Savage Royals (Boys of Oak Park Prep #1) - Callie Rose Page 0,16

the ground floor, reading my expression. Then she sighed. “Yeah, I believe you. But to be honest, it doesn’t really matter. Whether you know what you did or not, it doesn’t change the fact that they’ve got it out for you.”

“What does that mean?” I murmured, avoiding meeting people’s gazes as we made our way toward the exit.

“They’ve declared you trash.” She shook her head, her auburn bob swishing. “Worse than trash. Your social chances at this school are pretty much zero. No one important is going to want to go anywhere near you.”

I shifted my books to my other arm. I’d been loaded down with so many textbooks today that I couldn’t fit them all in my backpack, and I’d been too busy running from class to class—or hiding out during lunch—to make it to my locker.

“So, what? Those four assholes are some kind of freaking gods?” I scoffed. “They’re just high schoolers like everyone else.”

“Wrong,” Leah groaned. “Totally and completely wrong. The Princes are the elite of the school. They basically run this place—even the teachers are scared of them. They can get away with whatever they want because they’re from the four richest families in town.” She paused, then added, “Well, except for yours. You didn’t tell me your grandparents were the freaking Hildebrands.”

I ignored that comment, and the look of slight awe that entered her eyes as she looked at me. They were my family by blood, but it barely counted as far as I was concerned. And it obviously hadn’t earned me the same respect the Princes commanded.

“This is an actual thing? Everybody just does what they say, because they have money and power?”

“Yes,” Leah pressed. “And it’s serious. The Princes are at the top of the food chain. They’re literally sharks. There are other factions under them, but those four control everything.”

I groaned. How the hell did I even get mixed up with them? I didn’t think I’d stepped on anyone’s toes or done anything wrong.

Then I remembered Mason’s words. Idaho trash. Somehow, they knew all about me—knew that even though my grandparents might have money, I was poor—and they were taking it out on me for some reason.

What was the point? If I was so far below them, what did it matter?

“How come you’re still talking to me then?” I asked Leah. “Aren’t you afraid I’m going to kill your social status too?”

She shook her head. “To be honest, I don’t have that far to fall. I’m low enough on the totem pole to be unimportant to them. I doubt any of them even know I’m alive, honestly. I just barely made it into this school, and I’m definitely not royalty.” At my confused look, she waved her hands. “The whole thing is set up like a tier. The ones with the most money and social status control those below them, and they control the ones below them, and on and on and on. I’m so far down the system, the Princes won’t care.”

“But you’re not trash.”

She shot me a rueful look. “No. Just trash adjacent.”

I scrubbed a hand over my face. I was feeling a little lightheaded by now, and I wasn’t sure if it was low blood sugar or the insane story Leah had just told me. How the hell could four guys have so much sway in this place? They couldn’t be much older than I was, sixteen or seventeen at most. How could they have both students and teachers running scared from them?

But when I thought about that moment in the cafeteria—the confidence, languid power, and sheer, twisted charisma that’d radiated from each of them—I could begin to understand. There was something about those four boys. Something that drew me in even as it repulsed me, made me want to exist in their orbit even though I hated everything they stood for.

Evil shouldn’t be allowed to exist in such pretty packages. It made it hard to see the devils underneath.

“Hey. Are you okay?”

Leah’s voice broke through my thoughts, and I realized I’d stopped walking. I blew out a deep breath, puffing my cheeks.

“Yeah. I’m fine. They kicked me out of the dining hall, and I never got lunch. I think I’m just hungry.”

Sympathy twisted her delicate features. “Yeah, I heard about that. I think everyone’s heard about it by now. Oh, here!” She swung her backpack around to her front and dug around inside it before coming up with a wrapped granola bar. “My mom’s such a worrier, she