Wicked Truth

by Mae Doyle

  Chapter 12

  I missed my friends. Every morning I ate breakfast by myself before walking to homeroom. Often a rogue followed me, just close enough that I knew they were there, but still far enough back that they were behind me and not actually walking with me.

  Even though I wasn’t sure if it was on purpose to keep me safe from the harpies or to make sure that I didn’t do anything stupid, I kinda appreciated it, just because it allowed me to have a few minutes without being bothered.

  But besides that, it was game on. My food lost all flavor, since eating by yourself gets old after just one or two meals, and the insults hurled at me as I walked down the hall started to all sound the same.

  I mean, really? Slut. Gutter rat. Whore. Stupid virgin. I wasn’t sure how I could be a whore, a slut, and a virgin, but nobody at Taylor Prep seemed really worried about figuring out the logistics. I ignored them the best I could, tried not to talk to anyone in homeroom, and then walked by myself to class.

  The only saving grace that I had was my private voice practice with Mrs. McKearin. She was getting bigger by the day and I was starting to worry that she may not make it until the competition. I needed her there. I needed to know that there was someone in the crowd rooting for me who wanted me to succeed.

  Because, right now, it seemed like she was the only person on my side.

  The vocal competition was next week and I’d been working hard to get my voice sounding as good as possible. Amelia was a great singer, for sure, but I was better, and I was determined to show her up.

  It was almost time for my afternoon appointment with Mrs. McKearin, and I leaned against the wall outside the door, enjoying a moment of quiet and privacy. Nobody was there to harass me, nobody was there to call me names. Amelia was singing right then, but she would be out in a minute.

  I was surprised when the music abruptly stopped and Amelia started talking instead of singing.

  No, not talking. Yelling.

  She was angry, and I was curious, so I leaned over and pressed my ear up against the door to see what was going on. At first, all I heard was the high sound of her voice, but with a little effort, I started to make out some words.

  “She shouldn’t be allowed to compete. You know as well as I do that she doesn’t belong here.”

  My blood ran cold, because I knew that she could only be talking to Mrs. McKearin. Try as I might, I couldn’t hear her response, but Amelia kept talking.

  “You won’t be here for much longer, not with that giant belly of yours. I know that you think that she’s so great, but she’s not. I don’t know who your replacement is going to be, but I’m going to make sure that whoever it is doesn’t treat Rose like the special little subject that you do.”

  Of course, I knew that Mrs. McKearin wouldn’t last the rest of the year with us since she was close to giving birth, but I hadn’t considered the fact that Amelia or the other students here would have any say over who was her replacement.

  It’s not like my mom would be able to throw her weight around and make sure that the person who was hired wasn’t going to let the rogues and harpies walk all over me. It sounded like Amelia was pretty convinced that whoever Taylor Prep hired would be firmly on her side.

  Not mine.

  Mrs. McKearin was talking, but I could only hear the low rumble of her voice and I couldn’t make out any words. After a moment, however, Amelia snapped back that she was leaving and I heard her footsteps pounding towards the door.

  I gasped and stepped back from the door as quickly as possible. The last thing that I needed was for Amelia to see me leaning against the door and listening in on her conversation.

  The door to the vocal room swung open and Amelia glared at me. “What the hell are you doing, whore? You listening in on our conversation or finally figuring out that you’re not good enough to compete here?”

  I shook my head. “Neither.”

  She narrowed her eyes, looking exactly like a snake. “Neither,” she mocked, making her voice high and nasally. “Well, Rose, I suggest you enjoy your time with Mrs. McKearin now, because I don’t think that she’s going to be there to support you at the vocal competition. Whoever comes after her will surely be able to see through the bullshit you’ve got going on.” She leaned closer, her voice a hiss. “You’re not nearly as good as you think you are. Are you sure you’re not a dyke who slept her way into the competition?”

  My head snapped back.

  “Wow, Amelia. Is that what you’re hoping? That I’m a dyke and so you can finally get laid?” It was a stupid thing to say and crossing a line, but I didn’t care. She and her stupid little friends had done nothing but make my life as miserable as possible since I came to Taylor Prep, and I was done.

  In response she raised one perfectly tweezed eyebrow. “You wish you could get with this, Rose. But from what I’ve heard, you’re not above giving it out to any guy who looks your way. Be careful or you’ll end up like dear Mrs. McKearin in there.”

  She swept away from me in a cloud of perfume that burned my noise and was cloying in the back of my throat. Before I could even think about a good response, Mrs. McKearin called me in.

  “Rose, are you ready? I don’t want you to spend all of your practice time standing out in the hall.”

  I sighed and walked into the room. Even though I’d just seen the teacher the day before, I was still surprised by how huge her stomach had gotten. She really did look like she was going to pop, and for the first time, I started to wonder if she’d be able to be at the competition.

  “Everything okay?” I didn’t want to let on that I’d heard yelling, but Amelia was so loud that it was silly to pretend that everything was okay. Mrs. McKearin laughed and rolled her eyes.

  “Yes. Miss Holland is a very passionate singer, you know that. She’s concerned that she will lose her place as the leader of the vocal group after this competition, so she hired a professional voice coach to help her. Do you know Tate Collins?”

