Mrs. Archer Xavier (REWRITING)

Chapter Eight

THE ONE WHERE I MADE A VITAL MISTAKE

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"Look at you, all dolled up," Heaven comments while she leans against the elevator wall. I turn to look at her then down to my clothes. I'm wearing the same thing I was wearing yesterday and she was wearing the same thing. "What are you trying to say?"

"Look, Jia," she sighs as if she was about to give me the biggest life lesson I'm ever going to get. She walks towards me and places her hands on my shoulders to spin me towards her. She looks up and deep into my eyes, so much so that it freaks me out a little.

"I've been to high school with Archer. He is not worth this," she tells me in the most serious voice I've ever heard from her. "Archer?" I reply, confused. "Xavier is not a good person. He's not worth the time, attention, or — you. He's not worth—"

"Xavier?" I repeated, pulling back from her in surprise. "Look, I get it okay. He is undeniably gorgeous, and a lot of people have this thing for bad boys but Archer is bad bad," she continues to explain but I'm still caught up on the fact that she thinks I like Archer. What kind of name even is that? "Archer?" Pfft.

"I don't like him," I firmly retort. I catch a glimpse of myself in the reflection on the elevator walls. Sure, I did look better than yesterday. And, sure, I happen to be profusely blushing right now. But I do not like this Archer Xavier guy. I barely know him. Plus, there's Zach.

I fidget on the skateboard charm on my bracelet while Heaven gives me a solid stare before we reach the ground floor. "Okay," she finally says but she wasn't done there. "And you shouldn't. He's only going to hurt you."

I nod, not really knowing what to say. I trust Heaven's judgement. I do agree he is physically attractive but I'm not that interested. At least, not like that. "Who is he anyway? I forgot to ask. I kinda got overwhelmed with the workload yesterday."

"His name is Archer Giovanni Xavier. Everyone here knows him — but you. For starters, he is a model and a singer. He has an album that came out last year, if I'm not mistaken. He's an only heir to one of the richest men here in New York," she says that last part with emphasis and turns to look at me. "What?" I mumble. She doesn't reply but takes a deep breath.

"And as cliché as it is, he hangs out with the cool kids," she continues, making air quotes. "Aren't we all? Not to say that I'm cool or anything but — I thought this school is for —"

She cuts off my rambling. "Yes, and then there's them. The rich of the rich, if you get what I mean. They might even think that we're borderline poor," she mutters with so much hatred. I guess it touches a nerve so I don't ask anything about it. She takes yet another deep breath before opening her mouth to speak.

"We don't have to talk about this anymore if it makes you uncomfortable, Heaven," I intervene but she shakes her head. "No, you should know these things. They're dangerous conniving bitches—"

"Woah, woah, woah," Joey exclaims as she walks towards us. "So much negative energy at 7 am," she continues while pretending to push the negative energy away. "What is going on here?" She asks curiously, looking at me and then at Heaven.

"She's telling me about Archer and his friends," I inform her and her eyes gasp. Yes. With wide eyes she faces me as if I had just said the name of he who shall not be named. It's a Harry Potter reference, if you didn't know.

"Why? Do you guys have classes with them?" Joey queries some more, already making her way into the cafeteria. We follow behind her as we spoke. "No, but we have a class with Archer," I answer, she nods understandably.

"He sits next to us," Heaven adds.

Before I knew it, they spent the entire morning talking about them. They tell me almost everything except for the one thing that bothers me but I'm too afraid to ask.

I go to first period, nervous because of my new found knowledge. Either Heaven and Joey were being dramatic or Archer and his friends would actually be worse than the "Plastics" from Mean Girls. So far, I don't think I've said or done anything that would set him off.

We go to our seat at the back and I hope that Archer doesn't show up. Maybe Heaven and Joey are just making fun of me. Maybe they were just trying to scare me. I mean come on, we're in college now — in the supposedly finest colleges here in New York! They wouldn't be that petty, right?

"Oh no," Heaven mumbles next to me and I follow her disappointed gaze. It's Archer and friends, who weren't in class yesterday. They laughed and talked as if Mr. Willis was not shooting them a glare. They wore the same uniforms as us but they had these blings that are obviously there to catch attention. Maybe he'd sit with them.

She nudges me after scooting closer to me. "The quiet one watching them is Alex Shaw, singer and future producer. That obnoxious one standing there is Landon Klien. He's a dick — I mean a model," Heaven and I giggle.

"That one that looks nice and sweet is Karma Farrell. She's a social media influencer. Also she's definitely not nice. The one with the tan, looks like a model, Evie Martin, model and actress. And lastly, that blonde one, Aurora South, daddy's little princess but I heard she's interested in the fashion industry."

"Wow," I manage to say. Honestly, I don't know if I'm impressed or not. "Mhmm," Heaven hums, rolling her chair back to her side. I just hope my father doesn't know them. I'd hate to see them more outside of school.

An alarm at Mr. Willis' desk beeps and everyone looks towards him. He then replies by pointing at the clock above the board. The class quiets down a little while people shift around and get themselves situated. Archer looks up at our direction and makes his way.

Oh my goodness. He's still going to sit with us.

I glance at Heaven and she gives me a look that needs no explanation. I scoot closer towards Heaven's side of the table discreetly as I could. I think he notices but he doesn't care. He tosses his bag under the table again and buries his face into his arms. It seems he couldn't care for this class either.

I probably wouldn't either if I already have things going for me. But unfortunately, I wasn't a model or a singer. I couldn't imagine myself doing either one. To be fair, I didn't really have a solid plan back in California either. I was literally just going to follow Marianne to a UC.

"Avery,  care to defend yourself?"

What? Defend myself? So dramatic.

I looked around me and the majority of the class had their hands raised, including Heaven who was silently laughing at me. "Um, I, um," I stall while I try to take a peek at Heaven's book but I couldn't tell what page it was. I try to remember what we did yesterday.

"You're the only one who did not disagree with the argument, mind explaining yourself?"

"But Archer—" I start but I caught myself so I close my mouth shut but I was too late. Archer sits up and scowls at me. "Don't drag me into your mess, Avery" he sneers under his breath. Ah, shit.

Also, I am so confused. Class just started, no?

"Well, I did not want to disturb, Mr. Xavier in his slumber but now you're awake, care to help Ms. Avery?" Mr. Willis replies as his attention shift from me to Archer. There were a couple of snickers and muffled comments from around the class.

The rich boy next to me clenches his jaw before swiveling his chair towards Mr. Willis.

I think I might have just jinxed myself.

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a|n: We like cliffhangers in this house. I think that's a good cut off. Then, we could just irrationally spiral from this point on. No? Doesn't matter, we will.