“Maggie?” I ask, astonished. “My Maggie? Henry’s twin?” I gape at her when she nods. “But she’s valedictorian! And she’s… Maggie.”
Chloe rolls her eyes. “Did you pose for that picture?”
“Of course not.”
“Then I guess neither did she.”
I glance at the phone again before handing it back to her. “Where did you get these?”
“An unknown number sent me a link to this crappy little site. Just the link, nothing else. As far as I know, nobody else has received anything, but it’s probably only a matter of time.”
“That’s so lame. A website with fake nudie pics?” I shake my head. Honestly, I’ll never understand the world.
“Problem is …” She bites her bottom lip, and for a moment she looks worried enough to seem almost human. “My photos aren’t fake. I sent these to Jonathan when we were still together.”
“Seriously?”
She shrugs when she sees my horrified expression. “I know it was a stupid thing to do, okay? But you have no idea how persuasive Jonathan can be. There’s something about his eyes…”
I remember the other day when he talked to me, how hard I found it to look away, and I feel my temper exploding. “That snake!” I slam my palm against the kitchen table. “I don’t care who his dad is, once I get my hands—”
“Simmer down, Applehead.” The old insult stops me in my tracks. “He didn’t do it. He says his phone must’ve been hacked.”
“And you believe him?”
“Yes.”
“What’s wrong with you?”
“You don’t know him like I do.”
I make a gagging motion. “Don’t tell me. He’s actually a really nice guy when you get to know him?”
“No, he’s not,” she says quietly. “He’s a scary, intense, dangerous person who might even be a little insane. But if this was from him, he’d have done it openly. There’s no way he would’ve hidden behind some anonymous website.” She notices my cynical expression. “You don’t understand what his life is like. If he’d wanted to hurt me, he’d have sent that photo to the whole school, from his own number. People with so much power play by different rules.”
“I think you’re giving him way too much credit.”
“He’s not behind this, okay? But someone is, and I want you to help me find them.”
“Really? And just how do you expect me to do that?”
She taps a foot against the floor, her high heel making an impatient, jittery sound. “I thought we should talk to the other girls, see if any of them knows something.”
“We?” I frown at her. “As in, you and me? Together?”
“It would probably be best if…”
Her voice peters out when Gunn walks into the kitchen. I watch her eyes widen slightly before she straightens her back, unconsciously pushing out her chest and flicking back her hair.
“Hi,” Gunn greets her briefly before turning to me. “Jess, you’re up. How are you feeling?”
“Good.” I smile, relieved to see that he’s home. “I was hoping you’d be in town this weekend. I really need to talk to you.”
“Sure,” he says. “As soon as your friend leaves, come and find me in the downstairs study.”
I look at Chloe, who is now posing in such a way as to reveal her entire leg, from ankle to thigh, and do an inner eye roll. “Actually, she was just leaving.”
“No, I’m not.” She smiles sweetly at Gunn. “Jess and I have something very important to do right now. I’m afraid it really can’t wait.”
When she turns from him to me, her jaw is set and her gaze is steely. “If you want to talk to him, go ahead. I’ll wait right here in the kitchen. But I’m not leaving without you.”
I look from Chloe to Gunn, sighing.
“Gunn? Could we chat in private for a few minutes?”
After I tell Gunn about my latest blackout, he looks down at the floor, avoiding my eyes.
Uh oh.
“What’s the last thing you remember?” he asks after a too-long silence, his voice low and kind of tired.
I think back. “Swimming at the town pool. After that it’s all a blank.”
He stays quiet for so long, I feel my heart plummeting. “Gunn? Why is this happening to me again? I don’t understand it; I’ve been doing so well…”
When he finally looks at me, his dark-blue eyes are clouded. “Oh, sweetheart. I’m so sorry. We really need to talk. You should tell your friend to leave; you can deal with school stuff later. This is important. More important than you can imagine.”
Oh no. Dammit.
