by Elle East
“This has gone too far,” Brett said.
“I agree,” I said, trying to find my inner strength. “But you guys went too far first. Way too far.”
They turned to look at each other, communicating without words. They were really close and had known each other so long that they were more than best friends.
“It was mostly the Queens—” Archer started, but I cut him off.
“Bullshit! You guys started it, don’t blame it all on the Queens. Literally within the first ten minutes of getting to this school Grayson got me in trouble, so don’t try to blame other people for your mess. I know you guys, that bullshit won’t work on me.”
When I said it Grayson looked slightly… what was that emotion? Guilt? Regret? There was no way that was what he was feeling. They had all tortured me for the last few months, there was no way they’d start regretting it now.
They were looking a bit uncomfortable, and I wondered if that was because I had brought up our past together. I was sure they had told no one about how we used to be best friends, they’d be too embarrassed to have been close with a charity case like me. Maybe that was why I had been bullied so much worse than the other scholarship students? They were trying to distance themselves from me, show that I was nothing to them and make sure everyone else knew it? Well, I would not let them run away from our past together so easily. I finally had their attention and I would use it to try to get some answers.
“We used to be friends. I don’t understand why you guys hate me so much now?” I asked sincerely.
They all were looking around and scratching their buzzed heads.
“You’re a scholarship student. That’s how it’s done here,” Grayson said lamely.
“Well, I’m not just some charity student! I used to be your friend!”
“Listen, Maddy. We didn’t mean for it to go this far,” Archer said while looking into my eyes earnestly.
When he looked at me like that I felt like I could fall in and get lost in those dark blue depths. I could see how he was able to get into every girl in the school’s skirt.
“We’ve decided to offer you a truce,” Brett cut in.
I tore my eyes away from Archer’s to look at Brett in surprise. “A truce?”
“Yes. This has gone far enough,” Archer continued.
“What does that mean exactly?” I asked.
“Your life at Crestmoore will get a lot easier. We’ll call off the student body. You’ll have our protection and what we say is final at this school,” Archer finished.
“What about the Queens?” I asked.
“They’ll do what we say,” Archer added. “Don’t worry about them.”
I wanted to believe them. I would give almost anything for the bullying to stop—and that was exactly what they were offering. I didn’t trust them as far as I could throw them—which was not at all because they were all a lot larger than me. Looking into their faces I came to the conclusion that I didn’t really have much of a choice. Sure, I had messed with their hair, but that was after months of bullying. That had been my big payback move. They had all the power in the situation.
“Ok,” I said. “Truce.”
I had no choice.
They all looked almost… relieved?
“Truce,” Archer stuck out his hand.
I shook it and felt the electricity between us.
Grayson reached out his hand next and I took it.
“Truce,” he said with a smirk.
I felt the connection between us too. It wasn’t the same one that I had with Archer, but it was just as intense and left me weak-kneed.
Finally, Brett reached out his large hand to me.
“Truce,” he said in his deep voice.
I took it and the power that passed between us shocked me. My reaction to all of them was different but in a way it was the same. They each spoke to me in a primal language that only our bodies understood.
I looked at my three friends-turned-tormentors-and-hopefully-now-protectors—though I was skeptical and knew this was probably a trick. This was definitely a weird turn of events. Maybe I could use this to my advantage, I thought, and I was cautiously optimistic for the first time in a long while.
Chapter 24
After my truce with the Kings, life at school got a lot easier. I didn’t constantly have to be on guard and dread walking down the halls, consequently I was able to concentrate more on my studies. People didn’t push me or call me names. The trash wasn’t piled up in front of my door anymore. It felt like I could breathe again.
I felt a lot better but without anything else to distract me it made me confront just how lonely I was. I had lost my friendship with the scholarship students and even though my friendship with the Queens had been fake, at least it was something. Now, I had no one.
One day at lunch I had just grabbed a sandwich and was on my way out of the dining hall when I heard Cecily call my name. Surprised, I turned around and walked back to the charity table where she and Ava were sitting with a couple others.
“Hey, Maddy. We just wanted to see if you wanted to sit with us,” Cecily said.
“Really??” I hadn’t expected that.
“Yeah—unless you have someplace else to be?” Ava added.
“Uh, no, I don’t.”
There was an empty chair beside Ava who motioned for me to sit down and so I did, still not really believing what was happening. They continued the conversation they were having before I sat down. Ava and Cecily smiled at me and I understood what they were saying without them having to say anything. They were saying “welcome back”. It had been a long time since I sat at the charity table and it felt good.
Near the end of lunch Cecily asked me if I wanted to go to the football game after school. I had never been to a Crestmoore football game before, though I had heard them. The fans were incredibly loud and even with my windows shut I could still hear them down the hill on the other side of the school.
“Uh, sure!” I said, caught off guard. “I’m surprised you guys go to those games. I didn’t think the other students would be very welcoming to you there.”
