Disclaimer: All rigths belong to Kate Brian.
A/N: Here are a list of my acknowledgements. It's quite hard to keep track of these things when each exam is about a month and a half apart and you've got like four whole textbooks to memorise. Ugh.
Kate Brian (author of Private who is not suing us for writing fanfics. lol)
Sapphire, or Reed, as we call her (for the ideas and dumping her Private books with me so that I would read them)
Noelle, as we shall call her (who bought Confessions two yyears ago, and that is how we all started reading Private. So you can imagine that each Private novel has been through six or seven people)
Taylor, as we shall call her (for her slightly insane and reluctant inspiration in the things that she says and does)
Jojo69 and JennyLange (for reviewing)
Everyone else (for reading)
The next day, Ariana checked to make sure there were no crib sheets or anything of the sort in her bag. She grabbed a storybook and went for breakfast. There, she saw something even more interesting than Reed and Marc. She saw Marc and one of the freshman girls. Together. As in, a couple. Ariana heard her say something about Noelle. Noelle heard her too. Obviously, it hadn't been something very nice. Noelle approached them.
"And who are you?" Noelle asked.
"Cassielle Devers," she introduced herself before adding sarcastically, "Nice to meet you,"
"Well, good luck with him," Noelle smirked, saying the word 'him' as though she were referring to something as common as a sewer rat. Noelle returned to her Billings table.
"Looks like that CD's going to be stuck in Pemberley in her junior year," Noelle said to Ariana. Ariana just smiled. This was more like the Noelle she had known before the murder of the Ketlar boy that Noelle had hated anyway. Yup, this was more Noelle-ish then Noelle would ever be around a murderer. It was so like Noelle to be giving nicknames to people she had only known for about twenty seconds.
Ariana knew this was wrong. She was spying on Reed. But it was more right than the wrong Reed did. Reed was in the Billings common room. She was on the phone. Alone.
"So. It's confirmed. I'll have it transferred to your account. Break it up by this Friday," Reed said. "Got it, Cassielle?"
Reed put down the phone. This was sick. How many did she have to victimise, to steal, before she was contented? Ariana came out of hiding and confronted Reed.
"Brennan, you thieving wretch. How much are you giving her?" Ariana demanded.
"Oh, enough. About 10 K," Reed responded coolly.
"Where would you get that money anyway?" Ariana questioned.
"From me. Alberro and I have some unfinished business," Cheyenne said as she came out of her room.
"Thomas," Ariana muttered, but only loud enough for her and Reed to hear.
"Mel. Sergei," Reed muttered back.
"Murderer!" Ariana accused. This time, she was yelling.
"Um… how did our conversation get to this?" Cheyenne asked, wide-eyed.
"Hey, Cheyenne?" Reed asked, glaring at Ariana from the corner of her eyes.
"Yeah?" Cheyenne asked.
"Who's Sergei?"
Noelle Lange was what one could call desperate. She would do anything to get what she wanted. But Noelle knew about friendship. It was a barrier. That annoying factor always stood in her way. But Ariana had betrayed her. Reed. Everyone. But somehow Noelle felt something fishy was going on. She stared at the fleur-de-lis on Reed's shelf. She knew it was Ariana's But would she return it? Noelle picked it up and examined it. To show compassion to a murderer was to show weakness. So Noelle put it back where she found it.
Noelle wondered if confronting Cassielle had been the right thing to do. This feeling was completely alien to Noelle, since she had never once felt guilty, not even when she went to jail for Reed. Noelle left her room and headed to the Billings common room where she stumbled upon a strange sight.
Reed looked at Cheyenne. Cheyenne diverted her gaze from Ariana to Reed, then back to Ariana again. Ariana looked at Cheyenne with pleading eyes, begging her not to say a word to that wretch. Noelle watched from the staircase. Silence, an eerie sort of silence filled the air. Cheyenne looked pleadingly at Noelle for some form of assistance.
"Who's Sergei?" Reed asked again.
"No one in particular," Noelle answered in place of Cheyenne. Ariana felt relieved.
What day was it? Saturday, Five days, at the most, to stop CD, as Noelle called her. Ariana grabbed Reed's phone and copied CD's number. Ariana heard footsteps approach the Billings common room, and she thrust the phone right to the couch where she found it. Reed entered the room.
"Seen my phone?" Reed asked casually.
