by Rose, Louise
Knocking on the door, I am immediately summoned inside. I walk in to see a weasel of a man sitting behind a large desk. Large glasses hugged a sharply pointed nose and a bald head shone through his comb-over.
“Ah.” He smiles when he sees me enter. “You must be our new Archaic.”
“Guess I must be,” I shrug.
“We were delighted when your father contacted us to enroll you here,” Headmaster Pilkington tells me. “We have a proud heritage of serving the four houses. In fact, the school itself is divided into four houses, each named after one of the families, and engaging in friendly competition with each other in sports and academic studies. As our only Archaic pupil, you will automatically be appointed Head Girl, an honour I’m sure you’ll be proud to accept.”
“Are you kidding?” I can’t stop the words erupting from my mouth. “Why on earth would I want to do that?”
“Manners, Miss Archaic.” The headmaster arches an eyebrow. “Head girl is a wonderful position, one which will stand you in good stead when the time comes to apply to university. You are an ambassador of the school, a role model to the other pupils. You will be required to give speeches, do readings at assembly…”
“Oh hell, no!” This is the worst possible thing that can happen. “Don’t you already have a Head Girl? Let her keep the position.”
“Miss Archaic!” The headmaster’s tone is sharp. “I would hate to give you a detention on your first day with us and I’m sure your father wouldn’t like to hear of your behaviour either.” He fixes me with a pointed look and I know I am beat.
“Fine,” I mutter. “I’ll be your Head Girl.”
“Wonderful!” Headmaster Pilkington smiles in approval. “You are correct. There is another girl who you will be replacing, but she fully understands the situation and is more than happy to step aside. We all appreciate the importance of having an actual Archaic heading up the school’s House of Archaic. Right. Now that’s settled, it’s time to determine your timetable. Coming to us so late in your school career, particularly from a home-educated background, somewhat limits your options when it comes to A levels. But your father has made it clear that he has no issue with you remaining here an extra year should it be required in order for you to complete your studies to an acceptable level. What subjects are you interested in?”
“Katy signed me up for online courses in art, music, and graphic design,” I tell him. “My work is marked by tutors and I’ve predicted good grades in all of them.”
“An artist, eh?” Headmaster Pilkington nods slowly. “Well, I think we can get you onto either an art or a music course, but not both, I’m afraid. Your father is quite insistent that you are to study politics and business, so there’s little room for more creative subjects in that mix.”
“Seriously?” My heart sank. There is nothing more boring than politics and now I am supposed to do it at A level?
“Oh yes. One of our duties at King Academy is to prepare our charges for the reality of their lives when they leave our hallowed halls. Since you will be taking up the mantle of House Archaic, it is vital you learn the skills you will need to take over from your father.”
Yeah, right. Like that will ever happen.
“So which is it to be? Music or art?”
“That’s like asking me to choose a favourite child!” I protested. “Can’t I do both? People do four A levels don’t they?”
“The more gifted students do, yes,” Headmaster Pilkington says. “But I’m afraid that with no history in the school system, we have to make allowances for you adjusting to a new way of doing things. I cannot allow you to overburden yourself. You must choose whether you prefer to do music or art. Unless you’d like me to call your father and see what third subject he would choose for you?”
“No!” I yelped as the headmaster reaches for the phone. “Music. I’ll do music.”
“Excellent choice,” he beams. “I think you’ll love the music department here. We have some of the top teachers in the country.”
He turns to his computer and taps a few keys. A moment later, the printer on the other side of the room whirls into life and spits out a piece of paper. Headmaster Pilkington fetches it and passes it to me.
“I took the liberty of preparing your timetable when your father told me your choices,” he says. “Those are your classes. You’ll note that you have plenty of free periods. Do not take that as an opportunity to slack off. We set our standards high here and I expect to see you spending plenty of time in the library working on your assignments. Now I’ve arranged for the Head Girl of House Navarre to give you a tour of the facilities so you know where you need to be before your first class.” He presses a button on an intercom. “Please tell Nicola Navarre to come in.”
A moment later the door opens, and a perfectly pretty girl walks in. Her hair is styled pristinely, with subtle streaks of blue and green breaking up her natural auburn. Her makeup is flawless, that natural kind of look which accentuates her features without looking like she is wearing any makeup. A badge pinned to her jumper announces her Head Girl status.
“Nicola. Prompt as always. Excellent. Please show Ivy around and make sure she knows where she needs to be for each of her classes.”
“Of course, Headmaster Pilkington. Hi, Ivy. It’s good to meet you.” She smiles, but there is no warmth to it. Great. I had an enemy already, and I hadn’t even done anything. I wonder if she is an heir to one of the other houses? Or just a distant cousin or something? “If you can follow me?”
I pick up my rucksack and follow her to the door.
“Miss Archaic?” I turn back as Headmaster Pilkington says my name. He stands up and offers his hand out to me. “Welcome to the King Academy family and as a woman in your position, do know my allegiance falls heavily on the Archaic house. Come to me for anything.”
I had no choice but to make nice and shake his hand. It is like holding on to a wet fish, his palm all sticky, his grip limp.
