by L. J. Woods
Taking a few extra minutes in the shower is necessary after my week. It’s nice having a moment to myself again without crude whispers coming from left, right and centre. When I get out of the shower I reach for where I thought I’d hung the towel, but nothing’s there.
Shit.
A giggle comes from nearby and I follow it, attempting to cover my exposed bits. When I peek into the locker room I let out a breath when I see that it’s empty. But when I get to my locker, my heart stops. My gray bralette and cotton gray panties are there. So are my Docs but my uniform isn’t. I check the one next to it, above it, and underneath it before I open everyone that I can.
Where the fuck are my clothes?
Without anything to dry off, I whip on my underwear before I hear the click of the door from the field. Students enter with one of Lea’s minions leading the pack. The one with the short blonde cut.
She smirks, pulling out her phone and snaps a picture, light blinding my eyes. “Nice underwear. Where did you get it? Thrift Village?”
Twelve
The girls behind the blonde start laughing and giggling. Some even point at the hole in my old bralette.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I demand, reaching for her phone.
She puts it behind her back and before I can pounce her for it, Coach Roberts walks in, getting between us. “What’s going on?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” My teeth chatter as the cold settles onto my wet skin. “S-Someone stole my c-clothes, and she wants to document the whole fucking thing.”
“What?” Coach looks confused. She looks down at me. “Where are your clothes?”
So I clarify, “They took them.”
Another girl gives Coach Roberts a sweet smile. “We don’t know anything Coach.”
I reach around Coach, my teeth gritting together. “Give me your fucking phone!”
“Rowland!” Coach gives me a stern look. “Language.”
“Coach Roberts,” I try to steady the shakiness in my voice. I’m cold. Angry. Humiliated again. “I don’t have my clothes and they’re responsible. I put it in that locker and now it's magically gone."
She flutters her eyelashes and Coach Roberts huffs. “Get moving ladies.” The girls smile and giggle, moving over to their respective lockers. I stand in the middle of the room in my underwear watching as Coach Roberts moves to a large locker. After she unlocks it, she tosses me a green ERA hoodie. “You too Rowland.”
I look at her in awe, but she turns around before I pull the sweater over my head. It’s warm and I’m at least grateful for that, but the teachers at this school are as bad as the students. Complacent, with no concern for a girl from The Grove. I guess even private schools can’t hire teachers who care.
After class, I head straight to my locker, without my uniform. I'll text Holly I need a new one and hope she doesn't tell the Archibalds.
I’m ready to grab my backpack and get the fuck out of here for the weekend when I hear the sound of Lea’s voice. It’s coming from our Algebra class and I can’t wait to give her a piece of my mind.
The door’s locked and before I can peek through the window I hear the rumble of Mr. Trout’s voice. They must be on the other side of the door because I can hear them but I can’t see them.
“Sssh,” Trout’s voice is a whisper but with my ear pressed against the door I can make it out. “Someone will hear us.”
“Jo?” Christian is at the end of the hallway when I turn around. He has a smirk on his face and it makes me even madder at him. "What happened to you?”
"Listen." My jaw clenches as I fight the charm in his gem-like eyes. “Until you tell your friends to stop making my life a living hell, do me a favour and fuck right off.”
The final bell of the day chimes and students start pouring out into the halls.
That bell marks my freedom. At least for a couple of days.
Willow and I spend all Friday and Saturday holed up in our bedrooms. The space is bigger than we’d ever had so it feels like a mini-vacation from everything.
By Saturday night, bags of chips, boxes of Oreos and candy wrappers lay around our room. My sister and I sprawl out on our combined mattresses on the floor of my room, fluffy blankets from our beds on top.
“So how goes your friendship with Eden’s elite?” Bringing a Dorito to my mouth I glance at her, Mean Girls running in the background.
Willow shrugs, chewing on a Twizzler. “Better than yours. Bella has my back.” Her hair looks shinier these days. She's also swapped her gold studs for classic Chanel earrings. “Actually, can I go to her sleepover on Tuesday? I already asked Nancy.”
