TWO
Hit List
Disclaimer: The Gone series and its characters are all owned by Michael Grant, along with his various publishers, and no copyright infringement is intended by this story.
Previously: Diana enrols at Coates Academy, a boarding school for the troubled, and brings with her some heavy family secrets; Caine meets her for the first time but fails to either impress her or catch her name.
-C-
There were some things that Diana didn't know about Coates. She didn't know about the cliques, which were tighter and more inflexible than they were in a normal school. She didn't know that counselling was mandatory for at least the first six weeks after enrolment. And she didn't know about the hit list.
All of these things led up to the ruining of her second day at Coates Academy.
Breakfast was subdued that morning. Despite it being the weekend, the staff insisted that breakfast took place from the times of eight to eight forty-five, and the whole school seemed worn out from the moving process. Diana was moodier than anyone else: it had taken her fifteen minutes to find the stupid dining hall in the first place. She grabbed a tray and scanned her food options: Coates only offered continental breakfasts. She chose two slices of toast and some orange juice, and then turned round.
Immediately, she wished she'd paid more attention when she'd walked into the hall.
Diana had seen cliques before, but never as strict as the ones like these. There was no overlapping conversation; each table had its own bubble of talk, and no member of one table turned around to converse with anyone else.
That left one dilemma for Diana: where did she sit?
The closest table to her was a group of timid first years, sitting closely together as if safety came in numbers. They don't even know what puberty is, Diana thought, turning her eyes away.
The emos, the geeks, the football team, the cheerleaders, the prefects, the burnouts, the scene kids, the wannabes... It's like a Bowling For Soup song, she thought, before walking into the melée.
Eyes shadowed her, waiting for her to stake her claim in the pecking order. For a moment Diana found herself slowing down next to the popular girls (she assumed they were popular from them giving off the same contemptuous nature that she displayed so easily), but she did not sit. One of the girls moved her bag from a spare chair in invitation, and on reflex Diana scoffed and moved on, choosing to sit on a table that was on the outskirts of the hall. It was occupied by only one other student. She sat down, banging her tray against the plastic tabletop, and slumped into her seat, deciding that she was right in thinking that Coates was a bad idea from the start.
The girls she had refused to sit with where all gossiping darkly, shooting her looks of dislike from across the room, so Diana looked away.
"You have ten seconds to get out of that chair."
Diana turned to the voice and raised an eyebrow. Opposite was a blond boy, who was glaring at her with such force that his grey eyes had been narrowed into slits.
"And why would I do that?" Diana snapped, with a ferocity to match. If he was trying to act tough, he had chosen the wrong person to put on his show for. It wasn't even nine yet and Diana had already decided that she was fed-up.
Blondie leant forwards. Diana noticed he was not eating. "How about because you value your limbs?"
"Ooh, scary," Diana said sarcastically, and then laughed. Her laughter was like a slap in the face, and it just seemed to wind Blondie up even more. "Listen," Diana carried on, "If you want to threaten someone, go for something original. The tough guy act isn't going to get you that far."
Blondie flailed for something to say, and Diana noticed him steal a glance at one of the teachers who was overseeing the hallway.
"Yeah, better not get in trouble," she said patronisingly. "You don't want Mummy and Daddy to hear you've got detention, Blondie."
"What did you call me?!" he spat. The teacher had spotted them leaning in and was edging over, trying to look nonchalant.
"You're not overly quick in the brain department, are you Blondie?" Diana said, leaning back in her chair. This was what she enjoyed doing best: baiting someone and waiting for them to boil over. And this guy was going for the bait easier than she could have possibly hoped. He clearly had some sort of anger management problem.
"Drake..." warned a voice. The teacher had slid right next to the table, and was reading the signs.
Drake didn't even turn to the sound of his name. Instead he stood up, not losing eye contact with Diana and turned to leave. He threw his words across the table with such venom that Diana actually flinched. "I'll find you later, bitch."
"It's Diana, actually," Diana called after him, not letting him leave with the last word. "Diana Ladris!"
