Chapter One: Last Week of Summer
Armani Estate
Outdoor Pool – Under the Cabana
Thursday, September 2nd
4:17 PM
Charlie Armani swirled her eco-friendly metal straw, lightly stirring her glass of lime water. It was her newest fad—and she could already notice her skin getting smoother and brighter.
She smiled softly to herself as she remembered a bet she'd made with a good friend of hers; if she could remain consistent and keep lime water (which was much better than lemon water!) in her diet for a minimum of three months, as most of her fads became forgotten within weeks, she won. Two months had already passed, leaving one more month remaining in the bet.
Charlie quickly pulled out her cell phone and snapped a selfie of her sipping the glass of water. Just as she was about to send it, a loud shriek coming from outside of the cabana pierced her ears. Her eyes averted to meet with her best friend, Tatia Tatum, both shocked and wide-eyed. They quickly moved to investigate the sound.
Tatia closed her magazine, her mother gracing the cover so beautifully, and followed behind Charlie, who was giggling in her palm at the sight in front of her.
"Seriously?!" Tatia exclaimed with a grunt. She folded her arms tightly across her chest, "We thought someone was dying."
On the other side of the pool were two very good friends of Charlie and Tatum; Aubrey Stone and Emilio De La Vega.
Aubrey, drenched in water from Emilio's cannonball dive attack, slid off her leather Tory Burch sandal and chucked it at Emilio. "He's about to!" She shouted in response as he dipped underwater to avoid the trajectory coming his way.
Charlie laughed aloud. "Still picking on girls you have a crush on? How elementary of you." She unwrapped herself from her towel and held it out to Aubrey, who was speed walking, desperate to dry off. Though the sun was out, the wind made sure to make an appearance every few minutes or so.
"As if." Aubrey rolled her eyes with sarcasm and laughed before thanking Charlie for the towel.
Tatia pulled the scrunchie from the tight ponytail her hair had been in and placed it on her wrist. "Back to business," she shook the few light brown hairs that framed her heart-shaped face and turned to Charlie, placing both hands on her shoulders. "Do not invite freshmen to the bonfire—it's social suicide!"
Charlie smirked and released herself from Tatia's hold as Emilio swam to the end of the pool to tune into the conversation.
Charlie may have been alpha, but she didn't want to be a dictator. Excluding an entire class of students from a traditional event was not something she wanted to do. Previously, alphas had done so as an act of power. But that didn't mean she had to do the same. After all she went through to become alpha it'd be a waste if she allowed herself to turn into a cliché power hungry mean girl.
"Why would you do that?" Aubrey asked. If it was up to her, which it should have been, only juniors and seniors would be allowed, and Charlie had already decided last week that they were going to include the sophomore class this year. "Freshmen have no personality. They're new and stuck in their middle school ways."
"We weren't like that," Charlie noted with a pointed finger in the air. She glanced behind her before lying down on the pastel orange lounge chairs meant for sunbathing. Aubrey did the same in the chair adjacent to her. Charlie's phone rang from inside of the cabana, but she chose to ignore it.
Tatia groaned, partially from frustration and partially from annoyance as Emilio shook his head to drain his hair from the pool water. Droplets of chlorine-infused pool water landed on the side of her face. She grabbed Aubrey's towel from the end of her lounge chair and balled it up before chucking it at him, hitting him in the face unexpectedly and knocking him backwards into the pool.
Charlie was right, their friend group stood out like sore thumbs from the rest of their class during freshman year. Charlie had a killer sense of style, but she was also a supermodel's daughter. She'd acted in her first commercial before she was in middle school-hell,she was an influencer before she'd even lost her virginity, working with brands like Maybelline, Tory Burch (hence her enormous collection of sandals and flip flops, which she gifted to some of her friends of course), and Alice + Olivia to name a few. Aubrey had an amazing personality that made people feel like they'd known each other their whole lives. She was a great dancer, too, bound to be cast on Dancing with the Stars in due time. Tatia's mother, another A-list supermodel, had her in model classes since she could walk. Her overall presence along with her sense of style made people look up to her (literally—she was five-foot-eleven and towered over most girls at BOP).
The girls laughed as Emilio's head stuck out from underwater, glaring at Tatia.
"Trust me," Tatia began, "you do not want to be the alpha who includes everyone. That's not power, that's a playground." She said while running her fingers through her light brown hair.
"The devil's playground if you will." Emilio chimed in, not quite knowing what they were talking about but wanting to be in the conversation anyway.
Charlie rolled her eyes. "Emilio," she sat up in her chair and looked up at him, hoping he'd side with her, "what do you think about inviting freshmen-"
"And sophomores." Tatia coughed.
Charlie rolled her eyes again before continuing, "and sophomores to the back-to-school bonfire?"
Emilio sat beside Tatia in her chair and laid his legs on top of hers. He pondered the idea for a quick second. Aubrey sat up too, curious as to what his answer might be. Emilio didn't care what grade a girl was in, beauty was his only requirement when it came to choosing pawns for his never-ending game.
"I saw," he faced Tatia with a devious grin on his face, "throw them to the wolves."
The End.
This chapter is pretty short-sorry! I took out the ending to rewrite it and add it to the next chapter so I could put in some events to begin a few of the story plots. The next chapter will be posted in a few days! Leave a review (or two)!