“So what are you doing?” Nicola asks after we leave the Headmaster’s office.
“Music, politics, and business, apparently,” I sighed, showing her my timetable.
“It’s not so bad,” she says. “You’ve got Mr Ronson for politics and he’s great. And you’re with me for business, so if you need to see my notes on the classes you’ve missed, you’re more than welcome to them.”
“Really?” Pardon me if I don’t believe you.
“Sure.” Nicola sighed. “Look, none of us were happy when we heard an Archaic was coming to the school. We had no idea you existed and if I’m honest, we are all waiting for the day when your family dies out. But regardless of the history between our families, the one thing we all learn when we come to this school is that we need to work together if we’re going to continue to run this town. Obviously, you missed all the history classes which went over what happened when the four houses fought each other for dominance. Nobody wants to return to that, especially not the poor people like us that actually live in this town and need the main houses not to be at war. I’m just a descendant, like super thinned out from Navarre blood, but shit, we protect our own. Now, it’s unlikely the rivalries between the families will ever fully disappear, but if we can maintain the truce, there’s no limit to what we can achieve together.” She sighs again. “Besides, my dad would kill me if he heard I missed out on an opportunity to suck up to Solomon’s daughter.”
“Well, you’re honest,” I laugh. “I’ll give you that, Nicola.”
She rolls her eyes. “Nikki, please. The only person who calls me Nicola is Pilkington.”
“Okay… Nikki.”
The Navarre Head Girl takes me all over the school, filling me in on all the gossip I need to know while she takes me from one department to the next. There is no way I am going to remember where everything is, so in the end, I give up trying to memorise the routes to my classes and focus on mining Nikki for information. This is a whole new world and information is clearly power. The more I can find o
ut about the people I’m dealing with, the sooner I will be able to figure out a way to escape and go back to my old life. Or at least avoid the worst of the school.
“And that’s pretty much it,” Nikki announces as we go through a pair of doors which take us into a hallway lined with lockers. “That door down there leads to the sixth form common room. Forget what Pilkington says about spending all your spare time in the library–this is where we all hang out between lessons. This whole area is reserved for A level students and you’ll end up being grateful for the opportunity to escape from the plebs in lower school. There are a few lockers left, so find one without a padlock and claim it as yours. You’ll need to bring your own padlock or you can buy one from the office.”
“Okay.” That explains why there is one in the side pocket of my rucksack.
“Now-” Whatever it is Nikki is about to say is interrupted by the sound of jeering coming from the common room.
“What’s going on?” I ask, unsure of what to do.
“Oh, that’ll be Milly getting her daily dose of medicine,” Nikki tells me. I’m stunned by how matter of fact she sounds. “She thinks she’s all that because her brother’s the football captain and heir to the Knight house, so every now and then we make sure to bring her back down to earth. You’d think she has to know by now she’s nothing special.”
“Milly?” The girl who’d been kind to me when I first arrived. “No way.”
Dumping my bag, I raced down the corridor and burst into the common room without even thinking about it. I’m shocked to see three girls surrounding Milly, pushing her between them, chanting “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” as she cries out for them to stop.
“Hey!” I yell, running into the middle of the group and putting my arm around Milly. They stop instantly, which I didn’t expect. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Oh. It’s the new girl,” sneered one of the bullies. “Don’t poke your nose into other people’s business if you know what’s good for you. You’ve got a lot to learn about what it takes to survive at King Academy. Let this be your first lesson–turn round, walk out that door and don’t look back.”
“I don’t think so.” I shake my head and push up my sleeves, ready for action. I see a Head Girl badge on her jumper, right under the House name Archaic.
“I think you’ll find that belongs to me,” I say, pointing to the badge.
The girl is beautiful in a plastic, oh-so-not-real-under-her-skin way. The sneer she gives me makes her look ugly though. Dammit, I don’t want the badge, but I want them to leave Milly alone. “Oh yeah? Come take it, bitch.”
“Fine.” I shrug my shoulders then launch myself at the girl before she can brace herself. There is an audible gasp from everyone else in the room as I punch her straight in the face, knocking her to the floor. I jump on top of her, giving her no chance to get up as I slap her hard and wrap my hand around her throat.
“Don’t. Be. A. Bully,” I lean down and warn her, she struggles to push me off her. “And if you need me to teach you another lesson, I’ll be right here.”
“That’s enough, Ivy.” Milly tentatively reaches down and grabs hold of my shoulder. “I think she got the message.”
“Not quite.” Reaching down, I pull the Head Girl badge off the bully’s chest, not caring that I have ripped her jumper in the process.
It is only then I get up and let the other girl go free. There is a stunned silence, but then someone starts clapping. Another pupil joins in, then another and another and soon the whole room is cheering me. Well, that’s one way to make sure the entire school knows I’m here.
Crap.
The former Head Girl of Archaic is helped to her feet by her two cronies and the three of them storm out of the common room. The head girl looks back once at me, and when her eyes meet mine, I know I have a new enemy. When I’m not looking, she is going to stab me in the back and dig the knife in.
“You’re amazing!” squeals Milly, giving me a huge hug and distracting me from the head girl.
