Twelve
SCARLETT
H omework and hangouts between the six of us, now seven that Stella’s joined our group are all we do for the next few weeks.
Luckily, I’ve had zero run-ins with any of the guys or girls, although all Ace does is glare at me during classes.
Jade’s hung out with Liam a couple times and apparently, he’s told her Ace has been in a pissy mood since Liam spread the word that Ace and I are nothing, and that I am, in fact, with Drake.
We’ve all fallen into an easy routine and are kind of enjoying being here at Servite and things between Drake and I have been going pretty well.
According to Stella, we’ve become the new “it couple” since Ace seems to have booted Carrington for good, and Bass won’t even look toward Kinsley. I have to say I’m surprised. I was worried about how us taking things to the next step would go but so far so good .
Drake’s always been protective over me. We’re best friends, family. But ever since we got to Servite, he’s been more possessive and controlling, especially where Ace is concerned.
Yet somehow, Drake and I have only gotten closer. It’s usually me going over and sneaking into his room since Jax & Kai are never home, and their roommate Jake usually just hides out in his room doing homework. Jade and I have also bonded with Stella, while Ruby has been pretty absent, either out with Jax or locked in her room.
I’ve even avoided the creeper, Agent Servite. Looks like he and the Headmaster have been away at some conferences up north for the last two weeks. I couldn't care less where he is as long as it’s away from me.
Today is the first Saturday of October and the school is being transformed to look like an old, haunted house. Apparently, it’s tradition to turn the Servite Academy campus into a ghostly scene. Rumor has it this school was first built in the 1800s and was home to the children of some of the most notorious world leaders.
They were all part of some elite secret society, which turned out to be more of a cult that was discovered in the late 1800s. There was a tragic accident on October 31, 1902, where almost forty percent of the school’s population was killed in a tragic fire. The campus was closed for almost twenty years until it was finally rebuilt and turned into the current Servite Academy reopening in 1920.
The Academy is said to be cursed by the students who perished in the fire, which is why every October, the school pays tribute to the fallen by recreating what would have been their school today. It’s all a little far-fetched if you ask me, but whatever. The rich have to find peculiar ways to keep themselves entertained.
Besides, Jade and I have always loved Halloween.
Scary movies, dressing up, sneaking candy from the other kids in our neighborhood who actually got to go trick or treating. It was the only time we actually felt like kids. So what, there are a few ghosts floating around campus, they can’t be worse than the real people here.
Per tradition there is a themed party every Saturday night in October, ending with a giant masquerade ball hosted at the Servite’s Mansion on Halloween night.
Tonight’s theme is Saints and Sinners , where everyone either goes dressed as a saint, angel, or sinner, devil. Jade and I coordinated she would be the angel to my devil, while Stella is going to be an angel, of course, and I think Ruby decided on playing both.
Since today is Saturday, and the day of the party, Stella is taking us into town to buy our costumes. She wants to take us to this huge Halloween warehouse she says has the best costumes, but Jade and I are content with buying things to DIY our own like we always have.
“Come on, we have to at least check out the costumes,” Stella whines as we walk down Main Street in Downtown Hillcrest Hills.
It’s our first time off campus and in the city, which means our first time exploring Hillcrest Hills. I have to say it’s less enthralling than I'd expected. Sure, every store and establishment we’ve passed is way out of my price point, but it’s also nothing out of the ordinary.
“Scar and I have always made our own costumes,” Jade says as we reach the Halloween store on the corner of the town square beside a Sushi restaurant that seems to be all the rage. “There was this one year we were like...”
“Seven,” I answer.
“Yeah, seven and we wanted to be…”
“Astronauts.”
“So, we snuck into my dad’s things and found several rolls of duct tape. We then taped our pajamas with the duct tape onto our bodies. We got foil and put our hair into two buns and covered them in the foil because we couldn’t duct tape our hair,” Jade says laughing. “We snuck out that night to trick or treat in the neighboring homes and everyone… ”
“Kept asking if we were aliens,” I add, and we both start laughing at the memory.
“We were so mad that when we got home, we started trying to take the costumes off only to find out we had taped them too tight. We made so much noise that Lilith woke up and she had to cut us out of our pajamas. She was so mad…”
“That she took all the candy we had gotten and flushed it down the toilet.”
“That’s horrible,” Stella cries out, tears pooling in her eyes.