“You did?”
She glances at me then back at the screen. “Yeah, but, I won’t go if it makes things weird between us.”
“No!” I pull her close, swallowing the urge to be blunt. I want to tell her not to go but Willow has her own life to live. Just because I’m a social outcast doesn’t mean she has to be. She deserves to have some fun. And a social life. “Of course it won’t make things weird. You go. Have fun. I have work that night anyway.”
She smiles. A big one and I hate it and love it at the same time. Then she turns to look at me. “Do you like Damien?”
I almost choke on the glob of chips in my throat. “What?”
“People at school say you slept with him at his party.” She bites her lip as if she’s nervous to ask. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We did not sleep together. He made that up to be a cock.” I don’t realize how tight I’m gripping the bag until I hear it crinkle.
“Oh.” Her eyebrows fall and I return my attention to Regina George before she asks, “So...you don’t like him?”
My cheeks burn at the thought of his hands on my skin. His lips on mine. “No. Damien King is an asshole.”
“You sure? ‘Cause you’re doing that thing you do with your leg when you’re lying.” She gives me a sly smile. I stop shaking my foot and toss a skittle right in the middle of her head. “Hey!”
“We don’t say that name in this house.”
She laughs and turns her attention back to the screen.
The rest of the night, we gossip about the Supreme Squad and throw on more comedic classics. By two in the morning, Willow's asleep at my side.
With a smile on my face, I curl up beside her. I plan on basking in every bit of this weekend because before I know it, I’ll be back at the academy. In the devil’s domain.
Henry pulls up to the school on Monday and it’s like deja vu. The kids in the front yard whisper and Willow takes off with her new pals, leaving me alone to face the music.
With my mind on my silver linings, I head to find Nate and Allie, but when I get inside, everything changes.
Colourful flyers line the walls and lockers with an image in the middle. Some students walk by with the same flyer in their hands. They giggle and point at it before giggling and pointing at me.
Tilting my head to the side I start making out the image.
No.
Grabbing it from one of their hands, I hear a “Whore," but I'm too enraged to bite back. Flyer in hand, I confirm what I'm seeing.
It's me.
I'm in my bra and panties, the same ones from gym class. In the photo, my face is a copy of what it must be now. Angry and confused.
Looking around, the Stupid Squad is nowhere in sight. Storming down the hall, I'm tearing the flyers off walls and lockers as I go by. If Damien’s behind this I’m going to find him. And when I do, he’s going to pay.
He's not hiding far. I’m in front of the office when I hear his voice, “Dad? What are you doing here? Again?”
“Mind your business, Damien.” I turn around to see Sebastien King and Cindy Huang walking towards the office. I’m mortified that they’re seeing this scandal unfold.
“You’re in my school, this is my business,” Damien calls back. “You’re here every fucking day doing what the fuck ever but you have no time to listen to
my plans?”
“Damien, now’s not the time.”
“Bullshit,” Damien spits. “It’s never the time.”
Sebastien says something to Cindy and she continues down the hall. There are only a few kids in sight but they scurry by when they see the Kings in the hallway.
Cindy sees me staring and looks me up and down, her hand on the office door. “Looks like you have some cleaning up to do. And I don’t mean the cafe.” She straightens her posture and walks inside the office in time for me to see Damien’s dad look over his shoulder and pull him down a hallway.
I follow them because I must be an idiot but the way his dad is hauling him looks pretty fucking aggressive. Now I see where Damien gets it from.
When I get closer to them I hear a SMACK!
“You want to embarrass our name in our own halls? You know the long line of family history that’s here. You won’t ruin it with your outlandish bullshit!”
“That’s all you care about isn’t it?” When I peek around the corner Damien is holding his face. “Business and bullshit appearances.”
“I care about you!” Sebastien glances down the hall but I pull my head back before he sees me. “That’s why I’m here.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Damien starts walking away, his uniform dishevelled, cheek red.
