by Elle East
I needed to take a step back and reassess everything. I needed to figure out a better plan. I would get my statue back, but it would take time. I needed to be patient.
I also wanted the scholarship students to like me again, but that didn’t seem likely. Also, I needed to make sure I didn’t fall behind in my school work. My time with the Queens had given me less time to study and my marks had suffered slightly.
I lay back, but I wasn’t sleepy anymore; I was wide awake and strategizing.
“Congratulations, Miss Baker,” our English teacher said as she handed me back my assignment. “Top mark in the class.”
I smiled as I looked at the “100%” written on my paper. Brett was also in the class so I had even beaten him and it felt good.
My new plan was to ignore absolutely everything except my course work and then look for an opportunity, that I was confident would present itself, for me to get close to the Kings. This plan seemed a lot like my original plan, but I swear it was different—and I would stick to it better this time.
Every quarter Crestmoore posted the students’ marks. I had never experienced something like that at any of the public schools I’d been too, it seemed mean and like it would create too much pressure for students—but that actually was the point of posting them here. They wanted the students to be under great pressure so that they were “inspired to succeed”.
At lunch I joined the crowd of students trying to look at the marks. They were posted in the entrance hall, the place where I had had my first moments at the school, where I had first met Grayson—who had gotten me in trouble on my very first day.
I ignored the elbows the other students jabbed into me as I worked my way forward until I was standing in front of the list. I ran my finger down the page until I found my name.
Someone smashed into me from the left and I lost my footing momentarily. I caught myself and threw my weight back at them, taking them off balance and they fell back into the crowd. I was through taking people’s shit.
I found my name again and dragged my finger right across the paper until I came to my marks. They posted your mark but also your position compared to the other students. My grades were what I expected, but I was taken by surprise by my placement. I was in the top ten of the school.
My hard work had paid off, and I smiled even when the people behind me started pushing me out of the way so that they could see their marks. I had seen everything I needed so I let myself be pushed to the back of the crowd. An education from Crestmoore could get me into any college I wanted and with marks like that I could probably get a full-ride scholarship.
When I was at the board, I couldn’t help but see who was above me. Brett had the top marks in the entire school and I begrudgingly had to admit it impressed me. Brett was the quarterback of the football team which took up a huge amount of his time—and he was also a huge asshole and I imagined that took up a lot of time too. I didn’t know how he found the time to study.
Archer was ranked second. I was less surprised about that because he had always been studious. He was on the football team too, as a pass rusher which was an important position but came second to the quarterback—Grace had explained that to me since I knew nothing about football. He was also a huge asshole too, otherwise known as a “King”, which took up a lot of time so it was still impressive that he was able to do so well.
I imagined I looked pretty pleased with myself as I walked out of the hall. I noticed the Royalty in the corner together. They were giving me death stares, particularly Archer—they must have been pissed that a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, who only just got here, was beating them.
I couldn’t help but smirk and confidently flick my hair back. Archer glared harder, but I noticed I had provoked a small grin from Grayson. Brett remained serious and glowering as always. I didn’t even bother looking at the Queens; they didn’t matter.
I walked out of the room.
I was sitting in Biology later that day waiting for the lecture to start. Cecily was on the other side of the room and I wished I could go sit with her but I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. She had still been nice to me all throughout the Queens fiasco and even now in the halls she would smile at me, but things between us had changed. We weren’t friends anymore. I passed the time by staring out the window, chin in hand.
Our Biology teacher came in and I straightened up, ready for the lecture to start, but right behind him the headmaster walked into the room. That’s strange, I thought, I wonder what’s up. I had never seen him in any of my classes before.
They both stepped to the front of the room, stern expressions on their faces. This was something serious, I realized and sat up even straighter.
“Students, the headmaster is here because something was stolen from his house,” our teacher said.
All the color drained from my face, but I tried not to look suspicious. There was nothing to connect me to it. I knew Victoria was using it to set me up so I had gotten rid of it as soon as I could.
The day after the party I snuck back to the headmaster’s house. I hid in the woods until I was sure the coast was clear, then threw the watch so that it landed in the grass next to his walkway. Once it was no longer in my possession, I immediately felt better. I had hoped that he would find it because I felt bad about stealing it, but I guess he hadn’t.
“We have reason to suspect that it was one of the students who stole it,” the teacher continued as I tried to look innocent.
The headmaster described what the watch looked like and finished with, “If anyone has any information on the whereabouts of it would they please raise their hand.”
I heard the teacher say, “Jayla?” and I whipped my head around to look at her.
“Well, it’s just that I think I’ve seen a watch like that. I think Maddy had one like that, sir,” Jayla said innocently.
All eyes in the room turned to me. Fuck.
“Is that true, Miss Baker?” the headmaster asked in his scarily authoritative voice.
