Rich Kid Prep: Book 1

by Victoria Grace

  My eyes widen at his confession. It’s not a surprise that he wants my number, but it is a surprise that he’s asking in front of Lily.

  I glance at Lily, who is grinning, and then I turn toward Logan. “Uh, yeah. Just, umm…” I pull my phone out of my pocket, handing it to him, “program your number.”

  He grins, grabbing my phone. He hands it back after a few seconds and I look at my screen to see that he’s texted himself from my phone.

  Logan takes a drink from his own coffee cup and turns to Lily. “Hey. You’re Lily, right?”

  She blushes and nods.

  “We had biology together last year,” he says.

  “Yeah.” She quickly looks away from him.

  “I wanted you as my partner.”

  I didn’t think Lily’s cheeks could get any redder, but they do. I grin, thinking it’s cute.

  I clear my throat. “Thanks for saving us from Braelynn.”

  Logan snorts. “She’s all bark and no bite. She’s jealous of every female in existence. I don’t know why Drew puts up with her.”

  I was wondering the same thing.

  Braelynn’s boyfriend seems really nice. It’s too bad his girlfriend is so awful.

  “He must really like her,” I say, thinking it’s sweet he can see past her ugly personality. Maybe he sees something that nobody else can.

  Logan shrugs. “I heard his dad asked him to date her to help finalize a business deal.”

  I gasp. “If so, that is awful.”

  He smirks. “Welcome to Lockwood Academy. This kind of stuff is completely normal.”

  Lily nods. “He’s right. It’s why nobody is friends with me. They don’t want to look bad. I’d ruin their reputation.”

  “Then it’s a good thing I don’t care about my reputation.” Because I am going to be friends with Lily. I think it’s a shame she’s spent three years at this school and hasn’t made any friends.

  Her cheeks turn pink again and she lowers her head. “You don’t have to.”

  “Lily, you should come hang out tonight,” Logan says.

  It surprises me that he’s the one suggesting it.

  “We’re going to be hanging out in the clearing. Maybe you can convince Hensley to come hang out too.” Logan grins at me.

  I shake my head at him.

  He’s shameless.

  “Oh.” Lily sounds surprised. She looks at me. “It could be fun.”

  “It does sound fun,” I agree.

  “Good.” Logan’s lips turn up in the corners. “Do you want me to meet you outside your dorm after curfew?”

  “Sure.”

  I don’t realize until after we leave the coffee shop that Logan Griffin got me to agree to hang out with him tonight.

  I’m in trouble.

  The only answer I needed.

  Later that afternoon, while I’m hanging out in my dorm, I get a text from an unknown number. At first, I think it’s from Logan, but then I remember he saved his number to my phone.

  UNKNOWN NUMBER: Cinderella, come hang out with me!

  I smirk, thinking this could be anybody really. But the first person that comes to mind is Blaine.

  ME: Hang out with who?

  UNKNOWN NUMBER: Blaine Fletcher, of course. Save my number to your phone. I’m on my way to your room right now.

  Right now?

  My eyes widen as I stand up from my bed. I run toward the mirror, making sure I look all right.

  My dark hair is a little messy, so I run a quick brush through it. As I do, I study myself in the mirror a little, wondering why Dastian and Missy called me beautiful last night. I just don’t get it. I look the same as I always have.

  I barely get my hair brushed out when there is a knock on my door.

  Blaine was fast.

  When I open the door, he doesn’t wait for an invitation before walking inside.

  “Are guys even allowed in the girls’ dormitory?” I ask.

  He smirks. “Yeah, as long as it’s not after curfew.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  “How did you get such a big room?” He frowns. “I’m jealous.”

  I shrug, leaning against my dresser with my hip. “I didn’t ask for it.”

  “Maybe I should start calling you princess instead of Cinderella,” he teases.

  “I prefer duchess.”

  He snickers. “I think I’m going to call you Hens. I like that.”

  “As long as you don’t call me Cinderella, I’m okay with it.”

