Dynasty

by Jen Davis et al.

You can’t even say the word.

  His eyes darken and he steps toward me, menacingly. “You think you can stop me?”

  I laugh mockingly and look him up and down the way he did me. “You think you’re powerful because you have me cornered in a towel? This is not a fair fight and you know it. Give me back my clothes and bag and let’s see who’ll be the prey then.”

  He looks shocked for a moment, but he shakes it off instantly.

  I shrug. “The kitten has claws.”

  He laughs and suddenly, he is right in front of me. The last thing I hear leave his lips is, “And you know what else the kitten has.”

  Chapter 6

  Caterina

  I have never been kissed before. Ever. I am saving it for The One, my prince charming.

  When I was a little girl, I used to lay on the floor of Dad’s office and look up at the ceiling at night. It had a glass ceiling that let you see the stars. And I used to imagine how it would feel. My first kiss.

  Will it be soft and sweet like what Mom and Chloe got from their husbands? Or dirty and mysterious like Aunt Raven’s?

  I want something like the kisses Mom gets. Dad is sweet. Not rough.

  I don’t want rough.

  But that is exactly what Valentin’s lips feel like. Hard and punishing. His body presses up against mine, and I feel every. Single. Thing. My body has always been extra sensitive to touches and smells and it seems like it’s been multiplied by a hundred.

  In a split second, he has my wrists pinned above my head and against the locker, immobilizing me. “Stay still, Kitten. You’ll enjoy this.” I try to push him, but he is insistent. Is he going to rape me? Is he going to kill me?

  “Get…off…of…me.”

  My heart thumps against my chest like it’s about to explode. But I am not fighting him because I feel suffocated. I don’t know why I am fighting him, actually.

  I try to tell my body but he is doing tricky things with the arm around my waist. He is being dangerous. He is making me feel good.

  I am feeling strange things all over my body, in places I feel too mortified to even mention.

  Valentin’s arm wraps tighter against my waist, pulling me closer. And at that moment, I forget to fight. Instead of struggling against him, my lips expectantly open up. My palms are sweaty against the metal and I feel like every atom in my body is beating. I feel him smile against me.

  Suddenly, he does a trick with his tongue and my body involuntarily moves against him. A moan escapes my throat. My eyes fall closed and the only thing in this world is me and him. Him and me. His body against mine. The punishing way he presses me against the metal. The strong cologne and the cigarette smoke. The soft lips and the tormenting way he uses them.

  He pulls away and I suck in the oxygen to make up for lost time. He doesn’t move away and my eyes remain closed. I don’t want to open my eyes until I feel sure I’m not going to faint.

  Suddenly, I hear in my ear, “See, Kitten, you want me.” I stop moving, my world stops moving, I stop breathing as he laughs, flicks my cheek and saunters out.

  ***

  When I go to school the next day, the feelings from yesterday in the locker room are still there.

  I feel mortified…for goodness sake, I had been moaning. Moaning. I want to smash my head against the wall.

  But I had managed to lie to everyone’s faces yesterday. I’m starting to get good at this whole lying thing.

  I’m going to tell Mom and Dad eventually. This is starting to get too dangerous for me to keep quiet.

  But I decided yesterday that I first need to find out what Valentin’s motives are. Why is he doing this?

  Plus, I need to get my gun back.

  The son of a fudge had taken my gun. He had thrown the clothes at my head as he headed toward the door and I was so stunned by all that had happened that I hadn’t done anything.

  Whispers follow me around the school for most of my classes. Thank God I only have one class with him. A couple of people even approach me, whispering with awe, “Hey, what happened yesterday?”

  No one asks if I am okay.

  My favorite is, “You guys had a quickie didn’t you?” or something along those lines and I inform them that I don’t know what a quickie is. They laugh like they think I’m joking.

  Mell is trying to explain as we walk into the cafeteria but I am still wrapped up in what had happened yesterday. She had just left me there.

