Chapter 6

And for the first time, I became the prey. The hunter became the hunted and trust me this deer or rat or whatever animal I am in the eyes of the BBC (scoff) sucks for sure. I walked with my eyes constantly looking over my shoulders. I mean I needed to check just in case someone had the genius idea to spray some tomato juice or whatever on my skirt again. The good part though was the laundry services Charlie said the school used would be able to get the stain off.

I decided to camp in the library during the break where not many students would be. From the bookshelves I found some novels to read and took them to a seat to read, four seats were arranged around square tables at almost every side of the room. I wasn't much interested in the books as I was in maintaining a low cover first so I could get my bearings again and plan the sweetest revenge. 

"Hey." The voice came from directly above me. I looked up at the person lowering himself on the seat opposite me.

Tyler.

His short black hair was upswept and that was alone was unfair because it only made him so irresistible and made my mouth hang limp like a fool. Yes, I have always been a sucker for handsome boys but I played this one-off cool with an arrogant raise of my brow.

He quirked a smile. "You don't remember me?"

Uh...Asides from the incident that put him and his friends at the top of my jerk list I had no recollection of him and a face like his would have been hard to forget. So I searched my entire jerk face list couldn't find him, looked through the jackass list couldn't find him there either and he didn't appear in any of my other lists so I gave up.

"I know you're a jerk but I honestly can't find you on my list right now. Try later"

His lips quirked higher "You still have that mouth on you," he chuckled in a way that put me on guard and set my teeth on edge. "7th Marie Avenue?"

I searched my brain again and just as I was about to give up when the name clicked. It was the name of a street dad had taken us to before we moved here. He had said his boss invited him to dinner and had wanted us to come with him, and just like that memories of that dinner in the big stately house came to fore. 

"Jerk!" I said from between clenched teeth. Memories of that dinner came rushing in. We had had the best dinner ever with the Edwins and then the adults had left us to do whatever. Beatrice had gotten a call from her boyfriend and had gone out to the Edwins' very large garden leaving just jerk-face and me. I was chatting with Mark and jerk face had tried to kiss me until I kneed him in the groin.

"You deserve what I did to you," I said angrily. He chuckled again. From the front of the library, the librarian shushed us. 

"You are very cheeky," he murmured. His lips were smiling but suddenly his eyes were not. The intensity of those blue eyes seared me with both heat and anger.

"Eff off," I said.

"Will do. Just keep watching your back." He stood to leave and I stopped him.

"One thing, Tyler, you guys, BBC? should seriously consider finding a new name and a new acronym too because neither you nor any of your friends have the right tools to do it any justice."

That succeeded in wiping the smile clear off his face. He tapped his nails on the back of the seat he was clenching but soon he smirked and left. I had a sinking feeling I was in for crap, at least I know my senior year at Edwin and co will not be boring.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

 "It's time for study! ". These four words echoed throughout the hostel around 4:00 pm while I was still running through some of the things I did at school today. Charlie swung her legs to the side of her bed and started throwing her clothes on. The hostel uniform was just a black polo shirt with the Edward and Co badge sewn at the breast. I dug out the one I was given today during the lunch period after school from my bag, pulled it on and wore a pair of jeans under it. Some of the girls wore skirts and knee-length pop socks.

"Where do we go for study time? " I asked Charlie.

"The school building. There's a hall I didn't show you today that's where we read."

She collected some books and put them in my bag since she didn't have any intention of bothering herself with a heavy load. 

"I'll carry the bag, " I offered already putting the straps on my shoulder. 

We joined the moving line of students to the school section of the...school.

Instead of moving straight up the main buildings the students curve round, passing behind a huge tree with thick leaves and marched towards a building that was totally obscured from the front. It was painted in cream.

"This is the study hall ", Charlie announced.

The interior was vast, as hinted by the size of the building from outside, and in it were a large number of chairs and tables. For each table, there were six chairs with two on each side of the length and one on each side of the breath. 

