Alright folks, I'm gonna level with you and say that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I have a vague idea of the plot, but I'm horrible at planning and now you guys are along for the ride so fasten your seatbelts and please keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times. Hope you enjoy a very late chapter 2

Fun fact! Oliver Laris, Heron Welle, and Atara Viper are actual characters mentioned in the books.

Thank you to all of you who have shown such overwhelmingly positive support! You guys don't know how uplifting your comments are. They make me so happy, and really keep me writing.


Holy shit.

Archeon Academy could equally be a castle or an asylum. The intimidation factor is exactly the same. It's built of cool gray stone, with silver metal detailing and shuttered windows. An immaculately trimmed hedge surrounds the courtyard. Tiny red berries sit ripe and waiting on them, the last remnants of a vibrant summer. And in a tower in the back…

Is that...stained glass?

"This was a mistake," I blurt.
"Oh come on," Cameron sighs, "It's not that bad."
"Easy for you to say. You've been through this already."
"Whatever." She smiles at me with her hands on her hips and a happy glint in her black eyes. Some of my anxiety knotting in my stomach unravels. "I never thought I'd say this, but I missed you, Mare."
"Me too, Cam."

She crushes me in a hug. My height squishes my face into the shoulder of her gray academy blazer, though, and I can only wait for it to pass before I can breathe again.

"You didn't even visit! I've been stuck here alone for a year," she scolds. I laugh.
"I know, Cam, I'm sorry." I pull back. "You look good. Really. And it's been so long since I've seen you." Her face scrunches up in mock disgust.
"Ugh, let's not be those people." Her eyes drift across the yard. "Where's Gisa? Isn't she a freshman now?"
"She signed up for pit orchestra, so she's at the meeting." Cameron sighs fondly.
"She never changes."
"Well, she's gotten better at cooking, at least."
"Finally one of the Barrows will be able to look after themselves."
"Hey! I can make ramen."
"That's a sad argument."
"Okay, true."

I can't contain the rare grin spreading across my face. While I have been facetiming and texting her for the past year, nothing beats seeing her in person. It reminds me of years ago, when we would spend days in our cabin at summer camp talking for hours.

"How's everyone? How's Kilorn?" She barely has time to register her mistake before I'm nudging her with what I know is a shit-eating grin on my face.
"Shut up. Shut up shut up shut up shut uuuu-"
"Oh, Kilorn? He's fine, I guess. I'm sure he'd be better if you were there~"
"Ohhh my god."
"I bet he's pouting right now."
"Mare will you keep it dow-"
"I can hear him now. 'Ugh I'm so alone! If only I had the love of my life here with me!' "
She looks away, flushing red, before shoving me off balance. "Hey!"
"First bell's about to ring. Come on, we'll be late." It absolutely isn't, and we definitely won't.
"Whatever you say…."
She forges ahead like a woman on a mission, but even that can't hide her burning face.

I scramble after her (damn her long stride), and she doesn't look back when she reaches the top of the stairs.
"You have homeroom with Lucas, right?"
Lucas?
"Mr. Samos. But nobody calls him that," she says, as if reading my mind. "He's the gym teacher. He's super chill. I take his kickboxing elective." Her eyes shine with admiration.
"Uh, yeah I do. A Samos works here?" She just shrugs.
"Yeah. All of the teachers have some link to the High Houses."
"So there are more Samos here?" She nods slowly.
"Yes? Where else would they be?"
"I don't know…" I look around at the pristine white walls of the front hall. It looks like some sort of ironically minimalist version of the halls of Versailles. This school is a palace, and I do not belong here. "God, this place looks like Marie Kondo's dream."
"Makes sense. An empty school for empty hearts. But hey, as long as you stay out of the way, the people here couldn't care less about you." A hand goes up to play with her hair. Cam searches my face before a smirk crawls onto hers. "Is Mare Barrow nervous?"
"Oh shut up."
"She is!"
"Well I mean…" I gesture to the...everything. She just links her arm with mine and leads to some stairs. More people begin to trickle in through the front door, mostly freshmen, still bright eyed and excited.

