by Mae Doyle
“Now,” she continued, when she saw that I didn’t interrupt her, “I want to show everyone here one example of how she has corrupted the minds of some of the students of Taylor Prep.” She turned away from me and looked offstage before yelling. “Bring them!”
My jaw fell open as Brett and Kaleb were marched across the stage to me. They’d been hiding up in the balcony for house, and I had no idea how they were caught. Brett looked pissed and kept trying to yank his arm away from the person guiding him across the stage, while Kaleb looked much calmer.
I knew him, though. I knew that beneath the surface, he was about ready to explode.
“We found these two students spying on us. Who knows what they were planning? All we know is that they were both some of the top students at Taylor Prep before Rose Bennett came and got her hooks in them. In fact, you are looking at two rogues.”
This made the crowd murmur. Even though I didn’t want to look at them, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from how some of the council members in the auditorium leaned over and whispered to each other.
Apparently, the rogues were supposed to be incorruptible. Well, until I came along, I guessed.
“Now, Miss Bennett,” she said, turning back to me, “you can see why we simply can’t allow you to continue your education here at Taylor Prep. It’s best for everyone if you simply leave on your own, but if you refuse, we have members who are more than happy to walk you out.”
Ripping my eyes away from Brett and Kaleb, I looked out at the crowd. This was not how we had planned this evening to go. Honestly, I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to talk our way out of this, not when it looked like everyone in the crowd was ready to see me out the door, whether I liked it or not.
I cleared my throat and immediately recoiled from the feedback of the microphone. “Sorry,” I said, leaning forward and lightly tapping it. “Since the council is so keen on bringing up the things that I have done wrong, I want to take a moment to do the same for them.”
Nobody moved. Everyone in the auditorium was staring at me. Especially Mr. Taylor. And Harper’s mom. My heart squeezed when I caught another glimpse of her in the crowd.
When it became obvious that I wasn’t going to be stopped, I cleared my throat again. “Not only did the council encourage violent acts towards me that landed me under the care of the nurse multiple times, they also faked the death of Brett Cox, one of the rogues.” I pointed at him, pleased when I saw heads swivel away from me to look at him.
“We were on our way back to school when someone hit us on the road,” I continued. “I was injured, but the council claimed that Brett was dead, even though he was obviously fine. In fact, you all went as far as to throw him a funeral to help cover up the fact that he was really alive.”
“And?” Amelia’s mom had a smirk on her face. “What seems to be the problem? It was all sanctioned by the council. We voted, and everyone agreed.”
“I was attacked!” No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to keep my voice level any longer. My fingers ached from holding onto the podium and I felt the stinging of tears threatening to fall. “Your students – your daughter – attacked me multiple times! They landed me under the care of the nurse and almost killed me. They shaved my head, broke my nose, and fed me kiwi, which I have a life-threatening allergy to! That was all sanctioned by the council?”
Amelia’s mom was breathing heavily. I could see her nostrils flaring as she stared at me. If there was a line that I hadn’t known about, I’d definitely crossed it.
A murmur went through the crowd of people watching, but I was too nervous to turn my head to look at them. Was it possible to think that they hadn’t known about how Amelia and the harpies treated me? That was ridiculous, right? They had to all be onboard with what happened to me.
Or so I had thought.
Even my rogues had glanced up when I spoke, and while they couldn’t see Amelia’s mom’s face, I was sure that they could easily tell how rigid she had gone and the fact that she was clutching her hands into tight fists.
“Shut up.” Before I realized what was happening, she crossed the few steps to me and slapped me, her hand hitting my skin so hard that my head snapped around. Her face was twisted with anger and she had pink circles in her cheeks.
“They didn’t know, did they?” My words were quieter. They were just between the two of us, and I was sure that she knew it. Even though my voice was just above a whisper, she heard me. “You just told Amelia to do whatever the hell she wanted, didn’t you? But they had no idea.”
“Shut your whorish mouth. You don’t belong here! You’re a slut, Rose, and you’ve made a mockery of what we’ve built. When Mrs. Cox told us about you, we couldn’t wait to have you gone.” Her words were hisses and filled with rage.
“But she told you to back off!” I was shouting again, not even caring if everyone in the auditorium heard me. No, actually, I wanted them to hear me.
They needed to know exactly what was happening. What had happened.
What this woman had allowed.
“She told you that it was a mistake! And what did you do? You pretended that her son was dead! You’re a fucking monster!”
The silence that filled the auditorium after I yelled at her was almost deafening. All I could hear was my heart pounding in my ears, and for a moment, I thought for sure that I had really fucked up.
Movement in the crowd tore my attention away from Amelia’s mom. Mrs. Pierce, Harper’s mom, stood up. She looked pale and unsteady on her feet and grabbed the back of the chair in front of her to keep her balance.
I was surprised to see that she wasn’t the only one who looked pale.
She wasn’t the only one who looked so upset.
“You crossed a line.” Even though she looked unsteady on her feet, her voice was strong. “The council didn’t know about all of these accusations. Are they true?”
