by Ruby Vincent
“You’re so strong, Valentina.” Ezra brushed the tears from my cheeks as I pulled him closer. “I never understood how you could be so strong.”
“I told you. It’s because I have you.”
Ezra slid an arm under my legs and put me in his lap. We sat there for a long time, holding each other in a perfect, quiet moment before the chaos could descend.
That strange feeling clung to me as we sat on that porch, but it told me I was doing the right thing. All of those people had given me a piece back when I was broken. They helped put me back together.
I would destroy Ace and the Spades before they could hurt them.
Chapter Two
I stayed in my dorm for the rest of move-in weekend. I didn’t want to hear what people had to say about me being a teenage mom. I’d get enough of it during the school year.
On our first day of classes, I was awake before the sun broke the horizon. My phone’s buzzing woke me from a light sleep. I felt around in the dark until I found it.
The light blinded me at first so it took me a minute to register what I was seeing. When I did, the haze disappeared.
Ace: I warned you. You’d better not blame anyone but yourself for how things have turned out. It’s because of you that I had to mark the Knights. It’s because of you that they betrayed the Spades.
I shot up in bed, fingers flying across the keys in the dark.
Me: So you finally admit that you’re a Spade.
Their reply came in seconds.
Ace: I am not a Spade. I am THE Spade. There is no point in hiding that fact. We both know who I am. My only regret is that I didn’t mark you again at the start of junior year. I let the Knights get away with defying the Spades and they got bold. That won’t happen again. Now all five of you are in your place and you’ll stay there because I still have the video.
Me: What’s in this for you, Ace? Do you have a clue why I was marked in the first place? Do you understand what was happening in that video? Did you ever think that the Knights defied the Spades because THEY HAD NO CHOICE?
Their response did not come back right away. A minute passed. Then two. Then ten.
I leaned over to put my phone on the nightstand when it vibrated in my palm again.
Ace: What is that supposed to mean?
Me: You say you’re THE Spade so either you knew what Scarlett was doing and why she wanted me out, or you had a traitor in your ranks and you had no clue. Either way, it’s your fault how all of this turned out. Not mine.
With that, I powered off the phone and tossed it on the pillow next to me. I wasn’t losing sleep because Ace either supported a predator, or they were clueless of one. Either way, the Spades were the enemies in my story.
Hours later, I was awake, dressed, and speaking to Kai from the landing.
“To think I didn’t believe you when you said how insane this place is.” Kai leaned against the banister, watching me from the open door. “You know Mom and Dad almost didn’t let us come back.”
“Really?” I quit throwing things into my backpack long enough to look at him. “What happened?”
“Zane was raging after what happened to Sofia. He let it slip to Dad and it all came out. The marks. The bullying. The Knights. The Spades. They had no idea about any of it. They wanted us to transfer, but Zane refused to leave Sofia alone, and I refused to leave all of you.” He picked himself off the rail and came to stand in the doorway. “But they did call up the headmaster and threaten to sue him and the school down to the last eraser if anything happens to us. Maybe that will help.”
“It’s great to have anyone on our side,” I replied as I hitched my bag on my shoulder. “But I don’t know how much it will help. I’ve been thinking about it, and the genius of the mark is that the real people involved never get their hands dirty. You can sue the students who hurt you or the teachers who didn’t get involved, but you never touch the Spades.”
“That’s why people are so scared.” A small voice behind us made Kai turn. Paisley stepped to his side. “Not to mention the silent war they wage against your family, businesses, and you. You see what is happening to Honey Hair. There’s a reason people obey the Spades rather than fight back.”
“But you fought back,” said Kai.
She cracked the tiniest smile. “That’s another thing people don’t know. How much you hate yourself for being a bullying coward. I did it once. I couldn’t do it again. Not after Valentina forgave me when I didn’t deserve it.”
“I wouldn’t call you a coward.” Kai clasped her shoulder and her lips blossomed into a full smile.
I hid one of my own. “You guys are super cute right now, but I need to get out of my room.”
They sprang apart like I caught them doing something naughty. Paisley mumbled under her breath and took off down the stairs.
“I’ve got to watch you, Moon. You’re bad news.”
I laughed. “You’re just figuring that out?”
“Come on. Everyone is waiting for us downstairs so we can walk in together looking all tough and cool like one of those slow-motion movie scenes.”
I gathered the rest of my things, smoothed down my black skirt, and trailed Kai out of the door. The good thing about my friends being kicked out of the dorm was that it was easy for us to sit down and plan how we would face this year. They didn’t know all of my plans, but they were confident about theirs which was good. I didn’t want to lose any of them to the mark and the bullying. They had to be strong enough to face what was surely coming our way.
Together, the nine of us crossed the grass for the courtyard. We weren’t alone. Gus’s staff swarmed the place installing cameras. I still felt like he could do more—much more—but at that moment, I was glad that he always did what he said he would do. Though Scarlett wasn’t around, I would hate to think of someone else ambushing us in the courtyard like Darren had tried to do to me in the library.
