Rifton Girls' High School is the most elite all-girls school in the city. With a strict scholarship-only admission, a grand school campus and plentiful funding from its wealthy alumni, it is no doubt that the already-talented young ladies within its...
Amidst the ashes, a villain leaves as the empire crumbles at their feet.
After a checkmate, we soon shall see that the players are filled with silent screams.
Many stories were left untold - but now, we shall see what is about to unfold.
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NATALIE | CROWNLESS
My castle crumbled overnight, I brought a knife to a gun fight, they took the crown but it's alri-
It's not, Natalie thinks as she slams down on the Spotify pause button. She huffs as her eyes go to her playlist, then down at the worksheet that lies on her study table.
No, she hasn't lost much. There's still a lot to be grateful for - she is an alive, functioning human who studies in one of the most prestigious secondary schools to exist. She has a family that is close-knit and not suffering financially. Natalie Kingsley is still Natalie Kingsley - she goes to school, she slays at sports, she gets the good grades in the bag. She's still a queen, the same queen she is.
But here's the problem - she's the only one who can think that. And no matter how much #grlpwr and feminist stuff she absorbs off the internet, it won't change a thing. This whole popularity thing was supposedly petty high school drama that would eventually pass, but to her, it is - and will always be - so much more than that.
At home, she is just good ol' Natalie - youngest daughter of the Kingsleys, with two glamourous parents and two equally excellent, cream-of-the-crop siblings. It's an obligation for her to be an all-rounder; the average person's amazing is her family's okay. And she was doing okay.
In Rifton, however, it was different. Everything that she'd ever considered to be an expectation was brilliant. She was the best of the best, and people actually flocked to her. They respected her - worshipped her, even. She was powerful, all-mighty, feared... she was a queen.
Now, she's just another student - and a loner at that, all because Selene decided to tarnish her reputation with one slip-up that no student should have heard of. God, she couldn't believe it. Of all people, Selene ruined her social life? Selene who she picked on, Selene who she apologised to because the girl was leaving the school?
Sure, she still has her grades and her awards - but she lost the crown. For good.
Sure, power never lasts forever. A fragile, fickle thing, concentrated in a glass crown that her own mistake had shattered. But that terrible thing wasn't just that - it was her validation, her happiness. The one thing that reminded her that she had people beneath her, people worse off, less worthy.
