My Know-It-All Nemesis - Maggie Dallen Page 0,1

me that toothy, grimace of a grin. It made him look like the Joker as he mocked me with a smile that was both fake and evil.

Just like Miller.

My own smile dropped in a heartbeat. “What are you doing here?”

He folded his hands over his stomach as he lounged on the leather seat in front of Mr. Gentry’s desk. The Joker smile faded to a smirk that was even more gruesome, in my opinion. “Same as you, I’d imagine.”

Ugh. Even his voice was filled with that lazy, cocky arrogance I detested.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “What is this meeting about?”

He shrugged as if he didn’t know and didn’t care.

Lies. All of it. I’d learned sophomore year that the new rich kid from California was not to be trusted. Everyone else might buy his laid-back attitude and flirty charm, but not me.

I knew better.

The guy came to this school with one mission, and one mission alone—to ruin my life.

Melodramatic? Perhaps. But that was how it felt most of the time. I’d been the undefeated leader of our class since kindergarten. Every one of my peers had been happy to let me start up the new clubs and earn the highest grades. This wasn’t to say there weren’t some other go-getters or smartypants in our class. There were. But no one was as hungry for Ivy League success as I was. No one was striving to be an undisputed leader like I was.

Until Miller Hardwell arrived.

Suddenly he was everywhere.

EV-ER-Y-WHERE. In the same clubs, vying for the same positions, trying to steal my perfect GPA. And what was even worse? Sometimes, he actually won.

Now he was here, in this office. Before me. At least that explained why he wasn’t in AP Calculus, but I still hated that he had a leg up on me by getting here first.

I always suspected Pauline liked him more than me. Even though she was in her late twenties and way too old for him, he probably flirted with her just like he did every other female in this school.

Well, every female aside from me.

Which meant that every female, except for me, had fallen for his charms—of which I’d heard he had many. The biggest one? His looks. Tall and built, he had dark hair, green eyes, and a jaw that could cut glass.

But his biggest flaw, in my humble opinion?

Also his looks. More precisely, the fact that he was well aware of how good he looked, which was such a turn off. Aside from that, there was his overwhelming condescension, and the attitude that he could be, do, or have anything—or anyone—he wanted with a snap of his fingers. I supposed it came with the territory when one was stupidly rich, physically attractive, and more than a little ambitious to boot. He arched a brow at me as I hovered in the doorway.

“Are you coming in?”

I pursed my lips and studied him as I racked my brain for reasons we’d both be called in here. For the first time since Pauline summoned me, I felt an anxious pit starting to form in my belly.

If we were both here, it couldn’t be good.

Suddenly I was having flashbacks to last spring—the one and only time I’d ever been called to the office to be reprimanded. All Miller’s fault, of course.

Miller-freakin’-Hardwell, the bane of my existence.

“Seriously, are you just going to stand there and stare at me until Gentry arrives?” Miller threw his arms out wide. “I know I’ve got it going on, baby, but you don’t have to drool.”

I sneered at him in disgust. “You’re so full of yourself.”

“Unlike you,” he shot back. “Miss Humility over here.”

My nostrils flared at his sarcastic tone. I’d admit it. I wasn’t exactly lacking in the confidence department, but I wasn’t conceited like this guy.

Miller walked the halls with a perma-smirk and a swagger, and everyone ate it up. He had the whole school buying into his act. Meanwhile, if I acted the way he did, I’d be labeled a stuck-up brat.

Double standards at their finest, ladies and gentlemen.

“Why were we called in here together?” I asked.

He gave a snort of amusement. “How should I know?”

“If you did something to get me in trouble—”

“Oh, here we go,” he interrupted in a loud, exasperated drawl.

“I mean it, Miller.”

“I know you do, Kate,” he shot back. “That’s what makes you so ridiculous.”

I drew in a deep breath, anger making my hands clench into fists at my sides as I prepared to let him have