The middle of this chapter has a place in my heart.

Also, Happy 300k Words for this story!

A Crown of Thornes: Part Three

"This."

After school in the parking lot, Cinder rises from the open front hood of Wolf's car, holding a small thistle between her pinched thumb and pointed finger. His engine was sounding weird when he was trying to leave school and was grateful that not only was Cinder a mechanic but also available to check it out. Thorne and Scarlet were standing to the side, watching and being no help whatsoever.

"Just one?" Wolf questions in disbelief. "My engine literally sounded like it was about to explode when I started it."

"Oh no, you have a lot of thistles in here," Cinder says, opening her arm to show him. "In a lot of nooks and crannies. I'm more surprised your car didn't give out in the middle of the freeway a while ago or just burst into flames. Where the stars were you driving?"

Wolf narrows his eyes at Scarlet. "The countryside."

"Don't look at me," Scarlet retorts with a teasing grin. "I live in the countryside and my car is bristle-free."

Thorne walks over and laughs when he sees the thistle mess in Wolf's car. "Looks like you were driving through a field."

Cinder laughs as Wolf flicks a thistle at Thorne. He gets the last laugh when the thorny ball sticks to Thorne's uniform.

-o-

Winter sits at the round table with the rest of the student council, the chair next to her empty since their School President is running late. There are already binders and papers of things to discuss, especially since she and Kai just got here. Her legs are crossed as she scrolls through her phone, looking at her conversation with Kai. Once she gets a text from him, she smiles and puts her phone face-down on the table. She's excited about her first meeting as Vice President. She's had a pretty positive reaction from the student body when Kai announced her as his Vice. Her favourite reaction was that she and Kai are a better duo than what they would've had if the money-laundering case never happened … or never was discovered.

"Kai is in the parking lot," Winter explains to the student council which consists of the treasurer and the grade representatives. "He had to pick up his little twin sisters since their mom had to go in for an emergency root canal."

"Spades…" the freshman representative mutters. "Hope she's okay."

"Oh…" Winter purses her lips together. "She's fine. She's the dental hygienist. I should've made that clear."

Before any of them could react, Kai walks in through the cafeteria doors, holding them open as two little girls walk ahead of him wearing matching uniforms and backpacks. They look at the high school cafeteria in awe, seeing all the older students sitting at tables, some studying and others socializing. They look up at Kai who gestures for them to walk ahead to Winter who was waving at them but they wouldn't move without holding his hand.

Winter smiles, holding a hand to her mouth as she takes a picture of Kai holding their hands.

"I'm so sorry," Kai mutters, standing beside Winter's seat. The twins smile and wave at the rest of the student council before hugging Winter. "Their mom texted me thirty minutes before the final bell and signed me out at that moment so I could get them and try to be on time. I'll just sit them down first and then we can start."

"How long are we gonna be here?" Quinn asks as Kai circles them around the table.

"An hour at most," Kai responds hopefully.

He spots Cress sitting at a nearby table tutoring a child from the elementary school. Cress looks up at him and smiles, knowing exactly what he wants and nods. She moves her backpack from the spot next to her to make room. Kai sits the twins down and notices Cress helping a kid with mixed and improper fractions.

"You don't mind, do you?" Kai asks.

"Of course not," Cress responds. "I'll even help them with whatever homework first graders have."

"How long will you be here?"

"His mom's picking him up at 5."

Kai nods as he takes out his wallet and hands Cress some univs. She hesitates on taking them.

"Kai," Cress states, "you don't have to pay me for this."

Kai grins from the corner of his mouth. "I know. It's in case they get hungry. But feel free to buy yourself something."

"Do it," Quinn encourages Cress as the twins sit next to her, "Kai's sugar mommy money will pay."

Cress' lips part, unsure of what to say. She looks up at an annoyed Kai who shakes his head before heading over to his meeting.

-o-

"Sorry about that," Kai says to the student council as he sits down beside Winter, throwing his bag on the ground beside him. "So, what are we discussing first?"

"The uniform," Winter states.

Kai sucks a breath. "Oh boy, everyone's favourite heated topic."

Kai listens to how the faculty is pissed off about the lack of respect towards the uniform policy since their own enforcing doesn't seem to have an effect. Each grade representative gave a run-down on reports from their sector. Freshmen follow the rules the most and it decreases the higher the grades. Seniors are more flexible since they'll be out of here soon, Kai and Winter included, and they're more sneaky about it. Unregulated shoes or accessories, things that can be hidden easily. Sophomores and juniors try to pass off leggings or jeans that loosely resemble the regulated slacks. Then there are the other ways students try to make the uniform look cuter, be that with hiking up the skirts or bulky belts. And the list goes on.

Kai and Winter aren't sure if it's collusion or a conflict of interest since Cinder and Scarlet are the main players in the uniform revolt in their friendship group.

"And they're putting it up to us," Kai says for clarification, "we have so much less authority than the actual authority. We don't have any authority so what the stars do they expect us to do?"

Winter shrugs. "Find a way to connect to the student body because we're a part of the student body?"

"Possibly." He raises his brows a bit. "Or we give the student body what they want."

A grin tickles Winter's lips. "What are you thinking?"

"If they're already violating the uniform code, then why not give them the proper opportunity to do so?"

-o-

Kai's motion went well with his student council. He isn't sure how it would fly with the faculty since they'll bring it up tomorrow, but Kai has hope because his team has so much faith in him. They argued the pros and cons and they found way more pros. He knows the student body will like it, especially Cinder. He can't wait to see her reaction to it but she'll have to wait to hear about it with everyone else.

Once their meeting ended, Kai went to pick up the twins from Cress. She was helping them with spelling homework and the twins were more than thrilled to show Kai that they could spell words that have up to five letters but more thrilled that they could finally go home. Kai "accidentally" forgot to take his univs back since the twins didn't eat and he "ignored" Cress when she was calling him back to take his money.

"Kai," Quinn says as they get into his car to head home, "since you're school president, what are you gonna do to help the elephants?"

Kai was about to start the car but pauses, turning around to look at the twins who buckle their seatbelts but look at him inquisitively. He wasn't even sure he heard the question properly since it started out normal but took a sharp turn in a different direction.

"What?" Kai asks.

"We learned in class that elephants in the African Union are endangered," Quinn explains.

Kai has even more questions. "You're in first grade!"

"You're the school president," Skylar says. "Do something."

Kai never expected to have this conversation but at least it wasn't brought up when he was with Winter and the student council. "Your dad is our town's mayor! Have him do something."

"But we learned in social studies class that presidents are more powerful than mayors."

Kai completely lost track of this conversation since he wonders what the twins are learning in school let alone in the first grade. He doesn't even remember learning about endangered species or the political hierarchy in high school let alone first grade. It boggles him since he saw that their homework was literally spelling with words up to five letters.

But with that in mind, the twins were right but on a different premise. He's School President. He was the write-in candidate and came in second place.

Maybe the faculty was right. He'll have some influence ... just not on the elephants.