The conference room fell still.
Everyone had simultaneously done a double take on the impossible words that had just left the director's mouth. All eyes had been trained on him but before he'd revealed the name, my gaze had gravitated to the three people in the room who had been very composed before coming in. Almost as if fully comprehending what would occur.
Garren bore the widest, gleefully grin I'd ever seen on him and his ash grey eyes were settled on me.
I swallowed.
The craziest thing was, a part of me somehow predicted this would happen. That he'd have another plan to deploy on top over the other.
It was the last thing I'd wanted and now that fearful envision had become the reality. Eventually, everyone recoiled from the shock and regressed back to said unfortunate reality.
"I-I-I'm sorry," Philip managed to sputter out, still in disbelief but there was apparent fear mixed in there too. "Come again, sir?"
"Garren Adler," Mr. Ludwig repeated, diminishing anyone's hopes they'd misheard him. "He's already a member and I believe you're all familiar with him, yes?"
"Um, yes sir."
Andrew was more white than a sheet of paper, eyes grimly sunken.
"I've gathered he's even the student who assisted the source to out Mr. Howard's scam and brought it to light, despite the risk he'd be putting himself in. Don't you think that's quite the suitable character's of a quality captain to lead a team?"
I could tell Philip was gritting his teeth. "I suppose, sir."
"As a matter of fact, where is Adler?" questioned Mr. Ludwig.
"Right here." Garren proudly shifted himself into view of the director's screen.
"Ah, splendid. How's your father and gran been?"
"They're doing great," he replied. Although the speech was formal, I could sense a distinct air of familiarity.
It made me wonder about the conveniences that led it to this stage. It was just too perfect. When considering what Garren said about how he'd been digging around for a way to remove Michael— who was to say he hadn't made negotiations beforehand to claim his spot too? That these supposed skeptic board members may have just been an excuse for Ludwig to use. He outranked Ms. Spheperd's authority. She'd have no say if he interfered with Coeus. Garren obviously knew that too.
I had no proof but I was certain my theory was correct.
"Me and my colleagues have reviewed your work for Coeus," stated Mr. Ludwig. "The academy's achievement rate has risen significantly since you joined last year of early August. It's remarkable."
"You're too kind," Garren said.
"We all trust you see to using the best of your abilities and get this club in shape. You have the board's full support."
"Thank you very much sir. I'm honoured."
It was upsetting to watch the sickeningly rehearsed exchange between the two, not to mention hypocritical after criticising Michael for his fakeness.
"I expect you ladies and gents to do the same." Mr. Ludwig spared the rest of us a sharp look and everyone plastered on nervous smiles. He gave one final curt nod and the screen went black, line disconnected.
That was it. Done.
A simple day had spiralled into madness in the span of a five minute call. Unbelievable.
Ben reclaimed the tablet and all eyes warily shifted to our obligated new captain and most likely, doom.
"Right." Garren folded his arms. "Well, I should say the board's decision was surprising and other general expressions of gratitude or whatnot but let's skip it because honestly, it's boring and I wanna get to the necessary stuff. First off; welcome to the first official Coeus held by me, your great and wonderfully blessed leader. But if you cross me, or so much as tick me off, I will be your new hell on earth."
He flashed a wide smile that was anything but warm. His statement was in no way a threat, it was an assured future. We were at the hands of his tentative mercy.
"Now, since we've got class I'll keep this fairly short," he began. "Philip, your validity to Coeus has hereby been cancelled. Please extract yourself from the premises."
"What?"
"It pains me to say this but you're unfortunately—" Garren stopped, a barrel of laughter evading his sentence. "Sorry, I thought I could say it with a straight face." He composed himself and continued with no humour. "You're out of the club. Effective immediately."
Jaws dropped. None as low as Philip's though. "What?! You can't just kick me out! You've got no reason to or it's got be concurred by the headmaster."
Garren peered to Will. "Is it required there be a reason?"
He nodded. Garren sighed and returned his attention back to the indignant senior. "Fine, you're hereby stripped from membership due to consistent uselessness, intolerable mood swings worse than a pregnant woman, swollen ego justified by nothing, supporting Tottenham and having unappealing sideburns. Happy?"
Philip's face contorted into a menacing scowl that for a split moment, I was concerned he'd lash out but then I realised that'd be in Garren's favour. As written in the handbook, members were also plausible for suspension or if taken as inexcusable by the captain, liable to be immediately ousted if committing acts of violence.
"You're gonna get what's coming to a bastard like you, Garren. Just you wait." Those were Philip's parting words before he promptly stormed out of the room with clenched fists.
