Cruel Riches: A Dark Bully Romance (The Kings of Crestmoore Academy, Book 1)

by Elle East

  As we walked to NEW, I tried to keep track of all the different turns we made; I needed to learn for when I was on my own again—while also keeping up my side of a conversation with Jayla. She was being nice to me and it felt weird. She wasn’t super deep or clever or anything so talking to her wasn’t that fun and I was happy when we finally got to the classroom.

  We walked through the door and I saw Cecily sitting near the front and that Archer was sitting near the back of the room. He eyed me when I came in, but I pointedly ignored him.

  Cecily’s eyes went wide and her eyebrows shot up to her hairline when she saw me with a Queen. I thanked Jayla then went over to the empty desk next to Cecily and sat down.

  “Did you just walk in with Jayla??” she whispered.

  “Yeah, she helped me find this classroom.”

  Cecily’s mouth dropped open in shock and she gave me a look that said more than words ever could.

  “We’re not friends or anything,” I hissed. “She just walked me to class because I was lost.”

  Cecily shook her head in disbelief and turned back to face the teacher at the front of the room who had already started his lecture.

  “We aren’t! I don’t know what they are up to but they are all being really nice to me for some reason.” I whispered.

  “Didn’t you get a map of the campus in your welcome package?” she whispered.

  “No.”

  “New girl, quiet down!” the teacher called.

  I jumped in surprise and then sank down into my seat trying to disappear so I could avoid anymore trouble—but it was too late. He walked between the row of desks until he was standing over us. I noticed Cecily had sunk lower in her seat too.

  “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “Maddy Baker.”

  There was a pause and then a look of confusion flashed across his face. A couple seconds passed and then he took a sniff of the air. Suddenly I realized what he was doing and my cheeks burned in shame.

  “Do you… do you smell?” he asked incredulously.

  “It’s not my fault! There was garbage outside my door and it spill—”

  “Detention,” he cut me off. “Detention for talking during class and detention for… smelling.”

  “But I already have detention,” I mumbled feebly.

  On the other side of the room I could hear Archer snicker and it was like a stab to the gut.

  The teacher looked down at me like he had no clue what I was or what to do with me. He gave up and walked back to the front to start his lecture over.

  I sunk down even further in my seat and my cheeks were beet red. I had screwed up my first class.

  Chapter 7

  Biology class actually went ok. The pace of study at this school was grueling, but it didn’t seem like I was too far behind and I was confident that I could catch up. I didn’t get into any more trouble with the teacher, but a couple of the other students sitting around me had whispered that I stunk—so that sucked, but it wasn’t too bad compared to what I had already been through.

  After biology class was Business. Only at a place like Crestmoore would business be a compulsory course. Cecily unfortunately wasn’t in my class, but Ava was. We found her in the halls and she took me to our classroom in the NWW, the North-West Wing.

  On the way there I was laughing with Ava when suddenly someone tripped me. I fell to the ground for the second time that day. Pain flared in my injured arms when I braced myself against the impact.

  “Watch it, trailer trash,” some guy said to me and he and his friends laughed as they walked by.

  “He did that on purpose,” I said as Ava helped me stand up.

  “Yeah, he did. You’ll get used to it and learn to watch out for stuff like that so you can avoid it.”

  “Does it happen to you?” I asked.

  “Yes, but the new kids seem to get it the worst. After a while they’ll hopefully forget about you like they did with the rest of us. You’re getting it particularly bad though, I must say. The only other person I saw get it this bad was Jenny.”

  At the mention of Jenny my blood ran cold. The girl had been bullied so badly that she ended up taking her own life—or was murdered—was I the new target?

  I didn’t understand how all the kids knew about me already. How they all knew to bully me. I had been at the school for less than five hours, and this school had a no cell phone policy so it’s not like students could text each other to let everyone know to be mean to me.

  We finally made it to the classroom and when I walked in I saw that Brett and Grayson were there. I groaned out loud. I had had enough of “The Kings” for one day.

  Ava and I sat near the front of the classroom while Brett and Grayson sat in the back. I quickly realized that the scholarship students sat at the front for the meager protection that the teachers could offer.

  Before the lecture started I kept hearing laughing from the back of the room. I took a secretive look and saw that there were a bunch of girls flocked around Brett and Grayson all vying for their attention. The girls’ laughs were obviously exaggerated, they twirled their hair, bit their lips, they “accidentally” pulled up their skirts to expose more thigh—it was gross.

  I turned around in disgust—but also I was experiencing another emotion that I couldn’t quite pin down. What was it?

  The teacher stepped to the front to begin her lecture. The laughing from the back of the room quieted down.

  What was it? What was I feeling? It was bothering me I couldn’t figure out my own emotions, but then realization hit me like a car crash.

  It was jealousy.

  I was jealous of those girls.

  These guys had been assholes to me, why would I ever be interested in them? What was wrong with me?

  For the rest of class I had trouble paying attention to the lecture. I was too disturbed by how my body was reacting to romantic thoughts about some douchebags. Those guys had become everything I hated about rich society. They embodied the snobby, mean, judgmental attitude of the upper class. The same adherence to outdated social classes that was the reason why my dad’s family never accepted my mom—or me. I couldn’t believe that I could be attracted to guys like that. I hated guys like that.