I let Charlie choose a seat and followed to seat with her. What's with the Mind your business thing that can't make me trust anybody. 

As soon as we took our seat Zoe and some lanky guy with a pair of glasses perched on his nose took the other side of our seats. 

"Hello, Jess, " Zoe said in her thin voice. Her shirt was so flat against her chest it was almost impossible to see the tiny bump of breasts behind the shirt. Some juniors were coming in whose shirts pushed out because their breasts seem to take more space than any other part of their body and here we were with a senior whose breasts were barely visible. 

"Charlie " the guy grunted as he took his seat opposite me. He dropped his bag on the floor. 

"Meet Jess, Dave," Zoe said to the boy. He smiled and held out a hand to shake "David Winters,"

I shook his hand carefully and offered my first name only since that was all he knew. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Charlie nod approvingly, mother hen nodding her approval.

"I'm so sorry about what happened at English class this morning," Zoe said. "Even I don't understand.... "

"No one cares about you, Zoe, and stop trying to rub some salt on a fresh wound, ok? " Charlie interrupted.

 I could have hugged Charlie but there was no need for that since I barely even felt the brunt of what happened this morning anymore.  

As we settled down and started to chat a tall, lean form with hair severely cut short stepped in front of my vision "Enough talking from this table" Head girl Annabel Reed announced. 

She took the seat closest to me while a junior took the last seat.

She seemed oblivious to my shock as she took a piece of paper from her book and started writing the names of the people present in the study hall. So professional and strict.

"You know Tyler Edwin " Charlie whispered from the side of her mouth as the blue-eyed devil walked in his own black polo and a pair of equally black jeans. "That's Jordan Coker" she pointed towards a guy with curly black hair, a straight nose and proud lips pulled into an easy smile. "And that's Christian Ward," this time this guy didn't have blue eyes instead his were smoky gray, his dark hair was all over the place like he had just woken up but he still somehow made my mouth water. Says a lot about me when I drool over my enemies.

The three guys seemed to draw the attention of everyone in the study hall. Curly head and friends walked behind them with their noses in the air "And those are their bitches " Dave and Zoe said in unison. 

"Those 3 guys are the founders, owners, stakeholders and whatever else kind of ownership there is of the Bad Boys Club."

At this Annabel Reed's eyes came up from her book "I said no talking! " she looked at me "I heard you got into trouble at English today? You should learn to do more than drool over people who will laugh at you after pranking you and get your nose buried in your book."

The poor juniors seating with us flinched at the sight of their head girl's rage but if Annabel Reed noticed it she didn't say anything about it. With her never smiling face and commanding tone my guess is she grew up in a military base.

Dave, Charlie and Zoe had already started reading but I was finding it a difficult thing to do since the head girl was right beside me, looking at me so intently as if watching my every move. Her attention was making me uneasy and queasy and she didn't seem bothered to be inconveniencing me I turned my attention to the study room door.

"Are you just going to keep staring at the door, Underwood? " Annabel Reed asked after a while. 

I caught myself with a start quickly glancing her way to find out she wasn't even looking at me anymore, she was done with the list and was flipping through pages of her voluminous textbook. 

From the back of the study, hall laughter erupted, followed by more laughter and more and more and more... And noisy speeches and comments. 

Annabel Reed stood up from her seat, scraping her chair back with a determined push at the same time as the boy Martin Sanchez. The noise was coming from the back of the hall where the Bad Boys Club..... And their bitches sat. 

"You guys over there " Martin's voice boomed "I'll not have any unruly behavior from you this evening! You will have to maintain quiet throughout these 2 hours for study, have I made myself clear? "

I turned around in my chair to get a better look at them. They were barely looking at Martin as he stood a few tables from them barely struggling to keep his anger under control. 

"You heard what he said didn't you? " Annabel asked with deceptive calmness. 

"Yes, " they responded, albeit grudgingly and after a long pause.

