3. Delilah
Chapter three
Delilah
S lipping on my heels, I pushed my hair over my shoulder as I checked the time. With only ten minutes to spare, I went over to the mirror quickly to fix my navy blue vest, tan skirt, and tie. Finishing up, I grabbed my bag and walked to the door. Walking down the stairs, I saw my younger siblings already sitting at the table. Going into the dining room, my father turned his head to the sound of my heels.
I smiled at him and kissed his head. “Good morning, Daddy,” I greeted, and he hummed.
“You’re late for breakfast, Delilah,” he noted, and I scoffed.
“You’re kidding. I have ten minutes to eat!” I exclaimed, and my fourteen-year-old brother Zachary lifted his head.
“Five minutes now,” he butted in, and my jaw dropped as my father nodded.
“See what I mean? Should’ve been down earlier.”
“This is ridiculous. Mom, back me up on this!” I said as she entered from the kitchen with Trinity in her arms.
She sighed and handed Reginald, our other butler, my younger sister, and he walked out of the room, cooing at her.
“Killian, stop. Let the girl eat, and Zachary, don’t encourage your father.”
It was my father’s turn to drop his jaw. “What did I do? All I did was tell the truth.”
“You know what you did, Killian,” she said, looking at him, and I smirked, feeling triumphant. Ivory held up her hand for a high five as she stuffed her face with her pancakes, and I gladly accepted it. Dad shook his head and mumbled a few words under his breath.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Mom asked, and Dad held up his hands.
“Nothing, nothing at all. I promise.”
She walked over to him. “Mhmm. Keep it up, and we’ll see where that leads you...”
“And where will it lead? A little trouble never hurt anyone,” he muttered as he bit his lip and grabbed her by the waist.
I choked on my orange juice, and Ivory held her hands over her ears.
Zachary pushed away his remaining food. “You guys sure know how to make someone lose their appetite.”
Our father rolled his eyes. “I can surely do whatever I please with my wife anywhere, regardless of whether it is in front of my children. How do you think you all got here?”
I sighed as I pushed away from my seat and stood up. “I actually don’t want to throw up, so I’m just gonna go,” I muttered, and Ivory and Zachary agreed as they stood up.
Mom looked over to us as she pushed Dad away. “Have a good day at school, my loves!” She smiled.
“Leave already so I can enjoy my last ten minutes with my wife.”
“All right, thanks, I guess,” Ivory said, and we all exited the dining room. Almost immediately, we heard Mom start to giggle, and the three of us held our hands up to our mouths to stop the incoming vomit that we wanted to surface.
Quickly grabbing our things, we stumbled out of the house and ran to the fountain, where Kimiko was waiting for me with her younger brother, Jin.
“Hey, Kimi; hey, Jinny,” I said, and she noticed the look on my face.
“You guys looked like you’ve just witnessed trauma.”
Zachary shook his head, holding his temples. “Believe me. We have,” he uttered. Kimiko made the wise decision to not further question him. He, Jin and Ivory then said their goodbyes as they headed for our other driver, Leo’s, car to see Uncle Blaine’s and Uncle Eugene’s children. Kimiko and I turned as we entered the car and George, our driver, drove off.
After about ten minutes, we reached the middle school branch of the academy, and I watched faintly as Ivory, Jin, and the others all got out of the car ahead of us and went to their building. Just down the street, Leo dropped off Zachary at the high school branch, and Kimiko and I still had around five to ten minutes before we reached the university branch, which had a few streets to itself.
Highland Bridge Academy was an academy that was specifically, for lack of words to use, for “kids who had money.” It slowly became one of the most popular schools in the country and was well-known for its well-educated teachers and students. Our parents are key investors in this school, starting off by paying well over $10,000... for kindergarten, and as the grade goes up, so does the price for everything from semester fees to supplies to uniforms. They make a lot of profit off of their students, and that’s why the acceptance rate is less than five percent if you don’t have a fifty percent down payment.
Looking out of the window, I spoke softly, catching Kimiko’s attention. “I don’t suppose much has changed, since the last time I attended the academy?”
She sighed. “Dee, going back to the academy, especially for university—I don’t want to give you any false hope.”
I listened as she continued, “It’s not like high school or grade school... The students there are much more intense, and if we’re not together, I want you to keep to yourself or just stay clear of trouble, please .” She almost begged, and I could feel my heart beating a bit faster as we approached the school grounds. Aside from leaving the academy for my own personal reasons, I left specifically for the culture of the school.
From what I remembered, the almost classist system separated the students and divided them based on superficial aspects.