"Hey, don't worry about it. I'm here, and I'll introduce you to some people. Red and Silver."
I cast her a panicked look.
"Oh relax," she grins. "Mare, once you've spent enough time here, things start to change. You think differently. See differently. When you meet some of these people, you'll get it." She tells me these things, knowing I am wary and mistrustful. Knowing how many people have been unreliable in our lives, and how many times I've been screwed over. How our towns got screwed over by the people funding this school.

It's only because of that that I bring myself to trust her words. She sees the change in my eyes and the relieved softening of her features is almost worth it.

"You'll see. Our world isn't just Red and Silver anymore."

O-O-O-O-O

True to her word, Lucas is exactly what Cameron made him out to be. He gives me my schedule and does all the polite standard small talk, but it all seems weirdly sincere. It's not at all what I expected from a Samos. The Samos are supposed to be cutthroat businessmen in sharp suits, managing the steel factories that kept the east coast going. Lucas wears sunglasses indoors.

My first few classes pass with little incident. AP Lit was taught by a very patient, middle aged man named Dr. Jacos, who some jocks affectionately called 'DJ.' PE was with Lucas again, then AP Bio with a cold, unenthusiastic man named Dr. Arven who looked like he might drop dead any second.

Then came lunch.

Even though it's way too early to be hungry (honestly, it's 10:45), I fill my tray slowly and with plenty of food to give myself more time. This is what I had dreaded the most. I don't have any relationships with teachers like most juniors, so I can't go and pop into a classroom to hang out and eat. I don't play an instrument, so I can't go to a music room either. To go to the bathrooms would be a) very sad and b) a very bad idea, unless I want to shroud myself in vape clouds.

I turn around and face the cafeteria at last. People behind me begin to walk out and join their friends with big grins on their faces, chattering about their summers in exotic locations. I scan the place for empty tables. I find none.

Oh boy. This is great. I'm fitting the new girl stereotype perfectly. Maybe I'll go have lunch with the janitor and complete the image. Gisa is in a different lunch period, too. I know nobody here, how am I supp-

"Hey, Barrow!" A single familiar voice yells. "To your right!"
Cameron waves from a couple tables over, seated next to a slender girl with auburn hair. Relief crashes down on me. The lead in my limbs melts away. Her lips curl in a knowing grin as I walk briskly over to her and place my lunch down.

"You saved me," I laugh tightly. "Thanks."
"No problem. You looked like a lost puppy up there, all big eyes and stiffness," she quips.
"Oh, shut up." I stab a suspicious looking chicken nugget with a fork and dip it in ketchup. I guess private schools don't get any better food than public schools do.
"Right. Introduction time." Cameron gestures towards the willowy girl. "Heron, this is Mare Barrow. Mare, this is Heron Welle."
The auburn haired girl- Heron -looks up with a gentle smile. She gives me a shy wave.
"It's nice to meet you."
"You too."
"You're in my Lit class, right? First period with Dr. Jacos?" she asks.
"Yeah, actually."
"You'll grow to like him. He cares about his kids." Though shy, her politeness is weird in comparison to the cold disinterest I've gotten so far. I meet Cameron's eyes.
'I told you so,' they scream.
"Yeah, I hope I will."
Cameron leans back casually. "So, now that we've gotten that over with. First day. Anything you want to know?"

I consider it for a minute. There's a thousand things I'd like to know. But in all honesty, it's been a pretty normal school day. I think that scares me more than anything I imagined for today. For now, though, I decide on a simple, but broad request.

"Everyone's grouped into different tables. Cliques, I'm guessing," I say, waving my fork around. "Tell me about some of them. Either of you two."
"You want us to the do the Mean Girls thing?" Cameron asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Hey, if I'm going to be put into this cliché highschool romcom scenario, I'm going to cover all my bases."
"Fair enough."

Cameron's eyes do a wide sweep of the place. They finally land, and she points over to a table next to a huge window.

"Those are the big guns. Mostly upperclassmen, but the occasional funny underclassman gets the pass. They get the prime spot. Our Plastics, if you will." She jerks her heads towards a brown haired guy in yellow. He is joking with a girl with sleek black hair that I recognize from theatre posters all over the city.

First celebrity spotting, I guess.

