The sarcasm wasn’t lost on her, but her eyes brightened slightly regardless. “Thank you. This family means a lot to me.”
I just bet it did. At least the image of a family. “I had a family,” I mumbled.
Her mouth screwed up in a tight line, losing any semblance of a smile. “Josephine, you still have a family. Did you at least try to make any new friends today?”
I let my head fall back with a heavy sigh. “Actually, I did.”
“See, that wasn’t hard. I want you to be happy here.”
Sometimes living with my mom was like having Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as a mother. Her mood swings gave me whiplash. “I was happy before you remarried.”
She shut the laptop and turned to me, crossing her legs as she released a long exhale. “I know this has been an adjustment for you, but attending the Academy is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It can open so many doors for you. You would be a fool to not take advantage of what the school can do for your future.”
As if she seriously cared about my education. Attending the Academy was more about the connections and how much their net worth was. If I didn’t tread carefully, this conversation could end up nasty, and after the day I had, I didn’t know if I had it in me to go a round with my mother right now.
“Do you know how many girls would kill to be in your shoes?” Her eyes glanced down to my boots. “Well, not those shoes.”
I snorted, a stupid smile tugging at my lips before I could stop it.
“See, you can smile,” she said, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you smile, Josephine. All we do is fight.”
There was truth to that. All summer we’d been at each other’s throat, butting heads over everything. It started before that, but things really took a turn for the worse after the wedding—not that we’d ever been super close. Ainsley's mom was more of a mother to me than mine ever was, but sometimes Angie surprised me. More often than not, if she was nice, she wanted something, so I didn’t trust this nice version of Mom. “I’ve got homework to do. Believe it or not, they give out homework on the first day.”
She patted my shoulder. “You always were such a good student.”
I plucked my tea off the counter and headed out of the room, pausing at the doorway to glance back at Mom. She was on her laptop again, scrolling through a list. At one time, I would have told her about the rumors at school, about Brock, the Elite, and about Mads. I was so angry with her, not just for marrying Steven, but taking away my car, forcing me to live with her, and not giving a shit about my feelings in any of this.
Turning away, I headed upstairs, grabbing my bag from the entryway floor on the way. As I climbed the stairs, my phone buzzed. I paused in the middle of the steps and checked my messages. It was my dad.
Dad:Hope your first day at the Academy was a success. See you soon. I’m proud of you.
Pressure clamped down on my chest. Maybe I should go see my dad. I’d only seen him twice over the summer, and I missed him. Today more than other days. Not having him in my life caused a hole in my heart. I felt incomplete, torn between two lives.
Inside my room, I docked my phone next to the bed and cranked the music up loud, needing to drown out the thoughts in my head and the discontent. I was on the verge of crying, my emotions getting the best of me.
But I refused to shed a tear, firming my lip and steeling myself against the sadness as I climbed onto the bed. At some point, I fell asleep, for when I woke up, my playlist had ended and silence filtered through the room.
It was dark, ribbons of moonlight cast over the floor. A glance at my phone told me it was past eight o’clock.Shit. I hadn’t meant to fall asleep for that long.
I opened the bedroom door a crack and peeked into the hall. It was quiet, only a glimmer of light coming from downstairs. Most of the staff would have gone home, except for Edmund.
Instead of going to the kitchen for something to eat, I put on a simple black bathing suit and went down to the pool. If I didn’t do something to rid myself of all the craziness inside my head, I’d lose it.
I liked to swim, especially at night. The water was cool and refreshing as I swam a slow lap, then another. After a few minutes, I started feeling better. Some of the hurt and anger I still held in my chest over the rumors eased.
But it didn’t last long.
As I finished a lap and emerged from under the water, running my fingers over my wet hair, Carter showed up.
And the asshole wasn’t alone.
“I’ll grab drinks.” His voice carried out to the patio. God, I hated that smug voice, worse because his friends were with him, and when they were around, his cockiness went up.
A handful of jocks wandered onto the patio. I recognized most, since he’d brought them around before. They were part of the football team, and it had become pretty clear the five of them might have been able to put all their brain cells together and make an entire brain. Maybe.
But that was basic Bad Guy 101. When you were as scummy as Carter, you surrounded yourself with people lower than you to make yourself feel superior to them. Carter wanted to be king of this crew—like Brock.
A tall, dark-haired moose of a guy—I thought his name was Shawn but I honestly didn’t care—snickered when he found me treading water at the center of the pool. He crouched down at the edge. “Damn, I was really looking forward to swimming.” He laughed, glancing at his friends. “But it looks like someone took a shit in the pool.”