Ever After (East Raven Academy Book 1) Read online

  I groan.

  Uh.

  Why?

  “Don’t worry. You’ll grow to tolerate him, like the rest of us,” Ian says.

  Somehow, I doubt that.

  “Where are Emma and Bryce?” Estaine asks Teagan.

  “They’re coming to school tomorrow morning,” she answers. “Bryce has some kind of family thing going on, and Emma is going with him.”

  “Man, I was hoping they decided to stay broken up,” Jason says.

  “Why would you want that?” I ask. “That’s mean.”

  “The two of them constantly fight,” Teagan says. “Bryce treats Emma like crap, and she just puts up with it. I don’t understand it, but she says she loves him. They’ve been dating since freshman year.”

  “They take their fighting to a whole new level,” Ian says.

  “Why would they want to be together, then?” I ask.

  Nobody has an answer.

  I can’t imagine dating somebody I always fight with. I’ve never had a boyfriend, but if I did, and we couldn’t get along, I definitely wouldn’t stay with the guy. That’s just miserable. I’d rather be single.

  Plus, I’m happy being single. If I had a boyfriend now, I’d have to constantly lie to him about who I am, and that is not a good way to start a relationship. I think I’d like to be just friends with a guy before I dated him, anyway.

  “I wish my school in Malibu had sushi on Fridays,” I say, taking a bite of my tuna salmon. It’s good sushi.

  “It’s cool you lived in Malibu,” Jason says. “Did you go to school with any celebrities?”

  “A few,” I answer. “A lot of them are stuck up though, and generally don’t show up at school half the time. But the worst were children or siblings of celebrities. Everybody was big on name-dropping there.”

  “They’re bad about that here, too,” Estaine says.

  “He can say that because his dad is the governor of Massachusetts,” Teagan says.

  And this is the part of the conversation when I would tell them that my dad is a member of congress. Not to brag, but because I am proud of his accomplishment. But I can’t do that.

  “What do your parents do?” Jason asks me.

  “They died when I was a baby,” I answer, so wishing I could tell them the truth.

  “Sorry,” he says.

  I’m not a good actress. If I was, maybe I would make up a sob story about how I will never truly know where I came from because they’re gone. But my parents are alive and it’s hard for me to act sad. The only thing I’m sad over is the fact that I’m so far away from my family right now, and the fact that I probably won’t get to spend Thanksgiving or Christmas with them.

  “You look so sad,” Teagan says, frowning.

  Huh.

  “I don’t remember them,” I say, shrugging my shoulders. “Plus, my uncle is pretty cool.”

  Uncle Matty does seem nice. He and Jake are going to be giving me some self-defense training. I’m kind of excited to learn how to fight and defend myself. It seems like something every girl should know.

  Everybody starts talking about their parents, and I learn that Teagan’s dad does something in the oil business, and he’s made a fortune from it. She said her mom is a professional shopper, which is exactly what my mom is. Estaine’s dad is the governor, but his mom is a surgeon, which is pretty much the coolest thing, ever. But seriously, talk about pressure. How do you live up to that kind of legacy? When I think about my dad and how proud I am of him, I wonder if someday my kids will be proud of me. I hope so.

  East Raven Academy isn’t such a bad school. I just wish I were here under better circumstances.

  Circumstances in which I didn’t have to lie.

  My phone vibrates in my pocket, so I pull it out.

  UNCLE MATTY: You doing okay? You haven’t gotten kicked out yet, right?

  ME: Despite what you think, I’m actually a pretty good student.

  UNCLE MATTY: Mmhmm... just don’t hack the school’s computer systems.

  I hear Jason laugh, and I look over to see him reading my text over my shoulder. I look at the texts again to make sure nothing was said that could give away my identity. I’m glad that there wasn’t.

  “Your uncle thinks you’re going to get kicked out?” Jason asks.

  I shrug my shoulders. “Happened at my old school. It’s why I’m here.”

