❝A man is a lion for his own cause.❞
— Scottish Proverb
I've never been more annoyed before.
It's been two days since the evaluation. On Saturday morning, Valeria divided us all into two groups for the weekly evaluation next Friday. Our group choreographer is Emma Lane but she's insisted that everyone call her Line. It's stupid but I'd be dumb to say that Line doesn't suit her. The chit she got had a single word written on it.
Spring.
It's the topic given to our group for our performance. Line didn't call for practice on Sunday. On the groupchat, she said that it's because she's 'brainstorming' ideas. Surprisingly, everyone refused to say anything to her. No one offered her help. No one even asked her about what she's thinking. I couldn't be more bored about the situation.
Our group of ten has students from all the houses. Leo and I are from Calliope, Zia and Freva are from Clio, Zed and Remi from Euterpe, and Line, Akira and Sam from Melpomene. I don't know how everything's going to go down. I hope nothing goes wrong but the pace things are happening, I'm sure Line would be able to actually come up with something.
It's Monday today and by now, the academic competition between Red and me has been announced in unofficial group chats and people are actually excited for the top two of the first years to go against each other. I'm not looking forward to it.
"Hey," I hear Leo's voice as he approaches me five minutes before the homeroom begins. "Did Line contact you because if she hasn't come up with anything, I'm going to kill her."
"By all means, go ahead and kill her. She hasn't said anything at all," I tell him without looking up from my notepad where I'm writing something.
"This is getting frustrating," he mutters as he seats himself in Hayette's place.
"Tell me about it."
"At least you guys don't have to listen to ugly music that only hurts your ears all the time," Elliot says. He's reading a book again. I've seen this guy hold a new book everyday that makes me wonder whether he just carries one for show. "Trust me, you guys doing nothing is way better than me getting my ears damaged."
"Why are they even doing group routines right now? I mean, that's so annoying. I don't even know half the people I'm working with," Leo complains. I throw him a look and he rolls his eyes. "Alright. I know no one except you and I don't even talk to you half the time. What is this, like the second conversation we're having? Cool."
I hum, making him sigh in annoyance.
"A conversation requires two people and technically, your replies don't even contribute to one."
"You'll get used to it," Elliot says. "She's like this all the time."
I turn to face him with a look of question. "We don't even talk to Elliot. You're the one who comes up with the occasional comments on the teacher's or something."
"Well, you're not exactly an easy person to talk to, Harley. You always seem to be in some kind of a mood. You're intimidating. You'll die alone."
"Well, this conversation got dark real fast," I say under my breath.
"I was kidding," Elliot snaps. "Tsk, I didn't really take you for the serious type."
"You don't have to tell me you're kidding. I know you are." I'm irritated and yet somehow manage to keep my voice calm.
"Or maybe I wasn't. Who knows?" Elliot shrugs and from there on, chooses to ignore my glare, which, in my opinion, is a good idea.
Leo leans back. "I'm still annoyed by Line about the choreography thing. If she doesn't get it over with today, I'll complain."
"And how exactly is complaining going to help you? We're all either gonna ace it or go down together. There's no in between," I tell him and it's the truth. Our whole routine depends on our coordination and Line's choreography. If there's a single mistake, well, we've messed up then.
"You don't have to be that honest."
I scoff, choosing not to reply to him.
"Hey, you could at least-" he's cut off when a familiar figure smacks him on his head and he groans, looking away from me at last. "Ow- Hayette, what the fuck?"
She rolls her eyes. "You're in my seat, idiot."
"Go talk to Jude or Ty for a while. That's what you always do."
"No. Just get up from my place before I hit you with my shoe and mind you, it smells." Leo immediately cringes, getting up and throwing me one last look before walking away to the other side of the class where he usually sits. Elliot and I exchange looks while Hayette sighs in relief, dropping her bag on the seat. She's about to sit when she sees me. Her lips curl up in a sugarsweet fake smile and I mirror it for her. "Hey, good morning, Harley. Didn't see you there."
