by Bella King
“What kind of question is that?” I asked, throwing up my hands.
“Just answer it,” she demanded.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Ten percent?”
Megan squinted at me and laid the card down on the desk on top of the previous one. “Correct,” she said, wrinkling her nose in distaste.
“Well, it was a guess. I don’t know any of this crap,” I replied. How did she expect me to pass a test that I didn’t get to study for?
“You should know it,” Megan replied, picking up another card. “You’ve been here for over a week now, and you claim to be an adult. You need to start acting like one.”
That was the biggest load of bullshit that I had heard in a long time, but I didn’t argue with lunatic women with knives. I knew when to keep my mouth shut, as hard as it was to do that. I vowed revenge as Megan read the next card.
“Complete this sequence. Seven, eight.”
“Nine?”
“No, it’s 787, loser. That’s the area code,” Megan shouted, throwing the card down at her feet. “Take another fucking shot.”
I shook my head, almost disappointed in myself. I should have been able to answer that one, but now I was stuck with another shot of this nasty liquid. It was literally poison. I don’t know why they called it vodka.
I poured another shot and downed it, already starting to feel sluggish from the first one. This was some seriously strong stuff, not your average five-dollar liquor. I didn’t think I would last very long taking this many shots in such quick succession.
“Next question,” Megan said, whipping up the next card. “Name five out of the seven teachers in the senior class.”
I rubbed my temple, racking my brain for the names. The first one was easy enough. “Mr. Griffon,” I said. “And Mrs. Plum.”
“Three more.”
“Yeah, I know, I know,” I said, waving my hand at her as I held my head with the other. I scrunched up my eyes, trying to pull the other names out of whatever grey-matter they were hiding under. “Oh, and Mr. Welch.”
“Two more,” she said.
I couldn’t think of any more than that. I looked up at her emotionless face. That was the face of a sociopath. I hadn’t seen it before in the bathroom, but in this light, I could tell there was no empathy behind those shimmering blue eyes.
“Could we do half a shot for this one? I answer three of them,” I asked.
“No. Take a shot,” she said.
My stomach was churning at the thought of having to down another drop of that evil liquid. I needed a way out, but she had been distracting me so much with those questions that I couldn’t concentrate on finding one. That, and my brain was fogged up from the previous shots. I was such a lightweight.
I refused to show weakness, but I wasn’t a huge fan of getting drunk in the middle of the school day. I still had two more classes before I got to go home, but it looked like I wasn’t going to make them at this rate anyway.
I poured another shot, having to concentrate on steadying my hand so that I didn’t spill the contents of the bottle all over the desk. I didn’t want to get shanked over a splash of vodka.
Shot number three tasted like rubbing alcohol, which I was beginning to think was what this was. Didn’t they drink that in the military back in the day? Who knows, but it wasn’t pleasant. I looked up at Megan, who was already drawing the next card.
Before she spoke, I held up a hand. “Can we take a break, please,” I said, starting to feel lightheaded. I steadied myself on the desk, nearly knocking over the shot glass I had just put down.
“No, we cannot,” she said sharply. “You will answer every single question before we are done.”
“That’s impossible,” I begged. There was no way I would be able to make it through the whole deck. This woman was out of her fucking mind.
“That’s not my problem,” Megan said, tapping the end of the knife against the desk. “Look at me, Ava.”
I looked up at her but saw two people instead of one. Fuck, this never happened when I was drinking before. She must have put something else in here. There was no way this was just vodka.
A smile spread across Megan’s bright red lips as I began to sway violently. I tried to speak, but my throat froze up and I couldn’t get the words out. I felt like I couldn’t even breathe. I clutched the side of the desk as my vision began to fade.
The last thing I heard before slipping into darkness was the sound of Megan’s golden laughter. Then, everything was black.
Chapter 6
Life is out of control. There is no other way.
I felt grass beneath my palms, which meant that I was alive, but where was I? I lifted my head from the ground, wincing as a deep pain pounded in my brain. I felt like shit.
The sky was a pale blue, indicative of early morning. I was confused. Had I been out that long? What the hell had happened? The only thing I remembered was being trapped in a classroom with Megan, forced to drink until I passed out.
This didn’t feel like a regular hangover. There was definitely something else laced in that drink, and now I was lying out in some unfamiliar location at some ungodly hour.
I carefully pushed myself up with my hands, taking it slow to check if I was all in one piece. I appeared to be, but I was bumped up badly. My body ached like I had been thrown around like a football.
I stayed in a kneeling position as blood rushed from my head, taking a moment for the dull thud of pain to fade enough to where I could stand up. I was in a ditch by the side of a road. I heard a car pass by, but I was too low down to see it.
I stood up, wobbling on my feet for a few seconds before I felt comfortable enough to look around again. I saw a road, and a few trees, but little else out there. I had been dumped in the country, probably a good few miles out of town.
I looked down at myself. I was still wearing Molly’s blouse, and my skirt and leggings were intact. I hadn’t been violated as far as I could tell, just jostled around, probably during transportation. I wondered how they had gotten me all the way out here without anyone seeing. Megan had a lot more power than I had thought, something I would continue to discover as time went on.
