Mr. Heartbreaker Jordan Marie Page 0,2

if I was ever going to have a chance at going to a decent college. I’m inventive and I manage to make enough money to keep a roof over my head and pay the bills, while still managing to put some money back. There’s no way, however, that I can afford tuition at a major Ivy League College without a scholarship, and that’s if I got accepted. Which, with my background, I probably wouldn’t. To get the scholarship I want, I need to come from a prestigious school, have excellent marks, and fit the face of the university. Everyone talks about colleges wanting to help the indigent, and how universities are reaching out to the poor. It sounds good on the news, but this is the real world. Ivy Leagues do not open doors to poor white trash and that’s exactly what these rich snobs would see me as – if they only knew.

I’m going to bust my ass to keep it from happening. What they don’t know won’t hurt me – so to speak.

This is only my second day at the school. I’m a little more relaxed, but then again, the first day I was terrified the school would discover my faked back story and kick me out. It’s not like everything I put on my admission papers was a lie. I’ve learned over the years that if you have to lie, every lie should have some truth involved.

The admissions council here at Black Mountain thinks my mother, from California, passed away and I moved out here to live with my rich aunt and attend school. My mother did die, but I hadn’t seen her in so long that I couldn’t tell you exactly when I had last spoken to her. She chose a needle in her vein over her own daughter, and she made that choice long before I wised-up and moved out on my own. It wasn’t easy; in fact, it was hard as hell, and I spent more time living on the streets than I will ever admit. Once I got a little older I began staying in shelters, and that, at least, was a little better. I do have an aunt that lives out here. She’s not rich, she’s mostly a bitch, and I’m definitely not living with her.

If I were going to be here for a long time, I’d worry they would discover the truth. I just need to finish this year out. That seems simple, but I also need to make sure I get the best grades possible and win over a few of the faculty so they might help me get the scholarship I need. When put like that, it seems like an impossible mountain I might never climb.

I was determined to do it, though. I didn’t have a choice.

I had a plan and I was going to carry it out. I wasn’t going to wind up like my mother – or any of my family, really. I would work my ass off and then these cocky, know-it-all preppies here at Black Mountain would be beneath me. Because I wasn’t going to stop until I could live the life the kids in this damn school took for granted.

I round the corner, so engrossed in my thoughts that I almost plow into some guy.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” I mutter.

“It’s fine. Watch where you’re going,” the guy says, barely sparing me a glance. I don’t respond; there’s not much to say to that. I don’t know the guy, but I recognize him.

He was the guy interviewing for the scholarship when I was there. Reese Trenton.

I know the name, I have it memorized, mostly because he got the scholarship I sorely needed. It doesn’t matter. I made it work. I may not like what I have to do, but I’m doing it just the same.

I won’t allow my plans to be derailed.

No matter what I have to do to attend Black Mountain Academy, I’ll do it.

And that’s all there is to it.

3

Mike

“Dude, are you even paying attention to me?” Davis asks.

“Earth to Big Mike,” Ben laughs.

I pull my gaze away from the girl across the cafeteria and back to my buddies. Big Mike has a lot of friends. I have to so that I can keep up this damn show I’ve built. I rarely let anyone see the real Mike. If anyone does, it would be Ben and Davis, but even they only get to see what I let them. They’re on the ball team with