I tilt my head. "Morning, Hayette. Couldn't say the same for you since you always like to make a grand entrance no one asked for."
She scowls. "If I see that guy sitting here - or anyone for that matter, I'll kill you."
I sigh. "You're pressed up because a guy sat on your seat? Jeez, and I thought you were mature."
"I am mature, unlike you who's just too scared to even say anything to your classmates. You know how fed up most people are with your uncooperative ass, right?"
"Enlighten me. I don't know."
"You're-"
"What's going on there?" Kal's voice echoes in the room and in a split second, everyone is seated. Their eyes settle at me and Hayette. They raise their eyebrows as if asking what's wrong. "Well? Miss Fetcher and Miss Kingsley? What were you girls bickering about?"
"It was nothing, I'm sorry," Hayette says half-heartedly.
Kal's eyes flick to me, as if asking me to confirm the statement. I just nod.
"Alright, then," they say, "Let's begin with the roll call."
The rest of the homeroom goes by normally. I see Hayette give me a look and choose to ignore it instead of mirroring it.
I have zero idea about why Hayette hates me so much. She seems to miss no chance to taunt me or try to insult me even though it always backfires because of Jude backing me up or me saying something snarky or someone else just interrupting her. I like how some people back me up even though I don't talk to them at all. It's not like they have something against Hayette, but it's because they don't want to start unnecessary fights between the class.
Julian is annoyed by Hayette because of her trying to impress him by getting me to cooperate, which only seems to be making things worse for him.
During lunch, I'm sitting with Jude and she's complaining about how annoying Hayette and her minions are. "I'll kill her," she says, "Because she's bullying you. That's literally against the school guidelines. If you don't report it, I will."
"Please, it's fine. Stop whining about it."
"It's fine? Dude she literally spilled black paint on your school shirt when you were taking your shower and you're saying it's not a big deal?"
Of course, it's a big deal. To me, it is a big deal. But I'll get back to it later when I'm fed up with her crap. Right now, I can stand about three to four of her tactics before I do something to silence her without notifying the school authorities at all.
"I'll deal with her, Jude," I say lazily. "You don't have to worry about it right now."
"Are you sure?" she says, uncertain.
"Yeah."
"If you say so."
Right then, someone calls out for her. It's Ana, who's sitting with her group of friends in some other corner of the room. "Come and sit with us!" she calls out. I expect Jude to get up and leave but she doesn't. Instead, she just shakes her head with a smile and I realise that it's because of me.
I sigh. "If you're staying here because of me, then don't."
She looks at me with wide eyes. "What are you talking about?" I turn to face her. I'd have believed that she didn't know what I'm talking about if her expression didn't betray her. "No, I'm staying here."
"I don't mind it. I can sit alone. Besides, I don't know how long I'll actually be alone," I tell her, my tone flat and bored. "There are people coming in here and most of them have had at least one conversation with me over the weekend asking me whether I'm the Kingsley girl who's gonna date Asher in a while."
She coughs on her sandwich and I offer her my water bottle.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Crazy, right?" I take a bite from my own food. "I thought you were the gossip girl among us."
"What the fuck happened over the weekend? Like, I knew something was happening between the two of you but I was sure that's some kind of rivalry, not a fucking relationship." She leans back. "They're just assumptions, right?"
"Uh, huh."
"God, this is exactly why I hate high school. How are you so calm about it?"
I shrug. "It's not a big deal."
"Why is nothing ever a big deal to you?"
"I just don't let stuff that doesn't matter much to me get under my skin, Jude." I pause and open my phone. "Now, are you gonna go?"
She waits for a few seconds and bites her lips. "You sure you'll be okay?"
"For the hundredth time, Jude, you're not my babysitter and I can handle myself." My voice has a hint of annoyance yet once again but she chooses to ignore it as she smiles and gets up. Sometimes, I feel bad for talking to her the way I do but the feeling never lasts more than a few seconds.
