Elizabeth I and Victoria of England, Catherine de Medici, Margaret Thatcher, Alexandria Evans-Reinhart – what do all these women have in common? They were great leaders, queens in their own right who conquered over their enemies and were loved (or intensely feared) by the people. I wanted to be like them even from a young age and my Uncle Drew more than encouraged it. At the age of seven, he put a Cartier tiara on top of my head and told me to "SLAY!"

And so I did.

The moment I arrived at St. Mary's Prep, I already decided to rule the world and I wanted to start as early as possible. As Grandpa Evans says, "Rome wasn't built in a day" and I was building an empire here. Most of my peers were going to be my business associates someday and they had to know as our young minds developed to shape our ideals and views in the world that I was that Supreme Ruler of the World (or just New York for now) and they better get with the program. And no surprise, I succeeded in my quest.

By the time I was a junior in High School, I was already called "Queen Mackenzie". Everyone knew who I was. People would part like the Red Sea when I walked down the hallway. The teachers all loved me.

My life was good.

However, like most powerful monarchs, temptation and trouble came one sunny afternoon, stepping out of a town car and wearing a cliché leather jacket. That boy, right there, with the dark hair and aviator glasses, looking surly as only a teenage boy could, was the iceberg to my Titanic. That boy there, following his Father Francis into the halls of St. Mary's Prep and passing by me in the hallway without a thought was my Achilles' heel. Historically, a queen was better off without a king but I didn't seem to get the memo and now I was fucked.

Wouldn't it be just convenient that when tragedy is about to come, you can feel it? There'd sense of foreboding in the air and you know you're about to get the shit kicked out of out of you by life. You could stop bad things from happening all together (or at least that way you can prepare yourself for the pain that follows). But no, we get the calm before the storm bullshit.

The calm for me was walking through the hallway one ordinary morning, greeting my subjects like the good monarch that I was when I saw him. As I mentioned earlier – cliché leather jacket, dark hair, aviator glasses and surliness that seemed to waft of him like a cologne called Asshole.He followed Father Francis (or as we called him behind his back, Father Freckles) was leading him around like a shepherd led one of his flock (a black sheep with anger issues). And then The Moment happened.

"The Moment" as it came to be called since then was when I locked eyes with Mr. I-Hate-The-World-So-Fuck-Off and felt like my stomach fell down to the equator and the air in my lungs just rejoined the Ozone Layer. It was one of those ridiculously cheesy moments in chick flicks (or Pussy-fying Devil's Work as Uncle Drew called them) and I felt like I was just jump-started alive like a half-dead car battery. Then, the asshole looked straight at me like I was deficient, beneath him, and turned away and brushed past me after Father Freckles. I was flushed, my blood heated underneath my skin like lava.

How dare he? Who the fuck did he think he was? I didn't know yet ether but I planned to know exactly who he was. And then, I would destroy him.

It didn't take long to learn his name because right in the middle of my first class for the day, he entered the classroom, dressed in the boys' school uniform and I could smell Asshole again. I sat back and watched him as he handed a piece of paper to Sister Chloe (or as we called her behind her back, Sister Clueless).

"Ah yes, the new student," Sister Clueless nodded and read his name aloud. "Cole Echolls."

Meaghan leaned over to whisper to me. "More like Cutie Echolls."

I ignored my best friend because no matter how the very girly part of me agreed (because now that the aviators were off and I could see those dark eyes, the effect was wow, he is hot) and he had the cheekbones I would like to pass off to any future offspring – he was my target and he had to be just that. From then on, he was called the Target. And I watched him like a lioness observing her prey as he took the only available seat left in the room, right beside Chastity Olivia Welling.

Take note of Miss Wellings' initials. Yes, C.O.W. Why her parents could be so evil, I don't know. And despite how pretty and skinny she was, that didn't stop our peers from-

"Mooooooo,"

That boy mooing behind Chastity was Liam. And he was completely in love with her. But he was an idiot that tormented her at every turn. This had been going on since Third Grade and no matter how our group of friends try to tell him that bullying was not how you win a girl's heart – like I said, he was an idiot.

Elle smacked Liam in the arm to shut him up as the mooing was beginning to annoy her. Meanwhile, Isaac and Meaghan were doing their demented couple thing and passing sickeningly sweet notes to each other. I was still watching the Target who was now doodling in the margins of his notebook. And all this time, Sister Clueless lived up to her nickname.

The Target didn't do much for the rest of the lesson and immediately got up to leave the classroom but Sister Clueless stopped him and directed Liam's Moo Girl to show him to his classes. Liam looked stricken and began mooing like a depressed bull. I was miffed at not being the one to get a glimpse of his schedule but no matter, I had a secret weapon – my friends. Detectives had nothing on Meagan's ability to get information on someone.