The place your family holds in the so-called hierarchy, or pecking order, if you will, determines how most of the students, even some of the administrators, view you.
Essentially, the more money your family makes and contributes to the academy, the more you are recognized as important. Some of the students even went as technical to label the class system and those in it.
Class A includes the families at the “elite” status, which has its own ranking within itself: The Russel family, the Porter family, the Lockwood family, the Crawford family, and the Masahiko family were just a few to name.
Class B comprises millionaires from professions such as surgeons, lawyers, business owners, and designers.
Class C consists of families with annual incomes over a million, including doctors, accountants, and architects.
Class D includes those earning between $200,000 and $1 million, while Classes E and F encompass those making less than $150,000 a year.
Without financial aid, some families could be left with close to nothing after paying for one or two semesters, not to mention the additional costs of mandatory extracurricular activities.
“Usually... I try to occupy myself so I don’t have to witness it, and if you stay clear of them, you won’t need to either,” Kimiko continued, and I felt the urge to question her more about what had changed, but before I could ask any more questions, we reached our destination. We both stepped out, and eyes immediately turned to us as the courtyard was silent with a few faint whispers.
“There’s Delilah, Killian Russel’s daughter.”
“She’s back!”
I continued to hear their whispers as we entered the building. As I ignored them, Kimi and I walked over to the temporary advisory homeroom that was designed for us just to get our first-week schedules that had to do with our regular classes. To stay in the school because all of their students were “well rounded,” as they put it, we had to have a few extracurricular activities that we would be able to choose next week along with our majors. From the looks of the current syllabus this week, we finished around one or two, and this was pretty common in our school system.
The days were short because we had other regulations to attend to with our family companies or businesses. Our school year was also different, consisting of three semesters that all lasted three months and a month interval for a break. Currently, we are in the winter semester, which starts in January and ends in March, giving us the month of April off. Much like every other aspect of our lives growing up with the families we did, everything was controlled and regulated.
Entering one of the many lecture halls, we took a seat, and other students started piling in as well. The professor began speaking and going over everything that was necessary. Eventually, we were allowed to leave and go to our first official class. Thankfully, Kimi and I had our first in Calculus and Statistics. However, we had to split afterward when she went to English, and I had Physics.
As I walked through the halls, I could still feel the discreet stares, but I simply minded my business as I went. As I looked down at my schedule to find my next class, I flinched slightly as he spoke beside me.
“Well, aren’t you popular?”
Looking over my shoulder, I bit my lip as I noticed his intense gaze on me. My hands felt clammy all of a sudden as I could practically feel him towering over me.
His chiseled jaw clenched slightly as his piercing green eyes glared daggers at me. For as huge as our university campus was, I was surprised he was still able to find me.
“Hi, Archer.” I turned to him fully and looked up as he stared down at me.
“You shouldn’t have come back,” he said out of nowhere, and I furrowed my eyebrows. “Things have changed ever since you left. It’s not the same as you remember.”
“It still looks and feels the same to me. Why did you stay if things have ‘changed’?” I asked bravely, and he didn’t say anything.
Slowly, he took footsteps towards me, and I slowly backed myself against the wall as I had nowhere else to go.
Discreetly, I gazed around the halls to see everyone had conveniently disappeared. Archer stepped in a bit closer, and I accidentally dropped my bag from my hand. He glanced down at my bag but ignored it, gazing back at me.
“These days, people care a lot more about how much money Daddy makes and how important your family is. You would think Killian being your father grants you a pass, but… you’d be surprised to know you were the next target.”
My heart raced as he was only a few inches away. I should’ve been more concerned with what he said, but my mind was still busy processing how close he was.
“W-what do you mean?” I asked, trying to distract myself from my growing nervousness.
Wordlessly, he leaned down to pick up my bag and handed it to me as he spoke.
“Keep to yourself, and you won’t have to find out, sweetheart.” And then he walked away as I watched him silently. Like many times before, he left me thinking—about his actions, his words… and about him . It was utterly annoying how much he affected me.
Looking at the clock, I noticed my class started in a few minutes, so I straightened myself up and walked to the room. Once it finished, I texted Kimiko to meet outside so we could have lunch.
As I made my way out of the classroom and walked toward the exit, I flinched as the sound of something banging against a door rang into the halls. I looked around as a few of the students seemed frightened by the sound but weren’t as confused as I was. Gazing down the hall to see a small crowd had formed near the noise, I cautiously walked over.
My hand flew to cover my mouth when the sound rang aloud again, but only this time I could see what it was—or who it was. It was a boy who had short black hair and wore glasses. He slid down the door, and I heard a dark chuckle.