She wasn't sure if he'd heard, but it didn't matter. The rest of the dining room had: it appeared everyone had been sneakily watching their fight with open mouths. There was approximately five seconds of silence before Diana was surrounded by other students, introducing themselves, grabbing her hand, some cheering her, some laughing.
Diana smirked. She was a Coates celebrity and breakfast hadn't even finished.
-C-
Seeing as it was the first proper day back, Caine always held an unofficial (but strict) meeting in what he considered his office. In reality it was an old classroom that the school hadn't gotten round to renovating yet. There were old grammar posters stapled to the walls and some poetry pieces that had been tacked up half-heartedly, but the desks had been pushed back and the rickety wooden chairs arranged around the room. Caine had stolen a much more comfortable chair from the teacher's lounge and sat in that at the front of the room, as if he were teaching a class.
With him was his usual cronies: Benno at the front, and then Benno's gang, which was made up of Nancy, JJ, Morley, and Piers. Caine had worked out pretty early on that Benno was a good person to have onside: especially as Caine could get him to do all the dirty work. Benno's gang looked to Benno as the leader - but Caine was the overruling power, that much was obvious. And since Caine had managed to kind of form an allegiance with Drake, there was no competition between the two boys.
"Caine, man, I wish you could have made it to my birthday," Morley was saying, for about the millionth time already. "It was sick, my dad hired this amazing DJ for the night and set off all these fireworks at midnight..."
"Yeah," said Caine, not really listening. Morley had invited him in the summer, ringing him and boasting about how many people were going, but when Caine had asked his parents they'd flat out refused. Instead they'd insisted on keeping him cooped up all holiday, flat out refusing to let him do anything that meant him venturing any more than ten meters outside of the grounds of the house. Caine had felt like a caged animal all summer.
"And there was this cake that my folks got delivered from Denver, and -"
"Whatever," Caine interrupted, before clapping his hands and calling the meeting to order. "Right: Since we've been away for the past few months everyone's going to be nice and cocky for this new term. We've got to remind them who's boss. Nancy, make sure you're keeping an eye on the firsties. Just corridor patrols, stuff like that. Any cheek, you hit first. Piers, you're on teacher patrol again, you're good like that. Keep an ear out for names, all that stuff. I also want to talk to you about potential people we could incorporate into this little... operation. I've got some names, and then I want you to do checks on them, see how reliable they'll be, all that. JJ -"
There was a bang that made them all jump, and then Drake was standing in the doorway, chest heaving with rage.
"You're late," Caine commented drily, but Drake ignored him and marched into the room, kicking over a chair and pushing past Morley viciously.
"Were you at breakfast?" he accused loudly.
"Yeah," said Caine. "Bright and early, before everyone else. I said we were all to meet up at eight fifteen, Drake. You're ten minutes late."
"Whatever. I was amending the hit list."
Inadvertently Caine grinned. In his plan to remind the school who was on top of the food chain, the hit list was a very important part of it.
Every time a new term started, Drake compiled a list of kids who had annoyed or offended him in some way, and he would work through it from the bottom to the top. "Who've you added?" Caine asked eagerly.
"Some bitch called Diana Ladris," Drake said. "She's made top."
"I thought Amanda Karl was top?"
Caine had heard Amanda make fun of the Merwin's family car, and somehow word had got back to Drake. No-one mocked him and got away with it.
"Not anymore," Drake snarled. Whatever this Diana girl had done, it had riled Drake right up. "I would've got her right there, but that science guy, he's got it out for me... I would've got her right then if he wasn't round..."
Caine turned to Nancy. "Who's Diana Ladris?"
Nancy shrugged. "Just because I'm a girl it doesn't mean I know every female in this school, Caine."
At that moment the bell for first period rang, and Caine swore. "We're out of time. JJ, Benno, we have homeroom, I'll talk to you on the way there. Nancy - first years. Piers - I'll email you the names. Morley - I'll talk to you at lunch. And Drake?"
"What?"
"Looks like you need to take some aggression out. Who's bottom of the list?"
"That Harrison kid."
Caine smiled. "Then you better get started."
