“Are you okay, honey?”
“Yes, of course.” Giving my head a shake, I grabbed my stuff and made my way to the bathroom to get showered and dressed. A half an hour later I emerged from the bathroom dressed and ready to go and was surprised to see that my mother was still sitting on the bed, exactly where I’d left her.
“I have a question for you.”
“What’s that, Mom?”
“What are you going to do at school tomorrow?”
“What do you mean?” Was she a damned psychic?
“Without Jaxson. I’m assuming you’re not going to stay BFF’s. You’re not used to school without him. Is Damien and Olivia part of his group?”
With a sigh, I flopped on the bed beside her. “My locker is even beside his. I never considered we’d break up.”
My mother brushed a lock of hair from my face. “We never do. If a person thought that a relationship was going to end in a breakup they’d never get involved in the relationship in the first place. You now have to figure out who you are at that school without him. Is the breakup for certain?”
I shrugged, “I don’t know. He was angry and said he wanted a break and I said fine. He felt we spent too much time together and that we should step away for a bit.”
“I see.” My mother frowned. “What brought this on? In his defense, you two did spend a lot of time together. You’re only seventeen.”
This conversation was making me angry and upset. “I don’t want to talk about it, Mom. It’s still very fresh and I don’t know what I’m going to do. And then there’s Trina, she’s going to be happier than a pig in shit when she finds out.” It wasn’t until the words were out of my mouth that Trina came to my mind. What in the hell was I going to do about that? Could I even win the election without Jaxson by my side? She’d have a grin that would rival that of the Cheshire cat on her lips when she found out Jaxson and I were over.
“You want my advice?” she asked, the concern shining bright in her blue eyes.
I was tempted to say no, but my mom was a survivor if anyone knew how to manage a situation like this it was her. “What’s your advice, Mom?”
“Well, first off, never let a man define who you are or be empowered because of a man’s assistance. You need to make it on your own. A partner is supposed to enhance your life, not define it.”
I nodded. Made sense. I’d never let this happen before, why would now be any different? As she told me how I should deal with my problem, for the first time since we moved here, I felt like we were best friends again.
Chapter 10
So, well, this was it. My first day of school on my own. It felt like the very first day of Greisbach Academy all over again, but only worse because I didn’t have Jaxson by my side. I did however, have Damien and Olivia, who picked me up.
The driver opened the back door to the Escalade. Since my arms were filled with campaign materials including banners, posters and an assortment of promotional goodies, the driver helped me pass it all to Damien before I slid in and took a seat next to my friends.
“How you doing, honey?” Damien asked the moment the door was closed behind me.
“I’m doing okay. As long as I don’t think of him I’m okay.” Of course his question made me think of Jaxson. I’d attempted to keep my eyes averted so I didn’t see his house across the street, unfortunately, the mention of him made me look up and over at his place.
This sucked.
The car pulled onto the road and slowly made its way to the school.
I sniffed, not allowing myself to cry again. I’d cried enough yesterday. “I’m not sure if it’s even worth trying to battle Trina now. I just don’t know if I can beat her without—” I shrugged not wanting to say his name, “Well, you know.”
Damien huffed. “That’s a crock if you ask me. You don’t need him. People that like you like you because you’re against Trina. You need to work with that knowledge. Play on it.”
Olivia leaned over the seat ahead of us. “Trust me; don’t underestimate the students’ dislike for Trina.”
“Is that really how I want to win though? They hate Trina so they vote for me?”
“Welcome to politics,” Olivia joked.
“Would it have been better that you win because everyone looks up to Jaxson?” Damien countered.
They both had valid points. Damn him for making sense. “Okay, I get it. This is going to be social suicide though, don’t you think?”
Olivia cut in, “What’s social suicide is allowing the other students to think you’re anything less than a strong, awesome woman. You can do this without him. No one is even going to know.”
“Until they see us arrive separately and not sit together at the morning assembly. Or at lunch.”