“They’re usually too caught up in team spirit to bother with us and we sit next to the exit so most people don’t even know we are there. I’m not a huge football fan, most of us aren’t, but you can’t help but get into it during the games,” Cecily said.
“Everyone goes crazy!” Ava added. “It’s actually really fun.”
“I’d love to go.” I was happy just to be back in the scholarship group again, I didn’t care what we did.
We had all agreed to meet at five p.m. and head over to the stadium together. I couldn’t wait. I was dressed in my black wool peacoat and tartan scarf and was waiting at my door, checking the clock every couple seconds. At four fifty I couldn’t wait any longer and headed downstairs.
All of us walked outside, down the hill and across the field to the huge stadium. There were tons of people there. People had been taking the ferry over from the mainland for the last couple hours just to see this game. Fancy buses were picking people up from the ferry and transporting them to the stadium entrance.
The excitement was palpable in the air. Everyone was dressed in either the Crestmoore black or the opposing team’s green. The atmosphere was infectious, and I was catching it too.
We joined the sea of people who were shuffling into the stadium. I was shocked at how many people had come. The island wasn’t easy to get to. You had to take a ferry which didn’t run on a regular basis but I assumed for the games they had non-stop service for several hours before and after.
When we finally made it inside, I realized that I hadn’t seen the inside of the stadium yet. It wowed me. The stadium looked new and state-of-the-art. The grass was glowing and almost florescent green because it was so healthy and well-kept. The lines on the field were a crisp white. The seating stretched back away from the field and most of the seats were already full.
“This way.” Ava hooked h
er arm into mine and pulled me down one side of the field. “The students have their own section. Everyone is allowed to go if they want so there are enough seats for all the students. All the other people who come over on the ferry have to buy tickets.”
We came to a large section of seats that had tough-looking security guards in front of the entrances. All the students in front of me were flashing their student passes, and the guards were letting them in. I pulled out mine and held it up; the guard nodded me in.
All the scholarship students went straight to their normal seating section—which not surprisingly were the worst seats in the place, but I didn’t care, I was just excited to be there. We were sitting about halfway back in an area where you had to crane your neck to get a good view of the field.
We started passing around snacks and I immediately felt bad that I hadn’t thought to bring any. I was at the end of the row and Ava was next to me. She shared her popcorn and I was grateful. I happily munched and absorbed the atmosphere of excitement until the game started.
The stadium had massive speakers, and the announcer came on to welcome everyone and introduce both teams. I had not understood football was such a big thing at Crestmoore. I knew football was a big deal in many high schools, even though I had never really been interested and thought it was a waste of time, but being there I started to get it, I started to understand why so many people loved it.
The other team was introduced first and they ran out onto the field. Their cheerleaders were standing in a line shaking their green and white pom-poms as the players ran through like a carwash—I got a sharp sting of embarrassment as I flashed back to my own very brief and humiliating stint as a cheerleader.
Next up the announcer welcomed the Crestmoore Falcons to the field—I winced again remembering when I had called them the Eagles. The crowd erupted, and the cheering sounded like deafening thunder. We all got to our feet to clap as our team ran onto the field. Our school’s band was playing something but I could barely hear it over the sound of the audience. Over the loudspeaker the announcer was saying all the players' names, but I already recognized a bunch of them. The last two players to come out were the most familiar to me.
Archer jogged onto the field and Brett was right behind him. If it was even possible, the crowd got even louder. Archer had a big smile on his handsome face and was waving, clearly loving the attention and giving the crowd what they wanted. He looked like he could melt the panties off of any girl with just a wink.
Brett was right behind him, he was waving too but not as enthusiastically as Archer; he seemed like he was just doing it out of obligation and that he had more important things to worry about—the game was what mattered to him, not this ridiculous show they had to put on beforehand. Even with the serious expression on his face he was still drop dead gorgeous. He was tall and broad and with his all-American looks he was what every girl imagined when they fantasized about a football player.
I leaned over to Ava. I didn’t want to ask, I was sure everyone had heard about my humiliating “try out” and I didn’t want to remind anyone about it, but I was curious.
“Why doesn’t Crestmoore have a cheerleading team? The other schools seem to have one.”
“Ces, knows,” Ava responded and tapped Cecily on the shoulder.
Ava asked her, and I saw Cecily wince when she realized why I had asked. Her wince was more painful to me than a punch in the arm.
“They got rid of the cheerleading squad maybe ten years ago? There was a push from a group of students at that time who said that it was sexist and distracted the female students from their studies and created a negative environment that could potentially lead to bullying. Recently, there’s been a small group who are trying to get it reinstated.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Victoria was the main one,” Cecily said. “She’s probably going to succeed too. Queens have an insane amount of power here.”
We both turned back to the game as I let that sink in.
They carried out the rest of the pre-game rituals and then the starting players from each team ran out onto the field and it was on. I hadn’t realized how exciting football could be. It was amazing how passionate all the fans got and how dedicated the athletes were. I wasn’t much of a sports fan, but even I could tell that these guys had put in a ton of work to get where they were. They made difficult passes and long sprints look easy. When the players slammed into each other, you could hear the impacts and that was brutal, but they got right back up to do it again and that took dedication.
