Until yesterday, I thought I came from an ordinary family. Turns out my dad is a billionaire.
I wonder why he would hide that from me. I also wonder if my mum and brothers know. We live in such an ordinary house and my parents drive ordinary cars. When I was at home, my parents gave me an allowance for going out with friends, but it wasn’t a lot of money. I had plenty of clothes, but most of them I had bought on clearance. It just doesn’t make sense—none of this makes sense. Shouldn’t I have known that my dad is a billionaire?
I just wish I was back at home. I wish that Eduard never would’ve died and I never would’ve found any of this out. I wish that it was a lie. Coming here changed my life, and I just want to undo the past few days.
But deep down, maybe I am glad I found out. I was living a lie. Besides, I’ve always knows something was up with my family. I just never thought it would be this.
Starstruck.
Damon is in three of four of my morning classes, which doesn’t surprise me. Something tells me that he had something to do with the fact that our schedules are so similar. Savannah and Kaiden are in two of my classes, and Madox is in one of them.
Thankfully, Asher isn’t in any of them. I haven’t seen him since he went off on me Saturday, and I really don’t want to see him. I get that he was scared, but he had no right to talk to me like that.
By the time lunch time rolls around, I am starving. I couldn’t eat much this morning after training. My stomach was in knots. I couldn’t stop thinking about my family. Now I am paying for it. I’m so hungry that my stomach hurts.
My stomach isn’t all that hurts. My arms do too. Tristan’s morning work out was intense, and my arms are already sore. I hope tomorrow we focus on running and not on lifting weights. I can hardly lift my pencil without my arms shaking. Carrying my books is torture enough right now.
After I grab my lunch, I take a seat with Savannah, Kaiden and Madox. They’re all wearing shirts that say Minecraft on them. I have no idea what it is, but with them, I bet it is some kind of game.
I’m only seated for a few seconds when Tristan joins us.
“Hey guys,” Tristan says.
“Hey,” they all say back.
One good thing about Tristan pretending to be a senior is that I don’t have any classes with him. I don’t know what he will do next year when he will be graduated, but I guess we will figure that out when the time comes.
“My arms hurt,” I tell him.
He laughs. “Good.”
“Not good,” I say, whining just a bit. “I can hardly lift a pencil. There is no way I can lift weights tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow we are running a half marathon,” he says.
“Awesome,” I say. “I’m excited.”
“You’re excited to run a half marathon?” Kaiden asks, with his mouth open.
“She’s a freak,” Savannah says. “Who enjoys physical exercise?”
“I do,” Tristan says.
“Me too,” I say.
“You guys are crazy,” Madox says, shaking his head.
Another plate joins us at the table, and I don’t have to look to know it’s Damon. He sits directly across from me.
“Hey, Katerina,” he says.
Savannah, Kaiden and Madox all just stare at him, like he’s got an extra head or something.
“Damon, these are my friends,” I tell him. “Savannah, Kaiden and Madox. Guys, this is Damon.”
“You haven’t replied to my texts this morning,” Damon says to me.
“My phone is in my dorm,” I tell him. “We’ve been in class. Why do you even have yours out?”
“I just do,” he says.
I look down and see the three of them still staring at Damon.
“Guys,” I say, waving a hand in front of their face.
Finally, they look at me.
“Damon might be the president’s son, but trust me, he’s just a normal person. Like me,” I say. “Don’t get all starstruck.”
Tristan looks amused by the whole conversation, but he stays quiet.
“So why is he sitting here?” Savannah asks me.
Damon answers. “Katerina and I are dating.”
I laugh. “Correction, he wishes we were dating. I just met him Saturday.”
“We are going to be dating,” he says. “Soon.”
“Guys, I’m trying to eat here,” Tristan says. “All this mushy love crap is making me sick.”
I don’t respond. Instead, I take a bite of my sandwich.
A silence falls around the table, and I can tell Savannah, Kaiden and Madox haven’t gotten over the shock of Damon sitting here. Haven’t they gone to school with him the past two years? This is a small school, only about two hundred students in total from grade 9 to 12. It isn’t like he was hiding.
“So what is Minecraft?” I ask.
“It’s an awesome game,” Savannah says, getting excited. “You have to cut down trees and mine stone and coal to survive. Monsters come out at night. And you can fight them.”
“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” Kaiden says.
“You get to build stuff,” Madox says. “I’ve built a whole city once.”
“Oh, yeah. I remember that,” Savannah says to him. “That was awesome. Didn’t we destroy it with lava and dynamite?”
“Yeah,” he answers, frowning. “It took me all summer to build it and one afternoon to destroy it.”
Tristan looks at me. “Do you have any idea what they’re talking about?”
“No clue,” I answer.
“I used to play Minecraft when I was a kid,” Damon says. “I didn’t have the patience to build a whole city back then.”
“Why’d you stop playing?” Savannah asks.
“I don’t know,” he answers. “I guess I got bored. I don’t like playing video games anymore. Sitting around isn’t much fun to me.”
“Now you sound like Katerina,” Kaiden says.