“I hate bullies,” I shrug, trying to break free with no luck.
“You certainly know how to make an entrance, Archaic,” says Nikki. Is it my imagination or is there a look of respect in her eyes?
“What’s all the noise?”
I nearly jump at the familiar voice. I kinda hoped I wouldn’t hear his voice again and then the part of me that doesn’t lie to myself knows I wanted to hear him. Milly squeals again and runs across the room to throw herself into the arms of the boy who’d just walk in.
“Oh, my god! You have to meet my new best friend, Ivy. She saved me from Ally!”
I look into the clear blue eyes I have only just seen the day before. Now I know why Milly looks so familiar.
“We’ve already met,” Archer says with a condescending smirk. Damn my heart for beating quicker from just the sound of his voice.
I’m so screwed.
Chapter Four
Ivy Archaic
“Really?” Milly is positively skipping with excitement. “Then you know how cool she is!”
“Oh yeah. Ivy’s cool all right,” smirks my kidnapper. “I really enjoyed hanging out with her yesterday.”
“I bet you did.” My eyes narrow, fingers itching to slap the smile off his face. I’m not usually so violent, but there is something about being kidnapped and having people dictate how to run my life that changes me.
Milly looks from me to her brother and back again, a confused frown wrinkling her forehead.
“Is something wrong?” she asks.
“Nothing’s wrong, little sister,” Archer says with a cheeky grin. “Ivy’s just a little tired after all the excitement yesterday. Only an Archaic would have the energy to come to school the day after they are reunited with their long-lost father.”
“That must have been so exciting for you,” Milly gushed. “I bet you are so happy to meet your dad after all that time apart.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” I say, deciding now isn’t the time to go into the details of my abduction. “But look at you two. I should have guessed you are related. You’ve got the same eyes. Are you twins or something?”
“Irish twins,” Milly corrects me. “Archer’s ten months older than me, which is why we’re in the same year at school. We’ve also got another brother in the year below and a sister the year below that. And our step mum’s pregnant now, so there’s another Knight coming into the world in a few months.”
“Wow. You guys sure have a big family.”
“It’s pretty normal for the four houses,” Milly shrugs. “In fact, House Archaic is unusual in only having one heir. Our families are big in case of any… accidents. If anything does happen to you, that would be the end of your house and your father would have to watch his back because someone would be bound to stage a coup.”
“I see.” It looks like my father had been telling the truth about keeping his distance to protect me.
But that doesn’t excuse the way he is treating me now. Why can’t he have just spoken to me like a normal person? He didn’t have to kidnap me and treat me like a prisoner. Maybe he thought what he was doing was for the best, but if this is what having a family is like, I’m better off back in foster care.
A bell rang, interrupting our conversation.
“That’ll be lunch. You wanna eat with me, Ivy? I can fill you in on all the gossip. Call it a thank you for rescuing me.” Milly is ridiculously perky, but there is something endearing about her constant positivity, especially now I have seen the way the other kids treat her.
“Actually, Mills, do you mind if I grab Ivy for a second?” Archer sweetly asks. “I just want to see how she’s settling in.”
“Sure. Do you want to bring her to the cafeteria when you’re done? I’ll grab a table for us.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Archer smiles.
“Actually, can you do me a favour?” I ask. “I dropped my rucksack in the hallway by the lockers when I heard what wa
s going on in the common room. Can you pick it up for me?”
“Of course. I’ll take it to the cafeteria for you.” Milly practically skips out of the room, seemingly overjoyed to be able to do this little thing for me.
Now that his sister is gone, I don’t have to pretend to be civil to Archer anymore. “You’ve got some nerve,” I hiss.
Archer shrugs with a cocky grin. “What can I say? I owed your father a favour.”
“So he claps and you follow him like a puppy dog?” I mockingly ask, keeping my voice low so the other students won’t overhear. My business is private. I’m already going to be the subject of school gossip after my fight with Ally. I’m not going to give them anything else to talk about. “There are a million different ways you could have handled the situation. God, Archer, all you had to do is ask and-”
I caught myself before I could put my foot in it any further, but it is too late.
“And what?” There is a little twinkle of amusement in Archer’s eyes.
“Nothing?” I shrug, a little embarrassed and hoping he will drop it.
“Nothing, huh?” He steps closer and I take one step backwards, only making him look more amused. “Let me guess…foster kid so desperate for attention you would have fallen for a few pretty words whispered in your ear and a space on my bike?”
“Fuck you,” I snap.
“Nah, I don’t fuck my sister’s friends,” he replies. “Considering she has so little of them.”
“I wouldn’t say we are friends exactly…”
“That’s not how Milly’s going to see it,” Archer tells me. “In case you hadn’t noticed, Milly’s not like most people at the Academy. She’s a sweetheart. That girl doesn’t have an evil bone in her body. It makes her an incredible human being, but it also means she’s nothing but prey to the Houses. You standing up for her like that will have won her undying loyalty. You’ve got a friend for life in my sister, whether you like it or not. But it would mean a great deal to me if you don’t break her heart by turning your back on her. I might even watch your back for you. Trust me, you need some help.”