"Right where you left it," Ariana said and went back to her room. Cheyenne wasn't there. Perfect. Ariana whipped out her phone and dialed Cassielle's number. Nobody picked up. So Ariana resorted to texting.
Don't listen to R Brennan. I will hv x3 th amount by nxt Monday after u fail her plans.
Cassielle replied:
Who r u?
Ariana pondered for a moment, before saying:
Amberley Charmichael
And Cassielle said one thing that would change her life forever.
OK. We have a deal.
Ariana sneered. That idiot freshman girl didn't know what was coming. Ariana wasn't going to give her the money. She was just delaying Reed's plan.
Ariana Osgood knew that Reed Brennan was behind all this. Marc was helping her. They were using Cassielle. But somehow, it just didn't fit. If Marc was with Reed, why did Reed ask Cassielle? Perhaps Reed was truly in love? Perhaps they weren't really working together? But what if they were? What if Cassielle was in on this too?
Noelle Lange, meanwhile, knew that Ariana Osgood was behind all this. She had blamed Reed for everything. She had gone to jail and she vandalized Reed's room. And she was going to kill Reed.
Finally, Reed Brennan knew that she had nothing to do with most of the things that had happened so far.
Nightfall at Easton signified the time everyone should be in bed, and those who got caught sneaking around campus would be suspended. Most of them, anyway. But night time was when Ariana Osgood felt at peace. There were no endless stares, gossiping or death glares. The night was serene, a source of privacy.
Ariana sneaked out of her dorm and walked along Easton's ivy covered walls. As she was enjoying the nightly silence, it was disrupted. Someone had sworn. She discovered it to be none other than Amberley Charmichael, the girl Ariana had pretended to be.
"Um… are you okay?" Ariana asked the seemingly agitated Amberley.
"Yeah, I'm fine. My phone just crashed and I've an urgent call to make, that's all," Amberley said, her blond hair getting straggly from the drizzle that just began.
"Here. Use mine," Ariana offered. Amberley gratefully took the phone and made that urgent phone call of hers. After that she returned it to Ariana.
"Oh, sorry! I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Amberley Charmichael," she said. "And you are?"
"Um… I'm Ariana Osgood," Ariana said. Amberley tried unsuccessfully to suppress a shocked and fearful look before excusing herself. Ariana's life, it seemed, had taken a turn for the worst. Now she was viewed and feared as a murderer. Ariana had always known about fear. Fear was a delightful element of life, especially if you were the one being feared. She was feared and respected when she was a Billings girl, before Thomas' murder. It wasn't fair. Reed was living her life. The life of a Billings girl. Billings, the upperclassmen dorm for females at Easton. Billings, house of countless scandals. But that was what made Billings special. The fact that there were so many of these things—scandals, going on yet Billings never had to shut down.
Why? Why couldn't Noelle see who Reed really was? Reed was a murderer, backstabber and blackmailer. Ariana wondered what she ever did to deserve this injustice. What did karma hold against her? Suddenly, the answer floated into her head. Mel and Sergei. But it was just one mistake. Mel deserved to be killed. Sergei didn't. But Sergei had been pretty annoying. Him and his damned camera.
Ariana sighed as she fell back onto her bed. Cheyenne woke up with a start.
"Honestly, don't you psychopaths ever sleep?" Cheyenne asked, irritated. Ariana managed to nod wearily before falling into a deep sleep.
Ariana grabbed her bag and ran a thorough check in it. She wasn't taking any chances. Easton was once again experiencing daybreak, the time when one wakes up, usually for breakfast. But today, the ladies of Billings House woke up to a completely different, but somewhat familiar scenario.
Reed was crying— out of fear perhaps. Her room had once again been vandalized. Except this time, red paint had been splashed across the furniture as well, in the form of insulting words. Only there was something Ariana found to be familiar. Too familiar. There were four lines to it. She gasped.
In a clandestine room,
I take out my knife,
I thrust it forward,
And end your life.
It was her poem. But she threw it away! How could this happen? Who knew about it? Noelle. It had to be. Reed influenced Noelle into all of this. Noelle wanted Ariana out of Easton. Reed gave her the idea. Somehow, it all fitted perfectly.
Ariana was faced with accusing stares. Ariana knew Reed and Noelle were guilty of this. Or maybe it was Marc. But one thing Ariana was sure of was that she was being stalked.