My hands turn clammy and my body tightens as if I’m off to battle.
Kim smiles, but it’s forced and makes her nose twitch in anxiousness.
“We’ve got this,” I say more to myself than to her.
One more year in this hell.
One more year until Cambridge.
Kim’s head bobs up and down, causing her mint-coloured strands to bounce.
“If we die,” I joke. “I want to go in full Shakesperian mode. Tragedy.”
She laughs, the sound is throaty. “For thy love of thee!”
We break into a fit of laughter as we head down the vast, main hallway. The school’s golden logo, Crest-Lion-Crown decorates the entrance hall and the announcement board.
The moment we cross the entrance area and step into the hallways filled with other students, the real nightmare starts.
“Hey, Frozen. Did you freeze any beaches this summer?”
“Where’s your fat friend?”
“Is she stuffing her pregnant belly with carbs?”
Kim’s grip tightens on my arm. I can’t believe they don’t even recognise her.
Truth be told, I had to look at her twice after the summer camp to make sure it was her.
“Are you still swallowing cocks, Teacher Slut?”
I bite my lower lip against the rolling wave of anger. That particular rumour makes me want to hit someone.
Two years ago, after the entire class went out, I dropped my pen in biology. When I dropped down on my knees to pick it up, my hair got caught in the table — cliché, I know. Mr Silvester, the biology teacher, helped me out by untangling my hair.
Apparently, one of the dickheads here saw that moment and spread the rumour that I was giving our biology teacher a blowjob before he fucked me in class. Right before the exam — that I had a perfect score on.
Since then, I’ve been labelled a teacher slut.
Whenever I get a perfect score, it means I slept with the teacher.
But of course, no one talks about how Levi King, the oldest of the two kings, slept with a teacher. For real. They were caught in the act by the principal himself.
Nope. He gets a pass. The teacher gets thrown out of the educational system and she had to flee the country, basically.
Oh, and his guardian, the mighty Jonathan King, CEO of King Enterprises, got an official apology from RES.
Levi King got out of it unscathed. In fact, he became more popular, more loved, more admired.
Why? Because his last name is King.
And the Kings hold more power than the actual queen of this country.
Levi King was idolised for fucking the teacher.
I’m called a teacher slut for unfound rumours.
Kim’s grip turns deadly even though she’s holding onto her courageous mode.