Nate
GROUP CHAT THREAD: NATE AND THE BOYS
Daniel: Can you believe our luck, Nate. We have Gym with the hippie. You should see the marks on her hands, brother. She’s a sexy little fox, for sure. She’s got tattoos all over her arms.
Nate: You have to be kidding me.
Kyle: He isn’t. Man, I hate that you’re missing this. She’s quite athletic, too. Maybe she’s taking out her anger from math class. I heard the headmistress gave her a week of detention. She’ll be patrolling the school at night, looking after us. Have you heard anything funnier?
Adams: All the more room for us to gang up on her, the sneaky little bitch. Who comes to this school looking like her? She’s wearing red lipstick, and she has a skeleton tattoo on her neck.
Nate: Man, you guys are making me regret not taking Gym.
Daniel: You can transfer, though? Can’t you? Why go for the boring political science classes when you can take up arts and recreation? Your dad won’t care, brother. You’re going into his business anyway. Best have fun while you can.
I tossed my phone into my satchel, a frown on my face. The boys were having the time of their lives with the new chick.
And I had to admit, I’d been stumped the first minute I saw her. Those eyes. She looked like a deer, a fawn lost in the forest.
Yeah, literature was my secret passion. Yeah, I read Frost and Hemingway and a bit of Murakami when I could. When I was alone in my room and unbothered by the need to be Nate Geoff, the school’s fucken heartthrob.
But then, just as I wanted to protect her, my urges took over. She was so perfect as a target! I felt like a tiger, ready to pounce. Only, she needed a bit of fattening.
She was poor, ghetto trash.
The school’s info board lit up with another message from Centauri. I’d been expecting it sooner, to be honest.
It's me, your favorite source for all the latest gossip. And boy, do I have some juicy news for you today.
Well, darlings, it’s only her first day, and word on the street is that our little Jennifer is already stirring the trouble pot!
It seems that our very own pariah has found herself in a bit of trouble with the headmistress.
Word on the street is that Jennifer's rowdy behavior and tattoos have caught the attention of the school authorities, and they're not too pleased.
I mean, come on, who gets inked up at such a young age?
Apparently, the headmistress has decided to teach Jennifer a lesson by giving her a humiliating punishment.
That's right, folks. Jennifer is now the dorm monitor, tasked with making sure that everyone gets to bed on time. Can you imagine?
Sources say that Jennifer is less than thrilled about her new role. In fact, she's downright embarrassed. I mean, who wouldn't be?
Going from the school's resident bad girl to a glorified housekeeper is quite the fall from grace.
But don't worry, Upper East Siders. Knowing Jennifer, she'll find a way to turn this whole situation around.
Who knows, maybe she'll even start a trend of rebellious dorm monitors. Until then, we'll be keeping a close eye on her every move. After all, we wouldn't want to miss any of the drama.
Hugs and Kisses,
Centauri
Hm. Things just kept getting more and more interesting. I wouldn’t mind Jennifer patrolling the dorms at night. It gave me more ideas. All of them involved ganging up on her and giving her the scare of her life.
Not enough to send her packing, of course. I wanted a little bit of fun. School was boring without her, that much I’d established.
And why wouldn’t it be? Dad sent me here because he thought girls would be a distraction. He’d taken me from the last school when I got caught partying with the class princess and told me I had to “man-up!”
This was his answer. Sending me somewhere I’d be around rowdy boys, each more entitled than the last.
I sighed and rubbed my eyes wearily. There was a time when I’d been a little different.
Of course, being born with so much already done by way of money and expectations will set you back a little, but back in the other school, I’d had a heart.
Now, I didn’t feel like anyone deserved to know that part of me. It’d be a weakness to show the boys I could feel.
They expected me to have fun, let loose, and just not understand the repercussions of anything. I had to hand it to Jennifer, really. It couldn’t have been easy, trying to stick out like a sore thumb.
But she was doing her best, and while part of me appreciated that, most of me hated that she had the fucken guts.
I mean, who the hell did she think she was, with the short-short skirt and the broadway make-up? How dare she even think she could come in here and survive?
She was total trash I couldn’t wait to destroy.
My phone beeped. I took it out. Routine call from mother.
I rolled my eyes. Best answer before she decided to reach out to me through the headmistress.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Darling,” she simpered immediately. “Are you coming home for the weekend?”
“No,” I replied immediately. “I have too much classwork.”
“They work you so hard at that school!” she complained. “I just spoke to Daniel’s mother, and she told me there’s a new transfer there? Oh, the horrible things she said!”
Word sure got around here fast.
“There’s a transfer, yes,” I replied through gritted teeth.
“Is it true she’s a girl, and she’s poor?”
Mother emphasized the last word like it was the worst offense someone could make.
“She’s a girl. I don’t know about the rest, Mom.”