  Blaine needs to call me by a nickname, for whatever reason, so I’ll let him have this one.

  He grins widely at me and I realize I’ve made the right decision. “Come on, Hens. Let’s go hang out with everybody.”

  I follow him out the door. He looks back at me once we’re in the hallway, probably to make sure I’m keeping up with him.

  “You’re kind of short.” Blaine cocks his head to the side, looking at me. “I never noticed before.”

  I don’t know how to respond, so I just shrug.

  Blaine is tall, probably around six two or three. He’s also pretty thin, which makes me think he recently had a growth spurt.

  “You knew Ellis well, right?” I chew on my lip, wondering if Blaine is who I should ask about the brother I never met.

  Blaine rubs a hand at the back of his neck. “Uh, yeah. He was one of my best friends.”

  I hope he’ll say something else, but he doesn’t. It feels kind of wrong to ask him questions about his dead friend, but I’m not sure who else I can ask.

  “I never met him,” I admit. “Ellis, that is. He, uh, well, he’s a mystery to me. Henry didn’t say a word about him.”

  Blaine ‘hmm’s’ in response.

  “I don’t even know what he looks like.”

  Blaine stops in his tracks, turning toward me. “Look, Hens, I’m really not the person you need to talk to about this. You should look him up on social media if you want to see a picture. Or ask somebody else—anybody else. Just don’t bring this up to Will or Dash, but especially not Dash. He took it the hardest.”

  I nod, casting my gaze down.

  I shouldn’t have brought it up, but I am curious.

  “I will tell you that you two look alike,” Blaine says.

  I look up, grinning. “Yeah?”

  His lips turn up in the corners. “Except you’re hot.”

  I roll my eyes at that.

  “Ellis liked to think he was hot.” Blaine winks at me. “Clearly, you didn’t get his ego.”

  It’s not exactly what I want to hear, but I’ll take it.

  Part of me wants to call Henry and ask him about Ellis, but how could I even bring it up?

  “Tell me about your mom,” Blaine says, as head leads me out the front door.

  Tears press against the back of my eyes. “I, uh, would rather not.”

  He frowns when he looks at me. “Ah, I’m sorry, Hens. It was rude to bring her up.”

  I chew on my lip. “No, it’s okay. I know I probably should talk about her, but it’s too hard right now.”

  He stops, turning to look at me. “I bet it is a lot.”

  More than anybody can realize.

  I feel like I’ve been kidnapped by aliens and left in an alternative universe. Nothing feels real and I’m trying to navigate this new world that I don’t fit into. It’s only a matter of time before all the kids here realize what a fraud I am.

  Blaine slips his hand into mine and I look at him, raising an eyebrow.

  “Don’t read too much into it, Cinderella. I’m not one of your many admirers. You just looked sad and I wanted to distract you.” He tugs me along with him, not letting go of my hand.

  I like Blaine. I do think he’s a flirt, but I think he is just being a nice guy.

  “The gossip around school is that Dash and Logan are fighting over you,” he says, as we walk down the sidewalk. “Honestly, Hens, the two most popular guys in school...”

  I roll my eyes. “Why does everybo
dy keep saying that? Dastian has a girlfriend, and I happen to like Missy.”

  I also happen to like Dastian, but I refuse to go there.

  “What about Logan?” Blaine questions.

  I push a piece of hair behind my ear. “Uh, well, he kind of asked to hang out tonight, but it’s only as friends. I already know that he’s a player.”

  “Friends?” He wiggles his eyebrows. “Or friends?”

  I want to say friends—just normal friends. But then I think about how Logan says that he wants to kiss me. Normal friends don’t kiss one another.

  But do I want to kiss Logan?

  “It’s complicated.” I shrug my shoulders.

  He smirks. “Did you kiss him?”

  I gasp. “No!”

  “There’s another rumor I heard. I don’t know if this one is true or not.” He glances warily over at me.

  “What is it?” I am scared to know what he’s going to say.

  Is it something awful?

  Do I already have a bad reputation?

