizing because you feel you have to after today?”

  “I’m apologizing because I should have done it a long time ago,” he replied, steadily holding my gaze. “You wer
e right. You may be a little weird and you messed with my best friend, but all of that came after you were framed and I had you jumped. Either way you look at it, I started this.” Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and released it. “I’m sorry, Zee.”

  “Thank you, Cole,” I whispered. Inside, I sensed that raw, aching pain lessen just a little more.

  “I would have said it sooner,” he continued, “but you may have noticed I’m an asshole.”

  He startled a laugh out of me. “I did notice that.”

  Cole closed the distance between us. “I doubled down rather than admit I was wrong about you. But today you saved my life and then kicked ass at the competition with a bashed-in head. You’re badass, Zela.”

  “It’s true.” I saw my smile reflected in his eyes. “I am.”

  He chuckled. “Go inside and rest.”

  “Why? You worried about me or something?”

  Cole backed away, grinning. “Fuck you.”

  THE NEXT DAY, WE ARRIVED at school and went straight to lunch.

  “Heard you guys won,” Adam said. “Congratulations.”

  Landon patted his lap. I shouldn’t indulge him but I liked leaning against his chest while he kissed my forehead and whispered dirty things in my ear.

  I sat down and he pulled me close. “We’ll do some celebrating in my room tonight,” he whispered.

  Giggling, I rose up and kissed his jaw. “Sounds good to me.”

  “Whoa,” said Justin. “Check it out.”

  Cole bypassed his table and stopped before ours. No one spoke as he pulled out the chair next to Michael and sat down. Everyone stared at him as he took a bite and then wiped his mouth with a napkin.

  “So,” he began. “Did Manning tell you we almost got hit by a car?”

  All eyes flew to me. “What?!”

  My friends and boyfriend grilled us until the bell rang. Classes gave me a bit of a reprieve, but the big brother in Adam prompted him to start up again after class was over.

  “Are you sure you’re okay? You should tell Coach Singh that you have to sit out.”

  “Mrs. Peterson will have told everyone what happened. If I have to sit out, Singh will tell me.”

  We rounded the corner headed for the dorm building. Adam held open the door for me to go in. I walked inside. A wall of stink the likes of which I never smelled before smacked me in the face. I retched.