Were they true?
My jaw dropped open. I wouldn’t make this shit up, but there wasn’t any guaranteed way that I could convince anyone in the auditorium of that.
I just hoped that they would believe me.
It was really the only way out.
Chapter 25
“That’s simply not true.” Amelia’s mom stepped forward and addressed everyone in the auditorium. “That’s not at all what happened. She’s delusional, we all know that. She doesn’t belong here, and we just need to move her out of Taylor Prep before she pollutes it for the rest of our children.”
“Liar!” Brett lunged again against the person holding him back. “You did all of that, and more! You turned everyone against Rose, and when you realized that you couldn’t beat her at Taylor Prep, you tried to have us killed!
To her credit, she did a great job pretending to be surprised. Turning around, she faced him, shaking her head and smiling. “Never. I know that you had a lot of trauma after your accident, Brett, but none of that was caused by the council.”
“Are you sure about that?” Harper’s mom was walking up the aisle. I felt a surge of hope when she looked at me, but if she was happy to see me, she did a great job of keeping her face neutral. “I remember you telling us at the Christmas party that you came up with a masterful way to deal with Rose, but you had to risk a rogue for it. We didn’t approve then, and we don’t approve now.”
I’d never seen an adult flounder the way Amelia’s mom was just then. She turned to different members of the council in the auditorium, calling them by name.
“Tiffany, you know that none of this is true, right? And Garrett, you were there at the party! You know that I never said anything like that!” there was a touch of panic in her voice and I felt a momentary surge of hope. It wasn’t like I still thought that this would suddenly be easier, but if the members of the council turned against her…well, it’s not like it could be any more difficult.
Even though I tried to find the faces of the people she was calling out, I had no idea where to look. Some of the council members looked
surprised at what was being said, some looked angry, but there were some who looked at me with pity.
I hated pity, but right then it seemed like the best possible option for me.
While I was looking out into the crowd, Brett helped Kaleb get free from the person holding him back. The two of them flanked me, each of them slipping their hands into mine and lacing our fingers together. I felt a surge of hope and safety as they held me, knowing that they would do anything to keep me safe.
“Your group was started as a way to help Taylor Prep,” Brett called out over the crowd. Immediately, everyone stopped whispering and listened to him. “But it’s been bastardized by a few of you. Those of you who tried to kill Rose, who had me dead and buried, and who looked away when she was tortured…none of you deserve to be here.”
Cautiously, I reached up and touched my camera. It was still facing forward, and I just hoped that the live feed was working. We were relying on it.
“Oh, get over it!” Amelia’s mom snapped out. Turning so that she’d been on camera, I watched as her face twisted with rage. “It’s not like anyone would have missed her. She doesn’t belong here, Brett. You rogues know that as well as I do.”
My heart was pounding. Even though she had no idea what she was doing, she was giving us all of the ammo that we needed to take the council down for good.
“She could have died.” Kaleb’s voice was strong, and I squeezed his hand. “You almost killed her. Both of them could have died.”
The rumble from the crowd almost tore my attention away from Amelia’s mom, but I didn’t turn my body. She was who we needed to see on film. Well, her and Mr. Taylor. I just wished that he would get out of his seat and get up there with us.
“What do you think, Mr. Taylor?” We had to have him talking about this. We had to have him on film admitting what happened or none of what we were doing would matter. When I turned to look at him, I saw him raise his eyebrows.
After a moment, he stood, clearing his throat.
“I think that there has been a number of unfortunate accidents these two years,” he began, but I cut him off.
“You knew that the council was out to get me. You knew that I was being tortured by the harpies. But you didn’t do anything.”
He glared at me, and at first, I thought that it was all over. He wasn’t going to crack.
He’d never crack.
But he did.
“You should have just left, Miss Bennett. If you had left Taylor Prep then none of this would have happened. We have a reputation to uphold, and when someone in the council speaks out against a student, then that student needs to leave. It’s that easy.” His voice rang out over the auditorium. Some of the council members nodded, but some, like Harper’s mom, who was standing near the stage, looked horrified.
“So you were fine with what Amelia did to me? You were fine with pretending like Brett was dead? You really knew about it all and you didn’t care?” My voice felt thick in my throat, but I forced the words out.
It was inconceivable to me that someone would allow this type of treatment to occur and not try to stop it.
Not try to save me.
“I knew. I allowed it. From order comes freedom, Miss Bennett, or had you forgotten so quickly?”
That was it. That was what we needed. Brett was squeezing my hand so tightly that I couldn’t move my fingers, but it didn’t matter.
“Thank you, sir,” I said, but I wasn’t sure if he heard me, because at that moment the doors to the auditorium all slammed open.
Everyone turned around and gasped. Well, everyone except Brett, Kaleb, and me. We all knew who was coming. We’d honestly been a little afraid that they wouldn’t have made it.
But my live feed must have worked.
Jackie must have gotten everything connected somehow even though Brett and Kaleb hadn’t been able to stay up in the balcony.
The police were there.