  “And you got kicked out for hacking the school’s computers?” he asks.

  “Yeah. I made it so all the students could go on social media websites from school computers and tablets—undetected,” I tell him. “The system is actually still on, there. I guess they can’t figure out how to get it off.” Or they just haven’t found out, yet. “I only got caught because some people have a big mouth.”

  “Dude, you’re awesome,” Ian says. “What can you hack?”

  “A lot of things,” I answer. “One time I hacked into my stepda... uh... uncle’s bank account to see how much money he had, just because I was curious. Most systems are easy to hack. I’ve never tried to hack into any government servers, but I’m sure I could. I just don’t want to go to jail. I try to keep my illegal activities to a minimum.”

  “And that’s why you’re my bae,” Jason says.

  I roll my eyes, but don’t fight it. I doubt it would do any good anyway. Jason seems like the kind of guy who likes to do things to purposely annoy people.

  “How’s the soccer team looking this year?” Ian asks Teagan.

  “Good so far, I guess. We’re going to have tryouts on Tuesday. Maybe we will get some good freshman,” she says.

  “I’m trying out,” I tell her.

  “Cool,” she says, now looking excited. “I’m on the soccer team. I think my mom is disappointed that I play soccer instead of being a cheerleader or a dancer. Her dream is for me to be a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader.”

  “Why would she want that?” I ask.

  My mom has never, ever pressured me to do anything I didn’t want to do. The only thing is, if I signed up for something, I’d have to stick with it the entire season. At first, when I signed up for soccer, I hated it. But she made me stay on the team. I ended up loving it, and have played soccer ever since. I’m not, like, a great soccer player or anything, but I really do enjoy it.

  “I think it was more my mom’s dream. She doesn’t really care,” Teagan says. “I think she’s just disappointed. She had four boys and then me, and I’m not super girly.”

  “I think you’re girly,” I say. “I mean, you dress really cute. Like, I kind of want to go shopping with you.”

  She laughs. “I think my mom doesn’t realize that you can be girly and athletic, it doesn’t have to be one or the other.”

  “So, do all your brothers play soccer?” I ask.

  “No. Football. We’re from Texas,” she says. “Football is a way of life there. I remember we’d be going to my brothers’ games every Friday night at the high school, and the stands would be full.”

  “Your brothers didn’t come here?”

  “Nah.”

  “Why did you come here, then?” Ian asks.

  “I got in the wrong crowd,” Teagan answers. “My parents sent me here to get me away from my friends, and I’m glad they did. I love it here. I see now that my friends were toxic. One of my old friends is a teenage mom, and one is in jail for drugs. I guess I just needed to start over. I did it right, this time around.”

  “That’s awesome,” Estaine says. “I never knew that.”

  “It’s not something I’m proud of,” she says.

  “You should be proud,” I say. “It shows how much you’ve grown.”

  “You’re right,” Teagan says, now smiling.

  Maybe starting over won’t be so bad.

  Still, I’ll be glad when I have my life back.

  Saturday, August 19

  Painful to watch.

  Last night, Teagan and I both ended up falling asleep before curfew, and I woke up to a bunch of texts
from Estaine, Jason, and Ian asking where we were. I texted them back to let them know. I feel bad, but I was exhausted. Yesterday was a stressful day.

  We meet the guys for breakfast and they catch us up on all the “dock gossip,” at least that is what Teagan called it. About halfway through breakfast, a guy and a girl I hadn’t met sit down at our table.

  “Hey, guys,” Teagan says to the girl. I notice she ignores the guy.

  “Hey,” the girl says, then looks at me.

  “Oh, this is Phoenix Underwood,” Teagan says, introducing me to the girl. “Phoenix, this is Emma Voss.”

  “Hey,” I say.

  “I’m Bryce Armstrong,” the guy says, only sounding slightly offended that Teagan didn’t introduce him.

  Teagan seems like the kind of girl who likes everybody, so it surprises me that she doesn’t like him. He must not be very likable.

