❇❇❇TROUBLE❇❇❇
"She's the nerd that skipped school to go out with Victor Wolfe yesterday."
"She's walking with headmaster Dunn, she's so in trouble."
"It's the quiet ones you always need to watch out for."
"The millionaire Victor Wolfe, but he's older than her. "
Those were only but a few snickers Ella had endured during her misery-filled saunter to the headmaster's office. She was now seated outside headmaster Dunn's office, he was dealing with a troubled student- a bully, to be exact.
She compared her spotless record to that of Zack the terroriser, she knew she didn't belong in the same place as someone who vandalizes, uses tainted language with teachers and picks fights on a regular basis. She merely spent a day with a multi-millionaire, there was nothing wrong with that.
Then again, this multi-millionaire was Victor Wolfe, she skipped school and people found out by reading the nationwide news.
"Expelled! Do you hear me? I don't want delinquents like you ruining my school! If you parents aren't here this time, don't bother coming back!" Mr. Dunn yells from inside his office, resulting in Ella's soul departing from her body. The office door opens and an infuriated Zack and Mr. Dunn walk out.
"Remember, I want to see your parents tomorrow. No excuses this time." Mr. Dunn says, leaving Zack to walk off in a huff.
"You," He turns his beady gaze to Ella, "Get in." He coldly instructs and gestures to his office. Ella apprehensively gets up from her seat and makes her frozen solid legs take uneasy strides into Mr. Dunn's office.
"Have a seat," He commands and closes the office door, leaving all her gallantry to fly out of the windows instead. "Let's talk about your little stunt yester—" Mr. Dunn impedes his approaching lecture when he hears commotion taking place outside his office.
"Sir, you can't just walk into a meeting!" Mrs. Parker says from outside the door to an unexpected guest.
The door opens and Victor walks across the threshold. He may have just been in a business suit, but Ella saw him in an unbuttoned, flowing shirt, holding Excalibur to the heavens with an enchanting, pallid light as his majestic backdrop.
"Good day, sir. I am Mr. Wolfe." He greets and walks up to Mr. Dunn, shaking his hand. Victor seats himself down unsolicited and gives a trembling Ella a brief smirk.
"Mr. Wolfe, I don't even know how to approach this subject right now. Ella made a mockery of this school—" Mr. Dunn's tone was beginning to pick up volume after every word.
"Watch your words, Phil ." Victor lowly warns. Ella internally felt a tinge of amusement by Victor's use of Mr. Dunn's first name.
"How do know my first name?" Mr. Dunn asked with furrowed brows.
"That's not the only thing I know about you. I know that you've been slowly, but significantly, taking money from the school's account and placing it into your own, knowing that there are quite a few things in this school in need of repair." Victor answered in a monotone voice, causing Ella- and quite possibly Mr. Dunn, to each receive chills for dissimilar reasons.
"You don't have any proof, Mr. Wolfe." Mr. Dunn says and squints his eyes.
Mr. Wolfe removes a few documents from his briefcase and places it on the desk. Mr. Dunn picks up the pages and inspects them. Victor and Ella were too busy stealing fleeting glances at each other to notice his bewildered expression.
"Um, well, Ella, you may return to class. I think this meeting has run long enough." Mr. Dunn comments, plastering a huge, ill at ease smile on his face. Ella was stunned, what could possibly have been on those documents? She wonders.
"I think so too, Phil. It was a pleasure to meet you." Victor assertively and overconfidently replies and gets up from his chair, Ella follows his lead. Mr. Dunn gives Victor a brief look of odium, causing Ella to bite the insides of her cheeks in order to suppress her laugh. She had never seen Mr. Dunn's defeated look before.
They walk out of the office, but Victor opens the door to rub the salt deeper in Mr. Dunn's already sheered flesh.
"Picture me giving those documents to the press the next time Ella gets into trouble, okay? I doubt she will, but keep it in mind, and make sure all Ella's teachers know that you're cool with this entire ordeal. " Victor triumphantly says and shuts the door, leaving an enraged Mr. Dunn rumbling in malice within the confined walls of his office.
"Well, sweetheart, we've had quite a morning, huh?" Mr. Wolfe says with a smirk as they stand a few steps away from Mr. Dunn's office.
"Victor, what are you doing here? I'm keeping you from your job." Ella comments in a scolding tone.
"Sweetheart, I saw the news. I didn't want you to handle this confrontation on your own. It's my entire fault, the media are relentless and I came to be your dauntless saviour." He valiantly defends, causing her to see hearts flutter about in the air.