  Tate Collins? Everyone knew him. He was responsible for some of the biggest stars working today, like Lil’ Brit and Blackwater Bones. If Amelia had hired him then she was obviously taking this competition more seriously than I had thought.

  And that meant that I needed to step it up or there was no way that I was going to be able to compete with her, even with Mrs. McKearin helping me the best that she could.

  “What does that mean for the rest of us?” I didn’t want to sound nervous, but it was hard to stay calm when I knew that Amelia had a professional helping her out.

  Mrs. McKearin sighed. “It means that you are going to have to work even harder than you thought that you were in order to be solid competition. I don’t know what you did to make her so mad, but she’s out for blood.”

  “Do you think that you’ll make it to the competition?” I gestured at her stomach, and she smiled at me, resting her hand on it.

  “Definitely. My doctor said that I have a few more weeks and that the baby is not at all ready. If it were to come now then it would be a huge surprise and would probably end up in the ICU for a while, so I’ll be there, you don’t have to worry about that.”

  Relief flooded over me, but it was short lived.

  A sudden thought occurred to me, even though I wasn’t sure that it was a good idea to push this with my voice teacher. Before I could stop myself, though, I opened my mouth. “Mrs. McKearin, do you know anything about the council?”

  She paused, her hands completely still. She had been rifling through sheet music but now she lifted her head and looked at me, a mixture of sadness and compassion on her face. “Why do you ask that? That’s not something that students should be worrying about.”

  Okay, I was getting somewhere then. “Because apparently people want me out of Taylor Prep. Not just Amelia, but…other people, as well, and I don’t know what I did. I don’t know who wants me out or what I’ve done to make them angry, but…”

  She cut me off. “This isn’t something for us to talk ab
out, Miss Bennet, I’m sorry. If you want to practice now then I’m happy to help you, but if you’re going to continue this line of questioning then I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

  What I had thought was compassion in her face had disappeared. It was fear, now, that showed up in her eyes. Whatever I’d said about the council had made Mrs. McKearin afraid, and that worried me.

  “Okay,” I said after a moment. “Let’s sing.”

  We started on scales, making sure to take plenty of time to warm up my voice before we launched into the piece I was set to perform. It stretched my range more than any other song I’d worked on before, and by the end of the hour, I was exhausted.

  I also hadn’t sung like that since I’d broken my nose, and as good as it felt to be working again, my throat ached.

  “That was good.” She patted a stack of sheet music into a pile and then shot me an encouraging smile. “I’ll be there next week at the competition, and I think that you’re going to do just fine. Don’t think about Tate Collins and the work he’s doing with Miss Holland. Just keep your head down and stay out of the limelight, and I think that you’ll be okay.”

  A knock on the door interrupted whatever I was going to say, so I just nodded and turned to leave, but my mind was racing.

  When she told me to keep my head down and stay out of the limelight, was she talking about the vocal competition or about my time at Taylor Prep in general?

  Was there a warning there?

  Kelly passed me on my way out the door. “Hey, slutface. You sounded like shit you know.”

  I ignored her. Even though her words hurt, I had more important things to worry about, like whether or not Mrs. McKearin was trying to give me a thinly veiled warning or if Amelia was going to be able to win the competition thanks to her star-studded help.

  At least, I told myself, I wouldn’t have to wait for long to see Mrs. McKearin again. We had voice the next day and then a break over the weekend before the competition. I wasn’t sure how much more information I’d be able to get from her, but I was determined to at least try.

  ◆◆◆

  The next day I was practically skipping on my way to voice. Nothing bad had happened during my morning classes, and I had even enjoyed my lunch by sneaking out to eat in the quad so that I didn’t have to deal with people staring at me while I ate and calling me names as I walked by.

  Amelia and the harpies were standing outside of the voice room when I walked up, but they all fell silent and turned to look at me. Amelia was in front, a giant grin on her face and she stepped forward to stop me from passing them as I headed for the door.

  “Rosie, Rosie, Rose. I have got something special to tell you.” She rubbed her hands together, looking every part the evil villain of my story. Even though she was twisted and evil, I had to admit that she was beautiful, and that pissed me off. It’s hard to admit that someone is pretty after they beat the crap out of you with a staff in front of everyone.

  I stopped a few feet from her and crossed my arms over my chest. “What do you want, Amelia?”

  “Good news. Mrs. McKearin had her baby.” She smiled, watching my face for any sign of emotion, but I kept my face as still and calm as possible. She had just told me yesterday that she wasn’t near due and if the baby came now, then that wasn’t good. Before I could think too much about what meant, however, Amelia continued. “And, of course, Taylor Prep wants us to have the best, so we have a new voice teacher. I don’t know if you’re quite up to his expectations, but we’ll see.”

  There was no way that Mrs. McKearin having her baby early – the week before the competition – was coincidence. If I had to bet I would assume that Amelia had something to do with it. But that was crazy, right? Would anyone put a pregnant woman and her child at risk over a stupid vocal competition?

  One glance at the gleeful look on her face told me that yes, she might.

  And now she had some surprise waiting in the vocal room.