“Yeah well, still one of the best Halloweens we’ve had,” Jade says, assuring Stella we’ve gotten over it.
“I’m still wondering why your dad had so many rolls of duct tape.” Jax raises his eyebrows suggestively.
Jade and I both shake our heads. “We don’t wanna know,” we say in unison.
“Point of the story, Silver,” I add. “Making your own costume is half the fun. It’s unique, you can make it your own, and we won’t have to worry about showing up in the same costume as like twenty other girls.”
“Fine, I’m convinced, but can we at least check out the accessories section?” Stella asks, reaching for the door of the store.
The Halloween store is huge, full of every costume you could ever think of in every direction. To the left against the wall are rows upon rows of wigs, masks, hats, and crowns. Each section is organized by category - scary, character, funny, sexy, etc.
“Come on, let’s go toward the left.”
We walk over to the wigs and accessories where Jade finds a pair of glittery, iridescent angel wings and I grab a pair of red curved horns, embroidered with a black shiny yarn. They look more like Maleficent’s horns except in red, but they’re perfect for what I have planned. I try to convince Stella to dress up as a sinner instead of a saint, but she won’t budge.
“Come on, Silver, you can wear this red wig. It would look hella bomb,” Jade assures her, holding up a long dark red wig with blunt bangs. It really is cute.
“Jade’s already angel blonde and well, my black hair will go with my costume, but you need to get the wig and be a little she-devil. Look, I even have the perfect costume in mind.” I hold up a pair of gold horns similar to mine with red tips.
“I don’t know,” Stella mumbles softly.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” a high-pitch voice coming from behind me says, making me outwardly cringe.
We turn and find the four queens approaching us. Great. To think we’d have a pleasant afternoon away from all the bullshit at the academy was too much to ask.
“Carrington, it’s so nice running into you,” I answer sarcastically, giving her one of my best phony smiles.
“What are you girls going to dress as? Oh wait, slut isn’t part of the theme this weekend right, Carrington?” Kinsley sneers from beside her, clearly proud of her snide comment although no one laughs.
“Unfortunately, it’s not, but it’s not like anything you’d wear would hide the fact that you’re poor, dirty whores,” Carrington sneers, and the other three laugh on cue. Sure, the girls are all beautiful, none more impressive than the “queen bee” herself, but something about Kinsley makes her stand out from the four. Her bright blonde hair, frighteningly symmetrical facial features, and bright green doll-like eyes almost sparkle.
It’s kind of scary how picture-perfect she is. Carrington is more model-like with blue almond-shaped eyes, high cheekbones, and naturally tanned skin, paired with an unnatural everything else. Drea is just a clone of her twin brother, Alek, with the same blonde hair and blue eyes but where his hair is more of a dirty blond, hers is golden with a slight yellowish tint.
They do, however, share the same wonderful personality.
Finally, there’s Wynter Servite, Ace’s twin sister and to me, the most beautiful of the four. Wynter’s platinum, almost white, hair falls along her back in sleek waves and she holds the same intense ocean blue eyes as her brother. Their resemblance to one another is uncanny. Wynter also has a slight edge to her that seems like she’s hiding more demons that she cares to show. Uncommon for a spoiled heiress like herself, but it’s there.
I’d recognize the look of wariness anywhere.
But she’s also the quietest and most reserved of the four. Frankly, I don’t think I’ve ever heard her speak, and she seems less than impressed by Carrington’s snide insults. It’s almost like she’s annoyed by them.
“Oh, Stella, I hope you don’t think you can actually pull that wig off. It’s a little too sultry for your virgin self,” Kinsley mocks and Stella instantly sets the wig down, embarrassed.
“She can definitely pull the wig off, virgin or not. Hell, maybe I’ll be the one doing the pulling,” Kai blurts out, coming around and draping an arm around a clearly shaken up Stella.
The girls scoff at his comment, ignoring as they turn to me.
“Just don’t ruin the party tonight. I mean just the fact that you’re all going is bound to ruin a fun night, but tonight is a special night, and I’ll personally make your life hell if you cause another one of your scenes with Ace,” Carrington scowls, and they all turn and walk away.
“Well, she’s a total bitch,” Ruby says, holding up a sleek silver-haired wig.