"I can handle myself, Victor. I've been bullied all my life, I have no family to disappoint, I think I've become immune to critique- the media is nothing compared to what I have faced. Besides, I have a cover story, I'll say I helped you discuss the orphanages renovations- I am going to live there after all." She replies, factually.
"Well, the media thinks we're budding romantics. Can't we just say I took you on a date?" He asks with a huge, childish grin. Ella gets a little flustered by his question; she was a high school student and he a grown man. In some countries this would be proscribed and frowned upon.
"Victor, I don't think that'll be wise. Let's stick to my story." She replies, trying to hide her flushed expression.
"Your facial expression doesn't make it seem like you want to use your story, but I wholeheartedly understand. We'll use yours, for now. Now let me accompany you to your friends." He says, remaining dashing throughout his sentences.
Ella follows next to him as they walk through the corridors, still filled with many nosy students.
"Oh my gosh, it's Victor Wolfe!"
"Lola, take a picture!"
"He's incredibly dreamy!"
"She's so lucky!"
Victor seemed serene as he walked pass these love-struck girls, all ready to bow at his feet and call him king. Ella, on the other hand, was trembling as she walked alongside a man with this much physical appeal.
"She's too unattractive to be around him." Alexis Benet, teen queen of the seniors, maliciously retorts as they pass her and her pawns. Victor stops dead in his tracks and pauses for a minute before turning around.
"You there, I'd like you to repeat what you just said- this time, to my face." He threatens and walks closer to Alexis. She eyes him up and down, possibly trying to seduce him with her cat-like eyes.
"I'm just saying, if you wanted to go for a girl from Livingston, why not go for me?" She responds in a deep, sultry tone, causing gasps and amused expressions from the growing onlookers.
"Maybe because you dress like a streetwalker, instead of a young woman. Ella here is more beautiful and smarter than you'll ever wish to be. She's been through too much to have high school whores like you tear her down." He replies, his cavernous voice sending throbbing vibrations into the earth's core.
The crowd was amused by his response, but not Alexis- and especially not Damon, her jock boyfriend.
"Hey big shot, so my girlfriend is a whore? How about you say it to my face? At least she didn't ditch school to spend a day with an older man like your precious thing over there. "He mocks, rendering the audience speechless.
Victor lunges towards him and ferociously strikes him in the nose, Damon, still disoriented, attempts a punch, one that Victor quickly dodges. Their fight is quickly broken up by a nearby teacher, who takes Damon to the headmaster's office. Ella watched in pure bewilderment as Victor approached her.
"Hey, sweetheart, sorry about that. Where are your friends now again?" He asks with his signature, childlike grin- as if nothing fierce just happened.
Unable to speak, she leads the way- feeling everyone's judging stare tear holes in her delicate body. They finally make it to Jace and Vince, who are still on the same spot as they were before Ella's call to the office.
"Ella, please tell me nothing bad happened in Mr. Dunn's office. Are you okay?" Jace stated as he exasperatedly runs up to Ella, completely ignoring Victor's presence. Victor shoots Jace a glare, but he is far too busy fawning over Ella to notice. Vince was not oblivious to it though, but he remained silent.
"Ella, can I talk to you in private?" Victor gallingly asks, causing Jace to impede his frenetic words. She says nothing, but follows him to a secluded spot under a tree about a few metres from where they were.
"What is it, Victor?" She asks with an angelic smile.
"Number one, where are your female friends? Number two, this Jace acts as if he has more than textbooks in his closet and number three, this-" Victor says and produces a small box from the inside of his blazer pocket.
Ella cautiously takes the detailed, hand-sized wooden box from him.
"Number one, I don't have any. Number two, that's not funny, it's plain mean and number three, it's beautiful." She says, jumping through various different facial expressions and vocal tones.
"Number one, get some, a whole team of them. Number two, I'm sorry for the joke, mom and number three, wait till you see what's inside." He says before giving her a smirk. She holds the top of the mini, chest-like box and tries to lift the top. It doesn't open- the box is locked.
"Okay, I'm not doing the number thing now—"
"Yes, then I win!" He ecstatically exclaims like a child who just beat their older sibling at a game of rock, paper, scissors. His rare, juvenile attitude comes out scarcely and it never ceases to stop amazing her. She sighs.
"Fine Victor, you win, but why would you give me a locked box?" She asks in puzzlement.