“No.” I tried to sound confident.
He walked closer until he was looming over me.
“Empty your backpack,” he said calmly but with an unmistakable touch of menace.
“Sure.”
I started taking out my books and then my heart froze. I felt something made of smooth, cool metal at the bottom of my bag. I didn’t have to see it to know that it was the watch.
This had been Victoria’s plan. I was about to get expelled—or even worse, I was possibly about to be charged with theft.
I needed to do something and quick. I could feel all the eyes in the room on me and I started to sweat. I went with the first desperate plan that I could think of.
“I found it!” I blurted out.
“You found it?” he asked skeptically.
“Yes!” I didn’t know what I was saying, but I knew if they caught me red-handed I was as good as expelled.
“Where did you find it?”
“I found it in the woods when I was going for a walk.”
It wasn’t a great lie, but it was the best I could come up with on such short notice. I felt myself wilting under the headmaster’s withering gaze and I rushed to finish my story before I couldn’t anymore. “I showed a couple other students because I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I didn’t know who it belonged to! I wanted to turn it into the office because it looks expensive, but I’ve been so busy studying that it slipped my mind. It’s right here!”
I reached in and pulled it from my bag. He grabbed it from my outstretched palm.
“I had it on me because I was planning on turning it in and I forgot. I promise.”
He eyed me suspiciously. I could tell that he didn’t believe my story at all, but also he had no way of proving that I was lying.
“You should have turned it in immediately,” he said finally.
“I understand, sir. I apologize.”
“Don’t let anything like this happen again, do you unders
tand?”
I nodded.
“Detention for one week.”
He slipped the watch into his pocket and walked out the door.
“Well… let’s start class!” the teacher said and began the lecture.
I wasn’t happy about getting detention, but it could have been a lot worse. It was disturbing to see how many ways Victoria had planned to ruin me. I had been so close to getting expelled that it was making my head spin.
When I walked into detention that afternoon, I threw my hands up in exasperation.
Grayson nodded to the seat next to him and I pointedly sat at the front of the room again, slamming my books down on to the table. It was bad enough I had to be in detention but why did he have to be here to make it ten times worse. I did not want to deal with him right now.
The teacher was late again, and I was not happy about that because it meant Grayson could talk to me.
“Hey, Sticky Fingers.”
“Shut up,” I shot back.
“I could go back to calling you ‘Lips’ if you’d prefer?”
“Just don’t call me anything at all. Don’t even talk to me.”
I opened up my textbook and started reading, but I was too mad to concentrate on the words.
“Answer me one question, Sticky Fingers, and then I’ll leave you alone.”
I groaned in irritation. “What??”
“I’m genuinely curious, why the hell didn’t get rid of that watch?”
“I did,” I said before catching myself. “I mean I found it!”
Grayson laughed. “You need to be better at watching your back.”
“That’s the first true thing you’ve said to me since I got here. With evil people like you around, I need to constantly be on guard.”
“Maybe I’m not as bad as you think,” he said.
I just ignored him and tried to read.
The teacher finally came in and sat down. I heard Grayson stand up and walk to the front of the class. I watched him out of the corner of my eye as he nodded to the teacher who acknowledged him back by nodding and saying, “Mr. Moore.” Then Grayson was walking out of the classroom.
He turned back to me with a shit-eating grin. I gave him a questioning “what the fuck was that?”-look, but he just smiled wider and then was gone.
“Jackass,” I mumbled under my breath.
“Miss Baker, no talking in detention!” the teacher scolded.
Chapter 22
Most things at Crestmoore were over the top, and Halloween was no exception. They had decorated the school from top to bottom. And these weren’t the regular cheesy kind that you got from a department store, these were expensive and not tacky in the least bit.
There were rows of fresh pumpkins everywhere, hay bales stacked in corners, thousands of tall white candles with electric wicks. They had brought in dark, skeletal trees and put black cut-outs of bats on the windows. I had always loved Halloween and even though I was having a really difficult time at the school, I couldn’t help but be enchanted by the season.
I had been at Crestmoore for about two months at that point and I was no closer to finding out what the Kings were hiding. All I had accomplished was to become a social pariah—but I was killing it academically so that was something. My desperation to make progress was the reason I found myself walking down the path that led to the other side of the island on a dark Sunday evening.
I was wearing a black masquerade mask that I had “borrowed” from one of the displays around the campus—I would return it, I swear—and I had dressed in my uniform so that it would be harder to tell it was me. I hoped the party would be too crowded so that no one would pay much attention and I could walk around unrecognized.
The island was spooky at this time of the year when it got pitch black early, especially when you were by yourself, so I picked up my pace.
