Chapter 8 #3
Mr. Beaumont leaned down, pressing a hand to Gordon’s shoulders. “You know how wives are. Some of them like to talk back.”
There was laughter in the air as I stared down at my soup, the orange liquid so much more appealing than the withered face of Gordon and his boring business friend.
I didn’t care about what they were saying, if they were joking about me, if I was some stupid, funny topic for them to laugh at.
This was who I was now, who I had become.
Just a woman with a fancy last name and a mask that I sometimes couldn’t keep from falling off.
The rest of the night went by painfully slow. My parents barely looked my way, but I wasn’t too concerned about that. It’d just be more judgmental stares, more critical words. Instead, I let them talk, resting my chin in my hand, my fingers covering my lips.
My eyes found a young couple in the back.
They looked right out of high school, maybe still even in high school.
I hated myself for it, but all I could think about was my first, real proper date with Bridger.
He had taken me to some upscale place right in the middle of Illinois.
French, luxurious, way out of his price range, but he had insisted that we go there, that he wanted our first real date to be somewhere special, and what a lovely night it had been.
Us two sharing shy stares and smiles before he drove me home and I had to sneak my way back inside. It had been magical; the kind of date that made you feel so light and loved and comfortable and nervous in the best way possible all at the same time.
For a minute or two, I was right back there with him, young and dumb and so in love. I’d tell him about my art projects and he’d tell me how exciting that all was and then he’d talk about some idiot rich couple he had robbed after school, and for whatever reason, I had found that wildly intriguing.
He was everything I wasn’t supposed to want. Bad and unruly and not afraid to get his hands dirty like all the uptight boys I had gone to school with. Bridger had been different. He was forbidden, but that was what made staying away from him so hard.
Five Years Earlier
Rushville High School was a hell of a lot different to what I was used to. With an old, weathered brick outer and cement steps that had more than a few chips, I stared up at the building.
It was a nice day, just a month or so since summer had come to an end. The heavy gray blazer of my uniform was no match for the morning heat, and I wished I was allowed to take it off. Instead, the dark fabric practically clung to my skin, the heat thick in the air.
“I hate this place,” a voice said from behind me. “We’re gonna get mugged. I should have left my phone at school.”
“I don’t trust these kids,” came another voice. “They’re all so… Ugh… What’s the word?”
“Poor,” said someone else. “Poor and desperate. I left my phone on the bus. I’m not bringing that in there with me. They’ll steal it and sell it before the day is over.”
“Why do you make us come to these dumb little schools?” another voice spoke up. “Seriously, they’re all awful. This one really takes the cake as the worst, though. I bet they have a metal detector here.”
My eyes rolled. The boys at Stonebridge Academy had a habit of being dramatic.
They weren’t exactly fans of our school’s outreach program.
We were visiting a school on the “wrong side of the tracks” as some of the boys liked to point out.
Really, it didn’t seem all that bad. The drive into the South Side had been fairly uneventful as well.
No robberies, no car jackings, no murders.
“Boys, enough of that,” Mrs. Elroy snapped from the top of the grayed, plain steps. “Don’t gossip. It’s unbecoming.”
“Well, it’s true.” Pierce Du Pont raised an eyebrow up at our social studies teacher, his blond hair slick and neat. “If I get mugged, someone is going to be sued.”
Mrs. Elroy rolled her eyes, and I held in a little laugh. She never tolerated spoiled brat nonsense. “Don’t make me give you all detention when we get back to school. You all know why you’re here. Suck it up and learn.”
“But did we have to come to this school?” Pierce asked with a wince.
“Yeah, this place is really dangerous,” Alden Browne mumbled. He was standing next to me, pushing a hand through his dark hair, the other stuffed into the pocket of his gray pants. “This school has been on the news before. For, like, bad things.”
“They’re no worse than you lot.” Mrs. Elroy ushered us inside. “Come on, come on. Don’t be late. We don’t want to make a bad impression.”
Mrs. Elroy held the heavy doors open for us, and I was a little startled to see the heavy machinery of two metal detectors.
My brows raised as we were forced into a line, a security guard instructing us on what to do and how to do it.