  “I heard you’ve never been kissed,” he says.

  I let out a long breath. “Is that all? I thought you were going to say something awful.”

  He snorts. “Being seventeen and never kissed is awful.”

  “I’ve never met anybody that I’ve wanted to kiss,” I admit.

  Blaine is easy to talk to. I find myself wanting to spill all my secrets to him, though I wonder if I should. Blaine knows all the school gossip, so it seems. Then again, in a school this small, it seems everybody knows everybody’s secrets.

  He pulls me to a stop, just before we walk onto the practice football field that we hung out at yesterday.

  “I have one question.” He doesn’t meet my eye contact, which scares me a little bit.

  “What is it?” I breathe out. My voice is shaky and my heart is racing.

  “Do you like Dastian?”

  My jaw drops open. “What?” I pause, trying to form words, but I can’t seem to make anything come out of my mouth. “I—uh—wha—”

  He chuckles. “That’s the only answer I needed.”

  Before I can ask him what he means, he walks onto the field where everybody is standing. Without a choice, I follow behind him. The entire way, I’m trying to think of a way to smooth everything over. The last thing I was is for Blaine to think I’m into Dastian.

  He’s got a girlfriend. A nice girlfriend. There is no way I would ever go after a guy with a girlfriend. He has to know that, right?

  But the truth hits me as Blaine smirks at me from beside Dastian—no matter what I say to Blaine, he knows. There is no way I’m going to be able to convince him otherwise because I’m not a good liar. And if Blaine knows, who else knows?

  I’m going to be sick.

  He knows.

  I keep my head down as I follow Blaine onto the field.

  He knows.

  Blaine is Dastian’s best friend, which isn’t good. He’ll probably tell Dastian, right? And Dastian will tell his girlfriend, then Missy will hate me for having a crush on her boyfriend.

  I try to think of good things to say in my head to reassure them that I’m not into Dastian.

  When Blaine walks up to Dastian first, I tense up, thinking he’s about to blurt out the truth to him.

  Dastian raises an eyebrow at Blaine when he sees me trailing to the left of him, which kind of makes me feel pathetic.

  “Yo, Dash,” Blaine greets his friend.

  “Hey.” Dastian looks at me. “Hensley, right?”

  My cheeks grow warm and I nod.

  At least he didn’t call me Cinderella.

  Blaine looks off to the right. “You didn’t tell me Ava was here.”

  Ava?

  Before I can even question it, he’s already walking off, leaving me alone with Dastian. I have no idea what to say. I push a piece of hair behind my ear and I notice Dastian’s eye follows my movement.

  I really have no idea what to think of Dastian. Blaine has convinced himself I have a crush on the guy, and maybe I do, but I barely know him. I can’t like him. Not yet.

  Still, my heart won’t stop racing.

  He purses his lips as he looks at me, and I wish I could know what he was thinking.

  “You kind of look like—” his voice trails off and he shakes his head. “Never mind.”

  “Like Henry Lockwood?” I ask. “Because I kind of do. It’s weird. I always wondered what my dad looked like. Because my mom, she’s blonde with light blue eyes. I look nothing like her German family.”

  His eyes scan my face. “So, you’re Cinderella.”

  I frown at the nickname.

  Dastian had yet to bring that up, and I don’t like that he’s bringing it up now.

  “Hensley,” I correct, crossing my arms over my chest.

  He smirks. “You’re adorable when you’re angry.”

  I furrow my brows, looking at Dastian.

  This boy is confusing.

  “I don’t like the nickname Cinderella.” He rubs at the scruff on his jaw. “I’m going to call you Vixen instead.”

  “Why Vixen?” I raise an eyebrow.

  “Because you are the best, or worst, kind of temptation.”

  My cheeks grow warm.

  He chuckles. “You’re blushing. You’re so... naive. You’re not going to survive this school, Vixen.”

  I’m not sure how I feel about being called Vixen, but it’s better than Cinderella, right? But maybe not the way he explains it.