  “Nice to meet you,” I tell him, just because I want to form my own opinion about the guy.

  “Did you guys have a good summer?” Estaine asks them.

  “It was amazing,” Bryce says. “I spent the summer in Europe with my brother.”

  Emma pouts a little. “My summer wasn’t quite as exciting as his. But I did spend most of my summer in The Hamptons.”

  “You two were apart all summer?” Ian asks, sounding a little shocked.

  “We took a little break,” Bryce says.

  “But we’re back together now,” Emma says in a tone that makes me think that she didn’t much like the break. It was probably his idea. He probably wanted to be free to meet girls while he was away.

  Honestly, I can’t blame him for wanting to be single. He’s probably sixteen or seventeen. It’s too young to be tied down. But he shouldn’t go back to dating her just because it’s convenient now.

  If Teagan and Emma are good friends, I see why she doesn’t like Bryce.

  “Why aren’t you two rooming together?” I ask Teagan.

  Emma casts her gaze down.

  “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it later,” Teagan says.

  Well, that doesn’t sound good.

  “Emma, are you on the soccer team?” I ask her, trying to be friendly. If this girl is Teagan’s best friend, I should probably try to be friends with her, too.

  “Um, no,” she answers. “Soccer took up too much time.”

  Too much time? We’re in boarding school. What else is there to do? It’s not like we ever leave campus to do anything else.

  Unless she is in another club.

  “Oh, what do you do then?” I ask.

  “Oh, umm... just my regular classes,” Emma says.

  I look up at Teagan, who looks thoroughly annoyed.

  “I did play soccer,” Emma says. “When I was a freshman.”

  “She was awesome, too,” Teagan says. “That’s when we became friends.”

  “When did you quit?” I ask.

  “Last year,” Emma answers. She looks a little sad as she says it.

  “It works out better this way,” Bryce says, putting his arm around Emma. “Now she can come to all my football practices and games. She loves watching me and cheering me on. Don’t ya, babe?”

  She beams at him. “Absolutely.”

  Wow.

  This is actually painful to watch.

  Bryce is playing her, and manipulating her, and she is just letting him. It’s sick. Someday, after he dumps her for good, she is going to look back on her high school experience and realize just how much she missed out on.

  “I didn’t realize the soccer games and football games interfered with each other,” I say. “Isn’t football on Fridays and soccer on, like, Wednesday night?”

  “Occasionally there is a Saturday soccer game,” Emma says. “But Saturday night is date night.”

  I roll my eyes.

  “Well, it was so nice to meet you, Emma and Bryce, but I’d pretty much rather be anywhere but here right now,” I say, then get up from the table. I hear Ian and Jason laughing as I walk away.

  “Wait up,” I hear Estaine yell.

  He comes up behind me as I dump my tray from breakfast. We walk out of the dining hall together.

  “That was painful to watch,” I tell him, in regards to Emma and Bryce.

  “Try watching that happen for the past two years,” Estaine says. “Those two are toxic together.”

  “Sounds like Bryce is more toxic than Emma,” I say.

  “She can be bad too, trust me,” he says. “They’re both obsessed in a bad way. I thought the break this summer would do them good. I hate knowing they got back together before school even started.”

  “It’s like I’m living in a bad reality show,” I say.

  “Exactly,” he says. “Since you ditched me last night, are we going to hang out at the mixer tonight?”

  “Sure,” I say. “And sorry, but I fell asleep. I guess I was exhausted. I was excited to hang out.”

  “It's okay. We've got all school year to go to the docks,” Eataine says. “We're probably going again tomorrow night.”

  “I'll be there tomorrow night,” I promise him.

  7pm.

  Epic love story.

  When we get to the mixer, Teagan spends an hour introducing me to people at the school. It’s then I realize just how much I don’t fit in here.

  I step outside to get some air.

  Meeting all these people, people who have known each other for years, it’s hard. I’m the one person who doesn’t fit in here, but I want to.