The car pulled up at the curb and my heart quit beating for a split second. Here goes nothing, I thought as the driver got out and opened the doors for us. Sliding out, I was relieved to see that no one seemed to give us a second glance as we made our way through the courtyard and into the school, the boxes of promotional items in our arms.
“Do you think I overdid it with all this stuff?” I asked.
Damien and Olivia shared a “twin” look and in unison made a face at me. It was Olivia that answered, “No, not at all. Everyone needs Keira Rigby for President Fedoras and lanyards.”
Laughing, I shrugged. “Hey, I can’t help it. I was in a pinch for getting promo stuff. I had to take what they could make up over the weekend. I do thank you for allowing me to use your dad’s nightclub next Thursday night’s for a pre-vote party. We still have to plan that out.”
“And don’t forget you have volleyball practice,” Olivia reminded me.
I sighed. “Yeah, I know, and my mother expects me to help her begin the renovations on the restaurant space.”
“What kind of theme is she going with?”
“Well, she went back and forth on it and she figured roadside diner was the way to go. There’s a lot of posh places in Manhattan. She figures old-fashioned diner is just what the Upper East Side needs. She’s going to take classic roadside dishes and scale them up to be Upper-East-Side worthy.”
“Does anyone on the Upper East Side eat anything other than salads?” Damien teased.
I shrugged. “We’ll see. If anyone can make it work it would be my mother.” We reached my locker and I set my box on the floor to open it up. There was no sign on Jaxson. Once finished selecting the appropriate books, I grabbed my box of promo materials and the three of us made our way back to the office.
“Hold on, guys.” Entering the office, with my box containing posters and banners I discovered I was in luck yet again. Headmistress Witherspoon was in the front office and smiled at me as I entered. It made me wonder if she ever went to her own office to do any work.
She nodded to the box in my arms. “I see you’ve got your campaign items in hand, Miss Rigby.”
“I do. I was hoping Olivia, Damien and myself could take the opportunity during the morning assembly to put up some of my posters and banners.” The headmistress looked over my shoulder and through the window to Damien and Olivia. Half turning I saw them smile and wave at her.
“Normally, I’d say no…” She hesitated, crossing her arms over her bosom. “But the three of you seem to be bogged down with boxes of stuff so fine. Just so you know, Trina will also have the opportunity to put flyers up during the assembly if she requests, to make it fair.”
“Of course.” I smiled, relieved. We could get lot accomplished in the twenty minutes the assembly took—it was just an added bonus that the school wouldn’t see me sitting separately from Jaxson. “Thank you, Headmistress.”
~*~ TT ~*~
Jaxson wasn’t at school that day. I was both relieved and worried. He seemed okay after the fight but could have easily had a concussion. Dancing with Alex had been a stupid, reckless mistake. The moment we started talking again—if we started talking again, I’d apologize a second time and admit my mistake.
>
“I’m so thankful that you guys were willing to give up your lunch hour for me,” I said to the small circle of people gathered around me, including Jaxson’s two best friends Gabriel and Preston. Neither one said anything about Jaxson and let me tell you, I was so tempted to ask them how he was. But I knew I couldn’t. I was lucky they weren’t treating me like a damned leper right now.
Thank goodness for small favors.
“It’s no problem. We all want to see Trina go down and she has a crew of people working for her. It’s the least we can do,” Preston said.
I gave him a grateful smile. Even if Jaxson and I broke up, did it really mean we all still couldn’t be friends? Wouldn’t that be the mature thing to do?
That is until Jaxson got a new girl, leaving me heartbroken, watching him with whomever he chose to replace me with. But I couldn’t think that way. He wasn’t with anyone now and there was always the hope we could reconcile…wasn’t there? Until I spoke to him, I wouldn’t know for sure. He hadn’t texted or called me, and I refused to text or call him.