“You be careful, Son.” She sounded genuinely worried. Knowing her, becoming friends with someone from the other side of the tracks would surely catapult me toward being disinherited.
That’s just how my family functioned. It didn’t matter if I associated myself with bootleggers or tax-evaders or even mafia kids. So long as they came from rich families, the world was well.
But no, find yourself someone who repeated clothes, and it was a sure sign of the enemy. The people I had to avoid, no matter what the cost. It was the worst offense.
I snorted into the phone. “You’re surely not thinking I intend to be her friend? I have too much to do with my life.”
Her voice warmed up to me once more. “That’s my boy! Now, your father is hosting a summer ball next weekend. We’ll be having lots of important guests. Agatha as well. I’ll expect you to attend, Son.”
I groaned inwardly. “Mom, there’s so much to do. Can’t I come down during the holidays?”
“No, I won’t take no for an answer,” she quipped. “Okay, darling. I have to go now. I’m attending the Wisteria Spring Fashion show, and they’re starting any minute. Give my love to your friends, and stay away from trouble!”
She hung up. I stared at the screen blankly for some time. “Bye, Mom.”
Had she ever been different? I could have sworn, when I was a child, I remembered a woman who used to carry me in her arms and walk me through the rose gardens of our family mansion.
A place abounding in Juliet roses, each more pristine and pretty than the last.
But that’s as far as my memory went. This woman always disappeared before I could put a finger on what she looked like or how she spoke.
All I recalled was she felt a lot like love. And I? I’d never known love otherwise.
I shrugged and walked into Dorm 32. I knew just what was going on in there. Randy sat with his group of boys, balls deep in a game of cards.
One of our many vices.
"What's the game?" I asked, taking a seat at the table.
"It's called Indian Poker," Randy said, dealing out the cards.
"You each get one card, and you can look at it. Then, you put it on your forehead so that everyone else can’t see it, and you can’t see anyone else's."
I looked at my card, a ten of diamonds, and placed it on my forehead.
The guys around the table had cards stuck to their foreheads, and everyone looked a little nervous. This was a high stakes game, winner takes all.
"Now, we start betting," Randy said, pushing a stack of chips toward the center of the table. "You can bet as much as you want, but if you fold, you're out."
I looked at their cards again, trying to gauge whether mine was worth betting on. I had no idea what the other guys had, but I could tell they were all thinking the same thing.
"I'm in for ten chips," I said, trying to sound confident.
"Twenty for me," one of the other guys said, and the betting continued around the table. I started to get nervous as the pot grew larger and larger. What if I lost everything?
But then something strange happened. One of the guys at the table started to sweat profusely, even though the room was cool.
I noticed that his card was turning red. And then I realized what was happening. He was cheating.
"You're bluffing!" I accused him, pointing at his card.
"What? No, I'm not!" he protested, but the other guys started to look suspicious.
"You are, too!" Randy said, grabbing the card off the guy's forehead. "It's a queen of clubs!"
The cheater tried to make a run for it, but Randy and his boys caught him, gave him a few lashes, and kicked him out of the room.
Our game continued, but the mood had changed. We were all on edge, wondering if anyone else was cheating.
In the end, it was down to me and Randy. We both had high cards, but I had a feeling that he was bluffing. I pushed all my chips to the center of the table and waited for him to make his move.
"I'm all in," Randy said, his voice shaking a little.
I looked him in the eye and made my decision. "Call."
We both flipped over our cards, and I breathed a sigh of relief. My ten of diamonds had beaten his nine of spades.
"I win!" I exclaimed, scooping up the chips.
Randy grinned and shook my hand. "Good game, man. You earned it."
I sighed and leaned back. “That sure took the edge off. Thanks, brother. I needed it.”
Randy nodded. “You’ve got your sights on the new girl, don’t you?”
I sat up straight, suddenly careful. “Why d’you ask?”
He shrugged. “Cuz she’s pure trash. Can’t wait for someone to just chuck her out, but that won’t be too easy.”
I frowned. Getting Jennifer to leave seemed like the easiest thing we could do. For some reason though, I didn’t want that.
I wanted her to stay.
“She’s got somethin’ going on with the headmistress,” one of the other boys growled. “Else, Agatha would never allow a girl into this sanctorium.”
He was right, though. Something was fishy. There was no escaping that.
And I intended to get to the bottom of it.
“Hey, Randy?”
“Hm?”
“How do I transfer classes?”
He pushed the school timetable in front of me, knowing full well what I had in mine.
When it came to push and shove, there was no better bully in school. No one with the power I had. And Jennifer had no idea what was comin’ for her.
“She takes math, gym, history, science, art, and she’s into recreation stuff.”
I scanned the table and nodded. “I’ll transfer tomorrow. I’ll give up finance. No fun in it anyway.”
Watch out, Jen.
I’m coming for you.
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