I mean, obviously I knew this was serious, but when Gunn gets like this...
I rub a hand over my face, sighing. Why can’t I just be normal, for once in my life? Why do I always have to be the freak, the weirdo who just can’t get over her mom’s horrible death?
Suddenly I’m angry at Gunn, angry at myself, angry at my mom, at everything.
For God’s sake, I don’t want to work on dealing with my grief again, or finding my inner strength again, or overcoming my trauma again, or learning how to channel the deep well of power inside of me again.
What I want to do, I realize, is to walk out of here with Chloe, and find out who put those photos on the internet. I want to talk to the other girls, and figure this out together, and put a stop to whatever’s going on.
I want to deal with an issue that can actually be fixed.
And so I tell Gunn that we’ll talk when I get back, ignoring the astonished expression on his perfect face, and I walk back to the kitchen before he can even open his mouth to argue.
It’s about half an hour later.
Maggie is sitting at her desk, staring at her computer screen. She’s studying the website that Chloe received the link to, and she’s looking slightly sick.
The site is called Teen Ho Hottiez and it looks cheap and badly done. At the top of each page there’s an animated gif of a busty schoolgirl flashing her butt by lifting up a too-short uniform skirt. The background is shaded in colors from acid green to pink and the text is not spaced properly and riddled with spelling errors. The overall effect is tragically amateurish.
So far, the only “hottiez” featured on the site are me, Maggie, Chloe, Amanda and Taylor Wilson, the head cheerleader. Next to each girl’s “naked” picture you can find all her details (full name, address, phone number, school) and underneath you can read some insightful observations from anonymous commenters. “My” photo looks amazingly realistic, so I’m less than pleased with the opinion of Playa69, who reckons that I’m “a fat slut who thinks shes the shit. Stupid dumb ho”.
“Oh my goodness,” Maggie says, appalled. “Whoever did this wasn’t raised right, that’s for sure.”
“Can you fix it?” Chloe asks.
“Depends on what you mean by fixing.” Maggie taps at her keyboard, her eyes narrowed in concentration. The screen in front of her is that bright, pre-crash blue with the scary white text all over it, but she seems totally calm and focused, so I guess she must’ve done that on purpose. “Give me a minute to see what I’m working with.”
We sit in silence for about half an hour, lost in our own thoughts. I’m trying my best not to think about my latest breakdown by determinedly studying the posters on Maggie’s bedroom walls. Most of them are cute shots of pets, each with a cheery motivational message. I’m frowning at a photo of a kitten dangling from a rope (Hang in there!), grimly wondering if any innocent animals were harmed in the making of that poster, when Maggie finally looks up from her computer.
“Okay,” she says. “I’ve blocked the site. We should be okay for now.”
“What do you mean?” Chloe asks. “Is it really gone?”
“Well, technically, it’s still there.” Maggie shrugs. “But no one will be able to see it, so it comes down to the same thing, really.”
I smile at her. “You’re a genius, Mags.”
But Chloe is tapping her heel again
st the floor again. “Whoever did this must still have the original photos. Which means he can send them to anyone at any time.”
“Yes,” Maggie agrees glumly. “Most social media sites censor nude images, but he might post them on one of those big revenge-porn sites. They get so much traffic that any search for our names will immediately lead to those pictures.”
“And there’s nothing anybody can do to stop him?” I ask, horrified.
“Well,” Maggie sighs, “it’s kind of complicated but, seeing that we’re still under eighteen, once we alert—”
“Nobody can know about it,” Chloe interrupts, her voice strained. “Nobody. You know how fast news travels in this town.”
Maggie gives her a puzzled look. “We have to tell someone who can help us. Someone in authority.”
Chloe snorts. “Yeah. Because that’s what people in authority do. They help us.”
“I’m serious, Chloe. Whoever did this is clearly not right in the head. What if he’s dangerous?”
“Jesus, Maggie, don’t be so naïve!” Chloe explodes. “Who’s going to help us? Don’t you understand anything about this place?”
