by Elle East
I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Ok, cool.”
I looked behind me and saw that Archer and Grayson were marching towards us, and they looked pissed.
“Let’s go!” I said quickly as I grabbed my backpack and rushed out of the room.
Dean was right on my heels. I could tell he was a police detective’s son because he didn’t think twice when someone told him to go. He acted first and asked questions later. That was the kind of thinking you needed in order to stay alive in tense situations where things could turn in the blink of an eye.
We hurried away from the Kings, and I helped him find his next class. Once he was inside, I had to sprint to my math class to make it on time because it was in another wing of the school.
Brett and Archer were in this class, as well as Graham, who wouldn’t meet my eyes when I walked in. I understood his reaction, but it still stung. I did care about him and just hoped that one day he would no longer hate me anymore. I sat as far away from him as I could, on the other side of the classroom.
I realized that I had agreed to meet Dean for lunch, but I had no idea where we were going to sit. When it was just me, it was easy to grab something and sneak out. Now I was going to have to sit in that giant room, filled with hundreds of students who didn’t like me and would love nothing more than for me to make a fool of myself—as if it was possible for me to make a bigger fool of myself than I already had last year.
At the end of class, I again rushed out of the room to avoid the Kings. I knew I would have to deal with them eventually, but I was enjoying their frustration and didn’t want it to end any sooner than it had to. They had been caught unaware and were super pissed they hadn’t known I was coming. It was driving them crazy, and I was loving it.
If they thought they had scared me so badly that I would run away with my tail tucked between my legs, well, they didn’t know me anymore. That was not the kind of person Madeline Baker was.
I met Dean, and we headed down to the dining hall. On the way we passed Manuel walking by himself. When he saw me, he reacted the same way everyone else had—wide-eyed and mouth dropped open in surprise. He immediately averted his gaze and stared hard at the floor. He wouldn’t meet my eyes—and he shouldn’t. He betrayed me.
He had promised me he could program the phone the Queens gave me so they wouldn’t be able to spy on me. Instead, he’d stabbed me in the back. He could have warned me the Queens were making him do it, and I could have pretended to use the phone so they weren’t suspicious. Scholarship students were supposed to stick together at this school. All we had were each other because none of the other students wanted us here. We were supposed to have each other’s backs, but he’d fed me to the wolves instead.
I felt angry and hurt by what he’d done, but at the same time I understood. He was just trying to survive like the rest of them, and I had put them in a difficult situation. Guilt rushed through me as I saw how uncomfortable I was making him. I didn’t want to add to their misery any more. They weren’t the ones that deserved it.
“Come on,” I said to Dean, and we turned down a different hallway, taking another route to the dining hall that wouldn’t lead us directly by Manuel.
When we arrived, and I saw the familiar large wooden doors of the entrance, all the painful memories rushed back to me. This was where some of the worst bullying had happened to me last year. It had all started on my very first day with someone tying my shoelaces together and glueing my hands to my food tray.
“You all right?” Dean asked, noticing my reaction.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said quickly. “Let’s go in.”
I took a deep breath and pushed on the heavy door. The cavernous space opened before us, and a wall of noise greeted us. The place was already packed, and my unease increased when I couldn’t see any empty tables.
I looked over at Dean and noticed he didn’t seem impressed. I remembered my first time in the dining hall and that the size and beauty of it had taken my breath away.
“Have you seen better or something?” I teased. “It’s so beautiful here, how can you not be impressed?”
He turned to me, a bit confused. “I guess I’m not really much of an architecture guy. I’m more impressed by what nature has created rather than man. Plus, I’m kind of distracted by our mission. We have to accomplish so much in a short period of time, and I have no idea how to do it yet.”
He paused and took a moment to look around, to look up, then said, “You’re right. This is beautiful.”
We shared a smile that warmed my insides.
“Hungry?” I asked.
“Starving.”
We walked up the aisle between the rows of tables packed with students. As we passed, I saw them turn to stare at us and then talk amongst themselves. I was sure that by now everyone knew I was back because of the secret cell phones they all had. So far none of them had done anything to me yet, and I was grateful for that. At least my first day back wasn’t going to be the gauntlet of dodging spit balls, being tripped, and being called names that I thought it would be.
One small mercy was that the head table was noticeably empty. It was unusual for the Royalty not to be in the dining hall for meals, but I was happy they weren’t there. One less thing to deal with.
As we passed by the scholarship table, they fell silent. Dean waved to them because I guess he’d met some of them in his classes. A few waved back sheepishly before averting their gaze and turning back to stare silently at their food.
“What was that about?” Dean asked me.
“I’ll tell you in a minute. Let’s get our food first.”
We continued over to the buffet. I could tell all the stares we were getting weren’t just for me. All the students were curious about this super hot new guy who was brave enough to walk with me. I saw the reaction the girls had to Dean. They smiled coyly as he passed and whispered to each other while openly staring—and I couldn’t blame them. He was hot as hell. He could even give the Kings a run for their money in the looks department.
