Chapter 27 Jade #2
As if to prove my point, I spot a girl sitting at one of the tables in the middle of the lawn.
She’s pretty enough, I guess, but nothing about her seems natural.
I can see the layers of makeup from here, and while it appears to be done well, I can’t imagine why someone would want to wear that much shit on their face.
Her hair is dark brown and lays pin straight down to her mid-back.
I don’t know shit about name brands, but I would bet my ass everything on her is designer. Her whole appearance screams expensive.
She sits on top of the table, her feet resting on the bench, surrounded by a few other girls and guys who are all dressed the same way she is.
They have an air of superiority about them that has me making a mental note to steer clear of them.
I can’t stand when people treat others as if they're less based on how much money they have. I’ve seen it a thousand times when I was paraded around on rich men’s arms; it’s disgusting.
I hadn’t even realized I'd stopped walking until Hazel yanks on my arm in an attempt to get me moving again.
The girl on the table stares at me with a look that I’m sure usually has people turning and running away, but not me.
I could beat her ass with my eyes closed. Hell, I could probably take everyone at that table without breaking a sweat. If she wants to intimidate me, she’ll have to try harder than throwing some dirty looks around.
Hazel nudges me again, and I pull my eyes away from the girl to look at her. She quickly looks at the girl before looking back at me, eyes wide with panic. She pulls my arm a bit to try and get me to follow, but I stay rooted in the spot.
“Who is that?” I ask, my voice coming out harsher than I intended, and I take a breath to calm myself. I don’t like how she looked at me, but even worse than that was the fear in Hazel’s eyes when she looked at her.
Hazel looks down at her feet before looking up at me again with a pleading look as if she just wants to get out of here. Finally, when I don’t move, she lets out a sigh and hangs her head slightly.
“That’s Mai. She’s Amanda's best friend, and for the most part, they run this school as far as the social standard for girls,” she says in a rushed whisper as if concerned someone will overhear her.
“The Vengeance boys are the top here. They donate the most and can pretty much do what they want. But Amanda and Mai’s family have gone here for generations; before the guys, they were the top donors.
There are a few other families as well, but they all answer to those two, and you don’t want to even be on their radar, Jade.
” Her voice goes up an octave, and she’s rambling on so quickly that I have to really pay attention to catch what she’s saying.
“Okay, but why does she care about me? What the fuck did I do that has her panties in a twist?” I ask because I didn’t come here to make enemies. I have more than enough of those, and they are a lot bigger than some snotty college girl who can throw her money around.
Hazel looks at the table again and sees that Mai is still looking this way. Her throat works as she swallows hard, her lips turned down in a frown. Hazel's afraid of this girl, and I want to know why. You don’t have this kind of reaction to someone for no reason.
Trust me, I know.
“Hazel?” I call her name, pulling her attention back to me.
“She wants the Vengeance boys,” she hisses in a panic.
I laugh loudly at that, so loud that Hazel jumps. I can’t help it, though; that’s got to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard.
“You cannot be serious,” I say, once I get my laughter under control again. Shit, I can't remember the last time I'd laughed this much in one day.
Hazel looks at me like I’ve lost my mind for a moment, her face scrunching up in annoyance, and okay, I deserve that. I just laughed in her face, but how could she not find this all crazy?
“Of course I’m serious. Amanda and Mai have been after the guys for years now, and they never give them the time of day.
Now you come in on their arm, showing up to parties with them, and rumor has it you live in their house!
” she whisper yells, flailing her arms around and looking adorable.
I don’t dare tell her that, though. I can see how serious she thinks this is, and while I’m not worried about it, I can tell she is.
Putting my hand on her shoulder, I gently squeeze, hoping to calm her down. It seems to work when Roderick and Kratos do it to me, so it’s worth a shot.
She drops her arms, letting them smack dramatically against her thighs before looking up at me. I’m almost shocked with just how well that worked, if I’m being honest.
“Don’t worry about me. I can more than handle anything any of them can dish out.” She doesn’t look convinced, though. “I promise I’ll be fine, okay?”
She looks at me momentarily, searching my face before giving a stiff nod.