The main building was awash with noise when we walked in. Freshmen scurried about the place looking like chickens with their heads cut off. We skirted the chaos and headed for the elevators. Paisley pulled out her badge and waved it in front of the scanner.
It flashed red.
“That’s weird.” Paisley tried again. “Mine isn’t working. Kai, use yours.”
Kai scanned his badge and got another red light. It quickly dawned on me what was going on.
“I have a feeling none of our badges will work,” I said. “We’ll have to take the stairs.”
Ryder and Maverick tried anyway and got nothing. We’d be spending our senior year hoofing up and down four flights of stairs.
“This reeks of Isabella,” I said when we hit the second landing. “This is how she operates. Get your passcode to destroy everything in your room. Steal your towel and make you walk around naked. Put up flyers saying you’ll give out two-dollar blowjobs. She’s all about the mental torture. Making you feel helpless. She’s gotten you booted from the dorm and I have no doubt we’ll find out she has used her power to take away more privileges.”
“This is her dream come true,” Sofia added. “She’s been trying to elevate the status of the Diamonds and now she, Airi, and Natalie are as high as it gets.”
I nodded. “She told me yesterday that there would be changes.”
“And we won’t like any of them.”
We fell silent as we continued up the stairs and then paused in front of the double doors.
“There’s no going back now,” I said. I stepped forward and pulled them open. We weren’t hit with a wall of noise this time around. After three years of finals, breakdowns, expulsions, and quitting, this was the smallest class in the school. A little more than three dozen people in the senior class, and except for those next to me, they were all coming for me.
“Where are your lockers?” I asked as we walked into the hall. The hostile eyes turned on us immediately.
“I’m 219.”
“367.”
“498.”
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��523.”
“600.”
“710.”
“845.”
“999.”
“I’m 1027,” I finished. I balled my fists when I realized what was happening. “None of us are close to each other. They are splitting us up.”
“It’s not going to work.” Ryder stepped to my side. The back of his hand brushed against mine making goose bumps erupt on my skin. “We stick together like we planned.”
In groups, we went off to our lockers agreeing to meet back in front of homeroom. Ryder had been assigned locker 999, so he came with me.
The walk to our lockers was loaded with filthy looks, but no taunts. Somehow, that was worse. I didn’t like it when they were quiet. It made me feel something worse was around the corner.
We stopped at Ryder’s locker first.
“Give me good news,” I said as I rested my back on the cool metal. “Did your mom manage to persuade Evergreen?”
“I think she did. She didn’t give me all the details, but she said she got him to bend.”
I scoffed. “Evergreen is as bendy as a steel pipe, but if anyone can change his mind, it’s her.”
“Sheas have donated a lot of money to the school over the years. We are the largest financial backer.”
I blinked at him. “You are?”
“Yes.” Ryder spoke without looking away from what he was doing. “I told you I’ve been in meetings for the past few weeks. The partners have been filling me in on our holdings and asking which investments I’ll continue to make. The donations we’ve made to the school are nothing to sneeze at. I’m pretty sure we’re responsible for the building of the stadium and the sports complex.”
“Wow. No wonder Evergreen refuses to upset her.” A thought occurred to me. “You know, Kai said getting the parents involved might help us, but it seems Caroline is in the best position to do that. She could—”
“No.”
There was a hard edge to his voice that pulled me up short. “No? Why?”
“My mom isn’t going to fight our battles for us. She’s not well. She needs to rest.”
“She’d do anything to protect you, Ryder. She’s well enough for that.”
Slam!
I jumped as his slammed locker drew more eyes to us.
“I said no,” he forced through gritted teeth. “And don’t you dare go behind my back and talk to her.”
My face twisted into a frown. “First: you don’t tell me what to do. Second: I wasn’t going to go behind your back. It was just an idea.”
“Good.”
“Fine!”
I spun around and gave him my back. My body was vibrating with anger. I heard him behind me cursing and roughly throwing things into his bag.
“Is it always going to be like this?” he burst out. “We’ll never stop fighting and pissing each other off.”
“No,” I shot back, “because you’re irritating as fuck.”
I was shocked to hear him laugh. “Then why do you want to be with me, Moon?”
“Don’t try to get me to say nice things about you right now. You’re annoying. You’ve always been annoying. But you’re stuck with me, and lucky you. You won’t find anyone else like me willing to put up with your crap.”
Suddenly, his body was pressed against my back. His heat seeped into me as his chuckles reverberated through me. “You’re right.” Ryder rested his chin on my head. “I won’t find anyone else like you...”
A flush crept up my neck. I had been waiting a long time for Ryder to say things like this and touch me this way. He was all the things I said, but still, I wanted to get through those walls.
“...just as irritating as me.”
Heating up, I elbowed the asshole and took off to the sound of him guffawing. Why I liked him was a good fucking question.
Ryder ran to catch up and strolled next to me looking pretty pleased with himself. I rolled my eyes every time I looked at him.
We got to my locker and I put away my things. Next stop was Professor Roundtree’s homeroom class.