I wiped the dirt from my knees and the hem of my skirt, my head pounding as I stood back up. I would need some mighty strong painkillers and a whole lot of water to get rid of this headache. I would head straight to the nearest store, but I found that I didn’t have my bag with me.
I had nothing – no phone, no money, and no clue where I was. I walked alongside the edge of the road as the sun began to rise. It couldn’t have been later than six by the looks of things, but I wondered if my parents had missed me at home. Maybe they thought I was dead.
I walked for a few minutes until I saw a sign. It was labeled Windsor Avenue. Great, I knew where that was, but the not so great thing was that it was five miles from home. I wouldn’t make it there by walking.
My mouth was bone dry and I was desperate to feel the cool purity against my tongue and in the back of my throat. I felt like the alcohol I had ingested yesterday had peeled away a layer from inside of my body. I would die out here if I didn’t get something to drink soon.
I tried waving down a car, but a 19-year-old girl who looked like they had been rolling through the dirt all night wasn’t someone people wanted to stop for, it seemed. I almost gave up when a car rolled to a stop beside me.
I hobbled up to the car as the window came down. I recognized those glossy brown eyes in an instant. It was Molly.
“You look like someone ran you over,” she said, flicking a cigarette out the window at my feet.
“There’s a fair chance someone did,” I replied. “Can I get a ride back to town?”
“Sure, hop in,” she said, then rolled up the window.
I opened the door and climbed into the passenger side of her white Cadillac. It was a beautiful car, but everyone in Palm Valley had a nice car. Everyone here was rich, owned a large house, and spent their weekends at the
golf course. That was the life I grew up around, and this new school was no different.
“What are you doing out here?” Molly asked, shifting her car into drive.
The car behind up honked as she slowly started to accelerate.
“Fuck you, asshole,” she yelled, her voice deep and jarring.
My headache didn’t appreciate her tone, but I was intrigued by how aggressive she was when Megan wasn’t around.
“I think Megan dumped me out here last night,” I said, looking around the car for something to drink. “Listen, do you have any water?”
“In the glovebox,” she said casually.
I clicked the silver button and the glovebox popped open, finishing smoothly on its weighted hinges. I snatched the rectangular bottle of water out of the compartment and revealed a small gun that was sitting neatly underneath it. “What’s that?” I asked, an edge of fear in my voice. Maybe I had gotten into the car with the wrong person. She was probably pissed that I had stolen her blouse. I was still wearing it, after all.
“My gun, silly,” she said cheerfully. “It’s legal, don’t worry. I just have it in case some pervert tries to sneak up on me at night. You never know around here.”
“That stuff happens?” I asked, doubting her.
“Oh yes, all the time,” she said, nodding her head. “You can never be too careful, especially when Megan is involved.”
“Yeah, I’m figuring that out the hard way,” I said, cracking the plastic seal on the water bottle in one twist, flinging the cap into my lap and chugging the contents.
“I guess she got you. I warned you about defying her, but you didn’t listen to me,” she said, shaking her perfect head of brown hair. It swung like silk.
I finished drinking, placing the empty bottle in my lap. “Yeah, well nobody told me that she was a fucking psycho.”
Molly giggled. “She is, isn’t she? Well, you’ll get used to it.”
I was shocked by how little she cared about this. Maybe this stuff really did happen every day like she had said. “I don’t want to get used to it,” I groaned.
“Tough luck, Ava. I think Megan has taken a disliking to you.”
“I think it’s a little more than that,” I said. “She tried to kill me.”
“Believe me. If she wanted you dead, you would be. This was obviously just a warning.”
I placed my head in the palms of my hands “Jesus Christ, what the fuck is going on in this town?”
“More than you want to know, honey,” Molly said, reaching a thin arm over and patting my back.
I lifted my head slightly, peaking at her gentle face and frowning. “Hey, what are you doing out here so early anyway?”
“Me? I was just driving back from my dad’s house. My parents are divorced, so he lives out a lot further than she does. I have to drive back early to get ready for school.”
I looked her over. She was wearing a pair of black jeans and a blue t-shirt. I guess her story was believable enough. I didn’t have the energy to investigate further. I was honestly surprised that she had even picked me up after what I did to her in the bathroom yesterday.
“If you’re wondering why I picked you up after what you did to me in the bathroom yesterday, it’s because I admire you. You’re brave to stand up to Megan like that,” she said as though she were reading my mind.
I nearly jumped when she said that. So creepy, but at least she wasn’t angry at me. She was more forgiving than she probably should have been.
“Um, I guess that’s nice of you. Megan seems like a real bitch,” I said.
She breathed through her nose sharply in grim amusement. “She’s a lot worse than a bitch. There are demons in this town, Ava, and I’m convinced she’s one of the worst. Except maybe for Bradly. He’s pretty bad too.”
“Bradly is the reason I stole your shirt, other than the fact that you also vomited on mine,” I replied, trying to process what she had just said with my pounding headache. “He threw my drink at me.”