Maggie draws in a sharp breath. “There’s no need to take the Lord’s name in vain,” she says curtly, her back suddenly ramrod straight. “And I do know this town. We have our faults, sure, but most people around here are really good, really decent.”
“In the eyes of all those ‘decent people’ we’ll be nothing but a bunch of sluts the moment those photos leak,” Chloe snaps. “And don’t think it’ll be different for you just because your photos are fake. Sure, people might act all sympathetic at first, at least to your face. But behind your back they’ll whisper that there’s no smoke without a fire, until they convince themselves that you must’ve brought this upon yourself somehow.” She flicks her hair from her face, her eyes glittering with anger. “That’s the morality of this place, and don’t you pretend not to know it.”
“Relax, Mags,” I say when I see how pale Maggie’s face has gone. “This isn’t the seventeenth century, okay? Nobody’s going to make you wear a scarlet letter.”
Chloe rolls her eyes. “Says the girl who got suspended from school because of a totally fake picture.”
Oh, yes. That.
“Principal Sweeney just hates me,” I say. “Nobody’s going to treat either of you that way. Maggie is, well… Maggie. And you’re the Princess.”
“You really do know nothing.” Chloe shakes her head, a disbelieving look on her face. “So the news might not have reached Nerd HQ yet, but since Jonathan and I broke up, I’m not the Princess anymore, okay? I’m nothing. Nobody.”
“Of course you’re somebody,” Maggie says kindly. “You’re the prettiest girl in school. Everybody says that.”
“Looks mean nothing if you don’t have money,” Chloe retorts. “Jonathan owns this town, and nobody will even look my way if he doesn’t like it. Everyone’s too afraid of him.”
“I’m not afraid of him,” I say.
“Which brings the sum total of your redeeming qualities to exactly one,” Chloe says before grabbing her car keys and heading for the door.
We meet Taylor and Amanda outside the gym after Saturday cheerleading practice, and it soon becomes clear that their photos, like Chloe’s, aren’t actually fake.
“I am going to kill Josh!” Taylor hisses as soon as she sees the picture Chloe saved on her phone. “I knew he’d screenshotted it! I knew it!”
“You sent this to Josh Smith?” I ask, mystified as to why the pretty new captain of the cheerleading squad would send a naked selfie to the openly gay head of the chess team.
“Josh Bankson, you retard,” she spits at me. “We’ve been going out for, like, weeks.”
I shrug, even more mystified by the idea that anyone would willingly spend time with that Neanderthal. “Do you think he could be behind this?”
“He’d better not be!” She takes out her cell phone, then turns her back to us while she roughly swipes at the screen.
“Wow,” Amanda says as Taylor begins to hiss down the phone, “this is like one of my best ones. I look totally hot!”
“Did you send it to someone?” Maggie asks.
“Duh.”
“Was it Jonathan?” I ask, careful not to look at Chloe.
“Can’t remember,” she says, still admiring her photo. “Maybe. Or it might have been Cayden...” She looks skywards, trying to remember. “Or Ethan. Or… You know what? I think I might have sent this to one of those internet talent scouts.”
“You sent naked photos of yourself to strangers over the internet?” Maggie asks, round-eyed.
“Duh. I’m planning to be famous one day, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“Josh had nothing to do with it,” Taylor says firmly as she gets off the phone. “He’s totally crazy about me; he only took a screenshot because he needed something of me to hold on to. He said his phone must’ve been hacked because he would never show it to anyone else.”
I catch Chloe’s eye briefly before she looks away.
“And you believe him?” I ask.
“Yes.” She lifts her chin. “Josh would never do anything like this. He’s a good guy.”
Now, I know about a dozen kids, all smaller, weaker or younger than Josh Bankson, who would strongly disagree with this view, but I decide this probably isn’t the time to argue.
“Does he have any ideas about who might’ve hacked his phone?” Chloe asks.