Epilogue
“Do you ever miss it?” Jackie’s voice floated towards me from across the lawn where he and Brett were playing a game of catch. Kaleb and I were snuggled up in the hammock together, and while I knew that Jackie wasn’t talking to me, my ears still perked up.
I wanted to know.
I needed to know if the rogues missed what they had had at Taylor Prep before I’d come along. Even though they’d told me a million times – and shown me even more – that they were happier now than they had been, part of me was still scared.
Scared that I had ruined everything for them.
Scared that they would one day wake up and realize that I wasn’t worth the drama.
“Taylor Prep?” Brett threw the ball back to Jackie, who caught it with a satisfying whack in his mitt. “Not at all. She’s more than worth it.”
“Agreed.” Jackie caught the ball effortlessly. I felt like he was looking at me in the hammock, but I didn’t want to sit up and let him catch me listening in on his conversation. “She’s worth it and more.”
Smiling to myself, I snuggled closer to Kaleb. None of it seemed real. Not the way I was bullied so hard, what it felt like to have my rogues to myself…how amazing it had been when the police burst into the auditorium during the meeting with the council.
I’d been curious a few times about how my rouges managed to pull off sending a live feed to the police department, but I’d never asked. It didn’t really matter, not in the grand scheme of things. What really mattered was that they had done it, and that they’d done it to protect me.
The look on Amelia’s mom’s face and the way Mr. Taylor had turned so pale when the police burst in was something that I’d relish forever.
“Are you happy?” Kaleb’s voice interrupted my thoughts and I stirred, lifting up my head to look at him.
“Am I what?” I thought that I’d heard him correctly, but it was insane to me that he may not realize how over the moon I really was.
“Happy.” Kaleb shifted position and I sat up with him, immediately leaning back on him, my head on his shoulder. “Are you happy, Rose? Everything fell apart there at the end, but I hope that you know that we’d do anything for you.”
“Happy?” I grinned at him like an idiot and then kissed him. “Kaleb, I love you. I love Jackie. I love Brett. I have the three men I love with me and I couldn’t be happier. If we knew what was coming next then I’d be thrilled, but this is everything. You three? You’re everything.”
“You’re our everything too, Rosita.” Jackie and Brett had walked up when I was looking at Kaleb. Now Jackie smiled at me and leaned down to kiss me. “We would do it all again if it meant having you.”
I looked at Brett for confirmation, and when he nodded, I grinned.
“Hopefully we won’t have to,” I told them, reaching for Brett and pulling him in for a kiss.
“New school soon,” Brett warned, when I let him go.
He was right. We’d been holed up at his mom’s for the past few days, but on Monday, everything changed. Taylor Prep had been shut down indefinitely while an investigation into how it was run and the conduct of students and the council was conducted.
My rogues had managed to slip into the bunker before everyone was escorted off of campus and they took all of their belongings. That meant that we didn’t have a secret place to hide and spend time together, but we didn’t care.
Now, at Brett’s house, we could lounge in the gardens, go swimming, or simply spend all day in bed in the guest house, which was my favorite thing to do.
Mrs. Cox had practically begged for my forgiveness, and of course, I gave it to her.
How could I not? She was as much a victim of the council and Taylor Prep as I was, and I loved her son.
It was as simple as that.
“There’s just one thing that I don’t get,” Jackie said, thoughtfully running his hand through his hair while he thought. “Your big plan to take down Amelia – I know that you never got to put it into motion, but I’m really curious as to what it was in the first place
. You never told us.”
“I didn’t.” I paused, wondering if I should tell him. I was sure that by then the adults would have all figured out what I had, so it probably didn’t matter at that point.
“Going to share your brilliance, Rose?” Kaleb kissed my neck and I turned to look at him.
“Okay. I realized pretty quickly why Amelia wanted Mr. Collins at school so badly. It wasn’t just because she had him wrapped around her little finger.” I sighed and wrinkled my nose. “Actually, I figured it out because I walked in on them.”
“Figured what out – oh, I think I know.” Brett frowned. “They were together?”
I nodded. “Yeah, definitely. I was going to expose her and get my revenge that way. There wasn’t any way that he’d be allowed to stay on and teach, and I figured that that would ensure she’d get kicked out, too. If nothing else, it would completely destroy her family and tear her apart from her lover.”
We were all silent for a moment, thinking about how differently the year could have gone.
I was terribly sorry that I never got to compete in the vocal competition at Taylor Prep. For all I knew, the new school where we’d be going didn’t have a huge voice department.
Our only stipulation was that the four of us would still be together, no matter where we went.
“So, onward to Mitchell’s Academy for the rest of the year?” Brett’s voice pulled us all out of our reveries.
“Mitchell’s Academy,” I agreed, nodding. “It can’t be any worse than Taylor Prep, right? I mean, how likely is it that we’ll run into another secret organization running the school and hellbent on getting me kicked out?”
“Probably not very likely, Rosita,” Jackie said, landing a gentle kiss on my forehead. “But if there is, then at least you have us with you from day one.”