It's amazing how Isaac didn't press charges when she was stalking him before they were dating but that's probably because he was completely whipped when it came to her. He probably thought her stalking him was cute. Then again, he never saw the shrine of him Meaghan had going for a while. It had one of his socks she somehow got a hold of.

"Megs," I said as I looped my arm with hers, dislodging her from her cuddling with Isaac and dragging her away. "I have a mission for you."

She brightened up, eager. "What's the name?"

"Operation Echo," I grinned at her. "Get me everything on Cole Echolls."

"Cutie Echolls?"

I shook my head. "Just Cole Echolls."

He was the Target. He was not allowed to be cute.

Meaghan hacked into the school's wifi and cyberstalked the Target and learned that he didn't have any accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any other social media site. However, Meaghan, genius that she was, found people who did know the Target. She found some people that went to this boarding school in England and that's where how we learned where the Target previously went to school. Meaghan did more snooping and found out who Cole's family was.

"His father's side are oil tycoons. We're talking a freaking gulf here." Meaghan explained to me as we were having lunch at our usual table in the center of the dining hall. "Last year, his father was in the top ten of Forbes richest."

"And his mother side?"

"Get this," She handed me her phone that showed a photo of a familiar beautiful blonde woman. "His mom is Catherine Sinclair."

I stopped fiddling with my lunch. "The actress?"

"The very same one who earned an Academy award nomination for The Poet's Fall last year," Meaghan said smugly. "Explains Cutie Echolls' good looks."

"Stop calling him that." I scanned through photos of the Target's progenitor and was able to find one of her with must be when the Target was a baby. "How come Echolls isn't seen more in the public if his mom is so famous?"

"He lives with his dad in Chicago," Meaghan explained. "His parents divorced when he was three."

"Anything else? Like how he ended up here all the way from the Dragon School in England?"

"I'm working on that," My best friend tugged on the ends of her strawberry blonde hair. "I messaged what I think is Cole's ex-girlfriend and his friends but I haven't gotten a reply from them yet."

"It's fine," I waved off her coming apology. "Just get me the info. I have plans."

"Yeah, what exactly are you planning to do with the new boy?" Elle, who had been silent, finally spoke up. "Looking for a king, Queen M?"

"No," I made a face at the thought. "I'm going to destroy him."

"And how are you gonna do that?" Isaac appeared out of nowhere, along with Liam, and took a seat. "Megs texted me about what you're doing."

I glared at Meaghan.

"We share everything." The other girl said before she and Isaac disappeared into Lover's Island.

"Yeah, Mack," Elle raised a dark eyebrow at me. "How are you gonna destroy Cole Echolls?"

I was quiet for a moment as I plotted. Socially, wasn't going to work for the Target. He was already appearing anti-social, sitting by himself at a lone table except for that weird kid who never talked which gave very little to do but-

I watched Liam stare longingly at where his Moo Girl was eating lunch with her friends. He looked at her like she hung the stars in the damn sky. He was whipped and totally pathetic and-

I got an idea.

I was going to make Cole Echolls fall in love with me. He would be so whipped, he wouldn't be able to think straight. And then, I would destroy him. I would break his heart.

Meaghan got me the info on Echolls' supposed ex after dinner time. Turns out, she really was his ex and was the headmaster's daughter at the Dragon School who would visit her father's during weekends. The Headmaster walked in on his precious daughter and Echolls in a compromising position and the latter was then shipped back to America. Thus, the Target could be aching right now from being parted from the love of his young life.

He was vulnerable. He would be weak and easy to kill- I meant, lure into falling in love with me so I could pummel his heart more. Also-

"You kind of look like her, Mack," Elle pointed out as we stared at a picture of Cole's ex. "She even has the same initials – Madison Reynolds."

Slightly creepy but hey, this would be to my advantage. He obviously liked blondes whose names started with M. And I was that. Except I was totally better, of course.

He didn't stand a chance.

I clicked through Madison's albums on her Facebook, stopping at one's where she was with Echolls. They looked good together. She was like a Barbie and he was her Ken. They seemed happy.

I wonder if she missed him like he's probably missing her...

I shook off such thoughts quickly.

It doesn't matter anyway. I had a mission.

Operation Echo was a go.

For those who didn't know, this is a fic set in Emma Chase's Tangled series. Reading the books isn't a necessity since most of the characters in the books (aside from Mackenzie) only make minor appearances. This story is based twelve years after the end of Emma Chase's Tangled, making Mackenzie sixteen here. I disregarded the last book of the series, Tied, since it negated most of my plot lines for this fic. I got the idea to start writing this shortly after Twisted came out so after Tied, this is already uncanon. Drew, Kate, and the rest of the characters will later be making appearances but before now the story is set at St. Mary's Prep.

To the person who loves this series, Allyssa - I hope you enjoy this story, babe. even though I know you don't really read high school stories anymore.