the time eighth period rolled around, I was dying for the day to be over. I felt exhausted and strung out, my skin sore and muscles achy from being held tense and defensive all day.
I found my Chemistry classroom in Johnson Hall, the building that made up the east side of the U, and went through the familiar drill of picking up my syllabus and textbook from the teacher. He also gave me two homework assignments to catch up on, making my stress level rise even higher.
Clutching my books, I turned to survey the room, glad to see that none of the assholes from lunch were in this class. Leah sat in the back by the windows, but there weren’t any open seats near her, so I just nabbed the closest one to the door.
I wanted to be ready to bolt as soon as class was over.
As I sat, Leah flashed me a wide-eyed look, raising her eyebrows and leaning forward slightly. She was obviously trying to communicate something, but I had no clue what it was. I shook my head, and she grimaced, tapping her fingers on her desk in agitation. A new prickle of worry worked its way down my spine as I wondered what the hell she was so worked up about. But at least she was looking at me with something other than pure disdain. At this point, I’d take whatever shreds of good news I could get.
Instead of desks, we had shared tables in this class, and as soon as I sat down, the girl beside me scooted her stool away, as if I were unclean or something.
I gritted my teeth and ignored it, facing forward to listen to Mr. Young explain something that sounded like gibberish to me.
Fuck. This was way more advanced than my previous chemistry class. I was going to have to study like a maniac to have a hope of passing. Not that I had any future ambitions of becoming a chemist, but I needed to do well in all my classes if I wanted to try to leverage my time here into getting a scholarship to a good school or something.
When Mr. Young paused to shift topics, I glanced over at Leah one more time and found her chewing on her lower lip, her gaze bouncing between me and the girl who’d scooted away. As soon as class was over, she made a beeline for me, grabbing my elbow and tugging me off my stool before I’d even managed to gather up all my shit.
I scrabbled to collect it all before I was unceremoniously hauled out the door, walking at a quick clip. A few kids turned to look at me like they’d been doing all day, and Leah glanced around before shoving open a stairwell door and pulling me in.
As soon as we were inside, she let go of me, turning to face me.
“What the hell did you do?” she hissed.
“Me?” I blinked. “I haven’t done anything.”
“Well, obviously you did something,” she said, keeping her voice low. “The Princes are pissed. Seriously, did you spill something on them? Insult one of their mothers? You need to figure it out quick and fix it.”
I didn’t have to ask who the Princes were. I wasn’t that stupid, and it was clear from the way those four guys in the mess hall had carried themselves that they thought they were better than everyone else here—but most of all, me.
Heat rose to my cheeks as a fresh wave of anger washed through me. “I didn’t do anything to them. I ran into those two guys, Mason and Cole, in the stairwell, but nothing happened. Then I tried to go to my classes and eat lunch, but apparently, I’m not allowed to do that in fucking peace.”
Leah sighed, taking my elbow again and tugging me down the stairs. “The Princes are the four most popular and richest boys in the school. What they say goes around here. Not everyone may follow them, but we all know damn well not to cross them. And whatever you did, it pissed them all off. We’ve had transfer students before, and they’ve never gone after someone so quickly like this.”
A hard lump settled in my stomach. I was still fucking starving, but I wasn’t sure I could eat right now if I tried. My entire stomach seemed to be filled with cement.
“I didn’t do anything, Leah. I swear.”
She glanced at me as she pulled the door open on