“Change of plans,” Jade squeals, turning toward us with a wicked grin. “I’m fairly sure those basic bitches are gonna show up in the exact matching basic bitch angel costume tonight. So instead, we’re all going as sinners and you, Stella, are going to be our angel.”
I turn to Ruby who’s holding out the long, sleek straight, silver wig to Stella.
“How about we switch, Silver?” Ruby says, taking the red wig in her hands. “Red’s more my color anyway,” she says with a wink .
Stella’s eyes widen at Ruby’s remark as she laughs nervously. “I can’t pull off this wig, it's too…”
“Sexy, that’s what it is,” Kai answers from beside her, his arms still draped along her shoulders.
“Kinsley’s right, everyone’s gonna see right through me,” Stella says, looking away shyly.
“Look, Silver,” I tell her, turning her to face me. “One of the first things I learned when I arrived at the foster house was that people are going to see what you decide to show them. When we got there, Ruby had a giant chip on her shoulder.” I turn toward her and hear her scoff. “Yeah, an even bigger one. Anyway, she thought she could push me around, and I almost let her. But I soon realized that she didn’t know me, none of them did. And if I showed her, showed them,” I say looking at Drake. “That I wasn’t to be messed with, then they’d back off. So, I did just that. I wrote in red sharpie all across Drake’s bedroom wall and I got this.” I pull up my sweater revealing the tattoo on my rib cage.
Long Live the Queen.
“And here you are,” Stella murmurs under her breath.
“And here she is,” Drake says, winking at me.
“But I’m not you, Scarlett. I’m not Jade or Ruby. I’m…”
“You’re Stella Freaking Silver. If your cousin is a self-proclaimed Horseman, then you can be a self-proclaimed queen.”
“Ivy,” she whispers, and we all turn to her confused. “It’s Stella Ivy Silver.”
After another two hours of shopping, we make it back to the apartment with three bags each, while the guys have gone back to their place and will be returning to pick us up around eight. It looks like it might rain, yeah plot twist, so the party’s been moved into Ace’s beach house.
We lay out all the items we bought from the various stores we went to and plan our outfits, while Ruby heads to the kitchen and grabs us the sodas and snacks we bought for the occasion. After considering our options, we’ve come to the consensus that all of us, including the guys, must go dressed as sinners making Stella our little virginal angel, which we found out is true after all.
After the Halloween store, we stopped by a boutique that had the cutest yet most expensive pieces of clothing. However, Stella reminded us about our school issued debit cards, so we went a little crazy. Now it’s finally time. Time to assemble our costumes.
“What’s the deal with all this obsessing over Halloween?” Jade asks as she glues some jewels on her horned headband.
“Seriously, does all that stuff about the school being cursed because of the huge fire have any truth behind it?” I ask curious to know more.
“Well, according to my uncle and all our parents, the original founders of the academy were in fact direct descendants of the five original founding families of Hillcrest Hills. The Servites, the Silvers, the Smoaks, the Prescotts and a fifth unknown member. The fire was ruled an accident, but there’s always been a rumor it was started by a secret member of the fifth family. They say that’s why they were exiled from the town and not brought in when the school was rebuilt, therefore erased from its history. No one, except of course for the founders, even knows their surname.”
“That’s some crazy shit,” Ruby says with a mouth full of chips.
“If you really want to dig further, my mom always used to tell me that this scary story was actually a romantic tragedy. She used to say that two of the grandsons of the founders fell in love with the same girl. She’s believed to be the granddaughter of the fifth family. The girl’s brother supposedly started the fire to kill one of the two guys, but in fact she had already run off with him. Instead, the fire spread out of control and took her brother and the other guy he wanted his sister to end up with, along with forty percent of the students and teachers that were housed in the two surrounding houses. ”
“Alright, that’s some twisted shit,” Jade says, looking a little freaked.
“Told you our parents were all sorts of fucked up. I think that’s why they started telling us the story of the Four Horsemen. The four horsemen are said to bring a reckoning, and after the revelation, they’re sent forth to cleanse the earth of the sins of man. Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Sloth, and Wrath. The seven deadly sins that were said to be broken by the five families bringing destruction against their own. The first-born sons of every family are said to have perished in the fire.”
“No offense, Silver, but your guys’ parents must have hated you all to tell stories like that,” Ruby says as she moves to the mirror trying on her horns and tail.
