by Rebel Hart
“N-no. Come on, guys. The school’s big enough for all of us.”
Looking a little bit up the hallway, I could see the weird kid, Sicily, who’d introduced himself to me the day prior. He was backing his way out of one hallway and down a subsequent one with his hands in the air. After backing a few more feet, his pursuers entered the cross-section. One of them was Nikita, and she had one of her knives out and was menacingly holding it forward. The other was a kid that I hadn’t seen before. He was lithe, with short cut black hair going up the sides of his head and blond hair swooping back over the top of his head. A fancy watch and bracelets covered his left wrist, and a variety of rings decorated his right hand. Even though he was wearing skinny jeans and wasn’t much bigger than Sicily, he was encroaching on him like he was twelve feet tall.
Something about Sicily was slippery to me, but walking around with Nikita, there was no way the other kid wasn’t one of Nathan’s cronies as well. The very last thing I was going to stand for was letting Nathan lord over the school like some sort of dictator. I wanted to stay out of trouble, but it was against my nature to stand idly by while bullies ruled any place. If I could accomplish anything else by coming back to school, I wanted it to be loosening Nathan’s chains a little bit.
It wasn’t difficult to get through the crowd of students because they parted when they saw me coming. All of them stood to one side and pointed as I stormed my way down the hallway, but I ignored all of that and turned the corner where Sicily had backed up. Nikita and Jaxon had backed him up against one of the walls and were looming over him, all while he cowered and held his hands up.
“I didn’t do nothing. It was just someone who wanted to know how to get some booze. I was just sharing some friendly advice,” Sicily begged.
“Nothing happens in this school without it going through the king,” Nikita hissed. “Why don’t you just tell Jaxon who procured your services, and we’ll be on our way.” She closed in on Sicily with her blade out. It looked like a regular pocket knife, but the tip had to have been altered in some way because it had shark-tooth edges that looked razor-sharp. “Hurry up.”
I walked up the corridor until I was behind Nikita and the other kid that she’d called Jaxon and crossed my arms. They both stood several centimeters below me, so when I cleared my throat and they both whipped around, it required them to look up.
“What’s going on here?” I asked.
“This doesn’t concern you,” Nikita growled at me. “Walk away.”
Nikita may have more brass than she had earned in her lifetime, but Jaxon was sizing me up with a considerate look on his face. I pulled my left hand up into my right one and cracked my knuckles, saying, “I’ve decided it concerns me.”
A group of kids was already forming around the four of us as I engaged them, and Nikita flashed her blade in my face. “Are you sure this is a fight you want?”
With lightning-fast reflexes, I reached out and snatched Nikita’s blade from her before snapping it in half and chucking the pieces in opposite directions down the hallway. The sharp edge on her blade sliced my hand as I did so, but compared to what I’d experienced, that was nothing. I reached around and grabbed the edge of my black t-shirt, pulling at the seam of the left shoulder to rip the sleeve off. I laced the strip around my bleeding left hand and then looked back at Nikita with a bored expression.
“At your most dangerous, you’re barely the scariest person in North Postings. I grew up in the hood and spent the last four years in a cell block.” I leaned in so that my face was hovering just a few centimeters above hers. “It’d be years before you even frightened my left pinky toe.” My gaze shifted toward Jaxon. “Maybe you’d like to try?”
Jaxon looked me up and down one more time and then turned and sauntered off down the hallway. Nikita put all of her weight into shoving me backward, which, to her credit, did put some space between us, but then she turned her back to Sicily and started off after Jaxon.
“You’ll regret this,” she hissed as she passed.
“People keep saying that,” I responded. “I’ll wait until I see it.”
She didn’t respond, only continued on, stopping just briefly enough to pick up the blade part of her broken knife, and then she carried on out of sight.
I turned and looked back at Sicily. “You should stand up for yourself.”