Trina had begun to put up her signs and banners. She was also handing out personalized baked goods with her face on them! That was top notch. I was handing out fedoras and she was handing out goodies that the students were greedily consuming. They were gluten-free but tasted as if they were filled with fatty goodness. How that was possible was beyond me! She was a stiff competitor.
“We have to make sure that everyone knows there’s going to be a private party at Damien and Olivia’s club next Thursday. If we can sway them with a free party and liquor then maybe we can beat out Trina and her gluten-free brownies.”
Gabriel smirked. “We could pass out weed brownies.”
Laughing, I shook my head. “We need to beat her legally. That includes not being able to kill her.” As much as that would solve one of my problems, I thought to myself. Perhaps giving the students booze wasn’t legal either, but I seriously doubted there was a single student at Greisbach Academy that didn’t drink.
“That was plan B,” Preston said with a wink.
“Okay, well, let’s get these things put up. Trina’s crew is ahead of us. Remember everyone needs a card with the party info on it. That’s going to buy me some time to really get prepared for this. Remember Trina has been planning this since she was in diapers, so we’ve got stiff competition.”
I gave the group one last look. It had only been a few weeks since I started at Greisbach Academy, but the people before me had made me feel like I belonged. I’d have to find a way to make things work between me and Jaxson, even if we didn’t get back together again.
“Okay, guys. Let’s do this.” There wasn’t a whole lot to do that wasn’t already done as far as putting up banners and posters. But I was finding that my posters were slowly disappearing as the day went on. As much as I wanted to think it wasn’t Trina, that was pretty petty, I had to ask myself who else would it have been?
Reaching the poster board just outside the gym I rolled my eyes. My poster had been put up with staples. All that remained was a small slip of paper under one staple where my poster had been. Pulling a new poster from the box I had tucked under my arm, I set the box down on the floor and grabbed a stapler—replacing the poster that had been put up. Right next to Trina’s smiling face. I was tempted to yank hers down—fair was fair right? But I didn’t. I wasn’t going to play her trivial little games.
Bending down, I placed the stapler back into the box, then gathered the box in my arms straightening to discover the poster that I’d just stapled to the board was gone.
“What the—” I grumbled as a crumpled piece of paper came sailing past my face and landed in the box I was holding. I didn’t have to look to know that it was my poster. Looking in the direction that the paper came from, I discovered a smirking Camila Friedell—Trina’s right-hand woman.
“Not sure why you’re bothering. It’s not like you’re going to win.” Her brown eyes challenged me as she ran a hand through her straight black locks.
“Then why is the bitch squad pulling all my flyers and posters down? Why are you threatened? Let it be a fair fight.”
She didn’t even attempt to deny it, replying with a smirk. “Because it’s fun to mess with you.”
“Really?” I wanted to punch her in her smug little face. She was such a bitch, not quite as bad as Trina, but definitely she was trained well by her leader. “So that’s why you stole my stuff and left me to make my way home? That’s a criminal offense you realize.”
She gasped, pressing a hand to her heart, pretending to be shocked I’d insinuate such a thing, but we both knew the truth and her eyes were telling me exactly what I’d been wanting to know. “We’d never do such a thing. What would we need with your crap anyhow?”
I scoffed, “Oh, you didn’t need it. It was strictly for humiliation. I’m sure you have it all recorded as well.” I watched her reaction carefully, wanting to get a hint on whether I was correct or not.
She smiled, smug and full of herself. “Well, I will tell you this. I wouldn’t piss Trina off too much. You know how things tend to get leaked when there’s an intense election going on.”
They did. The footage was somewhere out there, saved in the cloud, waiting for a single press of a button to be released into the world. As I propped the box on my hip, my eyes narrowed as I stared straight into her dark eyes, taking a step toward her. “Let’s get one thing straight right now. If that video comes out, I’ll destroy all of you.”
“Good luck with that.” She smirked. “You’re in over your head here; Jaxson can only protect you for so long.”
