Chapter 5 – Ava Jade #2
“Chill, Bri. You’ll smudge your lipstick sneering like that,” Rook crooned and an angry flush rose to her cheeks, mostly concealed by the thick layer of makeup she wore. She spun back around, her hands curling into claws atop her desk, practically shaking with rage.
Wow. Bitch really needed to get a grip. It wasn’t like I’d called her a cunt or a whore, but judging by her reaction and the way she immediately looked to the nearest dick-bearing human for protection told me she was likely both of those things, too.
I studiously took notes for the next thirty minutes, droning out the whispered conversations around me and the way the asshat behind me kept ‘accidentally’ kicking my chair leg. Though, when the guy got up to use the bathroom I saw how gigantic he was so, maybe it was an accident after all.
Where Rook was all wide shoulders and dense muscle, this guy was tall as fuck.
Like, he had to be close to clearing seven feet.
Six-five at a minimum. For all I knew he probably couldn’t help catching his size thirteens on my chair, but judging by the bitter look he gave me as he passed, he wouldn’t have given a shit either way.
The blonde next to me, Bri, had her phone open beneath her desk and a coy smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she thumbed a message. Not more than a few seconds after she sent it, an audible buzzing sounded behind me, and she passed something back to Angry Face
My immediate suspicion was drugs, but then I had to remind myself where I was and amend my suspicions. Not drugs— designer drugs . There would be no tic-tacs or cloudy crystal here. It was likely all blow and bath salts at hoity toity prep.
And no search dogs, bag checks, or metal detectors to catch them.
At least I could keep my blade on me in class now. Having it close by almost always settled my nerves, even if in most circumstances I wouldn’t need to use it.
Piggybacking on Dom’s private self-defense lessons for the last two years back home made me just as lethal without it.
Speaking of, I wondered how long it would take her to notice I was gone.
It hadn’t exactly been a priority to let anyone know I was leaving.
Besides, she was sequestered up at her dad’s place for the next two weeks while he defended some crime lord in court.
Being a lawyer for one of the bigger gangs in California came with certain. ..risks.
He always made her stay with him in Madison Heights when he was going to trial. There was no telling what his clients might do if he lost on their behalf. Good thing he never did.
It was why he made her take the lessons in the first place. Why he didn’t complain when I tagged along with her—since it seemed to be the only way his daughter would go herself.
“Hey,” Bri whispered and it took me a full ten seconds to realize she was talking to me.
I squinted at her, checking to make sure the teacher was busy before replying. I didn’t want to incur his wrath twice in the same morning. “What do you want?”
Her lips pressed together as she tapped a piece of paper in her glittery pink three-ring binder. Groaning inwardly, I leaned over to look at what she’d written and froze. Burning rage seared through my chest and steamed my cheeks, turning them no doubt a blistery red.
In a deep red ink were the words:
GO BACK TO YOUR TRAILER, LENNOX. YOU DON’T BELONG HERE.
Great, so everyone already knew exactly who I was then. I wondered if they paid off the office admin for the info or if they’d just handed it over with no questions asked. Neither would surprise me.
The darkness I always kept at bay slid up my throat like poison, making me have to choke it back.
I smiled sweetly and slid my middle finger over my lips, pretending to blend imaginary lip balm. Fuck off, I mouthed and earned myself a chuckle from Grey, who was at the perfect angle behind us to read my lips.
But Bri’s grin only magnified at my slight, a deviant glimmer in her bright green eyes as she turned to the teacher, her expression morphing completely.
“Thief!” she shrieked, standing so sharply that her desk jostled, her perfect row of multicolored pens scattering to the floor. “Mr. Jameson, she stole my bracelet!”
I rolled my eyes. Yep. A cuntnugget for sure.
Mr. Jameson’s beady eyes slid to me accusingly, his face in a disgusted pucker. “Now, now, class,” he said firmly, making the chatter of the other students lower as he cut between the aisle of desks with his sights set on me.
I put my hands up, knowing the drill, even if Mr. Jameson wasn’t an officer of the law. He might as well be here. Plus, if your hands are up, they’re less likely to shoot.
Of course, you’re still not totally safe even then. Getting one that’d had a bad day almost always ended in at least a few bruises from a baton or a getting tased for ‘resisting’ even if you were statue-still. At least, that’s how it worked in Lennox.