  The thought surprises me. I didn’t think I would want to fit in, when I came here, but I do. I could easily see myself being friends with all of these people. And I don’t mean just friends at school. I mean friends for life.

  “You okay?”

  I turn around to see Estaine walk up. He sits beside me on the bench.

  “I’m fine,” I answer. “Just a little…”

  “Overwhelmed?” he finishes for me.

  I nod.

  “I get it. It’s hard to go to a new school,” he says. “My dad sent me to a boarding school in Europe for my sixth, seventh, and eighth grade years. Most boarding schools don’t have classes for anybody but ninth grade and up. But my dad couldn’t wait that long to get rid of me.”

  “I’m sorry,” I say.

  My parents would’ve never sent me to boarding school, under normal circumstances. Both parents love me, and being away from them now is hard. I just want to get on a plane and go home so I can hug them.

  Well, first I’d have to fly to D.C. to hug my dad, then California for my mom. But I’d spend all day on an airplane for one hug.

  “Don’t be. It was fun. I made a ton of friends,” he says. “I went and hung out with some of them this summer. It was a great experience. But I am glad to be at East Raven Academy now. My mom and dad went here. It’s where they met.”

  “That’s so romantic,” I say.

  “My mom used to tell me the story when I was little. She said it was love at first sight. But she was a freshman and he was a junior,” Estaine tells me. “She says it took him a whole year to finally get over their age differences and ask her out. And then he waited for her at college.”

  “Aw,” I say.

  I want to tell him how my parents met.

  They were both going to Berkeley. My dad was living at home with his parents at the time and starting a company that he ran from the garage at his parent’s house. I want to tell him how they met in a study group and how my mom hated my dad for the first three months, because, she said, he was arrogant. Then, slowly, she started falling in love with him. I want to tell Estaine that my mom’s parents did not approve—not until my dad sold his company for five million dollars at the age of nineteen—and about all the struggles they went through to be together.

  But I can’t.

  Of course, if I did tell him all that, I’d also have to tell him about how my parents got divorced when I was four.

  I had an older sister. She died w
hen I was six months old. She got hit by a car. I’m sad that I don’t remember her. But her death put a strain on my parents’ marriage. That’s ultimately why they split up. I can tell they still care about each other, but they’re both happy now, in their current marriages.

  “I can’t wait to have my own love story,” I tell him. “I want something epic to tell my kids, someday.”

  “Me, too,” he says.

  I wonder what my love story will be. Maybe I’ll meet the love of my life in high school. Or maybe it’ll be college, or maybe I won’t meet the guy I’m meant to be with until I’m thirty, who knows. All I know is that no matter how long I have to wait, it’ll be totally worth it. And I know that, because I’m not settling for a loser.

  The door opens and three girls walk out. I recognize them from Teagan introducing us. I believe their names are Samantha, Penelope and Zoey. They’re on the dance team. I saw them dancing inside, to some annoying pop song, and they are pretty good. All three girls smile when they see Estaine, and say hi to him, but they are polite to me, as well.

  Estaine heads back inside, but I stay outside.

  “How’re you liking East Raven?” one of the girls asks me, but I can’t remember which one she is.

  “It’s nice. I’m just overwhelmed. I’ve met a lot of people tonight,” I say. “And I’m really bad with names.”

  “I’m Penelope,” she reminds me. “But you can call me Penny.”

  Penelope is really pretty. She’s got super light-blonde hair. It’s so light that it almost looks white. And she’s got big blue eyes. She kind of reminds me of a Barbie, minus the makeup. She’s also short and very athletic. Her arms are toned and I’m guessing it’s partly because of the dance team.

  “I’m Samantha. Sam,” another girl says.

  Samantha’s hair color is a mix of red, blonde and light brown. There are various shades all throughout her hair, but it doesn’t look like she dyes it. It looks natural. She’s got bright green eyes and she’s the tallest of her friends. She’s just a little taller than I am.

  “And I’m Zoey,” the last girl says.