  “—and my example is this. Once this guy took me into a closet and—”

  I adjust my bag, and as I push open the cafeteria door, I carefully look at her. “Why haven’t you said sorry yet?”

  She stops, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. She’s wearing bright blue eyeshadow and loud red lipstick. I don’t want to start any problems with her, but this is something that needs to be addressed. She sets her bag down on a table and walks over to the lunch line.

  “Why haven’t I said sorry?”

  I nod, getting in line with her. “Yes. You—”

  She shrugs, looking at me like I was being ridiculous. “I already said sorry.”

  “But you—”

  Mell rolls her eyes. “I know what I did, Kitty. But I had to save my ass, okay? Valentin, his brother, and his group of friends are monsters at this school. I had an incident with them before and I never want to repeat it.”

  My eyes widen with surprise. “With Valentin?” Maybe if he had done the same thing to her as he had been doing to me, I can ask her how she had escaped.

  She shakes her head. “No. Just with a couple of his friends…” Her eyes darken and she turns abruptly around. “Anyways, you can’t be offended or angry. I take care of myself first.” She raises a beautiful brow. “Why would I risk my ass for someone I’ve known for, like, two days?”

  I take a breath. Mell doesn’t owe me anything. We barely know each other well enough to eat lunch together, let alone put herself in danger for me. It nags me but I switch the conversation.

  “Okay, what were you saying a quickie meant again? Is it like running fast?”

  She tips her head back and laughs. I smack her arm. “What?”

  “Were you not listening during our whole walk?”

  “No, I was focused on…”

  She turns serious as she grabs a tray and starts putting lunch on it. “What happened yesterday? Is that why you’re out of it?”

  I grab my own tray. “It’s…how do you say it? I feel horrified, mortified, and I want to die.”

  She rolls her tongue around her lip ring. “Sound like their type of revenge.”

  I am starting to realize that something had happened to Mell before I was here. She’s a senior too, but something big must have happened last year.

  What could have possibly happened to her in junior year? Hm…

  We sit down with our food and start eating. I start reading Catcher in the Rye. Six more chapters are due today and I have only finished four. Suddenly, Mell looks up from her phone and laughs.

  I raise my eyes from the book, stuffing a French fry in my mouth. “What?”

  She leans over and shows me a Facebook post.

  Daniel: first day she came in with a skirt. he lifted it, showing her underwear to basically the whole front row. the second day she came with sweatpants. he stole them. god this son of a bitch is savage af.

  Mell, still laughing points the phone. “Look at the replies.”

  Allie: i would let him flip my skirt any time ;)

  Leah: omggg I would too!

  Cathy: IKR SHES SO LUCKY.

  Chasidy: Daniel, I don’t know why you’re saying it like it’s bad. This new girl is lucky he’s paying her attention lol. Wish I could have that.

  Becky: uh…@cassandra

  Cassandra: @Allie @Leah @Cathy @Chasidy…back off you little sneaky hoes.

  Nate: @vincent, bro, you have so many chicks fighting over you. can you let me have some?

  Leah: Omg Nate, you can have me if you want.

&nbs
p; Nate: lol nah sorry babe but you know I have standards.

  And basically after that, the comments are either “Oooooh,” “Damn,” or “Savage.”

  My face twists in disgust. Oh god, this school is chaos. “What is this?”

  After Mell calms down from her laughter, she tucks her phone in her pocket and stands up. “Something that’s worth celebrating.” After she dumps her tray, she ruffles my hair, still laughing. “Thanks for bringing life back to this school, Kitty.”

  Because it’s fun watching the devil destroy someone, right? As I pick up my tray and tuck my book in my bag, I try to calm my breathing. I am going to see Valentin later today in AP Sem, and I still have no idea on what I am going to say once I am in front of him.

  “Give me back my gun?”

  “Take back what you said?”

  “You stole my first kiss?”

  Chapter 7

  Caterina

  I enter Seminar with dread pooling in my stomach. As I enter the class, I mutter, “This is either going to go my way, or completely the opposite.”

