As the bell signaled the end of the first day of classes at King’s Academy, Dante Mossos made his way down a particular classroom he’d gotten to know very well since his arrival at the school in his freshman year. His first few stints in detention back then had always been because of his weakness for women. He’d gotten caught exiting closets, empty classrooms, the boys’ locker room or the bathroom right after some attractive female with messed-up hair and a flushed face. The agreement was that his parents wouldn’t be informed of his actions if he promised to attend detention, which he always did without a second thought. The fear of facing his aunt if she ever heard about what Dante was getting into was enough to make the young man keep his word, even if he already was a man of his word.
But the visits to detention didn’t stop after he learned how to carry out his illicit affairs in a more private, discreet manner. Nope, then they had been triggered by his new-found love of nicotine. No matter how many times he’d thought he’d found the perfect spot to feed his vice, some nosy figure of authority managed to find him, even if by pure chance.
That had been the case today. D had been in the process of putting out his cigarette when the infamous Coach Sutherland had come round the corner of his new hiding spot. The older man wasn’t a fan of Dante by any means; having caught the young man ‘defiling’ his locker rooms with women before. But on this particular morning, it seemed Sutherland had a rather large, thick stick up his ass that was bothering him. He didn’t so much as blink before writing up a note to send the younger man to detention, just as he’d done to Kai, Ella and Marco some time before. And when Mossos gave the beefy man a piece of his mind for having sent his beloved cousin to detention over an accident, he earned himself another day’s detention. He didn’t mind it, anyway. D would have done more than that to defend his family.
The prospect of spending another hour in school premises did not take away the pride Dante felt in having started the chase after Aurora Quill. His smug smile had stayed in place all throughout the day, elated at getting the most uptight girl in school to begin her fall down the rabbit hole. To keep the momentum going, D shot her the occasional wink when passing her in the hallways, all the while contemplating ideas for what could be their next “accidental” encounter could be. But as fate might have it, the gods were with him once again as the young man was gifted yet another opportunity to pull his moves on the class president. When he walked through the doors of the detention classroom, he was surprised to find her sitting next to his cousin at the very last table on the left in the back of the room.
Instead of taking the obvious route and sitting at the table next to her, Dante decided against it. He didn’t want to scare the poor girl off or make her think he was some kind of creepy stalker. Instead, he decided to bless the young woman with a view of his stunning face and chiseled body by taking up one of the empty chairs in the table directly in front of her. This tactic ensured she wouldn’t be able to keep her eyes -or her mind, for that matter- off him, and he would be absolved of any kind of accusations of staring, intimidation or anything of the sort.
But again, fate in the form of Wade was unknowingly on his side yet again. When his best friend -who was assigned to the chair next to Dante- asked Aurora to trade seats with him, she’d agreed to do so without giving it some thought. In fact, even after taking up the empty chair next to Mossos she didn’t seem to realize where’d she’d ended up. That was about to change. The redhead was about to be brought back to reality courtesy of D.
“Looks like the fates have us meeting again, Kitten,” Dante drawled, smirking at Aurora again and using what was now officially his pet name for her. “A nice turn of events, if I may say so myself. Was it planned? Absolutely not. Was it expected? Also no. But is it very welcome? Hell yes. You must be goddamned pleased to be in my company again.”
While others were used to not caring about it, the shame of having been sent to detention had been too much for Antonella to bear. She’d arrived at the classroom a few minutes before she was supposed to, having hidden in the bathroom then raced down the halls to avoid being seen in such a disgraceful position. To see the faces of disapproval from her teammates when she told them she wouldn't be able to make the first practice of the season had been heartbreaking enough. But to see the utmost shock fill every single one of them when she explained why she was missing practice? That had been even worse. The news of her little pool accident had traveled fast (which is to be expected in such a small school like King’s Academy), but nobody would have guessed that she’d gotten in trouble for what was nothing more than an accident. The squad girls were outraged, and ready to take matters into their own hands to rectify the injustice done to their beloved leader. But Wade’s promise had been enough for Ella to dissuade her teammates from taking any action. And the moment she saw his adorable face coming through the classroom door -all smiles and happiness-, she knew she’d done the right thing by letting things run its course. Being sent to detention hadn’t been a punishment after all. Quite the contrary: it was a blessing.
