Wicked Truth

by Mae Doyle

  “I’ll kill you.” The words were out of my mouth before I’d even left my seat, but I walked up to her, getting into her face. “What the hell was that for?”

  She grinned, her perfectly white teeth almost blinding in the bright lights of the dining hall. “It just didn’t look like you’d taken a shower yet today.” She leaned forward so that our faces were only inches from each other. I didn’t flinch backwards, even though I was a little afraid that she was going to spit on me again. She wouldn’t, right? “You’re dirty, Rose. Dirty kids don’t belong here. You need to go.”

  “We told you to leave.” Kaleb’s bright green eyes swept down my body and I looked up at him, surprised that he was getting involved. “Remember? Before break? You were warned, Rose, so anything that happens now is on you.”

  “All you have to do is leave and it’ll stop.” Sara grinned again. “But if you’re too stupid to try to save yourself then I guess it’s open season.”

  A loud slam from the head table where the rogues and the harpies sat drew our attention and everyone looked over at them. Brett was standing up and had slammed his tray into the table to make a noise loud enough to cut through our talking. He took a deep breath and I felt a curling in my stomach as I watched his chest expand.

  He was hot, no doubt about it. It was just obvious that I had no self-preservation if I was still mooning over someone like him who would just as soon run me out of Taylor Prep than look at me.

  “Everyone here knows that Rose was asked to leave over break. Everyone here also know that we can’t technically hurt her, right?” He paused and looked around the dining hall while everyone nodded. “Good. But that’s the rule. You can’t physically hurt Rose. Any questions?” He looked around the hall, waiting on someone to speak up, but nobody did.

  They were all just staring at him, their eyes locked on his perfect face, waiting to hear what else he had to say. It was enough to make me sick.

  “I have a question.” Even though I tried to make my voice as loud as possible, it still felt a little quiet in the large hall. There was a shuffling sound as everyone turned around in their seats to look at me. In just a few seconds, I had all the eyes of every junior at Taylor Prep locked onto me.

  “You don’t get to ask questions.” Brett sounded bored, but I ignored him and pushed past Kaleb and Sara, making sure to run into her with my elbow. She sucked in a hiss as I walked by, but I ignored her.

  “Well, then how about a statement?” I walked to the front of the dining hall and then turned around. Brett was standing up behind me, but we were separated by a table. Jackie was to his left, but he hadn’t said or done anything to try to stop me. This was my time to address the class, and I wasn’t going to let it slip by.

  Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to stop tugging on the bottom of my jacket. “I don’t know what the hell is wrong with all of you, but I have every right to be here. You all want the better life that Taylor Prep can give you, right? Well, that’s all I want, too.” Even as I talked, I was vaguely aware of movement behind me, but I didn’t want to turn around and see what the rogues and harpies were up to.

  All of the students had their eyes locked on me. Nobody breathed. Harper and Maggie were holding hands again, each squeezing the other so hard that their knuckles were turning white. When I caught their eyes, Maggie nodded.

  “So I need you guys to listen up. You can’t hurt me – you just heard that from Brett. But you have no idea how much I want to be here and how much I can withstand. I’m not going anywhere, and you’ll do good to remember that.”

  Silence. My heart was pounding so hard that I could hear it, and I was sure that everyone else in the hall could, too, but nobody moved. Not until I heard slow clapping from my right. I whipped around as Brett walked towards me, holding his hands out in front of his body, clapping at an infuriatingly slow pace.

  “You feel all better now, Rose? Got that out of your system? Wasn’t she great, guys?” He turned to the students and they all started to clap. My face burned hot as he came closer. “You can make fancy speeches all day long, Rose, but that doesn’t change what you are. Trash.”

  He was only a few inches from me now. If we were magnets, our bodies would have been pulled to each other. With a little imagination, I could pretend to feel the pull from him and I leaned forward. What I had to say was for his ears only.