  Barely anyone is there.

  I go to a seat way in the back, since that’s apparently the only one not “reserved.” I still haven’t gotten over that but that isn’t something I am going to dwell over. I have much more things to worry about. Like the lack of my gun. I’m not actually going to use it unless it is a major emergency, I know that. I respect the power of such an instrument. My father and uncles have taught me that.

  I don’t know how they are going to teach the other kids in the family though. Beth seems like the only one who can handle it, but even she is hotheaded.

  I remember what Dad had said when he gave it to me over the summer. “Know when to use it, and once you bring it out, there’s no hesitation or take back. So when you shoot…” He had taken me by my shoulders and looked right into my eyes as he said, “Shoot to kill.”

  Those were the darkest words I have ever heard come from Dad…ever. He had taught me how to fight and so had Uncle Smoke and Uncle Ken and my other uncles, but they have never been so bold as to say those words. I have a feeling it’s because they are scared of my Dad.

  But I also know it’s because of the seriousness of the situation. I am the daughter of a billionaire. There are stalkers and perverts and thousands of people who want to take me for ransom. I’m not so naive that I don’t know that.

  Going to this school had been a risk. It’s a normal high school, even though private. That is why I came in with a different last name and no one knows the connection other than the headmaster of all the private schools in this area.

  I’m suddenly interrupted from my thoughts as someone flops down next to me. “Hey, Cat.”

  My heart starts beating normally as I realize it’s only Tom. “Hey, Tom.”

  He pulls his beanie over his eyes and slumps into the chair. “I just failed my Chem test.”

  I laugh, taking out Catcher in the Rye. “You have no idea how small that seems compared to my problems.”

  He winces and his hazel eyes warm up. “Sorry, I know you have Nikolaev and his friends to deal with. That must be…” Suddenly he sits up and leans forward toward me. “Okay, so what happened in the locker room? Please spill.”

  His glasses look crooked and I can’t help myself from straightening them. I laugh, adjusting them, “You honestly don’t even want to know.”

  Tom moves away quickly, getting red. “Don’t do that.” He pulls the beanie lower over his ears and looks the other way.

  My eyebrows pull together. “What did I say?”

  “You’re making the schoolboy blush, Kitten.”

  I turn toward the low voice and come face-to-face with the one and only. A bunch of words comes to my mind but I don’t voice them. I can’t ask for the gun now, so I might as well just ignore him.

  Without giving him any satisfaction, I turn back to Tom, who’s already gathering his things. “You can still sit here. I’m all alone in the back.”

  Tom chuckles nervously as he stuffs his notebook in his bag. “Yeah, uh…no. I’ll just—”

  “Why does everyone keep abandoning me?”

  Tom looks over my shoulder and I know who he’s looking at. I groan and lean over whisper to him, “Please stay. He scares me and he’s very…volatile.”

  Tom smiles before quickly erasing it. He coughs and whispers, “He can hear you…” I know Valentin is looking at me because Tom’s eyes are wide with fear.

  I slump back in my seat. “Fine. Go.”

  Something flickers over his face and he sighs, getting up slowly. “Sorry, Cat.”

  I grumble, “No problem,” and he leaves slowly, Valentin laughing behind me.

  I spin around on my chair. “Why are you even here though? Isn’t the seat you,” I use air quotes, “‘reserved’ in the front?”

  Valentin laughs and walks over to the seat next to me. Almost everyone is in the classroom now. A couple of guys give him a handshake.

  “What’s up, man?”

  “Yo, Nikolaev.”

  “‘Sup, bro?”

  And almost all of their eyes flicker over to mine before they walk to their seats.

  Valentin plops himself right next to me and I ask again, “Why are you here instead of in your seat?”

  He positions his body toward me, moving in his chair. Leaning his arms on the top of the seat, he smiles. “Because I want to.”