A couple days ago I had overheard some students talking about this huge Halloween party that the Kings were throwing. I had debated over whether or not I should go; I didn’t want to, but I figured I needed to. I was out of ideas to get close to them any other way. I couldn’t very well show up to a Royalty party, the second they saw me I would have been kicked out—or worse—but since it was a costume party, I hoped that a chick in a mask would blend right in and everyone would be too wasted to care.
What was a bit strange was that I hadn’t seen another soul on my long walk over. This party was supposed to be huge, and I figured I should have seen at least a couple people sneaking over through the woods. I started to feel even more uneasy.
I finally made it to the far side of the island. I hadn’t been there before and this side seemed wilder somehow, less tamed. I stopped to listen and slowly over the waves and the wind I could hear the faint, unmistakable sounds of teenagers at a party. I breathed a sigh of relief. I veered off the path and went through the woods towards the sounds.
I came upon a large boathouse that was hanging out over the water. The place looked like it had long been abandoned and I had to admit it was a great place for a Halloween party. There was a light on inside and the sounds were louder now. I crept over to a window to peek in but it was covered in a black curtain. I didn’t want to go right in the front door so I looked around for another way in. I found stairs that led down to a door that looked like it entered into the basement. I figured that was my best bet. I reached out and grabbed on to the handle. Luckily for me it was unlocked.
I slowly walked in. It was pitch black inside but I could hear the party upstairs louder now. I took out my phone and turned on the flashlight. The basement looked like what I would have thought the basement of a boathouse would. There were old rusting tools and machinery scattered around. There was dust and cobwebs coating everything. It was really creepy down here and I wanted to get out as quickly as possible. I walked deeper into the basement and tried to find a way upstairs.
The door behind me slammed shut with a loud bang that nearly made me jump out of my skin. I whirled around and shined my light on it.
There was nothing there except a shut door. Must have been the wind, I reasoned, but it didn’t help slow my pounding heart. I went over and tried to open it again, but it was locked. That was weird, I thought. I was starting to think it was a bad idea to come here.
I had no choice but to keep going. Eventually I found stairs that were leading upwards. The stairs were old wood and looked like they could break with the slightest pressure. I didn’t trust them, but I had no choice, I hadn’t been able to find any other exit. I stepped on the first one gingerly and it held. I put all my weight on it and then stepped to the next, carefully avoiding the parts that looked really rotten.
I could see light coming under the door at the top of the stairs. I slowly made my way up until I was able to grab onto the handle. I put my ear against the door and listened. There was the sound of music and on top of that I could hear people talking and laughing. I could hear beer bottles clinking against the wooden floor and someone yelling good-naturedly about something.
I turned the handle and breathed a sigh of relief when it wasn’t locked. I crept into the room and was immediately confused.
The large space was completely empty. There was a single light in the middle of the room, a single bulb glowing brightly in a standup lamp with no lampshade.
This wasn’t good, I told myself as I walked over to it. The sounds I was hearing were coming from a small wireless speaker that had been placed next to the lamp.
The door behind me slammed shut, and I jumped. I jumped right into the lamp, knocking it over and it crashed to the floor. The bulb shattered, and I was plunged into darkness. I quickly pulled out my phone and swept the light around the room.
The boathouse space was too large for me to illuminate it all with just my phone so the corners were still in shadow, but I could see that the door I had come through was now shut. Besides the lamp and the speaker there was nothing else in the room. The ceiling was very high up, so that it could accommodat
e a boat, and half of the floor was water where the building hung out over the ocean.
This close up the sounds from the speakers were overwhelming. I slammed my heel down on it, again and again, until it was smashed in the center and silent. My hard breathing was now the loudest sound in the room.
I stood like that for a while, just scanning around the boathouse, making sure nothing else would happen. I was alone. Someone must have been with me in the basement to have shut the door, but they hadn’t followed me up. Outside I could hear faint laughter but it might have been the wind.
I started moving around, looking to see if I could find a way out. The windows were all nailed shut and covered in thick, black curtains, which I pulled down. There were a couple doors, but they were all locked with no keys to be found. I was trapped until someone decided to let me out.
I pulled out my phone. I wasn’t sure who I was going to text or call but I figured that was a good start. I tried to pull up the Crestmoore website, maybe I could find the general phone number, but the page wouldn’t load. I looked at the bars and realized that I had no service.
“Fuck,” I whispered. I was truly screwed now.
I moved around the space and held the phone at different angles trying to get a signal, but nothing. My phone was basically only useful as a flashlight. I was scared but nothing had happened in a while so I started to calm down. What’s the worst they could do? It’s not like they could kill me or something. Then I immediately thought of Jenny and started to get scared again.
I went into one of the corners so that my back was covered and nothing could sneak up on me. I sat down and waited for whatever they had planned next.
Nothing happened. I turned off my flashlight to save the battery; the moonlight coming through the windows was enough to see around the room once my eyes adjusted to the dark.