That's what she'll get for being like my mom and worrying about me for no reason.
She's clingy and like I said before, clingy people ruin plans.
"Hey," I hear someone say. The voice is familiar. When I look up, I find that it's Reece standing with Cammy. They're both standing there with their trays and sitting in front of me and I try my best not to get a weird feeling about it.
"It's you," I say, looking at him, "again."
"You didn't want to see me?" He raises his eyebrows. Before I could reply, Cammy smacks the back of his head with her hand and he groans, looking at her.
"Stop flirting with her at every chance you get," she simply states and looks at me with a blank expression. Our eyes meet and I see something flash behind them and at that moment, I get an understanding of why Cammy looks at me like that. "She's like younger than you."
"I'm literally sixteen," Reece defends himself. "She's sixteen too."
"You're turning seventeen in a month, Reece. Shut up. You're disgusting."
"Look who's talking," Reece says in a sing-song voice, earning a well deserved elbow nudge in his stomach. "Ouch. Okay. Sorry."
"Anyways," Cammy says, "I saw you dance the other day. You were great."
"Thank you," I reply.
"Yeah, you really were. Where did you even learn to dance like that? Like, did you take some extra classes or something?" Reece asks me. Even though I know he's trying to strike a conversation with me, he's doing a pretty bad job at it.
"I'm self taught." They both stop what they were doing just to see my face and I raise my eyebrows as I look at their faces with an expression of disbelief. "What?"
"No, sorry -" Cammy pauses, "-you learnt that all on your own? That's so cool."
Honestly, it's not and I don't want to hear about it.
"Speaking of which," I finally say, trying to divert the topic from me to them, "I never really asked you what program you're both in."
"Oh, I'm in Drama," Cammy says. Her voice doesn't sound boring when she says that, meaning she likes it a lot. "It's real cool, you know, the program here. And certainly not boring. You should drop by there sometimes."
"Yeah, I'll try," I say with a slight smile. Then I turn to Reece. "And you?"
"Photography and Filmography," he states.
"Reece is awesome with a camera, you know. And with editing and stuff," Cammy explains even though I didn't ask but this gave me an idea about how maintaining a bond with either of them would help me in future. Not with what I'm here for, but for the obstacles in the way.
I still don't understand why the two of them have randomly decided to approach me and actually talk about something that's not about me being on the top. Every conversation I've had with Reece, Cammy is always somewhere around, excluding the time on the first physical education class. It's not like my conversations with him are a lot. I've only ever talked to him four times before today and if I think about it, this is the first time Cammy ever spoke to me properly.
I know the chances of it being something more are probably non-existent, but my paranoia would never let me assume that everything's alright.
"Oh, hey, my favourite person," I hear Asher's voice and immediately want to get out of this room. "How are you today, Kingsley?"
"I'm good." I don't ask him because I know he's going to continue the conversation even without me asking him what's up with his life.
He stands in front of the adjacent edge of the table and rests his palm on there, leaning. His smile is sick as he looks at me. "Are these people troubling you over here?"
"You're the only one who's troubling me," I mutter. "Why're you here?"
"I'm genuinely hurt by the fact that you think I only come to threaten you or something."
"Isn't that exactly what you do, though?"
He sighs. "As far as I remember, you were the one who said something about dominoes the last time we met."
"Yeah, no, I was speculating, Hale," I say and it's a lie. He knows it too.
"Speculating, huh?" he scoffs, shaking his head and standing straight. "Fine, then. See you around, Kingsley." He begins to turn around when his eyes met Reece's.
And that's when it clicks.
Even if it's just for a second and almost unnoticeable, I catch it then and there. If I wasn't looking then, I'd have missed it. I silently appreciate my timings before clearing my throat and reaching for the water bottle.
It was an exchange.
It was proof that I was right to think whatever I was thinking just a few moments before Asher came to our table.
I try to suppress my smile, my thoughts dodging in my mind and echoing over and over again as the realisation hits me.
I have an ally.