One good thing came from my exchange with Camila. She didn’t know that Jaxson and I had broken up, which meant neither did Trina or the rest of the school. Hopefully we could keep everyone in the dark until Jaxson and I could sort out our misunderstanding.
Chapter 11
Where in the hell was he? It was Friday evening and I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Jaxson all week at school. No phone calls. No texts. And as much as I hated to admit it, I’d spent way too much time looking out my window, hoping for a peek of him. I was turning into a damned stalker.
It just blew my mind how students at Greisbach Academy could just take off and miss school for days on end without repercussions. Does money make that much of a difference? Were they going to get people to write their tests for them as well? How did they pass? But I knew. They all had private tutors.
I was in the process of getting ready to go to Damien’s drag competition, although I wasn’t exactly sure how I was supposed to dress for it. Damien hadn’t been much help in giving me input, aside from saying I should look marvelous. What in the hell was that supposed to mean?
Looking marvelous to me meant exaggerating everything, so that’s what I decided to do with dramatic cat-eye make-up, black leather pants and a loose-fitting silver sleeveless shirt that dipped low on the back—nearly to my ass.
Despite my efforts to keep my focus on getting ready, I couldn’t keep my mind from Jaxson. It was as though I was fucking obsessed or something. I hated that this was so hard and that not talking to him hurt so badly. Jaxson couldn’t be my focus right now; I had to get my head in the game. The election was now just a week away. Two weeks wasn’t nearly enough time to get a foothold on this election.
If I lost to Trina I’d be crushed, and it would put me in the position of second fiddle to her for the remainder of the senior year. I will admit though that I wasn’t sure if I’d be crushed more because I wanted it, or because I was still holding a bitter grudge. I’d never had an intense desire to be popular before moving here—now it seemed to be one of my priorities. If I allowed myself to admit it, the whole thing felt shallow to me, yet I felt compelled to pursue this climb to the top of the social ladder.
Finishing with my make-up, I dropped the lipstick onto the vanity and scrutinized my reflection in the mirror. I looked as good as I was ever going to. Damien would have done a much better job
at making me look fabulous, but he wasn’t with me, he was already at the club getting ready for the show.
Leaving the bathroom, I grabbed my handbag and a pair of obscenely high heels and made my way downstairs. Reaching the bottom of the stairs and entering the foyer I was surprised to see my mother walk into the house with Tony—the chef she’d hired who used to work with her back in Florida. They looked like they were just coming home from a date…
“Mom. Tony. What are you guys doing here?”
My mother laughed. “I live here, remember.” There was a twinkle in her eyes. I wasn’t sure I liked her spending so much time with Tony. He had always had a bit of a reputation for being a player and now that my mother was rich it made me wonder about his intentions with her.
“Yes, but why is Tony here?”
“We’re going over the menu.” Her eyes narrowed at me, warning me to mind my tongue. She was looking good. Coming home from a date looking good.
My attention went back to Tony. He was wearing what I would guess was his “good” jeans and a t-shirt. He was certainly attractive, and had a slight Staten Island accent, which is where he was from originally if I recalled correctly. I didn’t know his age, but I’d guess it was around my mother’s, so he’d be in his mid-thirties.
“Okay.”
Turning the tables on me, it was my mother’s turn to question me. “Where are you headed? And don’t you think your outfit is a little over the top? You are still only seventeen.”
Not for where I’m going, I thought, but kept it to myself. “No. I think it’s good.”
“She looks nice, Felicia.” Tony cut in when it appeared my mother was about to protest.
“Thanks.” Dropping my shoes, which were ankle-high silver Jimmy Choo booties, I slipped my feet into them. “My car should be outside waiting for me, so I have to go, Mom.” Walking up to her, I gave her a hug and kiss on the cheek. We’d been doing quite well this week. It was perhaps the best week we’d had together since we moved here, and I was grateful. I was getting my best friend back and she seemed to be starting to trust me again.
Power Play: Upper East Side (Greisbach Academy #2) Page 7