I begrudgingly admitted that both Archer and Brett were amazing players. Archer ran like he was as light as air. He was able to change direction on a dime and out maneuver anyone who came into his path. He shot like a bullet down the field whenever the other team had the ball, giving that player hardly anytime to think before he was on them.
I could see Brett in the huddles calling the shots, telling the other players what to do. Out on the field he seemed to command the ball and everyone else around it. He was able to throw the ball an insane distance with those huge arms of his. It was impressive to watch—even though I didn’t want to admit it. Both of their marks were even more impressive to me now, they clearly spent A LOT of time practicing for this and yet made the time to study.
As the game went on, I realized that I wasn’t watching anyone else but Brett and Archer. I tried to force myself to look at the other players but my eyes would always come back to them as if there was some type of magnetic pull.
The game ended with an easy win for Crestmoore. The audience on the home side erupted in a black-colored wave of screaming fans. We were all on our feet again, clapping as the players took a bow and waved to the crowd. The band played a song that no one could hear.
Brett and Archer had sweat dripping down their faces when they took off their helmets, but still looked hot. Archer had his trademark cocky grin on his face while Brett had his signature brooding look—but he let just a peak of a smile through and it embarrassed me to admit that it shot straight to my core. They waved to the crowd before being buried in a swarm of fans as girls surrounded them and tried to get their attention. A pang of jealousy swept through me.
The scholarship students and I quickly left the stadium, trying to get out before the other students noticed us. We were all happy to have gone and even though Crestmoore had been really difficult for all of us, we couldn’t help but feel a little school pride at the win. When we reached the Bell Tower we climbed the stairs together, each of us leaving at our respective floors.
“Hey, we’re having Moviefest on Saturday if you want to come?” Graham asked me as we walked up to the fourth floor.
“Really?” My heart lept in joy
“Yeah, of course… I—we missed you the last couple times,” he said with a little embarrassed grin, not looking at me.
I was surprised. I hadn’t really thought about Graham in that way before and it never would have even occurred to me that maybe he liked me. I guess I had been too preoccupied with the Queens and the Kings to notice. However, Graham was just the kind of guy I should be dating. He was smart, he was nice, we came from the same socioeconomic background. He was cute in a way that wasn’t intimidating. He was the one I should be thinking about, not those asshole Kings—or even Dean, who was the son of the detective investigating my mom’s case and didn’t even live in the same state as me anymore—those guys were all so complicated and not right for me. Graham was simple and uncomplicated, just the kind of guy I needed in my already way too complicated life.
“I missed you guys too,” I said.
“Hope to see you there. Night, Maddy.”
“Night, Graham.”
He walked down the hall to his room and I continued up the stairs. It was still a novelty coming back to my room and not finding trash bags in front of my door; I had gotten so used to it.
Chapter 25
I had a couple weeks of freedom from all the Royalty bullshit and they were th
e happiest I’d had so far at the school. I started hanging out with the scholarship students again; they apologized for distancing themselves from me when I was with the Queens, but they got scared and felt like they couldn’t trust me anymore—I told them I understood. I explained that I felt I had no choice and didn’t actually want to hang out with the Queens and would much rather have hung out with them instead. They said they understood, and that they were truly sorry.
I wasn’t being bullied anymore, which was amazing. I got to enjoy the beautiful, historical school, with some of the best teachers in the world, without fear that at any moment a snake would be in my bag or I would get tripped while walking down the hall. Because I was no longer constantly watching my back, my marks improved even more, I suspected that if I kept it up I would make it into the top five next term and possibly even challenge Brett and Archer for the top spots.
I was also pretty sure that Graham liked me, at least a little. He sat next to me during Moviefest and shared his snacks with me. He started walking with me to some of my classes. He also tried to sit next to me in the dining hall. I didn’t have very strong feelings for him, but I liked being around him and thought he was cute so I was curious to see where it went. The only guys who had ever brought out really strong emotions from me were not the kind of guys I should be dating. They were not the kind of guys that you had long-lasting relationships with; they were the kind you had short, intense flings then they left you broken-hearted when they moved on to the next girl. Graham was the kind of guy my head was saying I should be with—if only I could get my heart to listen.
I knew the freedom couldn’t last forever and just when I was starting to like Crestmoore, the Kings had to swoop back in and complicate things again. That had always seemed like the pattern in my life whenever I got too happy fate would sweep in to throw me a curve ball.
The three of them cornered me after art class one day as I was walking down the hall back to the Bell Tower. I started getting really nervous as they surrounded me. What was their game this time? Why couldn’t they just leave me alone? I was starting to be so happy here. When they weren’t talking to me and ruining my life, I was able to watch them from a far and fantasize about them, but when they were like this, I had to face reality.
