by Elle East
“This way,” Cecily said.
I followed her as she walked down the middle aisle. Her shoes were striking the marble floors but I couldn’t hear it because all the tables were full of students talking quietly but their voices echoed around the cavernous space and it sounded like a wall of noise. As we passed each table the students looked up from their plates and conversations stopped as they stared at us. I suddenly started to feel self conscious and walked quicker.
Cecily stopped about halfway down the room, in front of a table with five people sitting at it.
“Hey, guys. This is the new girl, Maddy,” Cecily said as I came up to stand next to her.
The five people all gave little waves.
“Give me a sec and then we’ll go get our food,” Cecily said, and we sat down with them.
“Welcome to the charity table,” a girl with dark skin and golden eyes said to me.
“Is this always our table?” I asked, and the girl nodded.
“It’s near the kitchen entrance so servers are constantly coming in and out. It’s the worst table in the dining hall and that’s why it’s ours. I’m Ava by the way.”
“Nice to meet you,” I answered.
“I’ll give you my section on Tuesday if that’s enough time for you, Simon?” Cecily was saying to a chubby guy with dark blond hair that was sitting next to her.
He nodded and turned back to his plate.
She turned to me. “We have to head over there to pick up our food, only the Kings and Queens and teachers are actually served. You can leave your backpack here, you can trust us but I wouldn’t leave it unattended around anyone else if I were you. Last time Graham did that they put a snake inside.”
A brown-haired boy on the other side of the table nodded.
“Fucking hate snakes,” he said and shuddered.
“A live snake??” I asked in disbelief.
They all nodded.
“What kind of snake?”
“A rattlesnake,” Graham answered.
“Aren’t those venomous?!”
They all nodded again.
“What the fuck?” I asked rhetorically.
“You’ll get used to it,” Cecily said. “Come on.”
We headed across the aisle to the buffet station. I picked up a plate and was amazed to feel how heavy it was; it was real china. I copied Cecily and picked up a wooden tray with metal handles and started to go down the line of food stations.
The variety and the smells were amazing. Servers stood behind silver chafing dishes and the food they were ladling out onto students’ plates made my mouth water. Cecily chose vegetable pasta and a salad and I was too overwhelmed by all the options so I got the same thing.
We headed back to the charity table, and I immediately started shoving the food into my mouth. It tasted so good I almost moaned. The food wasn’t amazing just because I was starving; it tasted like it had been made by world class chefs. It was just some vegetables and pasta but it tasted like a fifty dollar dish—not that I would know; I was used to eating peanut butter sandwiches every day for lunch.
I was blissfully eating my food. The sounds of the other scholarship students talking to each other was a comforting background noise, when I started to notice that the room had gotten quieter. I looked up and saw that everyone was pretending to eat while casting furtive glances towards the entrance where Cecily and I had come in. I spun around to look and Ava hissed at me, “Don’t let them catch you looking!”
“Why?” I asked, but it was too late.
I made eye contact with the black-haired guy strolling down the aisle. Recognition flit across his face as our eyes locked.
Archer.
Woooow, I thought, internally drooling. He had grown up too.
It had been seven years, but I still recognized him. When I had known him he had been this gangly, rambunctious kid but now he was this tall, lean, broad-shouldered Adonis striding down the center of the room towards me. His jet black hair was cut short but slightly longer on top. His eyes, for the brief second they stared into mine, were a deep blue, almost gray, like the water of the harbor on a stormy day. He had the poutiest lips imaginable, and I immediately had wicked thoughts about kissing them.
As he stared at me, his eyes narrowed. I didn’t like that look. The look was predatory.
When he finally unlocked his gaze from mine, I could tear my eyes away from him and that’s when I noticed the person who had entered the dining hall after him.
I actually gasped out loud. It was Brett.
I could still recognize his features from when he was young, but now they were fully developed into a grown man. He had become gigantic. He was towering well over six feet and looked like he was solid muscle. His shoulders were huge and seemed barely contained by the fabric of his uniform, while his waist was trim.
His hair was still golden blond, and it looked like he had brushed it back from his forehead with his fingers and it had stayed there. It was neat but casually messy at the same time. His face had gone from round to a strong square with a jaw that looked like it could crush walnuts and was lightly dusted with stubble. He had full lips and sensitive-looking hazel eyes that seemed at odds with his all-American footballer’s body.
He had already been looking at me when I made eye contact and the second I did his eyes seemed to turn cold. Uh oh, I thought.
Grayson was walking behind Brett and I looked away from Brett’s cold eyes to meet Grayson’s mocking ones and I was struck again by just how handsome he was. He gave me an evil smile, and that was when I knew for sure that what he had done to me in the lobby was no accident.
The way the guys were reacting to me was too much. I turned away from them and took a sip of my fancy mint and cranberry water just to have something to distract me from the knots that were tightening painfully in my stomach.
“Those are the Kings of the school,” Cecily whispered to me out the side of her mouth.
They used to just be my friends, I thought sadly.