  “I’m not naive,” I counter. “Just because I get embarrassed easily doesn’t mean a thing.”

  His grin widens. “Really? Then tell me about your last school? What was it like? Were the kids nice?”

  “I don’t know. I thought I had a lot of friends, but after my mom...” my voice trails off and I clear my throat. “I guess it doesn’t matter. They were never really my friends.”

  His face falls a bit, but it quickly hardens. “Lockwood Academy is different. They’re going to eat you up here.” He takes a step closer to me. “It doesn’t matter that your last name is Lockwood. You better learn quick, little fox.”

  I swallow hard as he takes a step back.

  Dastian Graham is intense.

  He huffs, so I look up and see an annoyed expression on his face. At first, I think it’s directed at me, but I notice he’s looking behind me. I glance over my shoulder and spot Logan walking our way. I take another step back from Dastian, needing space in between us so I can think straight.

  “I was hoping I’d run into you again,” Logan says to me, completely ignoring Dastian.

  “Logan,” Dastian says, sounding annoyed. “I should’ve known I’d find you chasing after the only unsuspecting female on campus. Desperation isn’t a good look for you.”

  My eyes widen as I look between Dastian and Logan.

  I didn’t expect Dastian to say something like that.

  Logan doesn’t seem at all affected. He just laughs.

  I stand there, folding my fingers together behind my back, not knowing what to do or say.

  Should I leave?

  “Don’t you have a girlfriend to worry about?” Logan says the words so casually, but I can hear the bite behind them.

  Maybe Dastian wasn’t kidding when he said this school would eat me up.

  “A relationship is a concept you couldn’t possibly understand,” Dastian says.

  I have been told that Logan doesn’t do relationships, but I’m not sure why anybody is telling me that. I just met the guy. My whole world was turned upside down, and I am just trying to navigate my new life.

  “Where is Missy?” Logan looks around. “Doesn’t she care that you’re flirting with the new girl?”

  The new girl?

  I have a name.

  I can’t believe they’re even having this conversation in front of me. I feel like I should definitely step in and stop them, but I have no clue what to say.

  Maybe I should leave, but my feet are firmly p
lanted and they refuse to move.

  “She trusts me.” Dastian’s jaw ticks as he clenches it. “Because I’d never cheat on her.”

  “Like you haven’t before.” Logan snorts.

  Dastian doesn’t say anything to that. He just glares at Logan.

  Lockwood Academy is a pretty small school, with just over three hundred students. Most of them have gone here since their freshman year. They know each other well. I can’t help but feel like the odd one out.

  Dastian and Logan both take a step closer to one another.

  “I don’t really want a boyfriend,” I blurt out, trying to stop their argument.

  They both look over at me, momentarily forgetting what they were fighting about.

  Logan furrows his brows. “Doesn’t every girl want a boyfriend?”

  I shrug. “Not me.”

  Dastian smirks at Logan. “Isn’t that your usual M.O.? You make a girl think you want to be with her and then you use her and dump her, claiming a change of heart? How are you going to fool a girl who doesn’t want you or your daddy’s trust fund?”

  Logan ignores Dastian, a grin playing at his lips. “I’ll change your mind.”

  Change my mind?

  Is he serious?

  I clear my throat. “Look, I don’t want to get in to whatever fight you guys have. I just... I want to make friends.”

  I could use friends.

  So what if I’m insanely attracted to the two of them?

  Dastian has a girlfriend. A girlfriend that he is faithful to, not that I care either way. I would never go after a guy with a girlfriend. And Logan... He’s flirty. He’s also one of the hottest guys I’ve ever met in my life. Still, I know he’s not boyfriend material. But nothing says I can’t be friends with both of them, right?

  But the way Logan looks at me like he wants to devour me and the way Dastian looks at me like he’s trying to figure me out, I can’t help but think being friends with these two boys is going to be quite the feat.

  “I’ll just have to convince you to be more than friends with me,” Logan says, his voice low.

  Dastian stiffens. “I’ll only tell you this once. Stay away from her.”