I imagined it wouldn’t be long until one of those girls tried to talk Dean out of hanging out with me. They probably just thought he was confused since he was new and didn’t know any better than to spend time with a social reject like me. I’m sure any one of those girls would be happy to educate him about the ways of Crestmoore. I felt a stab of jealousy.
He had made it very clear we were just going to be friends. I understood and had to be ok with it, but I couldn’t help how I felt about him. The thought of him getting with one of those girls felt like a punch to the gut.
We walked up to the buffet, and I double-checked there was no glue on my tray before picking it up. We got our food then walked out into the aisle again. I was at a loss of where to go next. The entire room was staring at us to see what we’d do, and I felt self-conscious under their scrutiny.
I surveyed the room again, and luckily I noticed an empty table off to the side right by the entrance that I must have missed when we walked in. I breathed out a sigh of relief and led Dean over to it. I knew this table was rarely used and only reserved for the super losers who had no one in the entire school—and that had been me for a lot of last year and would probably be me again this year based on the cold welcome I was getting from everyone.
We took a seat and started eating, and everyone slowly turned back to their own tables to continue the conversations they were having before we walked in. I took my first bite of eggplant parmesan and immediately remembered how amazing the chefs at Crestmoore were. After eating orphanage food for the past several weeks, it tasted like heaven, and I almost moaned out loud.
“Hey, how come we aren’t sitting with them?” Dean asked, motioning to the scholarship table. “Those are the people who live in our building, right? I’ve met some of them and they were nice—skittish, but nice.”
I swallowed the lump of food in my mouth with a gulp.
“You finally going to tell me what’s up with you and them? And
why every person in this entire room was staring at us as we got our food?”
“Yes, of course I’ll tell you. So…”
I started with how I’d quickly become friends with the scholarship students when I got to the school last year. About how I was also immediately bullied by everyone else. I told him how the Queens had taken an interest in me and I’d pursued that in hopes it would help me get dirt on the Kings. And how me doing that had made the scholarship students nervous because I was bringing unwanted attention to them.
“How could I ever have explained to them my reasons for pretending to be friends with the Queens? I couldn’t tell them the truth or I would have put the mission at risk. So to them I just ended up looking like I was being reckless and dumb. I looked like I was too stupid to realize the Queens were lying to me.”
I told him about how the scholarships students had distanced themselves from me, but then we’d become friends again after the Queens humiliated me in front of the school. But the final nail in the coffin of our friendship had been when they had caught me making out with Brett in my room.
Dean’s jaw tightened noticeably at that part of the story.
He asked for more information about the Kings. I told him all I could. About how they and the Queens were called the Royalty. I told him about how much power they had. They ruled the school and everyone obeyed them, even the faculty were scared of them.
“Did you really hook up with all the Kings,” he asked suddenly.
“Yes,” I answered honestly and his jaw tightened again. “Some of the times were dares and stuff, but yeah, I did.”
He just nodded.
There were a couple of tense minutes where neither of us really said much or did more than pick at our food.
Finally, he said, “I’m not really hungry anymore. Let’s get out of here.”
We grabbed our stuff and left the dining hall.
Chapter 5
The next day I was alone in the halls, walking to class, when four girls moved to block my way. I groaned out loud.
“Welcome back, trailer trash,” Victoria sneered.
“So nice to see you again, Victoria,” I said mockingly. “How was your Christmas break? Did you go kick puppies or run over homeless people in your limo? That’s what I assume someone like you does for fun in their spare time.”
The other Queens seemed offended, but Victoria just smiled wider at my insults.
“Maddy, charming as ever.”
“Victoria, evil as ever.”
We hadn’t spoken much since she and the rest of the Queens had drugged me, humiliated me in front of the school and then admitted they were only pretending to be my friends. But since I no longer had to pretend I thought we were friends, I could finally speak to her exactly how I’d always wanted to, and it felt so freeing.
“Who was that guy with you?” Jayla blurted out and Victoria turned on her with an icy stare. Jayla shrank back.
I smirked. They couldn’t help themselves. They saw a hot guy and were just as curious as the rest of the girls at school about who he was.
“He’s a friend,” I said vaguely.
“Friend with benefits?” Grace taunted.
“That’s none of your business,” I said. “But your jealousy is showing.”
I had to admit that I was enjoying the power I had over them—however brief it was. Even though Dean was a scholarship student and therefore beneath them, he was hot enough that they were still interested. None of them would ever date him publicly but were probably willing to lower themselves enough to have a secret affair or something.
They probably also wanted to know how it was possible I could get someone as hot as that to hang out with me. They wanted information about the new guy and the fact they weren’t getting it was driving them crazy, I could see it on their faces. And I loved it.
“Well, it doesn’t matter what he is to you because he’ll turn against you soon enough,” Victoria continued. “He’s too good for you, trailer trash—everyone is. And to think last year you actually believed the Kings would be interested in someone like you.”