  “I may be trash, Brett, but at least I’m not a murderer.” The words slid from between my lips like honey. They felt so good to say that at first I didn’t notice the dark look that fell across his face. His skin and eyes were already dark, but suddenly they were moody, deep pools of hate that terrified me.

  His hand lashed out faster than I could step back and he squeezed my upper arm so hard that a sharp gasp left my mouth without me knowing I was making any noise. Slowly he leaned forward, pulling me towards him so that I was pressed up against his body.

  My traitor body felt a thrill of excitement at being this close to him. There was something undeniably attractive about Brett.

  Even though I’d seen him kill his adopted dad.

  Even though I should have been terrified of him.

  Even though the entire class was watching and probably wondering what was going on between the two of us.

  I couldn’t have moved even if he let me go. My body was pressed up to his so hard that I was sure he could feel every curve I had.

  And I didn’t even care.

  His lips brushed my ear and the feel of his hot breath on my skin made me shiver, but still I didn’t pull back. I was like an animal caught in the gaze of the hunter, and there wasn’t anything that I could do to save myself.

  Hell, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to save myself.

  Not this close to him. Not feeling his body throb next to mine.

  “It’s talk like that that gets you in trouble, Rose. Maybe you should learn to shut up about the things that you think you saw.”

  Things that I thought I saw? A flashback tore through my mind and I saw him again as a younger Brett, crouched over his adopted dad’s body. There was a growing pool of blood around his head from where Brett had hit him with…something. The blood reached his shoes while I watched. The look on his face never changed.

  I know what I saw. Right?

  Chapter 6

  “You mind if I take her?” Jackie’s voice cut through the tension between Brett and me. I blinked up at him and forced myself to step back so that I wasn’t still pressed up against Brett. Jackie looked bored and uninterested in whatever was going on between the two of us, but Brett still was enraged.

  His nostrils flared and he ran a hand through his thick dark hair before nodding curtly at Jackie and turning to walk away. Chances were very good that I hadn’t seen the last of him, though. If last semester was any indication, I would have homeroom with all three of the rogues and probably a lot of the harpies, as well.

  The thought made my stomach twist. I needed to think about what Brett said to me, but it was impossible with Jackie standing right in front of me. “You ready for homeroom?” Brett’s voice was venom, coursing through my veins and making the hair on my arms stand straight up, but Jackie’s was different. It was warm honey, flowing through me, making me weak in the knees.

  Who wouldn’t rather have honey than venom flow through their veins? Even though I could try to convince myself that Jackie wasn’t out to get me in the same way that Brett was, I would be foolish to believe that.

  In this case, honey is just as dangerous as venom.

  “I’ve got to grab my backpack,” I told him, gesturing towards the table where my friends still sat. Maggie had one hand on my backpack and she stood up, ready to hand it to me, but Jackie walked over and yanked it from her before swinging it easily over his shoulder.

  “Let’s go, Rosita.” His voice rumbled through me, shaking me to my core. There was something about the way my name rolled off of my tongue that made me shiver, but I shook off the feeling and reached for my
backpack, trying to pull it away from him.

  “I can carry it myself.” He turned around, my backpack spinning out of reach. “Hey! Jackie! I said that I can handle it myself.”

  Slowly he turned around and locked his eyes on mine. “I have no doubt that you can now, Rosita, but that doesn’t mean that I want you to. Let me be chivalrous for once.”

  I scoffed. Yeah, like I believed that there was a chivalrous bone in his body. “Fine. You can carry it, but don’t think that I’m sitting near you this semester.” Having to sit behind Jackie for the entirety of last semester was hard. Not only did he have the perfect opportunity to turn around and talk to me whenever he wanted, but I had to endure the way he looked. And smelled. I took a whiff as I fell into place walking next to him down the hall.

  Yep. Still smelled just like I remembered – light and airy, like fresh cotton. It wasn’t as deep and musky as Brett or as tropical as Kaleb, but there was something addictive.