As they walked past our table, the scholarship students all seemed to shrink even further into themselves. They stared down intensely like their plates were difficult math problems they were trying to solve. Without looking up I felt when “The Kings” walked by. Their presence seemed like a physical force in the room. They oozed power without even having to say anything.
When I felt that they had passed our table, I chanced another glance at them. I watched their muscular backs and the self-assured way that they walked as they went up the aisle towards the very front of the room. Heat rushed to my face when I realized how hard I was checking them out.
I needed to get a grip. They had not given me a very nice welcome and were definitely not happy to see me. I had a job to do, and I needed to remember that—no matter how hot these guys had turned out to be.
“The first one is Archer,” Cecily whispered to me.
“I know,”
She cocked her head at me curiously. “How did you know?”
“Oh, um, someone else told me before. This morning. He was in the hall,” I said unconvincingly.
She seemed satisfied by that and I was relieved. I hadn’t planned on telling anyone at the school about my history with these guys unless the guys brought it up first. I wanted to keep all my cards close to my chest while I figured out my strategy.
“He’s the unofficial head King, though they are all supposed to be equal. You can tell it pisses the other two Kings off that everyone at the school kind of thinks of Archer as the leader. His ancestors were the ones who started the Kings and Queens tradition at Crestmoore, which makes sense given his last name—”
“King,” I whispered before I could stop myself.
“Yeah,” Cecily said. “Archer King. Kind of on-the-nose if you ask me, but whatever.”
I remembered that Archer and I used to always tease each other. We had had a loving but competitive friendship. We had both wanted to be the best in class and we pushed each other to be bet
ter because of it.
“That big blond guy is Brett Hughs,” Cecily continued. “His family is crazy rich—but that’s not surprising because everyone here, except us, has an insanely rich family. He’s also the school’s quarterback and I know what you’re thinking, because of his size he should be playing offensive line, but the guy is smart. He has the top marks in the school. He’s the quietest out of them all and because of that he’s the least scary King—but that’s not saying much because they are all super scary.”
I remembered Brett used to be my protector. My quiet, intense protector. He was the first boy I ever kissed. The memories made me sad and I shook my head to get rid of them.
“I think he’s the scariest King,” Ava whispered. “He’s quiet so you never know what he’s thinking. At least with Archer and Grayson when they talk shit to you in the halls you know where you stand, you have a heads-up that something’s coming, but with Brett it’s sudden and you have no warning.” Ava shuddered.
“Grayson is the last King,” Cecily continued. “The guy that’s covered in tattoos. You can see them on his hands and his neck but those things go all the way down. I don’t know how it’s possible that someone his age could have so many already.”
“He must love art,” I pretended to muse, but I already knew.
Grayson loved art and now that I was thinking about it, it didn’t surprise me he would waste no time in covering himself in something that he loved so much. I remembered when we used to draw together for hours and he had told me he loved my art so much he wanted to keep it with him forever.
“He comes from the richest family at Crestmoore,” Ava added. “They are in real estate. He sucks in school, his marks are average at best, he barely tries. Everyone knows that he’s only here because his family donates a ton of money every year to the school—and people say we don’t deserve to be here.” Ava rolled her eyes.
Even though Grayson was one of the smartest people I had ever met, what Ava said didn’t surprise me. He never cared about school, he had always been more into art and music instead of marks and assignments.
Ava suddenly looked scared. “Don’t tell anyone I said that.”
“I won’t. Who are they?” I asked as the Kings approached a table on a slightly raised platform at the front of the room and four beautiful girls stood up gracefully to greet them.
“Those are the Queens,” Cecily said.
“Of course.” I stared in awe as the Queens all smiled and greeted the Kings like they were overjoyed to see them. “Why are they sitting with the teachers?”
Their table was at the very head of the room and behind them, on the same raised platform, the teachers sat at a long semicircular table. The teachers all faced inwards towards the giant room and had their backs to the wall, so they could keep an eye on the students. The windows were behind them and the Kings and Queens were glowing in the soft light.
“It’s all part of the bullshit traditions at this school. The Royalty are supposed to sit at the head table. It must suck sitting that close to the teachers, but I don’t think they are close enough for them to actually hear what they are saying. They can see every move they make though, but it’s not like the teachers would ever do anything. The Kings and Queens are untouchable at this school. Everyone is scared of them. Everyone, including the teachers,” Ava said as she started eating again.
“That girl on the far side of the table, the one who’s facing us, that’s Victoria Hampton,” Cecily continued. “She comes from one of the richest families in the USA and is the undisputed head Queen. She’s been a Queen since her freshman year, which is unusual, usually it takes a couple years to become Royalty—but the Kings also became Royalty in their freshman year too which is highly unusual. When she became Queen she quickly staged a coup and cleaned house, installing the girls who were loyal to her. There have been a couple changes in the Queens over the years. If you weren’t loyal to Victoria or pissed her off, she’d figure out a way to get rid of you, which is not normal because Queens are supposed to be as powerful as each other. She’s a senior now, just like the Kings. She wants Archer to marry her, though she’d settle for Brett too. Grayson is a little too wild looking for the image she’s trying to cultivate, though his family’s credentials are just as impressive as the other guys.”