“Pathetic. Do you honestly think I wouldn’t have found you?” A voice with a slight British accent spoke, and my mind told me to run for it, but my feet were unwillingly making their way to the crowd. A few of the students let me get by, as I didn’t hinder their view much, and my breath hitched at the scene.
“It wasn’t hard, honestly... everyone here would know the smell of poverty from a mile away, but you don’t seem to. Oh, forgive me. I must have forgotten. You would know because your father barely makes a cent in his shit business.”
The boy sat against the door as three other guys stood a few feet away, the one in the middle holding onto his sinister smile.
“It’s pitiful, really. Your father works his ass off for mine, and a few years from now… you’ll be doing the same for me. Did you not learn your lesson when you first came to this school? If it didn’t click the second you enrolled when you were a child… I’ll give you a hint. You’re not fucking welcome here. ”
The boy attempted to get back up on his feet.
The smile on the face of the guy in the middle was starting to fade, and he lifted his hand and snapped his fingers twice. In an instant, the boys beside him walked over and pinned the boy down as they threw punches at his stomach and a few to his face.
Tears started gathering in my eyes, and when another threw another punch, a small gasp left my lips as I jumped. Unsurprisingly, everyone heard it as the so-called “group leader” turned his head and stared at me. I could feel my heart stopping, and he slowly turned back to the boys and spoke.
“All right…” Immediately, the boys stopped, and the one on the floor sat in defeat. He didn’t look to have anything broken, but parts of his face already began to swell.
The leader then glanced at me for a split second before speaking again. “He’s had enough. For now.”
They walked away from the scene, and the students backed away so the three of them could leave. The crowd started to disperse, but I couldn’t seem to move. My words were trapped in my throat as I watched him sit on the ground. What did I just witness?
“ It’s not like high school or grade school... The students there are much more intense…”
“These days, people care a lot more about how much money Daddy makes and how important your family is.”
Was this what Kimiko and Archer meant by fucking “different?” This seemed more like high school and grade school rather than university. Only now, it seemed like there wasn’t an administrator in sight to break up the chaos as they would’ve done in the past.
Bringing myself back to reality, I took one step towards the boy, but the click of my heel made him freeze. He looked up at me, and the look in his eyes held anger, and they were full of vengeance.
“You stay the hell away from me,” he seethed, and I stopped in my tracks with a look of confusion plastered on my face.
I heard the clicks of another person’s heels and a voice.
“Delilah.”
I looked up at Kimi, and she immediately noticed the look in my eyes. She walked over to me and dragged me away from the boy.
“Kimi—”
“Did you let him see you?” she asked quickly, and I responded.
“What do you mean—”
“Did Crawford notice you in the crowd?” I stopped in my tracks and turned her around. She looked into my eyes, and her face softened as she saw the unshed tears in my eyes.
“Kimiko, what the hell is going on here? You told me things are different… this is more than just different.” I forced myself to hold back my tears.
She grabbed my hand slowly and walked us outside to the courtyard, one of the main areas where students gathered. She sighed as we walked.
“Luca Crawford believes he runs the damn school and thinks that the people who were admitted into the school with financial aid or are below him are a waste of space.”
Obviously, there were a few instances of this kind of bullying back in grade school, but a teacher or administrator would always get involved. Now that we’re older, it seems things have changed.
“Why didn’t anyone stop him?” I asked her, and she shook her head in disdain.
“Because everyone believes he actually does own the school because of how much money his father gives the board.”
“They don’t care about the well-being of their students?”
“They do... to an extent.”
Sitting on the bench, I crossed my leg over the other as I watched the students travel to different buildings for their next classes.
To an extent.
“Delilah, don’t think about it too hard. I know it seems messed up, and trust me, it is. Luca Crawford, as cheesy as it sounds, doesn’t play by the rules. He creates them,” Kimiko muttered to me as she sat beside me, and I shook my head.
“How did it get this bad? It’s… it’s disgusting.”
Kimi shrugged helplessly. “It’s all about the funding and skewed power dynamics. In the past couple of years, it’s like the school board just turned a blind eye to everything. The Crawfords have too much influence, and everyone knows it. The teachers, the board, even the students. Sometimes, it’s easier to look away, no matter how messed up things seem.”
“I don’t even know how to come to terms with what I’ve returned to.”
“Did Luca see you?” she asked, and I nodded, causing her to sigh again. “Delilah, I need you to promise me you’ll stay away from him at all costs.” She practically begged me, and I bit my lip softly as I was reminded of his dark, dangerous eyes looking over at me. I had stared at him in absolute shock.
Shaking my head, I replied, “Don’t worry. I was already planning on it.”