Taylor shakes her head.
“Can you think of anyone who’d want to hurt you for some reason?”
“Nope. Everybody loves me.” She smiles smugly when she sees the look on Chloe’s face. “What? It’s a simple fact. I’m the leader of the Elite now, everyone knows it. You had your chance, and you blew it. I’m the new Princess, and you’re nothing.”
Chloe gives a humorless little laugh. “Yeah. Good luck with that,” she says flatly before turning on her heel and walking away.
Once we’re in the car, Maggie gives Chloe a confused look. “I thought those girls were your friends?”
Chloe pretends not to hear.
“Is it because of Jonathan?” Maggie asks after a while. “Has he told them they can’t be friends with you anymore?”
“Jonathan hasn’t said anything,” Chloe says coldly. “That’s the problem. He wants me to beg and I won’t do it.”
“Beg?” I ask.
“Oh, Jonathan,” Chloe says, putting on a fake, high-pitched, nasal voice. “Please tell everyone things are okay between us! Please tell them they can still be my friends and you won’t be mad at them! Please, please, save me, oh great Prince!” She slaps her hands against the steering wheel. “Well, he can forget it. I’ll never ask him, not if I have to eat lunch alone for the rest of my life.”
There’s a brief silence.
Then I shrug. “Fair enough.”
We don’t say anything else for the rest of the ride.
Chapter 8
The Sons of the First Ones mastered the magic on this world.
This was the power of Blood and of Earth, of Sea and of Sky.
The power of Blood was the power of Passion.
It took from the Sons their love and their hate,
and gave them the shallow skills of Physicality
and the deep skills of Seduction and Enthrallment.
The power of Earth was the power of Memory.
It took from the Sons their kindness and their cruelty,
and gave them the shallow skills of Growth
and the deep skills of Healing and Remembering.
The power of the Sea was the power of Intuition.
It took from the Sons their joy and their sadness,
and gave them the shallow skills of Controlling Water
and the deep skills of Prophesy and Foresight.
The power of the Sky was the power of Mind.
It took from the Sons their fear and their confidence,
and ga
ve them the shallow skills of Controlling Air
and the deep skills of Clear Sight and Truth.
The Daughters of the First Ones also mastered
the powers of Earth and Blood, Sea and Sky.
But because their flesh carried the future
they could master a fifth magic.
This was the power of Fire.
The power of Fire was the power of Spirit.
It took from the Daughters their serenity and their rage,
and it gave them the shallow skills of Controlling Flame
and the deep skills of Seeing, Blinding and Binding.
So formidable were these skills that, in time,
the Sons came to hate the Daughters, and to fear them.
And thus our Order was born.
Because the daughters could See,
they had to remain unseen.
Because the daughters could Bind,
they had to remain bound.
Because the daughters could Blind,
they were banished into darkness.
That is how it was, and how it must forever be.
The Codex Magicis Draconum (Highest Initiate Level)
When I get home, Gunn is waiting for me on the front porch.
“We need to talk.”
“I know, I know.” I climb the steps, sink down next to him on Ingrid’s antique wooden bench. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have run away like that.”
“You don’t have to apologize.”
“Yeah. I do.” I stare off into the garden because it’s easier than looking at him. “I’m just sick of being such a mess, you know?”
“You’re not a mess. You never were.”
It’s late afternoon and the sun is throwing shadows through the leaves of the trees, creating a curiously soothing patchwork of dark greens and deep blues on the slightly overgrown front lawn.
“It’s just… I was really beginning to think that my life was getting back on track. You know I hardly ever get those nightmares now. And I’m not so lonely anymore—I’ve finally made some friends at school, and it looks like the rest of them have pretty much gotten used to me. I mean, even Jonathan and Chloe are talking to me lately.” I rub my hands across my face. “I just can’t believe this is happening again.”
Ordinary Girl (The Dark Dragon Chronicles Book 1) Page 7