“How can anybody outgrow playing video games?” Madox asks, like it’s something completely mental to him.
“Are you running a half marathon with them tomorrow?” Savannah asks Damon.
“No. I’m not quite up to running that much,” he answers.
“How much did you end up running today?” I ask him.
“West said I ran just over half a mile,” Damon answers. “And my legs are still hurting from it.”
“My arms hurt,” I say, rubbing my muscles. “I think they might fall off.”
“What did you guys end up working on?” he asks.
“He made me lift weights,” I say, pouting just a little. “It sucked.”
“He made you?” Savannah asks.
“Tristan is my…” I let my voice trail off, trying to think of a word besides bodyguard. I don’t think anybody is supposed to know he’s my bodyguard at this point, besides Damon and us.
“I’m her trainer,” Tristan says, coming to the rescue.
Savannah looks at him, grinning.
I don’t have to be a mind reader to know what she’s thinking.
Tristan is good looking. He’s twenty one, after all. His body is way too nice to belong to a teenager. I am positive that he gets hit on a lot by the girls in the school, but I know he wouldn’t be interested in any of them.
Savannah is probably thinking that she wouldn’t mind getting trained by him. And she hates physical exercise.
“He’s going to start training me with Katerina when I can run five miles,” Damon says proudly.
“Maybe skip running tomorrow and just walk instead,” Tristan says to him. “Give your legs time to heal. Also, drink lots of water and eat bananas. It’ll help your legs from cramping.”
Alik and I used to drink smoothies every morning with at least two bananas in them, along with other fruits and kale. He’s right about the bananas. They helped the cramps a lot, though I still did get a few in the beginning. I rarely get them now. For the first few weeks, I woke up in the middle of the night with
bad leg cramps. Of course, I pushed myself really, really hard. Probably too hard.
“So what are you training for?” Kaiden asks.
What am I training for? That’s a good question. One that I can’t answer him. I won’t lie.
“Just training her so she can get in better shape,” Tristan says.
It’s technically not a lie. I am getting in better shape. He just left out the what I’m getting in shape for.
“I don’t think you have anything to worry about,” Kaiden says, looking at me.
“Hey, stop checking out my future girlfriend,” Damon says.
“Future ex-girlfriend,” Madox mumbles, making everybody, besides Damon, laugh.
I’m not sure why I’m friends with Savannah, Kaiden and Madox. We have absolutely nothing in common. But I like them. They make me laugh.
And Tristan… well, I have a feeling we’d be friends, even if he wasn’t stuck with me.
Well, that’s technically not true. If he wasn’t stuck with me, he wouldn’t be at our school and I wouldn’t even know him. He’s twenty one. I probably never would’ve ran into him outside of school.
I wonder where Tristan is from. I supposed I can’t ask him, because he pretty much told me I’m not allowed to ask him any personal questions. It’s not fair. He knows all of my dirty little secrets and I know none of his.
Maybe someday he will tell me.
Supreme leader.
After class, I go back to my dorm room to do my homework. I want to get it over with for the night, so I don’t have to worry about it later. I hate procrastinating when it comes to homework.
As I am finishing up the last of my math homework, Savannah comes in and takes a seat on my bed.
“Spill,” she says.
“Spill what?” I ask, knowing that she’s asking about Damon.
“Hello. The president’s son and you,” she says.
“There is nothing to tell. I met him at the dance on Saturday. We danced,” I say. “We’ve texted a few times, but that’s it. We’re just friends.”
“Damon doesn’t give his number out,” Savannah says. “Like, he’s never given his phone number to a girl at this school. He’s also never shown interest in any girls. At least not past a couple of dances.”
“Well, I don’t know what to tell you,” I say, shutting my book. I just have to work on a sort essay for my American lit class and then I am done for the night. Since it’s the first day of school, I don’t have much homework. Though, maybe I should work ahead on studying. I’m taking an American history class and I don’t know very much about American history.
“He likes you,” she says.
“Good for him,” I say back.
“And you like him.”
I sigh. “Savannah, Damon is cute. Really cute. And so far he has a nice personality. But I just met him, like, three seconds ago. Give me time to get to know the guy before you start planning our wedding.”
She lets out a squeal. “I knew it. I so knew it. By the way, you sounded really American when you said that.”
Maybe Savannah is rubbing off on me.
“This is so big,” she says. “Damon Hartley has a crush on my roommate.”
“Damon Hartley is just a guy,” I say.
“He’s so not just a guy. He is the president’s son,” she says. “Do you guys have a president in Russia? Or like a supreme leader? Or a prime minister?”
“Supreme leader?” I ask, then laugh. “I’m from Russia, not North Korea. Yes, we have a president.”
“Okay, so you do know. It’s not a little thing. It’s a big, huge thing,” she says. “Like, life changing.”
“I’m Russian. If I date an American, it won’t change my life,” I say. “And stop saying stuff like that. Damon and I are just friends.”
“Whatever,” she says. “I’m going to go play Minecraft with Kaiden and Madox. We’re going to try and build a huge city that we can destroy.”
“Have fun,” I say sarcastically.
