Page 19 of Cruel Games

“People like her blurt out what they consider to be the most hurtful in the heat of anger,” he said. “I can’t tell you what, if anything, lies between her ears. Mrs. Campbell reprimanded her for both her attack on you and the slur.”

“Right.” I wondered about my own fate. “What about my punishment for slinging gazpacho in her face?”

“I suppose the deputy headmistress will catch up with you in the hallway.”

When I finished, Gideon took my plate and handed me a bowl of apple pie and custard. He gave me one of the bottles of water protruding from his blazer pocket, and I cracked open the seal and took a long swig.

“Thanks again.” I took a spoon and started on the apple pie. “That really hit the spot.”

From that moment onward, I sat with Gideon at mealtimes. Strangely, no one gave him flack for mixing with the whipping girl, but he didn’t appear to have many friends around the academy except for his cousin, Mary, the younger black girl with long braids.

When I discovered that the elocution lessons were his attempt to earn enough credits for a ride to Glasgow, I let him tutor me in softening my vowels.

The rest of the week was a mixture of lessons taught by staff more knowledgeable and enthusiastic than at my old school and petty shunning from the other students.

It was pathetic, considering that all I’d done was defend myself from Elizabeth’s slanderous accusations, but I’d dealt with far worse. A few muttered words in the hallways or twits running up to me and calling me names wasn’t worth my attention.

Late one afternoon, I was returning from Miss Martin’s tailoring club when three figures stood at the bottom of the spiral staircase.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t handjob,” drawled Maxwell.

I glowered down at the three tossers. “Are you looking up my skirt?”

“I’ll bet you’d like that.”

I continued down the stairs, ignoring his comments. The boy was an attention whore, plain and simple. Everything he did and said was designed to make people notice him. Judging by the looks of his twin, Maxwell was already stunning, yet he felt the need to adorn himself with tattoos and facial jewelry. Just to stand out.

My feet hit the last rung of the iron staircase, and I swept past them, shaking my head. Maxwell probably thought he looked edgy. I kept my head high, not giving him what he wanted.

A hand grabbed my arm and spun me around. “We’re talking to you, Hand-Cock.”

Orlando stood at Maxwell’s side, with Kendrick taking up the rear like some kind of lookout.

I glowered at Maxwell’s broad, muscular chest, which strained through his tartan waistcoat. “I thought it was handjob.”

“Same difference,” he said with a snicker.

I turned my glare to the hand encasing me in a tight grip. “What do you want?”

“To talk.”

“About what?”

“You’re not exactly making friends at Templar,” said Orlando. “One would think you’d act a little more grateful to have our undivided attention.”

Annoyance simmered through my veins. There were girls at Richley Comprehensive so desperate for any attention that they would do the most ridiculous things, hoping that a boy would like them.

I thought about the girl who bought a boy sneakers once a month with the money she made from her Saturday job and another girl who would give out blowjobs just to sit on the edge of the popular table.

Was this the boys’ angle? To spread shit about me, get Elizabeth to announce me as the whipping girl and make me so lonely and desperate for attention that I would fall at their feet? I snorted. They probably wanted me to fall at their dicks.

“There’s something you need to understand about me,” I said. “I’m not impressed with boys who blow hot and cold, and especially not impressed with boys who scamper around silly twats like Elizabeth What’s-Her-Face, begging for scraps of attention.”

Maxwell’s arm tightened around my arm. “What did you say?”

“Let go of me before I twist off your balls.” I bared my teeth and dropped my gaze down to his crotch. “I might have left the tweezers in my room, but I’ll make do with my thumb and forefinger.”

Maxwell released me and stepped back as though I was radioactive. “How long will you continue playing hard to get, handjob?”