Sicily tugged at his jacket to straighten it out. “Easy for you to say. You’re six and a half feet tall and all muscle. I’m five-foot-eight and a hundred and fifteen pounds, soaking wet.” He shook his hands and then held one out. “But, uh, thanks.”
Unlike our more torrid interaction from the day before, I took Sicily’s hand and shook it. All things considered, he was the only person in the school other than Cherri who wasn’t treating me like the monster under the bed. “You’re welcome. I’m Deon.”
He smiled. “Hey, there we go! Sicily.” He snaked his hands into his pocket and started walking in the direction of the lunchroom, so I followed. “Listen. I’m kind of the go-to guy for stuff around here. Drugs, booze, sex, you name it, man. Normally, I charge a healthy fee, but since you scratched my back, I’ll scratch yours, huh? You just tell ol’ Sicily what you want, and I’ll get it for you.”
Sicily reminded me of a few of the guys I was on the inside with. Some of the smaller guys, ones who knew they couldn’t defend themselves through traditional means, had to make themselves useful in other ways. It probably should have alarmed me how like prison school was, but I decided not to think too much about it.
“What about information?” I asked.
Sicily jumped up and down. “Information is my bread and butter, my friend! I’m nothin’ without it! There ain’t a soul in this school I couldn’t tell you all about.”
“Can you tell me about The Royal Court?”
A hollow whistle escaped Sicily’s lips. “The big ‘un, huh? Yeah, guy. I can tell you. Let’s get our food and find a table first, though. Away from the fray. You saw how they had me strung up.”
There was no reason to argue, so I didn’t. We got our food, all while Sicily prattled on about a bunch of insignificant things, and when we came out of the lunch line on the other side, Sicily led me to a table way in the back of the cafeteria, near one of the doors that led in and out.
We sat, and after Sicily took a few bites, he slapped the table and pointed at me. “All right. What do you wanna know?”
“Everything,” I replied. “Can you tell me about all the members? What do they do around here? Why were those two bullying you?”
“I like to call it a tense conversation,” Sicily replied. “Being a bully victim isn’t good for business.”
I shrugged. “Whatever. Just tell me what you know.”
“All right,” he replied. “Well, the basics first. The court’s got nine members.”
Nine was a much larger number than I was expecting. Obviously, Nathan was in it, along with Cherri and Nikita. I recognized Avery, but back when Cherri and I used to mock The Royal Court, it only had four members, and Cherri wasn’t one of them back then. Nathan’s numbers had grown, not that it made me any more or less comfortable.
“Okay,” I confirmed.
“The two you saw me having a conversation with earlier, that was Nikita and Jaxon. They’re the Knights of The Royal Court. They’re responsible for making sure people are bending to the court’s will, ensuring all enterprises are running through them, protecting the king. That sort of thing.”
“Flunkies?” I asked.
Sicily bobbled his head from side to side. “Sure. I suppose you could say that. I wouldn’t say it to their faces.”
“Does it look like I’m worried?”
Sicily snapped his fingers. “Good point.”
“There’s a prince, the only junior, named Brayden. He’s the king’s flunkie. It’s kinda sad to say, if you ask me. Brayden runs around after Nathan like an abandoned dog or something. Needless to say, he doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty f
or the king if he thinks it’ll improve his position.” That thought made me sick to my stomach. That Nathan had anyone running around after him was deplorable enough, but some poor kid’s whole goal in life was to impress him? That was downright tragic. “There’s a princess too. She’s not with the prince, though. They’re just titles. Colette. She’s the senior class president and the school valedictorian.”
“Aren’t those things voted on by the students?” I asked.
“Sure, but you know, The Royal Court rules all, so she’ll get it again this year.”
I rolled my eyes. “Great.”
“There’s another prince named Alistair, and honestly, he’s a good guy. Never had any trouble with him. If you ask me, he doesn’t really want to be in The Royal Court. Got no idea why he stays, though. Maybe for Avery.”
“The one with the curly hair?” I asked, recognizing her as one of the original members, though I never knew her name.