-C-
For the rest of the day, Diana found herself being shadowed by an entourage. At first she kind of enjoyed all the attention, but as the hours wore on she only found it wearing. Everyone wanted a piece of her, and so by lunch time she found herself ignoring almost everyone who spoke to her. She didn't see Drake again.
Physics was the last lesson of the day, and Diana had barely chosen a seat when there was a knock at the door.
"Come in," said Mrs Farers, and one of the prefects stuck her head around the door.
"Sorry to interrupt, miss, but Doctor Hyde has sent for Diana Ladris? Is she in this class?"
"Here," Diana said in a resigned tone.
Mrs Farers nodded for her to go. "Leave your bag here, Miss Ladris."
The prefect waited for her, and then led the way to Doctor Hyde's office. Compared to Diana she was massive: tall for her age and with broad shoulders. Her hair was short, neat and blonde, and there was something strict about the way she held herself, as if she were a military commander. Diana instantly disliked her - but then, there weren't many people that Diana didn't instantly dislike.
"Your shirt is untucked," snapped the prefect immediately.
"Oh right," said Diana, uninterested. The girl looked down and glared at her, her pale blue eyes piercing.
"I am right," she said nastily, "and I'm also a prefect, so you can tuck in your shirt or you can get a detention."
Diana rolled her eyes and tucked in her shirt.
"And your tie needs to be regulation length. Just because you're new it doesn't mean you get to skirt around the rules, y'know."
"We're in California, not Nazi Germany," said Diana grumpily.
The girl's face lit up into a smile. "Rudeness and non-standard uniform... I'd say that earns a warning. One more this month and you'll get a detention. Not exactly a great start to the week, is it?"
Diana stared at her in utter disbelief. A warning? "Are you serious? It was a joke."
"I don't like jokes." The prefect stopped, wrote something down and ripped it out. For a moment Diana thought it was a cheque, but when she noticed the Coates logo in the corner she realised. She crumpled the discipline slip in her hand and shoved it into the pocket of her skirt.
"On your first day, too," the prefect commented nastily, before stopping outside a door. "This is Doctor Hyde's office. Someone will call you when he's ready to see you. Wait in here." The prefect opened the door opposite, which had 'Waiting Room' engraved on a gold plaque attached to it. There was another person sat down, texting.
"Phones away!" The prefect shouted, making him jump, and then she marched down the corridor, off to spread more misery.
Diana entered the waiting room and shut the door behind herself. It wasn't until she'd sat down that she realised the other boy in the room was the Caine kid from yesterday. He was watching her, so she avoided his eyes and pulled out the discipline slip, examining it to avoid the fact that he was examining her. Printed on the top was the prefect girl's name - Claire Stuttgart. Diana screwed it up in her fist again, but it didn't make her feel any less annoyed.
"Detention?" asked Caine, trying hard to sound casual. "That sucks. Claire's a bitch, she likes to give everyone a hard time."
"Just a warning," she corrected briskly. "This school is such bullshit."
She noticed him smiling from the corner of her eyes. "Not if you know the right people," Caine replied.
"And let me guess: you're 'right people'?"
Caine spread his arms out in a gesture of mock humility. "You've got me."
She half smiled at that.
There was a knock at the door, and then a man with thick, slicked back dark hair and glasses entered. He smiled at Caine. "Mr Soren! You're early. I wasn't expecting you for another ten minutes."
Caine shrugged. "Better than French."
Doctor Hyde smiled in an almost fatherly manner, not bothering to chastise him, before turning back to his clipboard. "Alright then - and you must be Diana Ladris."
Out of the corner of her eye, Diana noticed Caine sit up straight.
"Yeah," she said, standing up. Doctor Hyde motioned for her to follow him.
"Later, I guess," Diana said, turning back to Caine, who looked like he'd been stunned.
"I - yeah. Bye," he replied, dazed, and she left him to go back to his phone.
-C-
Doctor Hyde's office was very neat. There was something about it that made Diana feel uneasy. Everything had an exact place.
"Diana... Ladris..." the Doctor said under his breath, riffling through one of his large cabinets. She saw him flicking through some folders before his hand dipped in and plucked hers out of the drawer.
The feeling of unease increased as he opened it and looked through.