“Don’t you walk away from me!”
Pulling back as he gets around the corner, I’m too late. His shoulder hits mine and when he sees me his eyes narrow. Teeth clenched.
I speak first, “Looks like the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.”
His whole body tenses, lean muscles outlined in his shirt. “What the fuck do you want, Medusa?” As usual, he doesn’t hesitate to get in my face but this time his voice is more strained, tighter. The side of his cheek is as red as a lobster and something inside me urges me to touch it, but I don’t.
Instead, I get to business. “This is not okay.” I push the flyer featuring yours truly at his hard chest. “Call off your twisted kingdom of flying monkeys. I don’t deserve this.”
He grabs the flyer out of my hand, voice tired, “You’re right, this is my twisted kingdom and you’re mine too.” Eyes wandering around the photo, his lips sweep into a smirk. “Didn’t take you for the virgin panties kinda girl.”
My cheeks burn. “Fuck you, Damien!” That’s another phrase I’m saying all too often. “Is that why you didn’t stop them from posting pictures of me all over the fucking school? Or why you left me to walk home alone in the rain? Or why you’re always scheming with Lea to make my life fucking miserable?”
“Lower your voice, Medusa.” He sounds stern, unwavering but mine is shaking and yeah, I’m getting loud.
“No!” My finger lands on his chest, bouncing back against his muscles with every poke. “You don’t get to tell me what to do! You don’t get to play calm, cool and collected when you’re not stopping any of this!”
He doesn’t push me back, doesn’t lift a finger. But his breath is on my face when he asks, “Like you couldn’t stop your parents from burning?”
And I see red, tears coming to my ducts. I push his chest and he grabs my arm. “Don’t act like you know me or my family, Damien!”
“Then stop acting like you know mine.” He pulls me close with his grip. Any closer and our lips will touch. “I do know one thing though. As long as you’re here, in this school, in this city— I own you.”
“No.” I pull against his hold but he doesn’t let go. “I don’t belong to anyone!”
“Oh yeah?” I don’t realize he’s walking me against a wall until my back hits the cold stone. “Didn’t seem that way when I had your perky little nipple in my hand.” That same cold hand is on my thigh before he pushes it between my legs, his lips by my ear. “I bet you were so wet for me. Are you wet for me now, Medusa?”
His tongue grazes the soft skin of my lobe and I crumble. He’s stroking my nub over the fabric, right here in the hallway for everyone to see and…it feels incredible.
“Damien,” I say his name to make him stop but it comes out like a moan and my cheeks flush.
“If you’re going to beg for it, say my name.” His voice is husky and I can feel the hardness of his length against my leg. “It’s King.”
“Damien?”
Lea’s voice comes from around the corner. He loosens his grip and backs away from me, licking his finger with a smirk. My heart pounds and I hate how smug he looks. Like he knows he has me.
“Damien?” Lea’s call is more affirmative when she appears in the hallway. Her eyes dart from me to him, and her nostrils flare. “Okay, what the fuck is going on?”
“Putting someone in their place,” Damien smirks.
Lea looks like a blowfish ready to burst before she looks at me. “Well, your place is not at homecoming tonight! I'm sure you have a John back in The Grove anyway. Speaking of which,” her grin grows. “I put up free advertising in the foyer.”
Damien walks away with Lea and I’m just as confused as I was yesterday. There’s a trail of tingles where his fingers were, my heart pumping fast. He didn’t deny whether he did this and yet I let him touch me again.
Lea’s cackle rings through the halls and now I have to find out what she meant.
Taking the opposite way to the foyer, there’s already a crowd when I arrive. Some students giggle, others take photos with their phones, chatter in the air. I follow their gaze and look up to see what Lea meant.
A giant copy of the flyer hung all over the school now hangs from the second-floor balcony, my body on large display. My chest tightens, clenched teeth threaten to break my jaw, but I won’t let them see that. Not wanting to hear anyone’s remarks I turn around to leave but bump into a rigid chest.