  I grind my teeth, glaring in a hole into the desk. “So you humiliate me on the first day of school only to—”

  “Mr. Nikolaev, Ms. Callahan, do you have anything to share with the class or can we proceed?”

  Valentin, without turning to the teacher says, “Ms. Callahan?” with an amused tone. I blush and sink deeper into my seat, calling out to Mr. Mahor, “I’m sorry.”

  Mr. Mahor nods and proceeds. I growl at Valentin and whisper, “Stop…looking…at…me.”

  From the front of the room, I hear an irritated, “Ms. Callahan.”

  “Fudge.”

  I manage to avoid him for most of the class by turning the other way. His eyes still burn into my back, but at least this time I don’t feel like he is looking into my soul to find a way to destroy me.

  After everyone finishes the worksheet, Mr. Mahor walks to the front of the class and writes on the board:

  Semester Project: Wander with a Partner

  People groan and Mr. Mahor smiles, clapping his hands once. “Ladies and gents, this will be the greatest project you have ever had in your entire life, I assure you.”

  Walking over to his desk he grabs a top hat. “Here I have all of your names. Your partner will remain so for the whole semester. There will be no changing, there will be no switching, there will be no groaning.”

  Mr. Mahor starts spinning his hand in the hat, looking around the room. “As you read the book, you’ll find that Holden treks a three-day journey to find himself and expose a side of himself that he never knew before. That will be what all of you will do with your partner.”

  He chooses two slips of paper. “Matthew and Jonie.”

  There is a sound throughout the room and the guy who I assume is Matthew pumps his arms, turning around to wink at a girl from across the room. There are some giggles and Mr. Mahor continues.

  “You will give a presentation to me and me only at a scheduled time at the end of the semester describing what changes your partner made in your four-month journey. It will be worth twenty-five percent of your grade for this class.”

  I gasp.

  That is huge.

  I raise my hand quickly. “What will we have to do to get this…this change?” I know none of the people in this room and if any of them find out who I really am…I know I’ll have to change schools.

  Mr. Mahor smiles, his eyes twinkling. “In the past, students have spent winter vacation together in an isolated cabin, taken care of a baby, taken a stroll in the city…that lasts exactly for three days—”

  “But what if someone ca
n’t do that?”

  “Can’t do what?”

  I blurted, “What if someone can’t hang out with someone outside of school?”

  Giggles erupt in the whole room. Valentin’s voice whispers in my ear, “You don’t want someone to find out who you really are, Kitten?”

  I grit my teeth and scooch away. Mr. Mahor chuckles. “I know you’re new, Caterina, but don’t worry.” He looks around the room. “These scoundrels aren’t as scary as they seem.”

  A guy in the front turns around, giving me a dirty wink. “I’ll make you feel safe, babe.”

  His face is all pimply and not that I have anything against that, but like, if your face is pimply, you don’t have a leg to stand on when making perverted comments directed at a stranger…just saying.

  Suddenly, laughter erupts around the room and the kid scowls, turning around in anger. I can see his ears turning red as the laughter grows louder.

  To my right, I hear a low familiar voice. “The kitten certainly has claws.”

  My eyes widen and forgetting that I’m not supposed to look at Valentin, I turn toward him, my heart beating. “Did I just say that out loud?”

  Valentin has his head back and is having the greatest laugh of his life.

  “Oh, God. Oh, God.” My eyes go to Tom, who has turned to face me. He looks like he is trying to keep from laughing too and he shakes his head mouthing, “Damn.”

  Mr. Mahor finally calms the room down enough to continue. Raising a wry brow at me, he continues with the choosing. I try to sink far enough into my seat so I disappear, but it isn’t possible.

  Why do you keep bringing attention to yourself?

  It’s not my fault that I talk my thoughts, okay?

  It’s a real problem.

  I agree.

  Get some help.

  Okay.

  I raise the book up to my face so that it covers me from all the ogling eyes and try to wish my disappearance as Mr. Mahor continues. Slowly, people start forgetting as they became focused on their partners.