There was a few minutes of utter silence as he perused the file, and then he placed it down on the desk, face down and closed.
"So, Diana, this session is just a quick one for me to get a grasp of your personality. After this you will have an organised therapy session once a week for six weeks, and then from there I will assess whether you will need any more throughout the school year."
"Can I see that file?" Diana asked immediately. She couldn't take her eyes off it.
"No," Hyde said softly. "Do you have any concerns that you'd like to make over the thought of our therapy sessions, Diana?"
"I just want to see the file," Diana repeated. She was starting to panic. They could have a copy of the police report in that file... the taped confessions... newspaper articles... and maybe even some of the truth. She could feel her hands shaking in her lap.
Hyde sighed through his nose. "That's not going to be possible, I'm afraid," he said, still speaking in his gentle voice.
"It's about me," she said, her voice raising. "It's my file... You don't even know me and you're reading it!"
Hyde sighed again. "I can assure you, Diana, that I don't judge -"
"Whatever."
" - and that all of my patients are subject to a confidentiality agreement. Anything you confide in me will not be repeated, you have my word on that."
"Well you have my word that I'm not going to confide anything with you."
They'd reached a tense stalemate. Hyde took off his heavy rimmed glasses and began cleaning them on his tweed jacket, taking him time to breathe on each lens. He did it slowly, methodically, and Diana wondered if he had OCD. His office certainly suggested so.
"My job," he ventured slowly, still concentrating on his glasses, "is to ascertain whether you are happy and healthy. As soon as I can file an official report to the school that confirms that you are both, you will not have to see me again in this office. However..." He slipped his glasses back on and slid them up his nose. "The longer you refuse my help, the longer you will be made to spend in this office. Do you understand, Diana?"
She wanted to swear at him, but instead she nodded her head woodenly.
"Excellent. Now: Do you have any concerns that you'd like to make known before our sessions start next week?"
Diana shook her head.
"And is there anything you'd like to ask me?"
Another shake of the head.
"Have you ever had any counselling sessions in the past?"
Diana arched her eyebrow. "You know I have, Doc. It's all in there," she said, nodding at the file. It loomed in the corner of her vision, taunting her. Lingering.
Doctor Hyde smiled. It wasn't a nasty smile but it wasn't a nice one either. It was a smile without any emotion behind it. "That's correct. You used to see a Doctor Green, I believe?"
"Yeah. Except I only went twice."
Doctor Hyde nodded. "And why was that, Diana?"
"Because he was old and weird," Diana said. "And he thought he knew everything about me when he didn't. Psychiatrists never do."
"No, we don't," Hyde admitted gently. He stood up. "I believe I've kept Mr Soren waiting long enough. You're free to go back to class now, Diana. Your first appointment will be next Tuesday, after your last lesson. Try not to be late." He held out a hand, which Diana took grudgingly and let go of very quickly, as if he were diseased.
She left the office hurriedly, and nearly bumped into Caine, who was just coming out of the waiting room. "Have fun with Professor Freak," she muttered to him as she walked past, and she thought he might have laughed but she was already away, putting as much difference between herself and the file as she could.
She swore to herself that she'd have it burned.
-C-
As soon as Caine finished his session with Doctor Hyde, he started running.
He hadn't known that she was Diana Ladris. And what were the odds of that, anyway? The only person in Coates (other than himself) that he actually found interesting just so happened to be headlining the hit list. He guessed he shouldn't have been so surprised: Diana was the kind of girl who had trouble written all over her.
He would never have done this normally, but this was not exactly a normal situation. Since he'd started at Coates, Caine had found himself taking over with such ease that it was almost boring - but Diana was challenging and mysterious and distant and interesting and - well, hot.
His phone buzzed and Caine snatched it out of his blazer pocket, slowing down to read the message. It was from Benno.
No why?
Caine didn't bother texting back. Benno was so useless sometimes.
Caine had tried to phone Drake when he'd been waiting for Doctor Hyde, but Drake hadn't answered. He'd sent three texts and left an answer machine message, but there had been no reply - Drake very rarely had his phone on him, because he didn't want to be bothered by anyone (by which he meant Caine, who was the only one who ever contacted him anyway).