She goes out the door, leaving me in peace.
I can’t help but laugh again when I think about her supreme leader comment.
Americans really don’t know anything about Russian politics.
FIVE
Bodyguard slash therapist.
It’s Friday at last, which means I have officially survived my first week without any incidents, besides almost being late for chemistry and getting a dirty look from my teacher. But other than that, nothing exciting happened.
I haven’t heard anything from my mum, dad, or brothers all week. Which makes me sad, because I miss them. Tristan told me that my mum probably can’t talk right now. She has to be carefully about when she calls and how she calls. His agency is worried that my dad’s terrorist group is catching on to her trading secrets with the United States, so she’s keeping everything quiet for a while, until they grow bored of monitoring her. It could take a while. Still, I don’t get why she won’t call me. I’m her daughter. It hurts a little.
Tristan and I have kept up out training every morning, and each day it gets just a little bit more intense.
This weekend apparently is a holiday called Labor Day. We have something similar in Russia, except Americans celebrate it all weekend long. Kaiden invited Damon, Tristan and I to his beach house in South Carolina. After much begging, Tristan agreed to let us go. I guess Kaiden’s parents are out of the country, so it’ll just be Kaiden, Savannah, Madox, Damon, his six bodyguard, Tristan and me.
I haven’t talked to Asher anymore since Saturday. He seems to be avoiding me, which is fine with me. He wasn’t very nice the last time I spoke with him. He’s obviously got a lot of friends and is usually surrounded.
After school on Friday, we all pack a bag and get on Damon’s private jet to head to Kaiden’s beach house. It feels very odd to be doing something like this. I’ve never even flown first class, and yet everybody else seems to think this is completely normal.
Looking back, I wonder why my dad didn’t buy me first class tickets for my flight to America. That was a long flight.
He’s so cheap. He’s a billionaire. It’s the least he could have done.
Though, I suppose I would’ve wondered if he had bought first class.
When we get to the airport, everybody goes to get on the plane. I stand back, and look at the not-so-small jet in front of me.
“Pretty nice, huh,” Tristan says to me.
“This is crazy. What kind of sixteen year old has their own private plane? Or a beach house for the weekend?” I ask.
“The kind of kids that have parents rich enough to send them to New Hope Academy,” he answers. “It’s kind of surprising that you’re not used to living like this. I wonder why your dad kept you guys being billionaires a secret from you.”
I wonder the same thing.
Tristan walks towards the plane, and I follow him. Damon’s security guard gets our luggage loaded.
As I get on the plane, Damon is standing there, waiting for me.
“Sit by me,” he says.
I walk up and take a seat. He gives me the one by the window.
“Are you a nervous flyer?” Damon asks me.
I shake my head. “My family and I fly to London every other year to visit my grandparents. I’ve also been other places on family vacations. I’ve been flying my whole life, so I’m just used to it.”
“My mom died in a plane crash,” he tells me. “So even though I’ve been on thousands of flights, I still hate them.”
“I’m so sorry,” I tell him. “My older brother died in a car accident, so I have problems getting in a car. My dad tries to get me to drive sometimes, but I can’t. I freeze up when I get behind the wheel.”
The pilot’s voice comes over the speaker, telling us were about to take off. We get buckled up, and the plane starts moving.
Damon grips the sides of his seat as we start to take off, so I grab one of his hands and hold it. I do it to be nice and hope that he doesn’t take it t
he wrong way. At my touch, he seems to relax a little bit. He looks over at me and smiles.
“Let’s talk,” I say, trying to distract him from the take off.
“Umm…” his jaw tenses. “Tell me about your brother that died.”
Of course that is what he wants to talk about.
I don’t normally like talking about Eduard, but for some reason, I want to tell Damon about him.
“Eduard was my best friend. He was only eleven months older than me, so we spent every waking moment together,” I tell him. “Even though he’s gone, I still can’t imagine my life without him. He’s the only brother that actually looked like me. He had dark hair, but our eyes were the same, and we had similar facial features. We always got asked if we were twins. Which was a nice, because when I go out with Alik or Dimitri we always get asked if were dating, which is gross.”
He laughs, looking at me. “You’re kind of great, Katerina.”
“Thanks,” I say, feeling a little shy at his compliment.
“I can’t wait to meet your family. They sound amazing,” he says. “Though how could they not be? You’re related to them.”
Now it’s my turn to tense up.
The problem with him meeting my family is that one, possibly two, of my family members wants him dead. Once he find out the truth about my family, he won’t like me anymore. That is why I can’t get close to Damon.
The plane finally elevates and the fasten seatbelt sign goes off.
“What’s wrong?” Damon asks me.
“What do you mean?” I ask, undoing my seatbelt.
“You look like you were freaking out when I mentioned meeting your family,” he says. “Is it too soon to talk like that?”
“No,” I say. “I guess I just miss them.”
That much is true. I miss them like crazy. Even my dad.
I get up from the seat. “I’m going to talk to Tristan for a minute.”
“Okay,” he says, looking disappointed.
Fate (New Hope Academy Book 1) Page 7
