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When I glance down at her, she’s smiling, but behind the happy façade, I can see her panic. Leaning down, I press a soft, reassuring kiss to her lips, swallowing her shaky breath. “Look at your sister,” I say against her mouth, pulling back just enough to allow me to wrap my arms around her and lift her into the air.
I watch as she glances around and feel the moment she spots her sister standing alone by the wall, her expression dumbfounded and furious as she glares back at us.
After a moment, I lower Izzy to her feet and the crowd parts, creating a path for us. Izzy’s grin is the sexiest thing I’ve ever fucking seen, and for the first time, the confidence she’s exuding is all hers, without an ounce of pretense.
Penelope is waiting by the doors when we reach them. “Hey, sis,” Izzy calls with a knowing smile.
I half expect Penelope to pitch a fit, to scream and threaten, or even try to separate Izzy from the guys and me, but instead she just nods her head, offering Izzy an impressed half-smile, like she knows exactly what we’re doing and grudgingly approves of it.
Izzy’s new schedule is in the office waiting for her when we arrive, and just like we were promised, she’s now in almost every one of her sister’s classes. We even got her homeroom changed to the same as the rest of us, and although she doesn’t say anything, I can see how relieved she is to not have to face her sister on her own yet.
The moment we step through the door, we’re bombarded by questions and interest. It’s not uncommon in our social circle for engagements between prominent families to be established in high school, but an engagement between a Rhodes and a Winslow is definitely a match made in money heaven.
What surprises me is that no one mentions Penelope. It’s like now that they can see Izzy, her sister really isn’t that interesting. The girls in our homeroom swarm around Izzy, clamoring to talk to her. She’s polite, but instead of taking them up on their offer to sit with them, she allows me to pull her onto my lap, curling into me and resting her head on my shoulder like the few minutes we’ve been at school have already exhausted her.
I can feel the eyes of every guy in the room staring at her. It doesn’t matter that she’s in my lap and wearing my ring, it’s impossible to ignore how fucking stunning she is. The caveman in me wants to beat my fists against my chest, then piss in a circle around her, so they know she’s taken. But I reluctantly concede and just send death glares at the ones who are stupid enough to catch my eye while they ogle my fiancée.
35
IZABELLA
I’m barely containing the rising panic that started to build inside of me the moment I took Gulliver’s hand and climbed out of the limo. Somehow, in the span of ten days, I’ve gone from being the girl that no one saw to the one that they can’t stop staring at, and right now, all I want to do is run to my darkroom and lock myself inside, away from all of this interest.
The only thing keeping me even slightly grounded is Gulliver and the guys. I shouldn’t be relying on them as a lifeline, but I just can’t help trusting them, even though a part of me is constantly warning me that I shouldn’t. The guys are all incredibly good actors. I saw that the day Gulliver fake proposed to me, and they all played along like they’d known me forever.
But I’m not sure if they could keep that act up for this length of time, especially not while we all shared the same space and spent all of our time as a group. Truthfully, the more time I spend with them, the less I believe that they’re playing me. And if everything they’ve said about me being one of them is true, then maybe it’s okay to trust them like my gut is telling me I can.
Things between Gulliver and me almost feel too real, and I have no idea where that leaves me. Every time he calls me his fiancée or touches me like he craves our connection the way I’m starting to, the more dependent on him I feel. The sex is incredible, but what I feel for him is more than just a physical connection, and I’m terrified to admit that, because if I do, I know it’ll destroy me when this is all over.
When the first bell rings, I’m grateful to get away from my new homeroom. The teacher made me stand up and introduce myself like I was the new kid, not someone who’s been attending the school for three years already. She even went so far as to congratulate Gulliver and me on our engagement. Which is painfully ironic given that she’s been teaching me history for the last two years and has never once uttered a word to me or even glanced in my direction.
My first class of the day is now English with Gulliver, Davis, and my sister. Despite how furious she’d looked over my newly-appointed Elite status, she hadn’t seemed shocked to see me with my entourage of guys. In fact, she looked almost grudgingly impressed that I had the balls to so blatantly refuse to fall back into the role of convenient Penelope stand-in that our parents have forced me into.
My cell beeps with a text message just as we hit the hallway, and I pull it out and quickly open it, already guessing what it’s going to say.
Mom – As we discussed, you will be attending all of your sister’s english, math, and science classes.
That’s it. No please or thank you, no platitudes to soften her order, because that’s what it is—an order meant to be obeyed without question.
Scoffing coldly, I lift my cell up and show the message to the guys.
“Wow, your mom is a bitch,” Thorn says dryly.
“Yes, she is,” I agree with a chuckle, loving that I’m laughing about this and not blindly doing her bidding out of fear of having to deal with the repercussions of disobeying her.
“Do you think Penelope will still expect you to go in her place?” Gulliver asks quietly.
“I don’t know.” I shrug. “Probably.”
“Then we need to make sure everyone knows it’s you in the classroom and not her. Do you know where she goes when you’re taking her classes?” Gulliver asks, a conspiratorial smile spreading across his lips.
“She used to sit in on my classes when we first started doing this, but now I think she goes to the senior common room,” I tell him.
“I wish we had English with you guys. I want to see her face when she realizes you’re in all her classes now,” Kip whines, leaning forward and kissing me on the cheek before he and a laughing Thorn turn off toward their own class.
“Have fun,” Thorn calls over his shoulder, blowing me a playful kiss.
“Are you going to reply to your mom?” Gulliver asks. “You could tell her to go fuck herself. I would if it were me.”
