All I've Never Wanted(16)
By the time I reached the second floor hallway, it was fairly empty, and I was relieved to find that, despite the frequent dirty looks and whispering, no one outright confronted me.
When I burst into my English class a few minutes later, the teacher, Mrs. Lavinsky, was in the middle of instructions for our end-of-the-term paper.
"—minimum fifteen pages, double-spaced—" She broke off when she saw me. "Miss Lindberg, you're late," she said pointedly.
"I'm sorry," I apologized, blushing. "It won't happen again."
"I certainly hope not." She signed and waved me towards my seat. "I'll let it slide this time, but next time I'll have to give you a written warning.”
I nodded meekly, embarrassed. I've never gotten a written warning before, and Mrs. Lavinsky was actually my favorite teacher. I knew she didn’t have an easy job. The rest of my classmates, while smart, were always giving her attitude. I hated having to disappoint her, too.
I slid into my seat and instantly felt something cold and sticky on the back of my skirt and thighs.
What the—I stood up hastily, or at least tried to. I was pulled down instantly.
Oh god. Please don’t tell me someone put glue on my seat!
I yanked myself up again, putting in more force this time. Unfortunately, I didn’t think about the consequence beforehand—namely, half my skirt ripped away.
The rest of the class burst into laughter. Mrs. Lavinsky looked horrified.
“Oh, dear,” she said. “Maya, why don’t you go to the office—“
She hadn’t even finished talking before I was out of there, my face flaming with humiliation.
Those jerks, I seethed silently as I raced toward my locker, where I kept an extra uniform. They’re going to have to do better than this. How immature could they be?
I furiously jammed my finger on the biometric pad, and the door unhinged with a soft click, the loudest sound in the deserted hallway. When I swung it open, however, a shrill scream pierced through the silence.
It took me a moment to realize the scream had come from my own mouth, as I stared, horrified, into the cold eyes of the coiled-up snake in my locker.
* * *
Adriana sat cross-legged in an overstuffed armchair in the library, Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment lying open in front of her. She'd decided to grab sushi for lunch and had come back sooner than expected, so she'd decided to get some reading in. She'd read Crime and Punishment before, of course, at boarding school, but she'd enjoyed it and didn't mind paging through the long novel again.
Usually, she would've been hanging out in the lounge with Zack and the rest of them, but she was too disgusted right now.
A small crease formed on her smooth brow as she thought about this morning's events. She'd heard about the glue, the snake, the shredded gym clothes, and the tossing of Maya's math notes into the toilet, among countless other 'pranks'. Other than the snake—which had been deemed the non-poisonous kind, thank God—they were all relatively harmless, childish tricks, but that didn't make them right, nor did it make them any less distressing.
Adriana was kind of pissed none of the guys had said anything yet. Of course, she knew they rarely—no, scratch that, they never interfered with Roman's power trips, but still. She knew Parker had at least some interest in the girl, so wasn't that some incentive to at least attempt playing knight in shining armor?
Adriana’s frown deepened as uncrossed her legs and slipped her feet back into her flat, jeweled Giuseppe Zanotti sandals, a personal gift from the designer himself.
Of course, Parker wasn't exactly the knightly type. Knights didn't exactly go around seducing innocent—or not-so-innocent, in some cases—girls. They certainly didn't sleep around so much they had to go to surrounding towns to avoid the possibility of a second-night stand, which might be construed as, God forbid, a "relationship" in Parker world.
Adriana let out a small huff, slightly disgruntled. Come on, Adri, get back to the task at hand, she ordered herself.
She tapped one foot thoughtfully on the ground, the sound muffled by the plush Persian rug, and resumed analyzing the situation at hand.
Adriana knew she could always do something to diffuse the situation, though granted, no one except Roman could stop the abuse completely. In fact, she was already trying to come up with a way to make life a little easier for Maya. She liked the girl, for some reason. Adriana definitely admired her for standing up to Roman like that. It proved Maya was no shy wallflower, and that she actually had some sense in her head, unlike most of the preening, air-headed socialites Adriana was constantly in the company of.
As she scrolled through the ways she could help, a sudden thought occurred to her. Adriana sat up straighter, her eyes lighting up. God, it was so obvious! With a little triumphant laugh, Adriana decided to not do anything. Yet. While it may help in the short run, in the long run…
Just as ideas scrawled themselves across her mind so quickly she barely had time to comprehend any of them, the elevator doors pinged open, and Adriana looked up, surprised. She'd thought she was the only one who ever came into the library.
Her perfectly shaped brows rose in interest when Maya burst in. Well, wasn't this an intriguing coincidence.
Maya was dressed in an egg-yolk-stained uniform. Actually, her top definitely had more than egg yolk stains—there was some red stain that was probably tomato, and some darker blotches. Her glossy dark hair was disheveled and she looked absolutely furious, but underneath the anger Adriana sensed the slightest bit of weariness.