  We turned into homeroom and I groaned when I saw that everyone was already sitting in their same seats from last semester. Mr. Staton raised an eyebrow at us when we walked in. “Glad to see that you two decided to join us. Find your seats and pay attention, the announcements are about to start.”

  I slipped into my seat behind Jackie and smiled with both Harper and Maggie caught my eye to wave. Maybe this semester wouldn’t be so bad. There were a lot of good things to look forward to, like another voice competition and a beach trip away from campus, and I was already imagining what it would be like to spend time with my best friends with the intercom clicked to life.

  Most everyone else looked bored, but I glanced up at the sound. Last semester it clicked on quickly and Mr. Taylor began speaking, but this time there was a slight buzz and a few other clicks like a tape being played.

  A few more clicks made everyone else look up, and then someone started speaking. It definitely wasn’t Mr. Taylor. After listening to him drone on and on all last semester, I would have recognized his voice anywhere. The person speaking now sounded much younger, but his voice also sounded a little distorted, like maybe they didn’t want people to know who they were.

  But that was ridiculous, right? Anyone who had access to the intercom had to get permission from Mr. Taylor, so there was no reason why they would have to distort their voice.

  “Attention, Taylor Prep students. Attention.” The voice repeated this twice and then paused. The air in the classroom felt almost electric as everyone looked up at the intercom and waited for the person to keep talking. Even Mr. Staton had stopped messing with papers on his desk and was sitting still, listening.

  “I would like to welcome everyone back to a wonderful semester at Taylor Prep. Last semester we just started getting geared up before we had to leave for Christmas break. I trust that everyone is well rested and ready to carry on the good fight.”

  The person speaking paused for a moment and I glanced around, glad to see that some of the other students in class looked as confused as I felt.

  “But remember that you deserve to be here. You have worked hard, and so have your families, for you to come to Taylor Prep to succeed. All of you. Except for Rose Bennett.”

  Immediately everyone in the class, including Mr. Staton, turned to look at me. My hands were under my desk, tucked in my lap, and I dug my nails from my right hand into my left palm. I didn’t want my face to turn bright red, but I could already feel my skin starting to burn. I prayed that people would stop looking at me, but they didn’t, even when the voice over the announcements continued.

  “So I hope that everyone is ready for a great semester, except you, Rose. We’re all watching you, which is easier than ever now that you don’t have a door in your room. You going to put on a show like your mom?”

  The dead air after the voice asked the question about my mom was almost as deafening as when the voice had been speaking. I knew that everyone was still staring at me, probably waiting for me to respond, but I didn’t know what to do. My eyes were locked on my desk where there were some small pen marks from last semester.

  “Looks like everyone’s got the memo, Rose.” Amelia leaned across the space between our desks so that she could hiss at me. “Nobody wants you here. Go home.”

  “No. I won’t, and you can’t make me.” God, I sounded like a child, but there was something about Amelia that brought out the worst in me. I frowned at her, trying to figure out whether or not she was on the council.

  Everyone was still turned around watching this discussion, but Mr. Staton clapped his hands, drawing attention back up to him. “Okay, everyone, that was an interesting start to the day.” He normally looked a little tired in the morning and always had a huge cup of coffee that he sipped while we prepared for the rest of our classes, but this morning he looked more energetic than usual. “If you have anything to work on to prepare for the rest of your day you may do it now.”

  People started digging through their backpacks and talking to each other, but I sat silent, trying to figure out what I had just heard. Was it announcing a free for all on me? Why bring my mom into it? And, probably most importantly, who was on the recording?

  I glanced around the room, trying to figure out who would have allowed their voice to be recorded for this and why Mr. Taylor had let this happen. Two things were for sure:

  One – the kids at Taylor Prep were taking their job of getting rid of me much more seriously and two – Mr. Taylor wasn’t as in control as I had thought he was.