“Marry? Like marry marry?” I asked in disbelief.
The others nodded.
I found it hard to believe that students my age were already thinking about marriage before they’d even graduated high school. I hadn’t even had a serious boyfriend yet, let alone started thinking about who would eventually be my husband.
“Most students at this school already know who they will marry before they leave here. Marriages in this society are mostly for business purposes and less about love. They are to consolidate and build empires,” said Cecily.
I was beginning to remember how different this world was from my own.
“You need to be careful of Victoria, she may look harmless and innocent but she’s evil,” Simon added.
I looked at the tiny girl at the head table with the long, straight, dark blonde hair and delicate heart-shaped face. With her large blue eyes and sincere smile she looked like a virtuous doll. I had a hard time imagining that this person was evil.
“There’s a rumor that she’s the one who killed Jenny,” Ava said.
My eyes went wide and suddenly, as if she knew we were talking about her, Victoria’s angelic blue gaze shifted from the people at her table and locked on me from all the way across the room. The look in her eyes was so different from a second ago, the look was pure, cold, calculated cunning. I shivered and looked away.
When I looked back at her she was focused on Archer again, smiling and laughing warmly at something he was saying.
What the fuck type of school is this?? I thought for the millionth time.
“Jenny was the girl who had my room last year, right?” I asked Cecily who nodded.
“It’s just a rumor though,” Cecily said.
“A rumor that she’s dead?” I asked.
“Oh no, she’s a hundred percent dead.” Ava leaned in conspiratorially as she spoke. “They found her body in the harbor. Officially it was ruled a suicide but everyone thinks Victoria did it—and if she didn’t do it directly, then she definitely played a big part in it. Jenny was a scholarship student, like us, and for whatever reason the Royalty particularly didn’t like her, even more than they normally hate us charity cases. They tormented the poor girl, and Jenny was already vulnerable to begin with, she was sweet but she wasn’t a strong person mentally.”
I thought back to my old high school. Sure, we frequently had cops come, and you had to walk through a metal detector to get inside the building. We had drug issues and sometimes students tried to sneak in guns but no one had ever died there. This school that looked so sophisticated and cultured from the outside seemed more dangerous. The things that were in your face, like an idiot bringing a handgun into a classroom to threaten another student, dangers that you could see coming were less scary than the ones lurking beneath a seemingly calm surface. You couldn’t prepare for those, you couldn’t defend yourself against them and that made them all the more dangerous.
“When did it happen?” I asked.
“Last year, right before exams,” Ava answered. “They made one announcement to the student body about it, but other than that they pretended like it had never happened. One day in the middle of exam period the custodians went to her room and cleared out her couple belongings. We saw them bringing it down the stairs. After that she was never mentioned again, and it was like she had never existed. It was surreal.”
“We couldn’t do or say anything, of course,” Cecily said sadly. “It could be us next.”
“We just try to keep a low profile,” Simon added. “Best way to survive. You’re a senior, right?”
“Yes,” I answered.
“You’re lucky. You just have to stay out of their way for one
year and then you can get out of here.”
“How many years do you have left?” I asked.
“Two,” he said sadly and with a touch of fear.
“But they’ll be graduating at the end of this year too, right?” I asked.
“The Kings and Victoria will be, yes, and one other Queen, Jayla, but the other two, Grace and Claudia, those two are juniors. Claudia isn’t too bad—not great, but not terrible—but Grace is a mini-Victoria. She wants Victoria’s power and Victoria knows it. Victoria’s gotten rid of every other girl who’s threatened her before, but she met her match in Grace. They pretend to love each other but secretly are plotting behind the other one’s back,” Cecily answered.
As I looked over at the head table, I knew exactly who Grace was without them having to tell me. Grace even looked like Victoria, same short stature and angelic features, only differences were that Grace’s long blond hair was slightly more platinum colored, she had a rounder face and she had brown eyes instead of bright blue.
It was shocking for me to hear just how much my old friends had changed. In a million years I never would have guessed that they would grow up to be the evil rulers of their high school. I always knew they would grow up to be powerful guys, but not like this.
I wanted more information on just what the hell “the Royalty” were. I needed all the ammo I could get if I was going to take them down.
“So what exactly does it mean to be a King or a Queen?” I turned to Cecily because she seemed to know all about them.
“It’s been a tradition at this school for a long time and has spread to many other private schools throughout the USA—and possibly the world, but I’m not a hundred percent sure about that. It’s usually the most powerful and influential girls and boys, they are the ones who become Royalty. They get special privileges like better student accommodations, they sit at the head table, they get the Kings’ Court or the Queens’ Study, stuff like that. They are also crowned each year at the Final Ball. Those are the official privileges, the informal ones are that everyone is scared of them because they hold so much power in the school and so all the students will do pretty much whatever they say.
