I’d managed not to, shrugging.
She did the same. “I’d just stay out of their way. Since they are Legacy, that basically means they are the it around here. My brother and his friends are the Nile and everyone else is just the lakes and streams that run off it.”
“What’s legacy?”
She cuffed her arms. “In a nutshell, Legacy are the direct descendants of the last generation who roamed these halls from Maywood Heights’s most prestigious families. They basically shaped this town, and it’s been a while since Windsor Prep has actually had any blood relatives from one of those families. My brother and his friends are direct descendants.”
“Which makes you Legacy too, then?”
Her cheeks flashed in red color. “I guess, but I’m not really active in the Court or anything. I’m in the Court on paper, but…”
When I obviously didn’t know what she was talking about, she laughed. She laced her fingers. “The Court is a small society of those in the upper echelon of the town. It’s like a club for the elite. Basically, the really rich families of the city.” Her eyes lifted toward the heavens. “I’m only in it because it helps with college applications and stuff. The Court also does a lot of active work in the community since our dads, some of the Legacy fathers, started reform a few years ago. The Court used to only let boys in if you can imagine.”
I definitely could with the way those Legacy boys were out there flaunting who they were. It’d looked like a circus at their table. “Who are they all? The Legacy guys? I know you said your brother.”
Bow speared her salad. “My brother’s Thatcher.” Angling around, she directed her fork toward the view outside. “And by the tree with that girl is Wells Ambrose.”
My eyes twitched wide. The platinum blond did have a girl now. He’d been making out with a guy before, but this time, he had his arm slung around a brunette.
She kissed his neck while he lazily ate a cheese stick, and after shaking her head, Bow pointed back over to the guys’ table.
“Ares Mallick,” she said, referring to Wolf. “Though most people call him Wolf. Don’t call him that to his face, though. That’s only reserved for my brother and his friends. It’s a football thing. They’re all football players.”
Any why wasn’t I surprised? A classic cliche of elitist power. I folded my fingers together. “And Blondie?”
He was still out there on his phone, no actual lunch in front of him. In fact, he’d just put his phone down and started looking around. Like he was looking for someone.
“Dorian Prinze,” Bow said. “Basically their leader and most certainly the last person you want to get in the way of. Really, any of them. It’s been a long time since this school has seen a Reed, Mallick, Ambrose, or a Prinze. My brother and his friends definitely play it up. They pretty much run things around here, and anyone else should probably just back up. I heard before my brother and his friends got here, being in the Court was the it thing.” She faced outside. “But now, it’s Legacy. Court kids are just their minions. You know they’re Court by their rings. These.”
She put out her hand, the school’s mascot on it. At least, it appeared to be that. The chrome ring below her knuckle had a growling gorilla in the midst of a bite.
How symbolic.
I’d taken Bow’s hand to get a closer look but let go when I noticed the dark prince rise from his table. He greeted a new arrival, one of those bro combination hug handshakes. He let go of the guy with a snap, and I realized who the guy was when he drew back.
What the fuck?
“Sloane?”
I got up, ignoring Bow.
It was like I was on autopilot.
It was like I was ignoring everything she said about confronting Legacy because I was storming right out into the courtyard.
And into the belly of the beast.
A circle of popular girls and boys milled about, and I forced my way through them to find my brother.
My brother who just shook the hand of a dark prince.
His lunch tray in hand, Bru literally was about to sit between Dorian and Bow’s brother, Thatcher. The two boys were moving to make room for my brother and everything.
In the distraction of that, I grabbed my brother’s arm, and before he or anyone else could say anything about that, I dragged him back into the cafeteria.
“Sloane, what the fuck?” Bru jerked his arm from me. He’d actually been about to sit with them. What the fuck? His eyes blazed. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I shot back. “You’re sitting with those assholes?”