The door slamming loudly as his footsteps quickly faded after. Garren exhaled. "The vicinity is now permanently one hundred percent rodent free, folks. You're welcome." He proceeded with that same grin on. "Right, you and you with the oddly shaped head.” He pointed. "I've never even bothered to learn your names and to this day, I still can't think of one single reason to. Get out."
Ian Russ and Alex Truman begrudgingly rose from their seats and followed in Philip's walk of exile with resentful glares at the boy who didn't even spare them a second glance as they disappeared.
I grimly glanced at the vast vacant seats surrounding me. It had been less than two minutes since Garren Adler was elected captain and he'd reduced the number of members to half of the original amount since he'd first joined.
Mystifying— that was all.
"Next…" Garren pivoted his radar to the chubby boy sat in between empty seats. Andrew gulped, anxiously pushing back his chair.
"No, no no. I'm not kicking you out. I'm only notifying you on your new regulations; no snacking in the club rooms."
A look of horror fell on Andrew's face that made you think to wonder if he would've preferred just being kicked out.
"Ever," Garren emphasised. "I don't want to catch those fingers with any grease, butter, powder or juices. Or you will be severely punished. Got that?"
Andrew sadly nodded his head.
"Good, onto the next thing on the agenda; I want everybody here who is a virgin to stand up."
Another swooping silence descended. I was almost certain I'd heard wrong.
I didn't.
Garren's face remained strictly stoic towards the quizzical stares he received from us. "Well? Do you want to hold this meeting on any longer? Stand up."
I blinked several times. What was the meaning of this? The first chair to creak forward was from the second quietest member who you'd forget because he was rather shy, Nathaniel Edgars. It was done very slowly, his shoulders hunched and cheeks harshly scarlet in embarrassment as he rose. Andrew, Tate and I grudgingly followed him.
The only remaining seated Fraiser, Amina and surprisingly Ewen, joining the Aces that stared at us like spectacles. Amina in particular with a sneer directed at me like she'd won something.
All at once, Garren's stoic face melted as he broke into an obnoxious fit of laughter. Nearly cackling, even. "Wow, you guys actually stood up. Quite some guts there but can't say I'm surprised."
I balled my hands into fists tighter than Philip had and glared down at the table, curses at the tip of my tongue. I caught Will's apologetic glance but it did nothing to condone any forgiveness in me. I never had a problem with confessing I hadn't slept with anyone, possibly because I generally didn't understand what everyone my age found so great about doing it with no special feelings behind it.
I did, however, have a problem with my unwilling peers being this arsehole's subject of ridicule. Tragically, they weren't as apathetic on the matter as I was and the three boys all looked gravely mortified. They settled back down to their seats looking ready to crawl into a hole.
Ben crouched down to Ewen's side with a beaming look. "Wowza, Ewie!" He whistled, nudging the neutral boy's shoulder as a taunt. "So who'd you popped your cherry to? Does she go to this school? Would I know her?"
Ewen merely blinked.
"... Or him?" Ben pressed, tilting his head. Still, he got nothing.
"Oh, this is gonna be so much fun." Garren wiped an imaginary tear from his eye.
That was how Adler had three poor souls feeling utterly humiliated and vengeful all in under two minutes. An absolute dickhead— that was all.
"Onto the last thing," Garren began. "The other new regulations concerning you all are the newly added support positions that will be courting me. The first being my vice, who will take care of anything if I'm absent obviously which I'm assigning to Will. And Benny, my secretary. Finally, I will also have an advisory who will be..."
His eyes came to find me again and he treated my glare with a smile. "Stevi—"
"No."
His smile dropped. I could feel the others' passing me looks at the edge in my tone and more likely, my defiance I was displaying in only two and a half minutes into getting a new captain— or more suitably, dictator. I knew I was breaking my word I gave to Michael but there was no way I was supporting this.
Garren squinted his eyes. "No?"
"I... I don't want to." I averted my gaze. Yes, he had a large area of authority on what I did. But that couldn't mean he could force me into whatever he was scheming.
"I'll take the position if Powell feels incompetent," volunteered Amina.
I knew he still had his eyes lingering on me but this time I prevailed to not let myself be drawn back to them and studied my chipped fingernails.
"Alright," Garren's tone sounded flat. Downcast, almost. "Ewen will be my advisory."
"What? But I offered to," protested Amina.
It went unaccounted. "Meeting over. You're all dismissed."
Almost everybody, including me was very eager to depart. Especially from the weighing presence of eyes I could still feel on me as I walked out.
I considered asking Ash and Liam if we could eat elsewhere for lunch. I was sure they wouldn't pry into my reasons but decided against it in the end. I wasn't going to make comprises to avoid The Aces. It would be like they played a factor in my actions, which they definitely didn't.