"That's Oliver Laris. New captain of the soccer team. Filled the power vacuum on both the team and the school once our old alpha left. He's actually a pretty decent guy, really funny, but he's the definition of a hypebeast. He'll take over the airport once his mom retires."
"He's talking to Sonya Iral," Heron adds. "Niece of Dr. Ara Iral, the AP Euro teacher. Dr. Iral served in a war, but she won't say which one. Sonya, though, is a dancer. Her family runs the most prestigious dance academy on this side of the country, and she's set to become prima ballerina. She'll run the academy eventually." Cameron pipes up again.
"Next to Sonya is Elane Haven. Not much to say about her. She's quiet, but hella smart. Everyone knows she's dating Evangeline Samos, but we all pretend to think otherwise, lest Ms. Samos tear us apart," Cam snorts.
"Sonya, Elane, and Evangeline run the school, " Heron explains. "Oliver is just a figurehead. Sonya and Elane are decent people, but Evangeline..."
"...is the devil," Cameron barks. "Right there, next to Elane, right at the center of the table looking like she wants to cut a bitch. Probably could, with all the jewelry she wears." I fix my gaze on a pretty girl with long, silver dyed hair. It almost looks metallic, from the way it glints in the sun. It probably costs a fortune to keep that up. Judging from her resting bitch face, she's absolutely bored to death with the conversation. I recognize her, too, from Viper Magazine covers this time. The ever famous cheekbone girl.

Celebrity sighting number two. Farley would be so proud.

"She's queen bee of this school. The Regina George. An absolute bitch. Rich, powerful, young, and flaunts it. Her brother will inherit the Samos business and her cousin will inherit her mom's business, so she's the most eligible bachelorette on the Silver market right now and she knows it. Fortunately for her suitors, she'll have to marry into a powerful family to keep living her plush life. Unfortunately for them, she's a lesbian, so she'll never really love them."

I blink. "Can't she just marry an heiress?"
Heron shakes her head. "The corporate families of Norta only trust their own to run family businesses. Family means blood, and blood is everything, and so Evangeline will have to produce a biological heir to whichever company she marries into. She has no claim to the Viper business, either. She's been raised a Samos. As long as there's a reasonable Viper heir available, she won't be able to touch it, and Atara has no intentions on giving up Viper Magazine."

I'm about to ask how Heron knows so much about Silver internal politics, but then I realize. Welle. The Welle family is one of the so called 'High Houses of Norta,' the most powerful families living in the county. They take care of most of the city's green spaces and run some conservation organizations, making them some of the more decent Silvers. Nonetheless, she is a Silver.

I'm eating lunch with a Silver?
A Silver's eating lunch with me?
Huh.
Weird ass school.

"Any other particular table you want to know about?" she asks softly. Her bright blue eyes are kind, so unlike the Silvers I've met in town. And yet, they could hide so much deception and corruption...
I glance around to avoid that train of thought. I want to trust her. I want to give her a chance. My eyes stray away from the rings of people clustered around the table of elites and land on some of the loners. The outcasts, who sit in a small, but lively huddles. The quiet ones who don't like the noise and rush of the inner rings.

Oh, and an absolutely beautiful boy heading out.

"There. Right next to the tallest window, with the gray backpack. Who's that?"
Cameron and Heron exchange quick, loaded looks before she speaks again.
"You….really don't know?" Heron asks hesitantly.
"No?"
"You'll have to excuse her," Cameron sighs, "she doesn't have a life."
"Cam!"

"That would be Maven Calore. He should be the most powerful person in school, not Oliver, but he just refuses to be a part of it all," Heron explains with a severe look at Cam. "No one really understands why. He's not exactly an open person."
"And where's he going?"
"The orchestra room, probably. He's always in there. Practicing…" Cameron scrunches up her face in concentration. "Heron, what's the big violin called again?"
"The cello. And if you could just refer to it as such-"
"Would you rather I start calling it the thicc violin again?"

Heron just gives me a tired look.

"Well that explains it," I laugh. "I don't think I've ever seen a cellist that wasn't hot."
"That's what I've been telling Cam, but she won't listen," Heron hums lightly. Cameron just rolls her eyes.
"Ignore that, Heron is a complete orchestra nerd. She's been crushing on this one cellist since freshman year." The girl in question turns beet red and swats her arm.
"Cam!"
"Well it's not like I told her which cellist! We have plenty!"