"Your seventeenth birthday is coming up in five months; don't look so shocked, you know I have your details. This is your birthday gift, but not for this year- the key will be sent to you on your eighteenth birthday. As for your seventeenth birthday, here-" He dotingly speaks and hands her yet another box- a tad smaller than the first. She hesitantly takes the box and inspects it, not yet seeing what's inside.
"I'm afraid I won't see you on your birthday, so I decided to give it to you early. Open it on your birthday, and on your birthday only." He mock-sternly instructs, she nods, keeping her head to the ground. "Hey, what's wrong?" He soothingly asks when she mistakenly lets out a small sniffle.
"You t-treat me nicer than anyone ever has, and I haven't even bought you anything yet." She says with a brittle voice.
"Your existence in my life is gift enough, besides we'll always have the ice-cream cone you bought me yesterday, in our hearts- I'll probably always have migraines from that hefty brain freeze!" He says with a burst of laughter, she barely found what he said the slightest bit humorous, yet she laughed along with- a true and sincere laughter.
"Wait!" She halts, immediately impeding their jovial moment. She rolls up her left sleeve and removes a small, silver bracelet.
"My grandma gave me this before she died, it's been on my arm ever since she passed on eight years ago. It's not authentic silver and probably too little for your wrist, but I want you to have it. Here-" She says, extending her arm with the bracelet on the receiving end of it.
"Ella, no, I couldn't—" He was cut off by her lightly grabbing and opening his hand, gently placing the little bracelet on his palm, before tenderly securing it by enclosing his fingers over the still-warm armlet. He opens his hand again and stares at it in pride.
"I'll guard it with my life. I don't care if it's real or not, anything that comes from you is valuable- priceless. Thank you, Ella." He earnestly says, giving her a smile. The siren wails and soon it is time to start first period. Ella looks over to Jace, who was signalling her to come over. Vince was already dashing to class as he never wanted to miss anything.
"God, can't that Jace see we're in the middle of something?" Victor says with aggravation piercing through his voice. Ella chuckles at his tone of voice.
"He's just trying to be nice, Victor." She says.
"Well, he needs to learn boundaries. He's seriously clingy. Well, I suppose it's time for me to take my leave, I don't want you to get into more trouble because of me, again." He replies, he notices her cheerless expression and crouches down to her level.
"Now, you be a good girl for Mr. Wolfe, okay sweetheart?" He asks causing her face to inflame.
"I w-will, promise." She finally manages to get out. Victor was hands down the most eye-catching man she has ever seen in her life.
"Focus on your studies- no boys. Well, except me, of course." He teases and she lights up a bit. "Goodbye, Miss Avery." He says and gently lifts her head by her chin, planting a brief kiss on her forehead.
"G-Goodbye, Mr. Wolfe." She says, and with one poignant smile, he walks off. She hardly notices Jace running over. She quickly places the two boxes in her pockets, leaving two large bumps protruding from either sides of her blazer.
"Ella, did he seriously just kiss you?" Jace asks in shock.
"No, he was just telling me something really private, he was paranoid that someone would hear so he came closer." She blubbers, and hoped Jace didn't notice anything.
"Okay, El, I believe you." He says, she hears the scepticism in his voice, but doesn't bother to comment on it. The pair walk off, Ella takes one last look at the spot where she received the kiss, she'll probably never forget it.
***
Dear journal
I've been neglecting you horribly. Father said I should write all my contented memories in here the day he gave it to me, that way, I could read through it when I'm having a ghastly day. After his death, every "accomplishment," felt hollow. Therefore, nothing felt good enough to write down.
Until not too long ago, I met this girl- this beautiful, awe-inspiring, intrepid girl. She's different, I can tell she's broken, but she chooses not to show it. I can tell she's fearless, I mean, we met because she trespassed into my office. Her eyes, her larger than average , hazel eyes. The way she stared at me the moment we met, overwrought with fear- it was- I don't know, beguiling perhaps, captivating, alluring?
It's been months since I've seen her, I've decided to keep my distance. She may not admit it, but I'm a distraction. The media could speculate a lot of things and I don't want to drag her chaste repute down. We don't text as much either, Ella turns her cell off during school time to focus on her grades, commendable, but still.
She's seventeen today, I wish I could see her, but I can't. I long to see her smile, her eyes- her.
My childhood was cut short, it became overrun with duties, responsibilities and work. In a way, I suppose I am able to regain my lost childhood when I'm around her. I can be as juvenile as I want, not because I am expected to, but because I want to.