"Good" scanning the room to make her point Annabel continued "Now we can all go back to reading, any form of disturbance from any side would have to answer to me. For those who have decided to hide away at the hostel to avoid Study time pass the message to them that they shall be punished accordingly, am I clear? "

The Yes that followed her question was very resounding. 

Pleased, she plopped down on her chair and continued with her book. 

The hall resumed with its deafening silence. The boys of the Bad Boys Club..... And their bitches went back to their discussion but it was a quiet, whispered discussion. The only one who didn't seem to be interested in the conversation was the one Charlie called Christian Ward. He was scanning the hall as if looking for something while the redhead was beside him apparently trying to get his attention. After some time he gave her his attention and smiled at something she said. I almost sighed at the deep dimples that appeared, lightening the gray of his eyes. 

"Drooling over him now, are you? ". The question came from no other than the head girl who had suddenly made herself my mother's watchman. 

I tried to hide my scowl and swallowed the words I was about to say to her. Instead, I picked through the leaves of my books, waiting for the mandatory two hours allocated to reading to be over. Charlie seemed to be interested in solving some geometry questions when she's not whispering to Zoe or passing her notes. If Annabel noticed the notes she said nothing about it. David was busy scribbling, drawing on his book. The rest of the Class 3 seniors were holding the fort on the other tables, there was so much order like there was at the dining during breakfast and except the little incident involving the Bad Boys Club... And their bitches, there was no other incident of disorder. However cruel it may sound I just wish the seniors would stay in charge till I leave, who knows, they might have the power to stop whatever punishment those boys have for me. Yes, I'm not some baby who needs a guardian but I promised mom and grandma so I have to keep to my promise however uncomfortable it may be for me and to achieve that I need to live in an orderly place with orderly people. These seniors can get the people to be orderly so if they stay with me and make everything nice and good I have no fear of hurting mom and grandma. 

I'm not exactly a bad person you know, sometimes I do care about other people's interests like I care about mom's.

"Should I assume you're thinking of the best way to have my head then? "

I blinked in confusion at Annabel. Charlie, Zoe and Dave seemed to have noticed her sudden interest in me and they shared my frown this time. What's with this possessed doll?

"What? " I asked. 

Her lips moved in a tiny ghost of a smile "You've been staring at my neck for the past 10... 20 minutes. "

I blinked again fighting a blush. I didn't even know I was doing that. Could be some sort of reflex reaction towards her sudden antagonism. 

"I'm sorry?" I said. What am I apologizing for anyway? 

She shrugged off my apology and kept reading only to pull out the textbook I was reading and ticked some chapters in it. 

"I want you to read those chapters and give me a summary of it after school tomorrow ".

This time I couldn't hold my tongue "What the …What the eff do you mean read and write a summary? Are you my teacher or something? "

"You'll do as I say," she said sternly. 

"I'm sorry to disrespect you, Anabelle but hell no! " I pulled my book back from her "Enough of these already. If you hate me or like me or have control issues just tell me, ok? I'm in no mood for any drama I've had enough of drama for one day. "

Charlie bit her lip and hummed a toneless song, Zoe covered her face with her textbook only Dave didn't bother looking up to react to anything even the juniors seemed to sink into their chairs as they peeped from the top of their books. 

"Uh... I see" Was Annabel's simple reply. 

"I want you to see I have a lot on my plate right now and becoming your protagonist in this movie of the Head girl and the new girl is not gonna work so pick on someone your size."

With a grin that didn't reach her eyes, Annabel nodded "Doesn't change the fact that you have to report the summary to me tomorrow" she pushed her chair back and stood up before I could even say a word. 

I banged the table with my fist in an attempt to suppress the urge to go after her and grip her throat "Who the hell does she think she is?! " I growled low in my throat. 

A few heads turned towards our table trying to find something juicy to talk about so I sank into my chair and closed the books I wasn't even trying to read. 

No one on the table spoke. We didn't look at each other we just kept mum and minded our own business. 

Great! Those words are finally sticking in!.