Benno hadn't seen him, nor any of the rest of Caine's crew. Which left Caine in a bit of a predicament.
"Hey stranger."
Caine jumped and turned around.
Ruby Furlan was pretty and slim and totally infatuated with him. She was smiling now, the fake-shy smile that meant she was probably going to hint for him to take her out on a date. Again. Caine had lost count over how many times she had made a move on him.
"Hey Ruby."
"How was your summer?" she purred, the coy smile still on her lips.
"Shit," said Caine, cutting to the chase. "Listen, you seen Drake around?"
"No. I -"
"Okay, bye!"
He was running again. Drake was on his mind, and Drake never waited around.
-C-
It happened when Diana was putting her books back into her locker, just before the bell went off to signify dinner time.
One moment there was the chatter in the corridor; students comparing notes and gossiping idly, milling around with nothing to do. The next there was a lull in the noise, like the calm that comes right before the storm.
Diana shut her locker and turned around, looking for the hurricane.
It came in the form of Drake Merwin, who was cutting through the other students effortlessly, making a beeline straight for her. His eyes were cold steel. He was in front of her before she could get away from him.
"What the hell do you want?" she snapped.
"You made number one, bitch," he said, and before she could even ask what on Earth he was talking about he'd pushed her against the locker roughly. She almost lost her balance for a second and staggered, and then Drake's hand was wound in her hair and forcing her head to slam back into the locker.
Diana saw stars. Her head was swimming, and there was a piercing ringing in her ears. She'd bitten down on her tongue, hard, and the metallic tang of blood filled her mouth, making her want to retch. She staggered, caught herself, and then waited for the next blow, too stunned to defend herself properly.
It took Diana several long seconds to realise why she wasn't still being attacked. Drake was being held back, panting and growling like a wild dog, and Caine was there holding him, shouting something unintelligible.
She had never seen anything like him. Screaming and swearing, Drake was acting like a wild animal, and in those cold grey eyes she could see rage, unfaltering, hate-filled rage. No-one had ever looked at her like that. She had never before seen such unadulterated, unflinching hate.
Caine broke the look by shoving Drake roughly against the wall, and before Drake had time to snap himself out of his rage and wrestle free there was a group of teachers breaking up the fight, with Doctor Hyde at the head of things. He barely even spared a glance for either her or Caine - his entire energy was focused on Drake, and rightly so.
"Everyone out!" snapped Mr Craston, the head of the maths department. "Move along please!"
Claire Stuttgart appeared out of nowhere, apparently drawn to trouble, and began chivvying out the onlookers who were attempting to linger and watch Drake take on three teachers at once.
"Move, Soren!" she barked behind her back, and Caine wormed him way out of the melée. He caught Diana's eye and doubled his pace to walk up and stand next to her.
"You okay?" he panted. Diana could already see a bruise beginning to form on his temple.
"I just got attacked by Jack the Ripper's sidekick. I'm absolutely peachy," she said, and his mouth twitched at her usual sarcasm. She waited until more students had filtered through the corridors, running to spread the latest scandal around the school. "You jumped in," she stated. It wasn't exactly a thank you.
"Yeah," said Caine stupidly.
"You stopped me from getting beaten up by that freak."
"Yeah," he said again. Diana could tell he was desperately wishing he had something more witty to say.
She considered him for a moment, and he blushed a little under her gaze, biting at his thumbnail awkwardly.
"Walk me to the canteen," she said. Again, it wasn't a thank you - but Diana felt it was reward enough.
Just like that, Diana Ladris had him under her spell.
-C-
Author's Note: Phew! 4,092 words later and we have Chapter Two... and Drake has made his appearance! The next chapter will have a bit more of a Trio dynamic, I think, as up until now they've all been sort of going their separate ways really.
Shout out to my beautiful reviewers: Evie192000, FAYZpsycho, Royalty Over Reality, gaia-ladris-soren, and the lovely anon. You're the best.
I'm super ill atm... Kind of worried that this chapter won't make sense but I can't go over it again, my brain is too fuzzy.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thank you for reading, and please leave a review if you can