“My mom was a firm believer. It was kind of the thing that drove her over the edge,” Stella says, her tone now solemn.
“What do you mean?” I ask, unsure if I even want her to answer.
“My mom killed herself four years ago. My dad found her in the bathtub with an empty bottle of pills and her wrists slit. He then drank himself to death. Died a month later from an alcohol and drug overdose.”
“Stella, I’m so sorry,” I say, placing a hand on her thigh.
“Yeah, well, I knew she was sad all the time, and she always had these crazy ideas, theories, and conspiracies about my father’s family businesses, but maybe if I’d known how bad it was…”
“Stella, you can’t do that to yourself,” I tell, hating the way this is clearly making her suffer.
“I know. I blame him, my father. They put me in boarding school since I could remember. He tried keeping me from her when she needed me. They say love took him to be with her, but I think it was guilt.”
“Like I said, that’s some morbid shit,” Ruby says, breaking the tension with her dark and unwarranted humor .
“Ruby!” we shout out, Jade smacking her on the arm because of her crude attitude.
“What, I thought my cokehead mother overdosing in front of us when my sperm donor took off was bad, but this shit, Silver, I think you fit in with us more than you know.”
“Thanks, I think,” Stella says, and we all laugh wholeheartedly.
“Anyway, enough sad shit for the night, let’s get ready to party,” Jade says, holding up the costume she put together.
After we all shower, we meet back in my room to get ready, while Ruby’s now switched out our sodas for wine coolers and shots of tequila. Both Jade and I have straightened our hair, since we won’t be wearing wigs, and I’ve combined a black and gray eyeshadow look with a deep red, sultry lip. My eyes look almost clear blue in contrast to the dark shadow surrounding them.
I slip into the costume I put together, a short, black mesh dress, over a luxurious red silk bra and matching high waist, underwear, and put my black combat boots on over a pair of black fishnet stockings, all while Jade gets dressed. She went for a more glam makeup look, that pairs perfectly with the red two-piece outfit she’s wearing. Her cropped shirt is low cut, long-sleeved, and backless, only attached by a small gold chain in the middle of her breasts. Her high-waisted skirt is the same color as her top and has cutouts on both sides of her hips laced together with a gold ribbon. She’s paired the outfit with black heeled boots we found on sale at the boutique and the horned headband she decorated.
“Fuck me, look at us. We look smoking hot,” Jade says, while admiring her reflection in the full-length mirror.
“The guys are gonna lose their shit when they see us,” Ruby adds, emerging from the restroom wearing a bright red latex jumpsuit and matching heeled boots. She has on the sleek red wig with blunt bangs, and her green eyes are elongated by a black liner, while on her lips is the same bright red color as Jade.
“Where’s Stella?” I ask, turning to the door where a sexy little minx is standing looking nothing like the shy little Stella we all know and love.
“Damn, Silver,” Jade says, whistling at her. Stella’s wearing a white, sequined dress with a silver chain that wraps around her neck and a small one holding the back of the dress together. She’s paired it with silver stiletto heels and that sexy, sleek silver wig. Her makeup is natural, making her look like every man’s fantasy come to life. The perfect virginal angel.
“This dress is so short,” she squeals, tugging on the bottom of the dress. “And the back’s missing.”
“It’s perfect,” we say in unison.
After putting on the devil and angel headpieces we picked out, we head down five minutes to eight to meet up with the guys. They’ve chosen to wear all black, black jeans and black unbuttoned shirts revealing all of their tattoos. Jax has a few on his chest and arms, while Kai has them mainly on his legs and back, and of course Drake’s covered in them.
The guys watch us descend from the stairs with wide grins and whistles. “Wow, girls, you guys look fucking perfect,” says Jax, coming up to grab Ruby.
Drake turns to them and rolls his eyes while Kai walks over to Jade and Stella, extending an arm out to each of them. They both take it, placing their arms in his and he turns to wink at me.
“I have my angel and my devil tonight.”
Laughing, I turn my attention to Drake whose gaze is locked on my outfit.
“You look fucking sexy, Scar,” he mutters huskily, licking his lips as I reach up to kiss him.
“You don’t look so bad yourself, Dragon Man.”
“Are you ready for tonight?” he asks, looking slightly uneasy, and it makes my stomach churn.
“With you by my side, I’ve never been more ready. Let’s burn these fuckers to the ground, Dragon.”