We had to take all our jewelry off. Then we had to hold our arms out as the guard ran their little scanner along our bodies, that crackling noise in the air before we got the go ahead to move through.
“This is kinda cool,” a cheery voice said to my side. Cassandra Sinclair’s eyes were lighting up, her blonde curls bouncing as she gave me a little nudge. “Right? Ooh, it’s like a field trip to prison.”
I laughed, our shoulders brushing as Mrs. Elroy gathered us all in a little corner.
“We’re almost done,” she said, “and then we can meet up with your partners!”
Partners. When we got to a new school, we got to spend a couple hours with a new student. It was nice to interact with them, to learn about people from different schools and towns. We got to talk about college and what our majors would be—boring school stuff.
But we also delved into our hobbies and what we did on the weekends, our voices low as we took down notes about each other to complete our profiles for our teachers to look over later.
So far, all my partners had been lovely.
I had met Elsie Grant last month who told me she was saving up to go to med school, and I also met Chelsea Patel who had hopes of becoming an actress. I wondered who I’d meet today.
“We’ll be meeting up with your partners in the main office today,” Mrs. Elroy explained. “Then you’ll head on off for a walk around the campus.”
Pierce gasped. “Around campus?”
“Calm down.” Mrs. Elroy narrowed her eyes. “I expect you all to pay attention and take notes. As always, I also expect to see the full written profiles for your partners by the end of the week. Their hobbies, college goals, aspirations, family life. All of it.”
“I don’t think these people have any aspirations,” Alden said with a snicker next to me.
There were soft, scandalized murmurs as Mrs. Elroy guided us down one of the hallways of Rushville High. I spotted quite a bit of graffiti on the metal of the lockers. Some of them seemed to be completely broken all together.
Mrs. Elroy took us around a corner, holding another door open for us. Soon, we were all stuck inside what seemed to be the main office where a tall, white-haired man stood.
“This is Principal Stine!” Mrs. Elroy said, one hand outstretched towards him.
“Good morning!” Principal Stine smiled at us. “I’m sure you’re all very excited to be here today at Rushville, and we’re just as excited to have you here as well. All of your partners should be here in a little while, so please just—”
A loud bang in the distance cut him off and he flinched. Literally flinched. His eyes closed as he let out a long, tired sounding breath.
“It’s not even nine o’clock,” he muttered. “Not even nine, and—”
Another bang. Loud voices, shoes squeaking on the floor, swearing. Lots of swearing.
Principal Stine shook his head, giving us all a smile that looked half pained, half forced. “Let me go sort that out! Your partners should be here any second now!”
Principal Stine left the room while muttering under his breath, and I couldn’t help but wonder what on earth was happening out there.
Stonebridge Academy was quiet. Too quiet.
It was boring and structured and every little aspect of our school lives was organized, so I couldn’t help but be a little intrigued by Rushville’s chaos.
“They’re gonna kill us at this place,” Pierce said.
Rolling my eyes at his words, I just focused on the other noise I could hear in the doorway.
Footsteps, curious voices, and then I was looking at a whole group of unfamiliar faces.
One by one, our partners showed up, their smiles shy and their waves friendly.
The office slowly emptied out as more students showed up, and soon I was the only one left.
“Juliette,” Mrs. Elroy said, popping her head in the doorway and she turned her head left and right, her gray curls bouncing. “Hm. Your partner isn’t here.”
“Are they absent today?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. She should be here.” She reached her hand out, handing me a piece of paper. “That’s her information there. Just one moment, Miss Ashford. Why don’t you take a seat?”
Nodding, I did as she said, sliding into the old little bench that sat in the middle of the room. One of my black Mary Janes tapped against the floor, my hands smoothing down the front of my gray pleated skirt.
There was suddenly a loud voice coming from behind me, from down the hallway.
They were muttering about something, and I was pretty sure I could hear Principal Stine’s voice mixed in as well.
Someone’s loud, heavy feet on the floor hit my ears next, and then I jumped a little as the door behind me was flung open and hit the wall right behind it.
Startled, I sat up a little straighter in my seat.
“All I did was punch him!” I heard a deep voice grumble from behind me. A boy. An angry sounding boy. “Is he crying? It was one punch, man. Fuckin’ baby.”