The rest of the group was waiting for us before the classroom. We shared a glance, bracing ourselves, and then Ryder opened the door and walked in.
A tall man in a pressed suit leaned against the desk. I stared at him longer than was socially appropriate as my brain made sense of him. He was our professor, he had to be, but he did not look a thing like the professors I had come to know.
His suit was perfect and obviously expensive, but everything else looked out of place from the tattoos peeking out from under his collar to the spiky hair, and the piercing in his ear. If this guy was older than twenty-seven, I would eat my textbooks.
“Ah, more young vessels waiting to be filled.” He looked right at me and grinned. My cheeks heated up like a Florida sidewalk. This guy was also seriously attractive. “Don’t get comfortable. I’m assigning seats.”
“Professor Roundtree.” Natalie half rose out of her chair. “None of us are going to sit next to them. They are the ones we were telling you about.”
“Really? So you’re the ones who were marked?”
My eyebrows shot up my head. He said that so easily. I had yet to hear a single professor acknowledge the mark except for Markham.
He frowned. “There are a lot of you. When I was a Knight, we never had anyone get marked, let alone nine.”
“Five of them are marked,” Natalie corrected. “The rest are just stupid.”
Roundtree didn’t reply or look at Natalie.
“You were a Knight?” The question was out of my mouth before I could stop it.
His grin widened. “That’s right, Miss...”
“Moon. Valentina Moon.”
“Miss Moon. Nice name. Also, yes. I was a Knight. I graduated from Evergreen a few years before you all stepped through the gates as cute little doe-eyed freshmen.” He stood to his full height. “As a result, I know how this works. You nine will sit up front where I can keep an eye on you. Everyone else, up.”
We did as ordered and filled up the first two rows while Roundtree shuffled everyone else around. When the class was seated, Roundtree launched into his introduction.
“Like I said, I’m a graduate of the academy. I went on to Ivy League schools and an undergrad and graduate degree like the old man expected. What he didn’t expect was for me to take those degrees in economics and become a professor instead of the head of Roundtree Pharmaceuticals. What can I say? I couldn’t resist letting Pops down one more time.”
The class laughed—me included. There was an air about him that made you want to like him.
“I wanted to come back and give to the school that gave so much to me so I begged on hands and knees for Evergreen to hire me.” He threw out his hands. “And here I am. You’ll have me for homeroom and economics three times a week. Sound good?”
“That sounds really good,” Paisley whispered from the desk behind me. “This guy is yum-my.”
“Paisley,” I hissed. “He might—”
Roundtree’s eyes flew to us.
I sucked in a breath when he winked. He definitely heard.
He continued. “So, this is your senior year so things will be different. If you thought you’d be able to coast after getting into your college, then you don’t know this place well. You’ll now have one period of study hall where you’ll be expected to work on applications, essays, speak to the college counselors, prep for interviews, whatever you need to do.
“Otherwise, you have all advanced classes and a minimum grade average that has gone up to three point six.” I stifled my groan, but the rest of the class didn’t. “I’ve been through it so I know how stressful this semester can be. If you need to talk, my door is open. Any questions?”
A murmur of noes went up.
“Great. Then talk among yourselves until they bring the television in for the announcements.”
I turned on Paisley the second he took a seat behind his desk. She clapped her hand over her mouth to cover a laugh
.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean for him to hear me.”
I shook my head. “I thought Kai was trouble.”
“Hey,” he said from my other side. “What did I do?”
A knock sounded on the door while we were laughing at him. The AV club members wheeled in the television and turned it on. I tensed when I saw who was on the screen.
How did I not notice he wasn’t here?
Darren Rosewood sat in the seat that used to be Ezra’s. Next to him was his co-host, Juliet Cochran. I didn’t wonder about how he got the job. He must have given it to himself.
“Good morning, Evergreen.” His voice grated on my ears. All I could think about was him grabbing my wrist in a darkened corner of the library. His breath hot on my face as he said he’d make life easier for me if I went for round two and let him finger me against the stacks. “We have a lot of announcements this morning, but first, a message from our headmaster.”
The screen went dark for a few seconds, and then Evergreen looked back at us. He was in his natural habitat, sitting behind his desk with his fingers laced in front of him. “Good morning, senior class, and welcome to another year. There has been a policy change and I want to make you aware of it. With regard to only being allowed three weekend passes a semester, this rule will be waived—”
Cheers and whoops filled the room, covering up part of his speech.
“—genuine need. What constitutes a genuine need?”
I strained to hear. I had a feeling he wasn’t done.
“If you have a family emergency, a member of your family is ill, or you must attend to a child or children.”
“Oh. That is for you, Moon,” Natalie taunted. “Mommy has to get home to baby.”
I balled my fists, but said nothing. I knew that was for me, but all that mattered was I got my weekend passes back.
Evergreen went on unaware of the heckling. “You may also request a pass for college campus tours and things of that nature. Anything outside of that, we will meet in my office to discuss it. If I determine not to grant the pass, that is it. My decision will be final and I won’t be swayed.”