  I was pretty sure that it was going to be someone that she and her family had hand-picked. I just hoped that that didn’t mean I was in for a bad surprise.

  Chapter 13

  I knew that I should get up and out of bed for breakfast on Saturday before the dining hall closed, but it was hard for me to find any motivation. Not only did Amelia hand-pick the new voice teacher, like I had suspected that she would, but it was her private tutor, Tate Collins, who apparently thought that she walked on water.

  She doesn’t. She may float, like a witch, but she’s no savior.

  I grimaced and rolled over in bed, clutching my sheet and blankets around me like a burrito as I remembered how our new teacher had fawned all over her and what it was like to feel completely and utterly like crap.

  I really had to pull it together for the competition this week if I was going to do well, but at the same time, I was worried for Mrs. McKearin. The harpies wouldn’t sabotage her pregnancy just to get her out on maternity leave early, would they?

  The thought was running through my mind when suddenly someone yanked my sheet in the door back. My heart started pounding and I sat up, clutching my blankets to my chest even though I’d started wearing a giant t-shirt and leggings to bed instead of sleeping naked since my doors disappeared.

  Surprisingly, I hadn’t had a problem with people coming into my room or taking my stuff, but I’d been ready. Now I flipped the covers back and hopped out of bed as quickly as possible, ready to face whoever was coming into my room.

  “Get up.” The rogues were all standing in my door, their faces flushed. Since it was Saturday, and not a school day, they had on jeans and t-shirts. I was already halfway out of the bed when they laid eyes on me, but I still felt highly exposed.

  How was I supposed to feel with three gorgeous guys staring at me in my pj shirt? It didn’t matter how oversized it was, there was something a little unnerving about them seeing me like this. It was a little too personal, no matter how I looked at it.

  “Why? What’s up?” Reaching up, I pulled my hair into a ponytail while I waited for them to respond. Their eyes followed me as I moved, and I felt myself shiver under their gaze.

  It was Brett who spoke first. “The harpies are not happy that you’re competing next week. They’re coming by to teach you a lesson.” He glanced over his shoulder as he spoke, and the movement made me shiver.

  Was he really worried? About me? That was something I was going to have to try to figure out later. I wasn’t sure why he would care about me, but something in his face hold me that I needed to move.

  Now.

  “Seriously? What are they planning?” I sat down and pulled on my sneakers while talking to them. There was a lump in my throat that, no matter how hard I swallowed, I couldn’t quite get rid of.

  Jackie shrugged. “We don’t know. I just overhead Sara talking about it.”

  I had to fight the urge to ask him why he was with Sara, but I managed to bite my tongue. No matter how much I wanted to know about his relationship with her, it didn’t matter. Right? We kissed that one time but there was no way that there was ever going to be more.

  Not with any of these guys.

  No matter how much I may have wanted it.

  “Okay. I’m dressed. What do I do? Where do I go?” They all stared at me when I asked these questions like they couldn’t believe that I’d not have an immediate plan. “Come on, guys! You obviously care about me a little or you wouldn’t have com here to warn me about the harpies.” They paused, and I could tell that none of them had thought that far ahead.

  “You don’t have anywhere you can go?” Kaleb raised his eyebrow at me while he asked the question, and I scoffed.

  “You’re kidding, right? You and the harpies are the reasons that I don’t have any friends any longer. So, no, I don’t have anywhere I can go. Suggestions? You offering up your room?”

  He blanched and shook his head. “Not a chance. But you need to go. Now.”

  Ridiculous. They could come to my roo
m to warn me, but none of them was going to help me come up with a plan of what I should do or where I should go. I thought about staying and hiding under my bed, but the look on their faces told me that that was stupid.

  “Fine. I know where I’m going.” I pushed past them into the hall, taking a deep breath as soon as I was out of my room. Being that close to the three of them was almost stifling and made it hard for me to breathe. It was a mixture of their cologne, and the fact that I’d kissed them all.

  My face burned. “You guys just going to stand here in my door? Don’t you think that they’ll find that a little suspicious?”

  “Where are you going?” Brett didn’t move, but his eyes searched mine. I had to tear my eyes away from his dark orbs or I was sure that I would tell him where I was headed, and it wouldn’t do to have him meet me in the bunker.

  Not after the last time.

  Not after I kissed him there.

  “Does it matter?” I popped out my hip and planted my hand on it, staring him down.

  He shook his head, a small smile on his face. “I guess that it doesn’t. Just be safe.”

  “What, you guys care about me now?” I knew that I should be turning and running away as quickly as possible, but there was something holding me there. I couldn’t believe that the three of them would really come to help me, not without an ulterior motive.

  There was nothing in the way that they’d treated me that made me think that they cared. I brushed a strand of hair from my cheek and smiled a little to myself when I saw the bracelet from Harper’s mom. She was one of the only people who had showed me kindness last semester and I loved her for it. In fact, I hadn’t taken the bracelet off since she’d given it to me.

  “Nice bracelet. Where did you get it?” Kaleb looked more interested in the bracelet than he had in anything else in a while, and I quickly put my hand behind my back.

  “None of your business.” I paused, feeling childish. “You answer my question and I’ll answer yours.”