Fuck it. What did I care what a bunch of spoiled rich kids thought of me?

I’d only taken a couple of steps away from the closet when I heard it open and close again behind me, and a kid in a sports uniform gawped at me.

“Take a picture, it lasts longer,” I snapped at him, stalking down the hall to my class with my ridiculous high heels clicking on the marble floor.

By the time I took my assigned seat in my class, I was in a sour mood, something that wasn’t helped by the fact that someone had actually shortened one of the legs on my chair.

Not even joking.

They’d somehow managed to cut about half an inch from one of the chair legs so for the entire class I bobbled back and forth without being able to rest comfortably. I had to hand it to those snickering assholes ... they were creative.

Eddy was appropriately stunned when I told her about it at lunchtime. The chair thing, combined with the convenient drip right over my desk in the next period sort of made them evil geniuses. If I hadn’t been the target of their maliciousness, I might have been impressed.

“Girl, that’s like ... military level torture techniques,” Eddy muttered as we gathered our food and headed for our usual seat. Or what was our new usual seat, since I’d turned my back on the Delta boys. As we crossed the dining hall, Jasper gave me a small nod of support but the other three wore unreadable masks as they blankly stared past me.

“You know he cares about you, right?” Eddy blurted out as we sat down, then clapped a hand over her mouth like she couldn’t believe she’d said it out loud. “Sorry,” she squeaked from behind her hand. “It slipped out.”

I rolled my eyes and stabbed a piece of pasta on my plate. It was chicken, sundried tomato and pesto and was fast becoming one of my favorite lunches at Ducis. “I’m not discussing that douchecanoe and his flawless ability to manipulate everyone around him to achieve his own twisted end game. Sorry, but no.”

“Uh huh.” Eddy filled her own mouth up in a clear sign she didn’t particularly want to discuss it either. “So. What do you think Katelyn and her crew have planned for you this afternoon? Bit of hair pulling? Some rotten food in your locker? Maybe she’ll go full Carrie and dump pig’s blood on you!”

I grimaced and glanced in the direction of the shining blonde Huntley daughter. “Don’t give her suggestions,” I muttered to Eddy. “What do you think she’s here for anyway? Doesn’t it seem super suspicious that Huntley suddenly manages to enroll a student here? Like, doesn’t Delta own this freaking school?”

My friend just shrugged, tucking some short blonde hair behind her ear. “You know they don’t include me on company business. How would I know?”

I leveled a flat stare at her. “Uh, coz you’re way sneakier than you let on, and I don’t believe for a second you haven’t been listening at doors you weren’t supposed to.”

“Hmm,” she hummed, a wicked smile teasing her lips. “Still, I have no idea. I heard Dad ranting about it to Mom last week but it was along the lines of ‘how the hell did this happen’ rather than ‘these are all the answers Edith is hoping to hear,’ you know?”

“Yeah, that would have been awfully convenient,” I murmured. “Yet another mystery to unravel.”

“Hey.” Eddy tapped the table to get my attention back from my conspiracy theories. “More important topics. Are we having a house warming at your sweet new pad?”

She was beaming with excitement, and I couldn’t help laughing. “And invite who? Did you forget you’re my only friend, aside from Dante?”

Her expression turned cagey, and I knew it was because of their brief romance. “How is he? Jasper mentioned something about him being in a fight?”

My mood soured significantly and I scowled in Jasper’s direction. “Something like that,” I agreed. “He’s okay, though. Just ... steering clear of all this shit for a bit.”

I’d texted him between classes and told him about my new place. He badly wanted to come by and check it out, but I wanted him nowhere near any of the Delta bullshit. Look where it had landed him last time.

“Come on,” I said, stuffing the last mouthful of pasta in my mouth. “Let’s get out of here before I catch a plate of spaghetti on my head or something terribly clichéd like that.”

She laughed, following me to drop our dirty trays. “There wasn’t even any spaghetti on the menu today, so that’d be impressive!”

“There are resourceful bullies at the rich kid academy.”

Apparently, I was dabbling in foresight because the afternoon was just as irritating—and creative—as the morning had been. As hard as it was, I kept my mouth shut and my hands to myself throughout all of it. Lashing out at silly high school bullies wouldn’t solve shit. My issues were with Beck, and they weren’t going to magically solve themselves overnight. So in the meantime I would simply ignore, ignore, ignore until—hopefully—the bullies got bored.

10

After school I rushed straight home. I needed to, in order to shower off the chocolate sauce and feathers crusted into my hair. At least it hadn’t been something totally gross like fish guts or dog shit. Still, the expensive sort of chocolate sauce they’d used had hardened into clumps, and even as I ran my shower to warm the water up, I was cringing at the thought of picking it all out. Maybe I could just crank the heat up and let it melt out?

My phone buzzed on the vanity, and I gave it a death glare. Considering Eddy had just dropped me off and Dante had said he was “doing shit” tonight, it could only be Beck. I mean, sure, it could have been Jasper or any of the other guys but my Spidey sense screamed Beck. Especially when it buzzed again a scarce thirty seconds later. Then again. And again.

“Fuck off.” I groaned, ignoring the vibrating device and stepping into the massive double shower.

I took my sweet ass time in the shower, opting for the melt-it-out technique, so by the time I got out, my fingers were pruned and the bathroom was thick with steam.

“Woops, forgot the fan,” I murmured to myself, feeling just a tiny stab of guilt that this was technically my apartment that I was potentially water damaging. It probably wasn’t something rich people ever noticed but my Mom had been a stickler for using the fan when we showered. Mold and buckling from moisture were expenses we couldn’t afford.