I navigated my way through the lunch hall and my brain didn't stop myself in time from peering above. The three were already gathered in their seats, their leader busy on his phone but Ben caught my staring.
He immediately waved, catching Will's attention and before the other one took notice, I carried onwards with my lunch to my friends. When I had told them I wanted nothing more to do with The Aces, they had never been more relieved. I owed them one for sticking through me in that clear hysteria I was suffering for thinking for a moment those guys weren't as bad as we made them out to be.
Liam and Ashton were preoccupied in an argument on some reality TV show— or maybe it was a soap opera, I couldn't tell the difference. I snuck another peek to the upper platform.
Ben still looking my way with an expression of confusion, probably as to why I wasn't committing to the seating arrangements. It seemed no one told him I called things off or he'd forgotten. Yeah, the latter sounded more likely.
Oddly enough, I was for some reason suspecting Garren to suddenly storm over to me about it but it seemed he'd finally took me seriously and backed off. I blamed it on the overly bumpy mashed potato and haphazardly sliced beef that my undisturbed lunchtime didn't put me at ease.
It was as I was disposing the crumbs off my food into the waste bin that I noticed those pretty green eyes I adored. I knew he was entering the hall late because the rugby team held drill practices at noon and the fact his cheeks were flushed with curls dampened at the tips, he'd sped over straight from the showers.
He looked good even when exhausted. He had barely held a conversation after Geography, almost like he was being distant. Perhaps ignoring his texts had done it. That was understandable.
I would've set my cleared dish aside and made a beeline to where he was and explained myself but he was accompanied by his teammates, judging from their equally tousled appearance. It made me hesitate. I'd rather attempt to make a bumbling fool of myself without an audience who would figure out I fancied him. Miraculously, Shaun hadn't.
Not to mention, Ash and Liam had already derived what was causing me to take so long to catch up with them as they had a start to the east exit doors.
I turned before he noticed me and marched up to the pair. "Let's go."
"You sure? You look like you've got unfinished business there." smirked Ash.
"Nope, now let's move on for you to quickly copy my notes for so we can do something fun before lunch ends."
"Hey, I don't copy your notes. Just, conferring them in case I missed something on my own,” she argued.
"Yeah, which are completely blank," said Liam.
Ashton kicked his shin and they thankfully moved along. They'd already fallen into another bicker before we'd reached the student lounge for a quiet spot to 'confer', when Liam suddenly switched the topic because he'd ran out of comebacks.
"So, I heard a crazy rumour that the devil has started running the Nerd Cave."
"Oh yeah! Same," chimed Ash. "What's up with that? Please tell me it's not for real."
Although he was the last thing I wanted to talk about, I nodded. "It's for real."
They both grimaced. "How could that even happen?" questioned Liam. "I mean he's... how?"
"The school director recommended it."
They were even more bemused, eyes wide and mouths slack jawed. "When is karma finally gonna put those boys in place? There has to be a limit to how much bull the balance of the universe can take,” declared Ashton.
I shrugged. I could've informed them of how I knew it was all planned but it would amount to nothing.
"I really thought it was a joke since you're so calm. I figured you'd be freaking out," said Ashton.
"I was but after thinking it over, a sociopath like Garren will probably get bored of all the responsibilities he'll have to attend to and just get lazy with it," I explained. "Someone who's always had everything given to them on a gold platter can't cope with real work. They couldn't even function without their crutches their family backgrounds provide them. I bet you after a week..."
I stopped when I comprehended Ashton and Liam's attention had been divided. Perhaps in the bliss of venting, I was too engrossed that I hadn't caught onto their hinting looks. Their eyes weren't even trained on me anymore, but on something behind.
There was a slim number of things I knew that got both Liam and Ashton unnerved. One being explicit gore, so I always avoided picking horror movies and the other being cockroaches.
Reluctantly, I peered over my shoulder and hoped to see an insect or mutilated carcass of some sort. Instead, I saw him.
He'd definitely snuck up on me— I was certain. There was no way he could be so close and I hadn't felt a chill. I stood staring, not sure what to say after being caught badmouthing one of the cruelest people I'd ever met.
Garren didn't look the slightest bit annoyed, but he definitely heard me. "Well go on. You've got more to say right?"
I pursed my lips. "Not really."
He gave me a downbeat stare as if almost disappointed. I couldn't understand why that bothered me more than the dread of how he'd possibly plot my murder. "Meeting after school in the rec room. Don't be late."
Like you're one to talk, I bit back the words as they threatened to tumble out.
He didn't say anything further and walked off, hands in pockets. I faced my friends who passed me pitying stares. It looked like I'd be the first one of my peers to see hell.