But a real smile split my lips when I saw a group of young cheerleaders dressed like The Hex Girls, taking selfies, as a handful of boys from the hockey team whistled and showered them with compliments.
Despite my love for Halloween, I didn’t wear a costume tonight. Instead, I opted for an all-black outfit. Ankle high-heeled boots, high-waisted skinny jeans, cropped leather jacket with a white painted skull on the back, small crossbody bag with necessities, and an orange knit bralette—my sole pop of colour.
Just to be safe, I pocketed my signature black ski mask.
If Initiation Night went south, there was no way in hell I was risking getting caught, much less recognized. My parents would punish me by revoking my car rights, taking away my creditcards, and turning me into an example for my little brother Emilio. Basically, my life would become hell.
It didn’t matter that I was nineteen.
In my parents’ eyes, I remained a little girl forever.
Hearing a familiar girlish laugh, my attention drew to Darla, who tossed her long raven hair behind her shoulders with a beauty queen smile while a freshman cheerleader spoke to her in an animated fashion.
Darla looked tired, but similar to me, she was trained from a young age to always be sweet and attentive in public. Never allowing the outside world to really see how you’re feeling. Never allowing anyone to see the realyou. It was one of the many woes of being a high society daughter.
Knowing Darla, right this moment, she probably wanted to be curled up in bed with a romance novel and a sugary treat, reading about Prince Charming and happily ever afters.
Without breaking her conversation, Darla’s head tilted my way, feeling my gaze on her. Giving me a once-over, she quickly dismissed me as though I was a mere fly on the wall. An inconvenience. Absolutely irrelevant.
It stung more than I’d like to admit. I lost Cade and Darla—two of my pillars—during the summer. Him, for obvious reasons and her, for reasons I still couldn’t fathom.
Due to our mothers running in the same circle, Darla and I met when we were three years old, bonded over Fruit Fantasy Barbies, and instantly became best friends. All my prominent childhood and teenagehood memories were tied with this girl, who’d been like the sister I never had.
Somewhere in the last few months, Darla decided she hated me.
She now treated me like her enemy. It was heartbreaking to see such an amazing friendship crumble to nothing. We knew each other before Callie became part of our group in fourthgrade. I once asked the latter if she knew why Darla was acting the way she was, but Callie claimed that Darla no longer spoke to her either…
I never figured out what went wrong between Darla and me, and my ex-best friend refused to speak up.
I tried to mend our bond in the beginning until I realized you couldn’t fix something you never broke. I was sad such a wholesome friendship ended like this, but I was done extending an olive branch.
Shaun wrapped an arm around Darla’s shoulders and whispered something in her ear. She nodded in return. They were getting ready to make their announcement.
This year, Darla and Shaun were the ringleaders. Tradition called for both alumni captains on either teams to lead the night. Since I wanted to actively participate in tonight’s game, I let her run the show with Shaun.
Finally, Darla faced the crowd and cupped her hands around her mouth like a makeshift speakerphone and yelled, “Welcome to St. Victoria’s thirty-fifth annual Initiation Night!”
The foyer rang with loud cheers and boisterous claps.
“We are ecstatic to have everyone here tonight!” Darla said loudly over the crowd’s noise. “As most of you know, Initiation Night was formed decades ago by our predecessors and every year this tradition serves to initiate the newest members of our team into the roster. To belong here, you must embody trust and loyalty. Initiation Night is a test of your character. You will demonstratetrustby working with your teammate to accomplish every dare and you will exemplifyloyaltyby never speaking to an outsider about this night. Each and every single one of you was chosen for a specific reason: you were deemed worthy. Now it’s up to you to prove that you deserve to be one ofus.”
Shaun picked up where Darla left off, his booming voicecarrying through the horde. Newcomers listened with rapt attention while people like Callie and me, who’d done this many times, impatiently waited for the game to begin. “Now for the rules. They are simple. One, no phones permitted. Nothing about this night can be documented. Two, no fighting. This is self-explanatory. Three, you are not allowed to break anything on campus. Everything must be left how you found it: in complete fucking pristine condition. The last thing we want is outsiders to piece together what happened tonight. Those who’ve failed to comply with our rules in the past have been penalized and punished in various ways. Don’t force us to make an example out of you.
“As for pranks, anything that isn’t physical or involves breaking shit on campus is fair game.” Shaun’s blue eyes met mine knowingly.
Shaun was what you’d classify as a class clown with a heart of gold. We had a love and hate relationship, but I truly adored him. The last few years of high school were packed with us pulling pranks on each other.
I shook my head at him and mouthed, “Don’t even think about it.”
If he messed around with my chances of winning Initiation Night, I’d smash the windows of his brand-new Rolls Royce.
Shaun gave me a teasing wink in reply and Darla continued their rehearsed speech.
“Tickets to Montardor’s Ravens’ hockey game, two crowns, and your name forever immortalized in the Black Book of Initiation,” she bellowed. “Those are what await our winners. Once the initiation starts, you must see it through. The first ones to finish all their dares win. If you decide to forfeit in the middle of the game, you get kicked off your respective teams. We have no place for quitters here.”
Shocked gasps and murmurs rose around us.
I always thought kicking people off the cheerleading and hockey teams was a bit extreme. But Darla and Shaun insisted we stick with the rules set by our predecessors. In the past, the hockey players had easily influenced Coach Ryan to remove someone off the team. Pure talent wouldn’t keep you on the roster. Not when you didn’t obey St. Victoria’s elites.