  Before I could mull over what this meant, Jackie turned around, his eyes locking onto mine. “Sounds like the semester is going to be an interesting one, doesn’t it?”

  “Sounds like it.” My voice was dry and I did my best to sound as uninterested as possible, but he just chuckled and reached out to brush some hair back from my face.

  “You think you’re up to the challenge?”

  “What challenge?” I couldn’t help it – there was something about the way he looked at me that made my stomach twist. He had a ridiculous effect on me. He was the only rogue I hadn’t kissed, but I couldn’t stop my mind from wandering as I looked at his mouth.

  It was ridiculous for me to think about what it would be like to kiss him when he wanted nothing more than to drive me from the school.

  “You want to stay at Taylor Prep, right?” He waved his pencil at me, jabbing it at my chest to make a point. When I nodded, he continued. “But nobody else wants you here, Rosita. So, my question is simple. Are you up to the challenge of staying here?”

  Why was he asking me this? It almost felt like he wanted me to try to defy him and the other rogues. I nodded. “Of course. I am.”

  He grinned, a devilish smile that twisted his perfect face into something that I found a little eerie. Jackie was hot, there was no question about it, but the way he looked at me now made me nervous. It was like he couldn’t wait to tear into me, and I didn’t like that.

  “Well, good. The students at Taylor Prep have always loved a good game, you know. And you, Rosita, may just give us the best game we’ve ever had.” With that, he turned around, bending back over his schedule. I followed his lead and pulled mine from my backpack, dragging my finger down it while I looked at what I had coming up.

  Kaleb already wanted to walk me to algebra 2. After that I had PE with my girls, then lunch, chemistry, and voice. On the other days I had more Spanish, world history, lunch, then home ec and philosophy. I wrinkled my nose at those last two classes.

  Taylor Prep seemed far too progressive to be offering home ec to its students, especially since a lot of the girls here wanted to go on to be CEOs of their own company, to perform in symphonies, or even to work in major labs. I had no idea what we were going to learn about in home ec, but if it was just cooking and sewing then I felt like I could check out mentally. I had that on lock down.

  Chapter 7

  The problem with algebra 2? It was that I had barely skated by last semester and already the class was moving so fast that I wasn’
t sure I could keep up. Not only that, but I wasn’t sure that Kaleb was going to be willing to tutor me now that I was enemy of the state.

  “Mr. Gessler? Do you have a moment?” The math teacher slowly raised his head to look at me. “I was wondering if tutoring was available this semester. I really appreciate the chance to redo my test late last semester, and I just want to make sure that I’m prepared.” My voice trailed off as I spoke until I was almost whispering.

  He didn’t answer for a moment, and I was starting to get nervous when he finally nodded, a small movement that I wouldn’t have noticed if I’d blinked. “You are more than welcome to ask Mr. Moore for help again this semester, but whether or not he offers it is up to him.”

  Great. Just freaking great. I nodded at him and left the room. I highly doubted that Kaleb would be willing to tutor me since all of the sudden everyone was working harder than before to get me to leave the school.

  There were only a few more minutes between classes and I had to make it all the way across campus to the gym. It had started to rain a little and I darted across the quad, skipping the sidewalks, and grateful for my sneakers since they let me move a little faster.

  Even though I ran as fast as I could, I was still the last person in the gym, and I was still gasping and clutching my side when the teacher walked up. Mrs. Dorn was tall, with wide shoulders and a smattering of freckles on her nose. I’d heard that she’d been an Olympic coach before Taylor Prep enticed her with more money.

  “Class. I’ll let it slide today that you’re not dressed, but I won’t in the future. From now on you need to change as quickly as possible before I get here. I’m not paid to stand around while you pop each other with towels in the locker room.” Her voice was strong and carried through the entire gym.

  I hadn’t been in the gym since the dance, and it amazed me how much the space had been transformed that night. If I closed my eyes, I could easily remember how it was that night. What it was like dancing with Kaleb. Hell, what it was like kissing Kaleb.