“I didn’t take anything,” I said preemptively, cutting off the teacher before he could speak. “I don’t know what she’s talking about.”
Mr. Jameson glared between Bri and me, his face growing redder by the second. “Miss Moore, is it possible you simply left your bracelet in your room?”
“No,” she whined, pointing her finger in my direction. “Check her pockets.”
Jesus fucking Christ.
Sighing, I turned out my right pocket and then my left, knowing the drill and just wanting this bullshittery over with.
But something cool brushed my fingers a second before it toppled from the pocket of my baggy sweater.
The dainty silver bracelet hit the polished floor with a little tinkle, and the rage I’d been working to squish back into the jar where it belonged began to overflow.
“I did not steal that,” I said through gritted teeth as Bri crossed her arms over her chest, dignified in her accusation now that it was proven correct. I wasn’t an idiot; I knew how this looked. And how weak my rebuttal sounded.
Mr. Jameson collected the bracelet and handed it back to Bri who looked far too pleased with herself for my liking. I wondered if she’d look so damned smug with two black eyes but managed to rein myself in, clasping my hands together beneath the table in a vice.
“Theft is not tolerated at Briar Hall.”
Bri shared a conspiratorial look with the guy behind me, and it all made sense. The bitch had set me up. She’d passed the bracelet to the douche canoe behind me, and he’d slipped it into my pocket when she made me lean over to read her stupid note. I’d been played.
Wow. Touché, bitch. Tou-fucking-ché.
“Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
I glared up at the teacher, running my tongue over my teeth and half expecting to find fangs. When I didn’t give Mr. Jameson the response he wanted, because I’d be damned if I was going to admit to something I didn’t do, he shook his head.
“Gather your things and get out of my sight.”
With pleasure. There was no sense arguing about it, not when the evidence was right there for everyone in the entire class to see.
“Detention,” Mr. Jameson called back over his shoulder without turning to look at me as he made his way to the blackboard. “Every day this week after last period.”
Bri grinned gleefully at me as I gathered up my notes, and I got an idea. It wasn’t nearly as much as she deserved, but I remembered one of the cardinal rules of Briar Hall from the pamphlet my aunt gave me.
No cell phones in class.
I knocked my hip into Bri’s desk as I bent to retrieve the pen I’d purposefully dropped, easily slipping my hand into the darkened mouth of her desk to grab her phone.
“Oh, so sorry about that,” I said, my voice dripping sarcasm and growing loud enough that the teacher would be sure to hear me. “I didn’t mean to make you drop your phone.”
Her eyes went wide.
“Here.” I dropped it onto her desk, and she went white as she scrambled to grab it, eyes shifting to Mr. Jameson who looked like he was ready to blow his top.
“Miss Moore, you should know better.”
“Mr. Jameson, I didn’t?—”
“Detention,” he shouted over her plea. “And I’ll take that for the rest of the day.”
I gave her a one-shoulder shrug as she fumed with a declaration of war clear in her haughty stare. I hadn’t waved the white flag like she wanted, like she expected, and I got the feeling she didn’t know how to handle someone who stood their ground.
On a whim, I tossed a wink at the asshat who’d colluded with her to set me up, letting him know that I knew exactly what he’d done. That I wouldn’t forget it.
His stony blue eyes watched me, never wavering, as I left homeroom.
It was me who had to break the connection, my throat going dry as I recognized something in his stare: a darkness that should’ve terrified me, but instead had me curious to see how deep it ran. My finger aching to press his buttons.
No.
I shook my head, clearing it of any lingering shadows. Freedom was within my reach. One school year away.
Another run before second period sounded like a good idea. If I stayed here, I couldn’t guarantee I wouldn’t wait around to give that blonde bitch a rude awakening after class.
At Lennox High, I was the girl everyone knew better than to cross. All it took was my curling a fist around the disappointingly small cock of the Lennox Lions’ quarterback, and pressing one of my blades firmly against its base. I only drew the tiniest dribble of blood, but it did the trick.
If the jerkoff didn’t already think I was insane for turning down his offer to fuck me in his truck, the blade helped finish the job.
By the next day I was branded a psycho and shunned by the rest of the school. Just how I liked it.
I half wondered if the same trick would work here before remembering the way the guy behind me had been staring. If I got his vibe right, the fucker would probably enjoy that. I sighed, tucking the idea away in a back pocket of my mind just in case I needed to use it.