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The custom Range Rover Evoque had cost a cool fifty thousand dollars.
Fifty. Thousand. Freaking. Dollars.
But it was a drop in the ocean for people like my father and Sabrina. During my time in Albany Hills, I’d learned a lot about my new family. Michael Rowe, only son to Thomas and Geraldine Rowe, was the CEO of Rowe Real Estate, a company dating back to the early nineteen hundreds. His grandfather and great-grandfather practically built Darling Hill and the surrounding townships. The Delacortes were as equally wealthy, Sabrina’s father a successful investor. Together, they were a local power couple.
“Harleigh?”
“Huh?”
“I asked if you were nervous.”
Nervous didn’t really begin to cover how I felt about starting senior year at Darling Academy. I’d grown up despising the kids across the reservoir. It wasn’t a silly little rivalry between Darling Hill High and Darling Academy, it was a deep-seated hatred. A history steeped in inequality, injustice, and prejudice.
The families living in The Row were long forgotten by their richer counterparts on the other side of the reservoir. Over the years, Old Darling Hill had flourished. Thrived. It had received constant investment and renewal. While The Row had been left to rot.
And now I was one of them. Plucked from my life of poverty and strife and planted into this… this rich man’s paradise.
It made my skin fucking crawl, shame constantly coiled around my heart like a barbed wire. I didn’t belong here. I wasn’t one of them. I wasn’t like Celeste or Max or their obscenely rich friends.
I was from The Row. I knew struggle and hardship. I knew what it was like to starve because there was no food in the cupboards, or to sleep cold because your mom couldn’t afford to have the hole repaired in the trailer roof.
So no, nervous didn’t begin to describe how I felt about being stuffed into this pristine uniform, riding in Celeste’s fifty-thousand-dollar car to one of the most expensive private schools in the state.
But I didn’t say any of that.
Not a word.
Because although I didn’t belong here… I didn’t belong in The Row anymore either.
“I’m fine,” I said, rubbing my hands down my skirt again. Repetitive actions… the feel of the soft filaments under my fingers grounded me. Held me in the moment.
“If anyone says anything—”
“Celeste, I said I’m fine.” I snapped.
She let out a soft sigh. “I’m sorry, I’m only trying to help. I know this can’t be easy.”
Glancing over at her, I forced my lips into a smile. “No, I’m sorry. You’re right, I am a little nervous. But I’ll be okay.” I’d survived worse. Far worse.
But Darling Academy came into view, like a hidden castle bursting out of the swathe of chestnut oaks.
I’d been here once before. To watch the Darling Hill Hawks football team play the Darling Academy Devils. But the school bus had driven in through the separate entrance for the football stadium, so I hadn’t really gotten a good look at the school buildings.
“It’s beautiful, right?” Celeste said, and I nodded, still gawking at the scene before me.
Darling Academy was a collection of pristinely restored old buildings surrounded by oak trees. It reminded me of Harvard or Princeton.
“It’s not so bad, I promise. Strip away the Prada handbags, sports cars, and trust funds, and you’re left with a high school full of kids just trying to figure out who they are and what they want to do with their lives.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, but I didn’t voice my disagreement. This was an entirely different world to the one I’d grown up in.
Celeste followed the stream of expensive cars into the parking lot and found an empty spot. “Okay.” She cut the engine and looked over at me. “Ready?”
No. “Yes.”
“You’ve got a meeting with Principal Diego first, right?” I nodded and she went on, “So I’ll walk you to the administrative building and then Mrs. Farrell will show you to your first class.”
“Got it.” I clenched a fist, willing my hand to stop trembling.