  I thought I was smarter than that, but hormones rarely listen to the brain.

  Before I knew it class was over in the blink of an eye and I had learned nothing. I cursed myself for not paying attention. I had been so lost in my thoughts I had barely moved the entire time.

  Ava was standing up to leave, and I made a move to join her when I realized in horror that I couldn’t move.

  “What the hell?” I whispered.

  I tried to move again, but the desk pulled painfully at the skin on my forearms.

  OMG, not again! I thought desperately as I wiggled and realized that my hands and half of my arms were truly stuck to the desk.

  “Are you coming?” Ava asked, her backpack slung over one shoulder.

  “I can’t,” I whispered, trying not to let anyone else hear me. “Could you go get the nurse to come here? I’m glued to this fucking desk this time.”

  Ava’s eyes went wide in surprise.

  “Seriously?” she asked.

  “Please, just go get her,” I begged.

  “Of course, Maddy. I’ll be right back.” And she took off.

  I looked down so I didn’t have to see all the other students staring at me as they filed out of the classroom, but I could still feel their mocking eyes and hear their snickers. My cheeks were burning in embarrassment and anger. My jaw was clenched so tightly I thought my teeth would crack.

  “You’re really dedicated to your studies, huh? Won’t even leave the classroom,” a silky, rich voice said as he passed by me.

  I knew it was Grayson and I refused to acknowledge him.

  “It’s not going to help you though, you’re still going to fail.” I heard him laugh as he left the room.

  When I felt that the room was empty I a
llowed myself to look up again. I inspected my arms carefully. One of my hands was curled into the other and where I had rested them on the desk was glued solid, along with the bottom half of each of my forearms. I tried to lift them up, but it pulled painfully and I realized that I would have to tear my skin off to free myself. I winced and stopped struggling.

  I sighed and sat back as much as I could. I resigned myself to the fact that, for the time being, I was stuck.

  Emotions were storming around inside me. I was embarrassed, hurt, but most of all I was angry. I had never been bullied like this before, sure there had been some mean girls at my old school but it had been nothing like this. This was too much. This was going too far.

  Sitting in the empty classroom I had time to process everything that had happened to me that day and as I went over it I got more pissed off. Those assholes used to be my friends. I wanted to strangle all three of their sexy necks.

  I was also pissed at myself for still thinking they were sexy despite everything.

  I sat in that classroom long enough for the light to start to fade. The sun set somewhere to the west, and I watched the forest and the endless ocean slip into darkness. The lights in the room had been turned off by someone on their way out so the shadows started to creep. Being alone and unable to move in a darkening classroom was unnerving.

  Where was that nurse? Why was it taking so long?

  I was getting a cramp in my back from the awkward position I was stuck in. I had to be careful not to lean too far forward so that my long hair wouldn’t touch the table. Sitting there for so long had made my anger go from white-hot rage down to a low simmer.

  It was then that I heard footsteps. The nurse was finally coming!

  With nothing else to occupy me all my being was concentrated on listening to those footsteps. Cold anxiety started flowing through me when I realized that they sounded heavier and slower than the petite nurse and Ava’s would be. There was more than one person coming, I could hear three distinct sets. I knew who it was.

  It didn’t surprise me when a few seconds later Archer, Brett and Grayson walked into the room. In the near darkness of late twilight I couldn’t see them very well, but I could feel them. They walked over to surround my desk. They rose up before me, three large, dark figures. I could tell Brett was on the left as he was the largest, Archer stood directly in front of me and Grayson was on the right because as tall as he was he was slightly shorter than Archer.

  They said nothing, just stood there like large shadows. I craned my neck to look up to where I thought their faces were. I was locked in a weird prayer-type pose in front of them and I hated that I was so vulnerable at that moment. I hated that they were standing and that I was beneath them.

  Eventually, Archer was the first to speak, “You shouldn’t have come here.”

  “Why?” I asked defiantly.

  I was sick of their shit.

  “You don’t belong here,” Brett said and my head whipped around to look at him.

  He hadn’t said a word to me yet since I arrived at the school and I was startled by how deep and commanding, yet familiar, his voice was.

  “I deserve to be here,” I managed to say. “I earned it.”

  “You don’t deserve it,” Archer scoffed. “You couldn’t even afford to pay for your uniform to attend this school, let alone the tuition, room and board, the books. You’re here because of charity. You have no idea what it takes to live in this world. We’ve already sacrificed so much our entire lives to prepare us for this and you just waltz in here with a couple ‘A’s’ that you earned at a garbage public school where they’ll hand out good marks just for showing up and managing not to pick your nose in class.

  Out of everyone at this school, you and the other scholarship students deserve to be here the least. Actually, especially you because you were given an opportunity to attend a school way above your station before but you threw it away. No, you do not deserve to be here.”

  I was speechless. These were not the guys I had known. Those guys hadn’t cared about “stations” or “classes”. Living in this messed up world had changed them so much that they were unrecognizable to me. It would have made me sad for them if I wasn’t so pissed off.

  “I don’t want to fight with you guys.”