"ANYWAYS." The flustered girl turns her attention towards me. "I wouldn't get involved with him. If you can only remember one piece of advice, it has to be that you do not get close with the Calores. They're ambitious, ruthless so. One time, the Titanos family started to thwart their oil industry with electric cars?" Heron shakes her head.
"The Titanos don't live in Archeon anymore, is all I'm saying." I suck in a breath.
"Yikes."
"Yeah."
"Anyways, you shouldn't really have reason to," Cameron adds. "He's in all accelerated classes. I really doubt you two will have any classes together."
"Ouch…"
"I'm just saying!"

The rest of lunch passes by with mercifully light conversation and, by the end, I think have a general idea of what Heron's like. In just 45 minutes, I've learned about her passion for painting, her volunteer hours, her dog, her love of spending time at Welle greenhouses. I almost forgot that she was Silver. How bizarre.
And when I pack up to stumble my way to my next class, I realize that I...I made a friend. A real one that I don't have to force conversation with. Something that would have taken me months at the Stilts just took me half an hour. The conversation was insignificant. It was just mindless chatter. Entertainment. And yet, it was genuine. Surrounded by the fakest people I've ever seen, I found one of my realest experiences in a while.

I catch Cam's wrist and she looks back at me, confused, before catching my wide eyed expression. I nod, just barely, but she knows. Quick as a flash, she squeezes my hand once, smiles warmly, then leaves.

Okay
I take a deep breath and my gaze drifts to the stairs leading to my next class.
Okay.

O-O-O-O-O

"Good afternoon, class, and welcome to the last period of your first day. AP Psychology!"

Thank god. While my other periods haven't been unbearable, I am itching to get home. This class, though, I'm actually excited for.

Ms. Sara's voice is quiet, but the size of the classroom allows it to carry. In fact, everything about her seems muted. She's tiny even by my standards, and her blue-black skin almost blends her in to the chalkboard behind her. The enthusiasm in her voice, though, is very real.

"I am aware that many of you chose this class because you heard it was easy, or fun." Her gray eyes glimmer with humor. "It's true, I do my best to make this class interesting and to give you all good grades, but this is still an AP class. You all will have to treat it as such."
"On the bright side, though, I got to design the coursework." She winks from her seat on the metal desk. "So you all only have a couple big tests and projects throughout the year. Speaking of which!"

The tiny woman hops off the desk with more energy than I expected. Her flats make a soft padding noise with her stroll down the aisles of the desks.

"You've chosen your seats for now, but soon we'll begin our year-long projects, which will determine your seats for the rest of the year." Groans erupt around the room as friends give each other disappointed looks and others reach for their best friends.

"Alright, calm down, it isn't the end of the world. In fact, by the end of the year, you might have actually become best friends with who you're sitting next to." Obligatory eye rolls ripple through the room. "No, really. For the next week and a half, you'll be putting together a guided portfolio about yourself based on writing assignments and personality assessments. I will go through them and pair you together with someone who may seem radically different at first, but may surprise you with how alike you two really are." She finishes her rounds and reaches the front of the room again. Her steps are languid and purposeful, almost cat-like in their ways. She tilts her head when I meet her eyes. To my alarm, a spark lights them from the back.

"Psychology is, at its core, the study of humans and their relationships. With themselves, and others. By studying your partner throughout the year, I hope you all will learn how to look past the exterior and find what it means to understand and appreciate the complexities of what makes a human." Her gaze bores into me. It looks exactly like Mom's when she thinks I'm not looking. I lift the corners of my mouth in a timid smile and she breaks our stare to reach for a piece of paper on her desk.

"Okay, everybody, day one for your portfolios! Everybody take out the laptops in your desks and let's begin."


Yikes alright this was a pretty badly written chapter 2 but I wanted to get it out there. Next chapter will focus on what happens after school for another character, and two more make their first appearance! Can you guess who is who?

As for Sara's ability to speak? You'll see why in the future ;)

Signing off,
Blair