Looking up I see Damien and he smirks, shaking his head. He has that coin, threading it between his fingers. “It’s a shame that underwear doesn’t look any better blown up.”
Is he behind this? “Get the fuck out of my way!” I'm trying to push him away but he’s like a tree. He doesn’t move.
"Tried to tell you to leave," he lowers his voice.
"When your hands were up my skirt?” The words shoot from my lips. I want him to see the hurt, the humiliation on my face. "How could you?"
Without giving him time to answer I turn around to head out the other exit. Mr. Trout is amongst the students, staring up at the photo with the rest of them. He’s not doing a thing.
“Looking good Rowland!” Isaac appears beside me and I scoff. “Classic Mr. Trout. It’s not the first time he’s gawked at a student. Ask Lea if you don't believe me.” My head whips to look at him to see if he’s joking and while he’s got this high as fuck look on his face, it doesn’t look like it. “Ah shit,” the sarcasm is heavy in his tone. “I think I've broken a pact.”
There's no time to hang around. Not with this crowd growing. I keep heading towards the door, leaving Isaac behind. I’m almost out of the foyer when a hockey jersey stops me in my path. “Take it off for us Medusa." The red-haired boy winks, a huge grin on his face. “Nothing we haven’t already seen.”
“Keep dreaming.”
He doesn’t let me move around him. Instead, he hoists his fist in the air and starts chanting, “Take it off! Take it off!”
A fellow player standing next to him picks it up, “Take it off! Take it off!”
It’s not long before the people around us are all chanting the same thing, only to have the rest of the crowd join in.
They’re all looking at me, yelling for me to take it off in their uniforms like some sort of horny adolescent cult and all I want to do is get away. There’s one last entrance into this grand foyer, or right now, my personal hell, and I head for it. I’m not giving these maniacs the advantage of seeing me crumble.
A green headband stops me in my path. Lea has her arms crossed and she’s looking at me with smug satisfaction. She looks back at the poster, then at me before looking at her nails. “Seems like we outdid ourselves this time. Thank
god Damien has all the right connections.”
My chest feels like it's caving in, nails digging into my skin. “Get out of my way Lea.”
Hoots and hollers come from some of the students and Lea grins, standing up tall. “You sure you don’t want to give the whole school a show?” She flips her hair. “Imagine the tips you’d get from the pockets of the east coast’s richest families. Simply for being a whore.”
I take a step closer until I’m breathing in her face. “Oh, I’ll give them a show.”
“Joelle Rowland!” My name crackles over the intercom and the crowd quiets down. “Joelle Rowland to the Headmaster’s office immediately.”
Chants turn into whispers as Lea steps aside. “Seems like you have somewhere to be.”
Thirteen
A warning.
Headmaster Shithead sent me home for the day with a warning.
When I asked why I was being punished he said I created a disturbance. He didn’t even give me a chance to tell Willow I won’t be riding home with her. Being no help at all, he called Eric who called Holly who arranged for Henry to pick me up.
That was before Headmaster Beckett escorted me down the hall like some sort of criminal. He watched me get into the car, then he leaned in, a stern expression on his face. “I’m not sure what you’re used to in Glendale Grove but I trust this won’t happen again.” Then he slammed the door.
Unbelievable.
What did I expect from a place where everyone has their heads up their asses?
Walking inside the mansion, I'm on my usual route to the stairs. The large grandfather clock in the foyer tells me it’s past ten. That means both Eric and Nancy should be out of the house.
“Hello?” I call. But I hear nothing in response. I try again, “Eric? Nancy?”
Nothing.
Tapping my finger against the railing, I'm listening for any sounds before I make a beeline for Eric’s office. As usual, there’s a silver lining here. Headmaster Beckett did me a favour after all. This might be my only chance to take a peek into Eric Archibald’s business. Since he spends so much time with both the Kings and the Huangs, I’m bound to find something about my parents.