Ivy Cordelia Boarding School

Chapter Thirteen

s.

"Had something more important to do?" Mistress Lou asks, as I enter DuPont Hall. I MAY have been ten minutes late to detention because I got lost in my dancing. A shower was necessary since I couldn't bring myself to come and sit in silence for two hours, sticky with sweat.

"Very much so" I reply, and everyone in the room snickers quietly to themselves, which wasn't my intention. I've never attempted to people please, but it kind of just HAPPENS. 

Grayson, Cason and two other girls I don't recognize, sit in a quartet in the middle of the room. "Very funny, Selah. Please take a seat. I wanted to go easy on you guys, since there's so much craziness going on. But keep up with your mouth, and ALL OF YOU will be on garbage duty" she threatens.

"Yeah...no. But thanks for the offer, Lou. I'll take my seat now" I say, going over to the desk in front of Grayson and backwards straddling it. He fist bumps me with a lazy grin. Mistress Lou doesn't deign to respond. 

"You're so bad, babe. Can you guess who the two of them are? I'll give you a hint. They're from Glendale and they somehow earned detention on their first day" Grayson riddles.

Both girls are absolutely gorgeous- one short and curvy with thick coils of hair that falls to her shoulder blades. And eyes that look shockingly beautiful with her deep, ebony skin. The other is very petite, with jet black hair pulled into a bun and dark, hooded eyes. 

"Peony Donovan and Taylor Wainwright. Taylor, you look absolutely nothing like what I expected" I say. I'd seen Peony before, on a blog post that Ken and Ell showed me, but never Taylor. They laugh- one tinkly and bell- like and the other an adorable giggle.

"Asian. They never see it coming, really. My dad is a really white male, but my middle name is Kimiko, if that helps. My friends usually call me Kimi" Taylor says, holding out a hand for me to shake. "Her FRIEND usually calls her Kimi. We only get along with each other. Everyone else is BO- RING" Peony sing-songs.

"I can see that changing. I'm Selah Stryker, and I do enjoy getting into a little bit of trouble" I say with a wicked grin. "Oh, we know. And girls that do bad things together, stay together. Isn't that a thing they say?" Peony asks, returning the same smile. "I think it is. And our specialty WAS not getting caught until Skylar Compton narced on us to the entire world. That girl's a Grade- A bitch. I can't believe she's here, too" Taylor says.

I frown, thinking of the quiet girl I'd met earlier that morning. She seemed sweet, but you could see that she was taking in everything around her. No remark made in that room went past her head and it made me wary. Luckily, I was too busy making those folders to say very much.

"How was that blog allowed, anyway? It should have been illegal, somehow" Cason wonders. I give him a smile and wave, which he returns. "I don't know, actually. All I know is that she sucked the fun out of Glendale. Hopefully that doesn't happen here" Peony wishes. 

"The Dean is very strict about those kinds of blogs, so don't worry. Nothing gets past her and the staff when it comes to that kind of stuff. She'll have a rude awakening if she tries posting the blogs she did at that school. It won't fly here" Grayson tells us. "Good. Because, no one gets as happy ruining people's lives than Skylar Compton. She's ruthless" Peony warns. 

And I believed her. There was just something in Skylar's eyes that told a completely different story than her mouth did. And I wanted nothing to do with it.

***

I was currently experiencing one of the most fun moments of my life, and I couldn't have been happier.  I couldn't believe that I actually had a group of girls to hang out with, and just have fun. Introducing Peony and Taylor to the twins went over even better than I expected. Funny quips and jokes popped in between the five of us like popcorn. The chemistry between our group was just THERE, and all of our energies flowed together so well. 

We had a late dinner in the DC, because of our two hours of detention. And since no one else was there- the guys getting something from the stands instead, we made the entire cafeteria our stage. We did karaoke on Kennedi's tablet, performed some improv, Elliana and Taylor taught us some cheer stunts and I attempted to teach them some basic ballet and hip hop.

After all of that, Peony suddenly had the urge to go and buy some roller skates. So we begged Yarby, because leaving campus was forbidden until next week, to go and buy us some. She gave in after several minutes of our unrelenting whines, giving us half of an hour to be back OR ELSE. And we didn't abuse the privilege. While said skates them on, I made a confession.

"Guys, I don't ACTUALLY know how to skate".

They all look at me as if I have two heads and I giggle, strapping the second boot onto my left foot. "I was a busy girl, okay? Let's not judge one another".

"We're not judging, Selah. We're just a bit surprised, is all. Have you never had a skating party when you were a kid?" Elliana wonders. "No, not really. I had all of these really huge, extravagant parties. Like renting out Disney Land or having the circus in my backyard. They were fun, but they didn't involve skating" I explain.

"Okay, we'll teach you. It's actually really easy" Peony decides, strapping on her adorable rainbow helmet. The Dean said that if we didn't get every kind of protection available, we couldn't skate. It didn't bother us, because we all agreed that we'd look cute in it, all the same. And we absolutely did, with thigh high socks pulled on top of our leggings and long-sleeved body suits for warmth. I had a chocolate cardigan layered over my cream get-up. My skates were the same chocolate color.

"Yeah" the other girls agree.

After only ten minutes of attempting to teach me to skate, Kennedi and Taylor resort to taking off their skates and running me around the campus by my hands. It's not that I was scared, because I wasn't, but I just couldn't figure out HOW to do it. And they were all too impatient to try to properly show me.

"Need some help" a deep voice says from behind me, once the girls have tired themselves out. They're standing there, hands on their knees, breathing heavily. I, on the other hand, have my feet spread like a duck so that I won't roll away from them. I can't figure out how to turn around and see him, so Armani makes his way into my eyesight, instead.

"Please" I say desperately and he chuckles, grabbing my hands in his. "Okay, sunshine". He uses his own feet to show me how to start off with mine, and then gives very detailed instructions on how to proceed once I've gotten myself going. He holds my hand the entire time so that I won't fall once I've made a mistake. And after about twenty minutes, I have the basic movement down. 

"You can let go now. I think I can do it by myself". The girls had been slowly skating on either side of me, encouraging me the entire way through. "I think so, too" he says, slowly letting my hands go so that I keep my balance. Kennedi skates around him when he steps into her path to allow me to skate off on my own.

AND I DO IT! 

I was actually skating by my freaking self! It went on for a while, actually, until we had to turn and I panicked and forgot what Armani told me. I would have face planted into a bench if Cason hadn't been in the surrounding area to dive in the way and catch me. "It was almost lights out for you" he says with a grin, holding me close to him. I let out a shaky breath. "You've seen me sleep quite a bit. It would've been a pretty normal occurrence for you" I respond, taking a seat on the bench once he lets me go. The girls were waiting close by, making weird sexual gestures.

"You okay, baby?" Armani asks gently, kneeling down in front of me. He had run after me, but I'd gone way too far ahead of him to allow him to catch up. "I'm perfect, thanks to Cason" I say and he nods, standing up. The hurt look that flashed in his eyes makes me wince. "I'll leave the two of you to it, then". "Okay, but I'll see you tomorrow then. For our thing?" I ask, which makes him smile. 

"Of course you will, sunshine".