“Yeah. Avery and the king go back a ways, so she’s the princess in line. If anything happened to the queen, she’d take over. I don’t really know what that means, you know, sexually, but I don’t really want to know, to be honest.”
I took a bite of my hamburger. “Me either.”
Sicily looked to the ceiling as he thought and then brought his gaze back to me. “Then there’s Kyle, the prince in line and the king’s right-hand man. As far as I know, he’s the real decision-maker in the group. He and Avery used to be an item, but not anymore.”
Kyle was another one who I recognized, but much like Nikita, I knew him personally. He was one of the friends who Nathan and I had made together during my year as a Loche. Kyle must have stuck around after I left.
“Uh, that just brings us to the king and queen,” Sicily said with a shrug, and everything in me went cold. “Hey, you all right there, buddy?”
“Is… Is Cherri the queen?” I asked, terrified of the answer.
“Yeah. You know her?” His head dropped back. “She is fine. I can’t blame the king for keeping her around.”
“Are they a couple? Nathan and Cherri?”
“Yeah,” Sicily said as he popped one of his fries into his mouth. “I mean, they’ve been on and off over the years, but they’ve been together for a long time now. Four years I think? Always homecoming king and queen, always voted cutest couple. They’ve been caught getting freaky a few times too.” Sicily held up his hands. “Hey, I’m not judging. If I had a girl like that, I’d have trouble keeping my hands off her too.”
My appetite fled from my body. Cherri was dating Nathan? My brother?
Sicily slid my bottle of water a little closer to me. “You may wanna drink up, pal. You don’t look so good.”
“I’m fine,” I huffed, though even I could hear how unconvincing it sounded.
“Nathan’s the king, but you know that already, it seems. Rules the roost.” He laughed. “What money won’t buy, I tell ya.”
“Yeah.” I took a deep breath in and then let it out. “What about his family? Does he have any siblings?”
Sicily started to laugh. “You think a kid like that is anything other than a spoiled only child? It don’t take a rocket scientist to know that.” That was a relief, at least. No one believed that Nathan had a brother, so there was no reason for anyone to suspect that he and I were siblings. “Yeah, his dad comes around every year during Spirit Week. Gives away a ton of shit and makes a big deal of Nathan. That alone keeps him in power.”
All my relief evaporated. “Nathan’s dad comes here? When?”
“Spirit Week. Not next week, but the week after. Leading up to the first football game and Sadie Hawkins. He comes on the last day and throws a big pep rally,” Sicily explained. “It’s actually pretty fun. I’ll give him that.”
“What’s a Sadie Hawkins?” I asked.
Sicily laughed. “With a question like that, you’d think the rumors are true. It’s a dance, man. Very few people from here go, though. The Royal Court usually throws their annual Anti-Party on the same day.”
My mind was racing at a mile a minute. Cherri was dating Nathan. My dead-beat sperm donor was going to be hanging around. I didn’t know what to deal with first. As if summoned by my thoughts of her, Cherri walked through the door of the cafeteria right where Sicily and I were sitting. She glanced to the left and locked eyes with me. Avery was at her side and noticed the second Cherri seemed distracted. She linked her arm through Cherri’s and pulled her forward, and eventually, Cherri turned away from me.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t even dream about it,” Sicily said. “Nathan’s gotten violent over Cherri before.”
“I said I’m not worried,” I grumbled back, keeping an eye on Cherri even as she walked away.
“Well, you should be,” Sicily said. “All I’m saying is, when it comes to Nathan, be careful.”
8
Cherri
It was interesting to see Deon sitting with Sicily, of all people, as we entered the lunchroom. If it hadn’t been for Avery pulling me forward, I might have stopped to ask. There were a few smarmier guys like that in our old neighborhood, and it always drove Deon insane. I guess the last four years had changed him too.
“Just salivate, why don’t you?” Avery asked.
We were approaching the line of students waiting to grab their lunches, and they all stood to one side, allowing us to pass by without having to wait.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied.
