The Pretty Games (#WATTYS2016)

Two ♔ The Worst

The academy was eerily silent, the shadows growing in the corners a shelter to the naughty girls who slipped out of bed.

Moonlight broke in from the glass panels but the line of girls adeptly maneuvered through the dark, invisible to the eye of the the lurking wardens.

"This way." Rory whispered at the head of the line, like an alpha leading its pack.

Silently the girls  descended the stairs, grinning inwardly at the soft snores of their sleeping and unsuspecting roommates.

When the had reached the bottommost level of the wing, a shady and abandoned level, Rory raised her hands, signaling them to stop.

It was a narrow hallway with many doors. Rory crept past them, listening intently for noise. Then she halted at the fourth door on the right and knocked. After an anxious silence, it swung open and the grey passage was bathed in warm honey lights.

Rory grinned. "Come on, girls. We've arrived."

On worn out leather sofas and pouring cups of bubbling soda, at least a dozen boys sat and conversed animatedly. Trickling into the crowd, the girls passed by Rory, risking her gracious and excited smiles.

Just fifteen minutes ago, their warlock of a night warden had passed by their rooms, swinging her blinding flashlight across their doors. All the girls, ten in total, had hid in a separate room in anticipation.

Though Rory had flirted a boy into gathering his friends to the empty storage room to hang out during dinner, she made it clear to the girls that if they got busted, she wasn't taking the fall.

"Look at me and listen well," She has hissed before they stepped out into the corridor. "If something happens, I'm not the one to blame. You decided to join me, you decided to have fun. You're going to be just as guilty as I may be. If I burn, I'm pulling you guys into the fire too. Understand?"

"Understood." The girls squeaked back.

Sensing the tense atmosphere, Rory softened her voice. "Great. Now, let's go."

And now they were all in a rundown space with flickering red lights. Success, Rory congratulated herself, watching her girls mix kittenishly with the crowd of guys. Sipping from a plastic cup of punch, she purposefully ignored the stares from boys too unsure to approach her with savage joy.

For most of the night, she gave love advice ("If he'd rather find opportunities to touch you than know your name, I suggest you kiss the moron goodbye.") and swayed her hips to no music ("What are you doing, Rory?" Aspen had asked her, amused that the new Queen Bee was just a little strange. "Crushing hearts." Puckering her glossy lips at her, Rory blew a bold boy that was ogling her a sultry kiss and swung her hips some more).

Two hours later, the attitude of the room turned chill and dark. Both the boys and girls sat on the sofas, arms around each other, whispering gently. Rory wasn't part.

After dismissing a shaggy-haired boy who unfortunately chose the tactic to woo her with a pickup line, she became officially dull. Sighing, she put down her cup for the final time and winked the girls good luck and good night.

The outside corridor was damp and stuffy, moonlight hardly shining in the shadows again. Feeling a strange rush of air on the back of her neck, she whipped around, her face hard and icy.

"Who's there?" She demanded.

After a moment, a figure emerged from the darkness, tall and lean. As his body came to focus, Rory recognize the blue tie of East Silver. But that was just about it.

Though he didn't bother to answer her question, Rory swore she heard him chuckle.

"Are you exactly what I think you are?" The stranger began. "A pretty, thorny vixen who's actually crumbling inside?"

The corners of Rory's lips drew up in a wicked smile as she flipped her hair over her shoulder. "I'm exactly who I appear to be."

"And who do you appear to be?" The stranger questioned again, his deep voice reverberated.

"A big, bad bitch."

♚

The second day of school meant the commencement of classes.

The academy claimed to be esteemed but Rory knew that was always a facade. All private schools were the same, full of the same whiny teachers and devilish students that turned a classroom into a hell.

It was eight in the morning and the class of Mr. Hollister's homeroom was absent of the teacher.

For the first time in East Silver history, the system has changed to co-ed. Boys hollered on top of tables and girls whispered in laughed in pairs and groups.

Rory, in the middle of the circle, which all the girls formed into making, gazed at the ceiling, her mind numb and thoughts grey.

Why wasn't anything happening?

After all her morning preparations, looking the best she's ever had (in a school uniform at least, mind you), she suspected at least some drama would occur but both the boys and the girls were spiritless. It was a cement wall invisibly divided them. That wasn't how things were supposed to be, was it?

Slipping beads into her hair, spritzing on her lavender-vanilla perfume and smothering her lips with lusciously red champagne-flavored gloss, Rory had been totally prepped to reign.

Did anything even happen last night?

The sneaking around, the endless love advice, the cozy couch conversations - were all those bold acts in vain?

Frustrated, she stood up and began to climb and step over chairs and tables in an attempt to get to the door.

"Hey, Rory." A boy whistled out to her. Back turned, Rory tried her hardest not to shudder. The way her precious name rolled off his tongue was disgusting. "Nice legs, sweetheart,"

There was the catcalls and the laughter and a boiling pit of fire rising from Rory's stomach.

Rory, turning around to verbally murder the sleaze, was interrupted.

"Just stop talking, Jason. She's miles out of your league, anyway."

Including everyone arched their eyebrows, including Rory. She recognized that voice. It was from the same guy in the hall. And it came from a princely beauty, exuding an air of class that seemed to exceed all the others in the room.

White, almost silver hair framed his pearly features, a pair of vivid blue eyes that were almost neon. The unknown person didn't even look at Rory as he said this.

Rory only had one thing to say to 'Jason' before she walked out the room, "Girls don't throw their pearls to pigs. And you, sweetheart, are even dirtier than swine in my eyes."

As she neared the door, the room exploded in cries of shock and teasing towards Rory's latest victim.

The last thing Rory heard as she stormed out of class was the name of the guy who had intervened, to her irritation, being hailed and swooned over:

Noah.

♔

~ Vote, comment, share and list this story. Love you guys ❤️ ~

!! Next chapter will be posted next Friday, April 22nd !!