The four of them snickered, and it made my blood boil. My hands subconsciously clenched into fists. I wanted to punch Victoria straight in her beautiful face, but I knew it wouldn’t be a fair fight. Victoria was too small to make a formidable fighter, but what she lacked in strength she made up for in cunning. She fought with her words, her ability to manipulate, her lack of conscience and her money. And because of those things, she was one of the most dangerous people at Crestmoore.
She shook her head like she couldn’t believe how naïve I’d been.
“The three of them could have anyone in the world, and you really thought they’d choose you?”
I started to shake in fury. I didn’t want to let her affect me. I didn’t want to give her any more power, but her words cut like daggers through my skin, and I couldn’t help the anger that was building up inside.
“You’re delusional, Madeline Baker. They are so far above you you aren’t even in the same layer of the atmosphere as them.”
“You really have your head up the Kings’ asses don’t you?” I spat out and could see it had the intended effect.
Victoria recoiled slightly in shock, then her face grew darker. I could tell she wanted to make me pay for that. She thought of herself as the Great and Powerful Victoria, the proper ruler of the school. She answered to no one, not even the Kings.
“You’re a fucking moron,” she sneered, and I could tell how much I had gotten to her.
Victoria rarely swore. She was always so well put together, so in control. She had gone to the best finishing schools in the country and reeked of refinement. So when I pissed her off enough that she swore, I knew I had gotten to her.
“You shouldn’t have come back here,” she continued.
“I came back to get revenge,” I said.
Also, I was going to get back my Eiffel Tower model the bitch had stolen from me. I just prayed she hadn’t destroyed it yet.
She laughed. “Revenge? We’re Queens. You spent time around us when you stupidly thought we would be friends with someone like you. You know how much power we have, you’ve seen it. You’re nothing. What could you ever do to us?”
“If I’m so worthless then why did you even bother trying to humiliate me? You went to pretty great lengths to try to ‘trick’ me. Why do any of that if I’m nothing?”
She shrugged. “Sport? All of this gets so boring after a while. We have to find new ways of entertaining ourselves, and destroying you was something to pass the time. And it wasn’t even as fun as I thought it would be—just because it was too easy. There was no challenge to it. You were always several moves behind us, which was a shame because I thought you were supposed to be smart.”
I was so pissed I was practically seeing red. Victoria had a way of getting under my skin with the calm way she said such cruel things, making you feel like you were overreacting even though she was provoking you.
“This isn’t going to be like last year,” I said through gritted teeth, keeping my anger under control. “You can try to intimidate me all you want, Victoria, but it will not work. I’m not scared of you—”
“You should be,” she interjected darkly.
She moved around me and started walking away. The three other Queens followed her lead and slowly brushed passed me. Each giving me a cold, disdainful look as they went by. Soon I was standing alone in the empty hallway.
I suddenly realized that all the other students were already in class. I cursed and rushed off. The Queens had made me late on my second day back.
As I jogged, I thought about the interaction I’d just had and wondered for the millionth time, what the hell had I gotten myself into?
Chapter 6
“What’s that?” Dean asked as we walked out of our last class of the day, pointing to the letter in my hand.
“It says I have to head up to one of the study rooms. Apparently, the top f
ive students in the school have to get together and come up with a speech to give at the welcome back assembly. We have to meet now to discuss it.”
Our business teacher had walked around while we were silently reading and dropped the letter on my desk. It was sealed in wax, and I wasn’t surprised because everything at Crestmoore seemed outdated and unnecessarily extravagant. I broke the seal and started reading, then quickly turned around in time to see her drop another letter on Brett’s desk. Our eyes met, and I turned away.
As I read the entire letter, my body filled with dread when I realized that Brett got the same one. We’d have to work together. And Archer must have gotten it too.
“Congratulations,” Dean said.
“Thanks,” I mumbled as I took out the letter again to read which study room I was supposed to go to.
“What’s the point?” he asked.
“I don’t know, to show off I guess? I assume it’s supposed to be an honor or something.”
“Where are you heading?”
“Fourth floor, the North-West Wing.”
I was proud of myself that I’d managed to just squeak into the fifth spot at the end of last term. I hadn’t thought I was going to be able to do it. But the idea of giving a speech in front of the entire school was stressing me out.
As if he could sense my anxiety, Dean reached out and touched my shoulder.
“You’ll do great, Maddy.”
Electric sparks engulfed my arm, radiating out from where his large hand touched my body. I knew he felt it too when he suddenly got uncomfortable, cleared his throat and looked away. His hand dropped back to his side.
A tense moment passed between us.
I broke it by saying, “Well… I should get going. Don’t want to be late.”
I left him and headed to the North-West Wing. When I rounded the corner, I took a deep breath. Sometimes the tension between the two of us was so thick I felt like I could barely breathe. It felt like there were so many things we weren’t saying, so many emotions we weren’t letting ourselves experience. I wondered if he could feel it too, or was it all just in my head?