“Oh, come on. You damn near broke your neck keeping your eyes on him back there.”
The lunch lady reached over the typical line of food to hand Avery and me the special Royal Court meals that Nathan’s dad, Connor, had shipped in for us every day. Avery’s was usually one of a few salad choices since that was her food of choice, and I typically got a sandwich of some type with a side salad or the occasional fries covered in cheese, my favorite food.
“Have you spoken to him anymore since yesterday?” Avery continued.
We made our way out of the lunch line, allowing the regular flow of traffic to continue as we walked toward our regular table in the center of the lunchroom. It was a long, rectangular table, and fortunately, none of the other members of The Royal Court had arrived yet.
“No,” I responded. “After what Colette said, I’m not sure that I should.”
“Cherri, come on. You know as well as I do that adults like to gossip as much as teenagers, if not more. I know I got kind of caught up in it at the time, but the more I thought about Colette’s supposed rumor, the less I believed it. Firstly, she likes to be the center of attention, and that story puts her smack in the middle of it. Secondly, she often over exaggerates. You know she’s a drama queen.” She stabbed her fork into her salad. “All I’m saying is, don’t take it at face value. One of your virtues is not buying into gossip. Don’t start now.”
“Yeah.” My sandwich lacked its typical flavor, but I wasn’t convinced it wasn’t because of my own internal struggle as opposed to anything wrong with the food. “Either way, I need to be careful. You know how possessive Nathan is. If he catches me interacting with Deon, he’ll make Deon’s life a living hell.”
Avery rolled her eyes. “I guess that’s true. I’ll watch your back, though.”
“How possible is that, really, with Nikita and Jaxon snooping around all the time?”
Avery snickered. “It’s not,” she said, and we laughed.
I glanced across the lunchroom to where Deon was sitting with Sicily. As expected, Deon wasn’t saying much while Sicily was prattling away. They were an odd pair, beefed-up and dark Deon with the energetic and lanky Sicily. It made me smile to think that Deon was making friends, even if it was with someone like Sicily. If I asked Deon honestly about the rumors, would he tell me the truth? Either way that I thought about it, the rumor Colette heard did support why Deon would disappear so suddenly and then turn up four years later, looking the way he did. I knew Deon, though. He was an amazing guy. There wasn’t a single
thing I could see him going to jail for. He’d never even had a single interaction with the police—men falling from the sky notwithstanding.
But Deon wouldn’t go to jail for that. We had nothing to do with that guy’s death. They wouldn’t blindly hold a fourteen-year-old responsible for something like that. Even if he got caught, after some investigation, they’d realize he had nothing to do with it.
Right?
“What are you staring at?” The sudden voice snapped me to attention as Nathan, Brayden, Alistair, and Kyle all got to the table and took their respective seats. “Something interesting over there?” Nathan asked with a scowl.
Shit. Here I was just talking about the importance of hiding my history and renewed interest in Deon from Nathan, and he caught me staring at him red-handed.
“Hey, baby,” I said as Nathan sat down, and I quickly shuffled a kiss his way as a distraction. “Nothing interesting. More terrifying.”
Avery eyed me before getting distracted by Alistair leaning over to pepper kisses on her cheek. “Hey, you,” she said.
“Hey.” He smiled across at me. “Hey, Cee.”
“Hi,” I greeted him.
“You scared of the new guy?” Kyle asked. “That’s unlike you.”
“I wouldn’t say I’m scared of him,” I replied, peeking over at him but quickly looking away when I realized he was looking back at me. “He’s just a little crazy-looking, that’s all.”
That description seemed to give Nathan a new bright energy. He slid his hand around my back and pulled me into him, kissing me on my cheek before nuzzling my head. “Don’t worry, my queen. I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.” He looked up and nodded. “Ah, perfect timing.” Jaxon, Nikita, and Colette reached the table and took their seats. “Nikita, Jaxon, I want you to keep an eye on Cherri. Make sure to keep Deon away from her.”