I smiled and rubbed my thumb over the screen. How I wished life was that simple. How I wished he hadn’t become a monster.
I have to make a life for myself, we can’t all be the Jackal.
The Jackal. His name on the streets. I knew he was involved in all sorts of trouble, and I tried not to think too hard about it.
This Jackal just wants his Wolf safe and by his side. Don’t forget that while you’re at this big posh school.
A shudder ran down my spine. Why did that always sound more like a threat than a promise?
Chapter 3
The first time I get a real break from Avery and Harley is during study hall. It is the one required unit that’s flexible about the location, and I choose to go to the library.
The library is huge and looks vaguely Victorian. The fiction section is a third of the size of the non-fiction and referencing sections, and the librarians are all matronly women with tight gray buns perched on their heads. I feel most out of place at this school in this room. It makes me feel like a grubby child to walk through the doors, and I still cringe after weeks of doing it.
I don't have a laptop to use quietly in my room, and the library has a selection of computers to use, the only modern luxury. I get there early and choose a desk toward the back of the room. One of the librarians nods at me in acknowledgment but doesn’t offer any help as I struggle with the technology. My last school only had one computer in the library, and it was a glorified typewriter. Internet access was limited, and students generally didn’t bother using it. The computers here were high-tech, complicated, and in my opinion, high maintenance. I guess they fit in well with the student population.
The bell tolls and the room begins to fill with students. A girl I recognize from my biology class approaches my desk and smiles sweetly before taking a seat across from me. Once the rest of the seats are taken by students, a group of freshmen reluctantly fill the remaining seats at my table. I don’t even spare them a glance and instead focus on my assignment.
I’m focusing on my research at the computer when a piece of paper slides toward me.
I saw your argument with Harley in history. You shouldn't piss Avery and the boys off . The rest of us learned that lesson in middle school.
I look up at her, and then at the rest of the table, but no one is paying us any attention. I scribble a reply and slide it back.
If I always did what I was supposed to do, I wouldn't be at this school.
She smiles and scrabbles back. The library isn’t exactly quiet, students are talking all around us, so I'm not sure why we're doing this with notes, but I'll play along for now.
My name is Lauren. If they hadn't put a ban on the rest of us speaking to you, I would've already approached you. I know what it's like to be the new girl at school.
How the hell do they ban other students from talking to people? Who the hell do they think they are? I'm angry enough that I grip my pencil so hard, my hand shakes.
What happens to you if you speak to me?
She bites her lip before sliding the paper back.
Then they add me to the list, and they will do to me what they’re going to do to you. I'm sorry, I’m terrified of Avery.
The list? Was that metaphorical, or did that psycho Avery actually organize her reign of terror that methodically? I let out a deep sigh and nod my head at Lauren. I guess I didn’t blame her, or any of the others in our class. I’d seen what Joseph had done to the other freshmen. I was fine on my own, but sometimes it was hard to see the other students walking around, chatting and laughing together, and not wish I had someone to talk to.
I give her a nod and scrunch the note up in my hand, a clear sign of conversation over. She gives me a sad smile and gets back to work on her own homework.
I try to focus back on my own work, but I'm all hot and cranky. I hate this sort of bullying. I'd rather they just come at me with fists so I could fight back properly. Whispers and intrigue are annoying, but then I think about life back home and Matteo. Maybe learning this political shit isn't such a terrible idea.
It might help me survive the Jackal someday.
* * *
As the first few weeks pass, I learn something very important.
Harley and Avery are in every single one of my classes except choir, and they, along with Ash, have a lot of influence on our classmates.
News had spread quickly of my argument with Harley, and it has made me even more of a pariah than my scholarship status ever has. No one tries to speak to me, not during classes or meals. I think they are trying to make me feel shitty enough to leave, but little do they know I am enjoying the quiet.
At the beginning of the year, I had signed up for a bunch of extracurricular duties to get class credits and plump up my applications for college. The one I am looking forward to the least is tutoring especially now that I’ve pissed off Harley. It takes three weeks before I get an email from the school’s admin to let me know I have had someone sign up and to meet the student in the library during three of my study halls. I groan but go along to it. When I see who the student is, I begin to think it’s a trap.
Ash Beaumont.