“You’re being let off easy,” she warned, gripping the thin steering wheel harder with her dainty hands. “They don’t like people who stand up to them. So, like I said, I think you’re brave, but you’re also incredibly stupid.”
I chuckled. “Maybe so.”
“It’s not a maybe,” she said loudly, jerking the wheel and making a sharp turn down another road. “You’re playing a game that could get you killed.”
I frowned, opening the glovebox again in search of some painkillers. I was reluctant to touch the gun inside, pushing it aside with a piece of paper while I spoke. “Has anyone actually died here, though?” I found a box of blue gel capsules and pulled them out, popping three of them from the foil into the palm of my shaking hand.
“Of course,” Molly answered. “Someone died last year from alcohol poisoning in the women’s bathroom. I can only imagine that Megan was behind it.”
“That doesn’t really mean anything,” I said, critical of her story. One overdose didn’t prove anything, especially since it could have been independent of Megan’s influences.
Molly banged her small fist on the steering wheel, her voice growing louder. “Of course, it does. You’ll find out how bad it gets if you keep going down the road that you’re on. Look at you now.”
I looked down at myself, little bits of foil and an empty water bottle resting on my dirty skirt. She was probably right, but I was hardheaded enough to continue challenging Megan and the rest of her crew. I had a bone to pick with all of them, including Bradly. How was he possibly worse than a woman who held me at knifepoint?
“So, why is Bradly bad,” I said, starting to feel more like myself.
“Bradly? He’s a douchebag. What’s worse than a jock that follows Megan’s orders? The only reason she had any power is because of him. He’s like three hundred pounds of muscle.”
That was true. He had been the one to block my escape route in the classroom yesterday. She wouldn’t have nearly as much power without his help. I wondered why he bothered with her. Were they dating or something?
“Why does he follow her?” I asked.
“Why does anyone? I don’t know. She probably has dirt on him. She’s manipulative,” Molly replied. She took another turn down a street that I was familiar with. It was the one that led straight to my house.
“Hey, you could drop me off around here,” I said.
“I know,” she replied. “We’re going to your house.”
Did everyone here already know everything about me? First it was my name, and now it was my address. What else did these people know?
Molly pulled up on the curb outside of my parents’ large white house. I thanked her and climbed out of the car, slowly making my way up the stairs and ringing the doorbell. Molly didn’t bother staying long enough to see if I got in. She sped away the second I got out of her car.
Chapter 7
Stability is boring.
It took a minute before anyone came to the door. It was still too early for either of my parents to be up. I drummed my fingers on the freshly painted banister that led up to the door. It was almost sticky with white paint and smelled strongly of it as well. It must have been painted just yesterday.
The door opened, my mother standing in the doorway wearing a blue robe and looking confused. “Why are you out so early?” She asked as I walked past her into the house. She clearly had no idea that I didn’t even come home last night. It figured though, because my parents barely raised me.
“I had a rough night,” I said, going straight for the kitchen to grab a cold sports drink from the oversized fridge.
My mother followed me in. “You’re all dirty. What have you been doing?”
“Rolling around in the dirt,” I said sarcastically as I pulled open the fridge by one of its silver handles. There was a row of drinks at the bottom, glowing blue in the white light that the fridge provided. I grabbed one and placed it on the marble kitchen table.
“I hope you weren’t ou
t with any boys,” she said, frowning.
I laughed. “You wish. I don’t like anyone,” I said, twisting open the orange lid to the bottle and throwing it back.
“Have you been drinking?” She asked, crossing her arms.
I brought the bottle down on the table harder than necessary. “Yes,” I said bluntly, searching her face for a reaction.
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t get yourself kicked out of this school again, Ava. We’re not paying to send you to another one.”
“I know, I’m behaving myself,” I said, lifting the bottle to my lips again. “It’s the other students that don’t know how to behave,” I muttered into the bottle.
My mom shook her head dismissively. “I’m going back to bed. Please try to get home at a normal hour tonight or at least let me know if you’re going to be staying out all night. I don’t want to have to worry about you.”
I breathed through my nose in amusement. As if she even cared. She wasn’t worried about me at all and worrying about me would be more of an inconvenience than genuine concern. How lame would it be to have your daughter go missing and have to get the police involved? Such a hassle.
I was a little bitter, but how could anyone blame me when my own mother hadn’t noticed that I had been missing all night. How long would she have waited before calling the police if my body was rotting in a ditch off the motorway?
I downed the rest of my drink, letting blue liquid trickled out the sides of my mouth, staining Molly’s blouse. It was already ruined by the dirt that was on it. I needed to change and get ready for school.
I left the kitchen and went up the long flight of stairs to my bedroom on the third floor. A didn’t know what the point of having so much space in the house was when nobody used it. I had my sewing room on the second floor, and my father’s home office was there, but that was about it. He barely used his office, and my mother never worked at home.
I still didn’t have my phone or wallet, so I would need to get them when I got back to school. I wanted to confront Megan, but I thought it might be safer just to ask Bradly. He hadn’t been the one to threaten me with a knife.