Savage Royals: A Reverse Harem High School Bully Romance(7)

Instead of waiting, she plucked my registration packet from my hand and flipped through it. Her face scrunched up. “Ah, fuck. You’re in the Wastelands.”

“The what?” I finally caught up with her, peering over her shoulder to read the form.

“Prentice Hall. We call it the Wastelands because it’s practically on the edge of campus, and it’s usually only half-full. It’s like the overflow dorm. You probably got stuck there ’cause you registered late.”

Oh. Well, whatever. She made it sound like a shithole, but honestly, it was hard to imagine anything on this campus not being luxurious and pristine.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” I shrugged. “What dorm are you in?”

“Stephenson Hall.” As we talked, she’d led me around to the outside edge of the U. She gestured behind us to our right, where several rows of what looked like large apartment buildings could be seen in the distance. “It’s over there. We’re divided into boys’ and girls’ dorms, but they put them right next to each other, the idiots.” Then she chuckled. “Not like it really matters, I guess. They could’ve put them on totally different ends of campus, and people would still be sneaking into each others’ dorms to hook up.”

A sardonic grin curved my lips. Yeah, that sounded about right, even though I hadn’t really dated much myself. My dad had been a sadistic asshole, but for some reason, he’d also been really protective of me when it came to guys.

Maybe he just worried if they got me naked, they’d see the bruises. Who the fuck knows.

“Yeah? So where’s Prentice Hall then?” I cocked an eyebrow.

Leah sighed dramatically. “Over there.”

She pointed ahead to where two smaller apartment-style buildings sat, tucked into a small grove of trees near the wall that surrounded the entire campus.

“Oh. I see what you mean.”

“Hey, it’s not all bad!” she said encouragingly. “You actually get the best view. There’s like a little forest back there. It’s pretty.”

I smiled in spite of myself. She was like a used car salesman, putting a positive spin on every perceived flaw.

Then she peeked down at my schedule again, unabashedly nosing into my business. Not that I really cared. “Oh, awesome! You’re a junior too.”

“Yeah. Do we have any classes together?”

Leah beamed. “We do, actually. Chemistry.” She stuck out her tongue. “Ugh, good. You can help me study for chemistry, because…” She mimed blowing her brains out, and I laughed.

“Trust me,” I promised, “you don’t want my help with chem.”

She shrugged, recovering from her fake death quickly. “Girl, you cannot be worse than me. If nothing else, we can be partners in misery.”

I hiked my backpack higher. “Yeah, all right. I can do that.”

When we reached the dorm, I used the keycard that’d been included in my packet to open the outer door, and we took the lobby elevator to the third floor.

“Prentice Hall also isn’t as luxurious as the rest of them,” Leah said as we pushed into my room. “It should be okay though, I think.”

I blinked. This isn’t as good as the rest of them?

Maybe it was because I’d lived in a crap hole for almost as long as I could remember, but I had no idea what she was talking about. The place was huge. It was a full, self-contained apartment unit, and a hell of a lot nicer than anything I would’ve been able to afford even in Sand Valley.

The living room area was sterile but large, with a huge TV mounted on the wall and dark gray furnishings. A kitchen stood ready for use, and the bedroom was twice the size of my room in the old apartment.

I can’t believe people actually live like this. And this is just the tip of the fucking iceberg.

“The furniture’s kinda shitty,” Leah said, running a finger along the back of the couch, which looked perfectly fine as far as I could tell. “But, see? Awesome view, right?”

My room was a corner unit, so it had windows on two sides. One side faced the rest of campus, where the other dorms could be seen in the far distance. The other side faced the woods. The thick trees were interrupted by the perimeter wall and continued on beyond that.

She was right. It was pretty. And Prentice Hall might be removed from everyone else, but maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. I was used to it just being me and my dad and a bunch of neighbors who didn’t give a shit. Living in a super packed dorm might’ve driven me nuts.

“Yeah.” I ran a hand through my long hair, tugging it over one shoulder. “It’s great.”

“Yay!” Leah clapped her hands together. Then she tugged her phone out of her bag, grimacing. “Fuck. I gotta get to class, my free period is almost over. You’ll be okay?”

I nodded. “Thanks for the tour.”

“Anytime. See you around. I was serious about studying for chem together.”

Once she left, I lugged my duffle, which had been delivered as Jacqueline had promised, into the bedroom and unpacked it. Several more identical copies of my uniform had been delivered too, which was a relief. If I was going to be forced to wear this schoolgirl shit every day, I’d at least better be able to wash it.

I’d already missed the first class on my schedule, and according to my phone, second period was halfway over.