“What’s up?” Trent asks, coming up behind us. Some guys had stopped him, talking with him and Leo, so they’d missed our conversation. Hazel shoots me a look, and I don’t need to be great with people to understand its meaning.
“Nothing. We were just waiting on you guys,” I tell him, the lie rolling off my tongue far too easily, and Hazel nods.
He looks between us, and I wonder for a moment if he can tell I’m lying. Most people aren’t very good at seeing anything that isn’t laid out right in front of them, but he’s a cop, so maybe?
“Alright, well, let's go,” he finally says, nodding toward the building just down the path we’re headed to.
Hazel turns and walks away just a little too quickly, causing Trent to turn to me in question. With a shrug, I follow her. If she doesn’t want to tell Trent, I won’t, but I will get to the bottom of this with her.
I look over my shoulder one more time before we enter the building and find Mai still watching me. Before I step through the doors, I let my mask slip just the slightest bit, giving her a smile that's all cruel edges and teeth, and I get the joy of watching her rear back just the tiniest bit.
That’s all I need, though.
She might be the height of the social status around here, but she doesn’t scare me in the slightest. She'll leave me alone if she knows what's good for her. These people might look at me like a victim or competition for them with the guys, but little do they know, I’m the biggest threat on this campus now, and I’m not afraid to prove it.
I find out pretty quickly that math and I aren't going to get along. I take notes for the first half of class even though it might as well be in another language, but I figure it can’t hurt.
I wonder if Hazel would be willing to help me get caught up with this.
She isn’t in the class because she's in Pre-calculus, which I guess means she's better at it than anyone in this room.
The lecture ends, and the teacher is telling us what we need to work on when my phone vibrates in my back pocket, almost making me jump out of my skin.
I'd forgotten I even had a phone, and I didn’t know they vibrated.
I thought they just made noise, at least that’s what the guys always do.
I pull it out and touch the screen, causing it to light up.
There's a red dot on the messenger circle, so I click it.
A chat pulls up, and at the top is Zander's name with a black heart next to it.
I shake my head because, of course, he would do that.
How’s class?
I feel the corner of my mouth pull up in a smile at the idea of him checking up on me.
Not bad, though I don’t think a job with math will be in my future.
I say back after probably way too long. The little keys on the screen are so small that it took a lot of typos before I got the message right and even longer to figure out how to make the message go.
He responds so quickly that the vibration startles me again. Fuck, I’m going to have to learn to type faster. His response is a little laughing face with tears; it's adorable, but I have no idea how he did it.
I turn to Trent, where he sits next to me. Leo sits just beside him, and while I don’t like him exactly, the longer he's around, the more I can start to accept that maybe he’s just a happy person. It’s not as weird as I made it seem at first.
“Hey, Trent,” I say to get his attention. He's working on the assignment the professor just gave us, and I can't help but notice he's already gotten through a few questions. Maybe I can just get his help instead of bugging Hazel.
“What’s up?” he asks without turning away from his work as he scribbles numbers on the paper.
I kind of feel bad for disturbing him, especially with something that has nothing to do with math.
I bite my lip as I consider telling him never mind and asking Zander later.
Before I can decide, he sets his pencil down and turns his attention to me.
His eyes roam my face, landing on my lip that's still stuck between my teeth.
He reaches out, gently pulling at my lip until it pops free, and I watch, frozen in place. He looks back at me, and I can see just the slightest bit of amusement and heat in his eyes before it’s gone, though his smile remains.
“You shouldn’t bite your lip like that. You're going to tear it up,” he says like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
“Why does everyone keep telling me that?” I ask myself more than him. His smile dims just slightly, and he opens his mouth, but Leo picks that moment to butt in.
“Maybe people tell you that because it’s true?” he says, leaning forward on his desk so that he can look at me around Trent.
I roll my eyes at him, but he still smiles back at me, and okay, he might be growing on me; we’ll see.
“Anyways, I was wondering if you could help me with this phone. Zander gave it to me this morning, and I have no clue how to use it.” I hold my phone out to him with a look that I hope comes across as pleading so he'll take pity on me.