I have a choice with Ella, I can protect her, I can make her laugh, I can be silly in front of her- I can simplistically be the me I was forced to discard many years ago.
Screw it, I'm going to see her right now.
-V. Wolfe
***
"Happy birthday, Ella!" Mrs. Valour screeches as she enters Ella's bedroom with a little, crimson cupcake in hand.
Ella groans, feeling more irritated than ever, she brushes off the annoyance and puts on a smile.
"Thank you, ma'am." Ella replies, accepting the saccharine treat, which disgusted her so early in the morning.
"Seventeen now, huh? Thinking of boys yet, Ella? If you are, you can come talk to me. I am quite the veteran in things like this- still am." She cockily says, Ella takes a brief moment to stare Mrs. Valour down. A fifty-something year old, with deep, cerise lipstick messily smeared over her lip line, dull, greying brunette hair and heavy bangles that jangled as she moved. How can she still be an old hand at snagging a man? Ella thought in sheer wonder.
"I'm not really into those kind of things, ma'am. I want to finish my schooling first." She replies, Mrs. Valour gives a brief look of shock.
"Wow, when I was your age- let's just say my interests contrasted yours." Mrs. Valour says with a fleeting look of shame. "Well, Ella, you need to get ready for school!' Mrs. Valour uncomfortably exclaims and hastily walks out the door.
What was that about? Ella thinks. She quickly abandoned the thought and checked her phone, she saw two birthday wishes from Jace and Vince on their friendship group chat.
Gee, thanks guys! See you at school.
She could not type anything more enthusiastic as that. She checked her phone in anticipation this time, she initially hoped to wake up to a text from Victor- but he didn't send anything yet. She brushed off her disappointment and got ready for school.
She remembered Victor's present from a few months back, she opened the box and was stunned to see what was inside. It was a diamond encrusted, heart-shaped locket. It was spectacular; she opened the small heart and discovered the little picture she took of them in the park. On the other side was a small, typed out sentence.
Happy birthday, Princess Ella
-Love, Victor
Her heart leapt from her chest and she immediately tried it on. She spent quite a while ogling herself in the mirror until she discovered she was nearly late for school.
She enjoyed having her own room, the privacy, the solitude- it all amazed her. The other orphans thought it to be unfair, but they quickly got over it. She put on her uniform and got ready for her walk to school. Mr. Sully's wife had given birth and Ella decided to give him a few days off in the week as she is back in the orphanage now.
***
Ella got to school and the day tediously dragged on, nobody else cared to wish her a happy birthday, besides Jace and Vince, nobody else knew what today was. Vince kept boring her with facts about birthdays, but Jace was suspiciously silent.
When school ended, Jace called her aside, on the same spot she and Victor shared their brief kiss.
"Ella, through classes and Vince's monotonous facts, I didn't have a chance to give you this." He says and hands her a box. She opened the box and discovered a little bracelet inside, it wasn't too flashy, but it needn't be. There was two letters on it separated by a heart.
"The first initial is from my name and second from yours. I suppose the heart stands for love." He bashfully informs.
"Jace loves Ella?" She asks in confusion, he nods his head and her eyes bulged.
"I've loved you the moment I laid my eyes on you, Ella. Please, do me the honours of being your boyfriend." He confesses and places the bracelet on her arm. She is speechless, she liked Jace, but it wasn't strong enough.
"Can I have time to think about this, Jace?" She quickly asks, turning as red as a tomato.
"Um, yeah, sure, take all the time you need, El." He replied, trying to mask his disappointment.
"Well, I need to return home." She says, breaking the gauche silence.
"Um, sure- see you, El." He says and gives her small a hug. The guilt consumes her as she walks off and she tries to get rid of it by thinking about something. She then finds herself thinking about Victor and his gift.
If there was anyone she wished she could see- it would be Victor. She knew he couldn't visit her, he gave her his present early because he wouldn't be able to visit. She shook off her disappointment and darted home.
***
This day was so messed up, she thought as she removed her blazer and opened the door to her bedroom. She walked to her mirror and jumped in fear by the smirking man staring back at her.
"Good day, Ella. Lovely to see you again, Princess." Victor cavernously says as he approaches her and extends his arms.
Hey my friends!
Thank you for all the support I've been receiving. I love all your comments and votes, thank you, thank you, thank you! 😭
My boyfriend is amazing, just a little fact about me!
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