  Grayson laughed out loud at that. “You’re bringing a butter knife to a machine-gun fight. We don’t really consider this a fight, more like teaching the charity case that she doesn’t belong here and needs to leave.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.” I was impressed with how strong my voice sounded. “Whatever you do to me, whatever little pathetic games you play, they are not going to work. I’m staying and there’s nothing you guys can do about it.”

  They were silent for a long moment before Archer said, “You’ll regret that.”

  “I was actually excited to see you guys. Obviously I wouldn’t have been if I had known what dicks you had become,” I said.

  Grayson took a step closer and leaned in so he was towering over me. I stretched my neck to try to meet where I thought his gaze was. These guys would not intimidate me.

  “We’ll make you regret the day you were ever born, Madeline Baker… Baker, I like that name for you. It suits you better. You’re definitely not an Addington and Baker is more… appropriate—because that’s what you’ll be doing later when you drop out of high school.”

  “Fuck you,” I shot back.

  “Only if you beg me,” Grayson whispered and his voice sounded so dark that I had to suppress a shiver.

  “We are giving you fair warning,” Archer continued as Grayson stepped back to stand next to him. “Leave or else. We don’t want you here. What you’ve experienced so far is nothing and it’s only going to get worse.”

  “I’m not going anywhere. I know that I made a mistake leaving before and I will not lose this opportunity again.”

  “The worst mistake you ever made was coming back,” Archer said dangerously and with that the Kings all turned to leave.

  Grayson was the last one out the door and before he left he turned to me and said, “Oh and, Maddy? So nice to see you again.”

  He mockingly imitated what he had said to me when I first met him in the entrance hall. Then he was out the door. I listened to their footsteps recede into the distance and I was left alone in the dark.

  Eventually the nurse came. She didn’t seem like she was at all in a hurry. She strolled in like she had just eaten dinner and then taken her time. I was annoyed but said nothing because I needed her to unglue my hands. She used a bottle of the solution she had used before and I was free. I asked her if she would give me some to keep because it seemed like this little prank would get pulled on me a lot. She gave a dismissive laugh and waved me on my way.

  It felt so good to be free from the cramped position I had been in for hours. My back was stiff and my biceps were sore, but I could move again and that was all that mattered. I left the classroom and headed back to my room.

  When I came to the stairs of the Bell Tower, I smiled to myself. I had paid attention when I was walking with Jayla, and again when I was walking with Ava, so I could get home. I climbed the stairs wearily. I needed a shower and then would collapse into bed. I had missed dinner, but I didn’t care, the events of the evening had made me lose my appetite.

  The smell hit me again as I climbed the last flight up to my landing and I groaned. With all the other bullshit that had happened to me, I had forgotten about the garbage bags in front of my door. As they came into view, I realized that they had been re-stacked in front of my door again.

  I growled in frustration. Really? Oh, come on!

  I had just had a terrible day, could I not get one break?—though compared to the day when my mom went to jail, or the one where my dad died, this day had been a cakewalk. I could handle it.

  I started grabbing bags and swinging them. I had the technique down pat from the last time and I suspected I would get very good at it by the end of the year. As
I cleared the bags away I realize that I had missed detention, which meant that I would probably get even more detention for that.

  If this had only been the first day, what was the rest of the year going to be like? I didn’t want to think about it. That was future Maddy’s problem, right now current Maddy just needed to move enough bags to get in her room, take a shower and fall into a blissful sleep.

  I finally cleared the last bag blocking the door and got inside. After a steaming hot shower, and using more shampoo and soap than I ever had before in my life, I grabbed my tights and huge band t-shirt that I used as pajamas, as well as my little Eiffel Tower statue and crawled under the thick comforter.

  On second thought, I got out of bed, took one of the chairs from the table and wedged it under the door handle, barricading the door. I would sleep a lot better knowing that no one would be able to sneak in. Then I crawled back into bed and turned off the lights.

  My room was huge with ceilings that stretched way above me. On my back I looked up at the bells. I found them unnerving in the dark, like they were pretending to be something they weren’t as they stood there still and silent, staring down at me. I wasn’t used to falling asleep in a room like this. I think humans were meant to sleep in small caves, not out in the open, exposed. Some of the smaller windows were open, and they were letting in the cool ocean air and the sounds of the waves.

  As I tossed and turned, I started regretting coming here. The day had been awful, and it would be way harder than I had thought to get dirt on the guys. Also, I acknowledged that what I was planning to do to them was pretty bad, but I didn’t have much of a choice. Even knowing that I had come to the school to screw them over, it still hurt my feelings the way they had treated me. I already knew that the school would be a living hell for me, The Kings—I couldn’t help but roll my eyes when I thought of that term—would make sure of it.

  I turned over to look at my little metal Eiffel Tower model. I couldn’t help but smile. That model reminded me of one of my happiest memories. My mom knew that I loved the Hunchback of Notre-Dame so one year, after she had saved and cut coupons and gone with nothing for herself, she told me to open my birthday gift early. I could still remember my shock when two plane tickets fell out of my card and onto my lap. I had screamed and gave her a big hug while she laughed and we both fell on the floor.