Beaming, Ella watched as Wade made a beeline straight for her, politely asked Aurora to trade seats and immediately jumped into the empty chair beside her as soon as the redhead disoccupied it. It was then when the tanned skinned girl put away the notebook in which she’d been writing “E+W” with pink ink inside a heart -no need for the young man to see that- and shifted her whole attention onto her new partner.
“Oh my God! You made it!” Ella said cheerfully, with a smile so bright and wide it was a miracle her face didn’t split in half.
In response, the blond male lightly prodded Ella and gave her a small wave that she eagerly replied to. "Hey! Told ya I'd meet you here!" he said in a low voice, shifting his seat next to her and closing the distance between them.
He was in such proximity that the brunette could smell his spicy cologne and feel the heat emanating from his body, which made Antonella feel extra happy but also nervous as well. She discreetly breathed in deep, taking in as much of his scent as he could and hoping the deliciousness of it would distract her from focusing too much on the nerves. Opportunities like this weren’t as common as they used to be anymore. She didn’t want anything to mess it up.
“Yes you did,” she said sweetly, looking at him with those big, loved-up eyes anybody else would have immediately noticed except him. “Thank you for keeping your promise.”
"SO, I was hoping you could maybe help me with something."
“Sure! Whatever you need!” Ella replied excitedly, jumping at the chance of earning points with the absolute love of her life.
Whereas her cousin and half-brother -and everyone around her, for the most part- seemed more than pleased with their assigned seating partners, the same couldn’t be said about Soleil. She was still fuming over the dumb-ass decision to have her and Marco separated as if they were some sort of Bonnie and Clyde duo of criminals that had to be kept apart. Why were their teachers being such hard-asses? All they’d done in the past was talk in class a few times; that didn’t hurt anyone? And okay, fine, they had pulled a few pranks throughout the years -all done in safe, harmless fun-, but that was it! They hadn’t been the ones getting caught smoking on campus. Sol wasn’t stupid enough to use any other time that wasn’t recreational, and much less anywhere near this prison of a school. They hadn’t been the ones to throw themselves into the academy pool for a morning swim, nor the ones who had put on a bitch fight argument when a lecture was supposed to start. Hell, all they’d done was arrive to school late and run off to the bathroom in the middle of a lecture! What did the teachers expect, anyway? To have her puke in their classroom instead? Instead of getting punished, Shady needed to have been thanked for her consideration to her classmates, her teacher and the janitor.
And yet here she was, stuck in detention for the next -she checked her Fitbit for the time- fifty-five minutes. The worst part was that her murderous face, which would have kept anybody else at bay- did nothing to save Sol from getting the attention of her seating partner.
“Why, isn’t it the legendary Slim Shady,” Sol heard the young woman say not even a minute after she’d taken her seat. Scowling, she watched as the petite blonde leaned forward with a smile the dark-haired girl was faker than her denials of having gotten a nose job and lip injections.
“What do you want, Savanna Montana?” Shady replied in a bored voice, her facial expression now matching her tone. Her slightly muscled arms remained crossed in front of her while she continued to lay back in her chair.
“Just because you aren’t sitting with your boyfriend doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself. You might find me to be enjoyable company if you open your mind up to the possibility.” Savanna said softly, shooting the taller girl a wink that could be interpreted as flirtatious.
Sol couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Even though Shady would have probably made the girl’s semester by fooling around with her in a bathroom stall just for fun (yes, even if her lips were fake), referring to Marco as her “boyfriend” hadn’t done Barbie any favors if she wanted to get on her good graces. Soleil will never understand why was it that people couldn’t seem to believe that two individuals of the opposite sex could be very close friends without any sort of romantic or sexual intentions involved. Throughout her friendship with Big Mac, the two had made it a game out of how many times it was implied or they’d been asked if they were dating. Hell, even their parents and siblings had engaged in this problematic behavior until the dynamic duo had decided to put their foot down. And now Sav’s comment now brought the “your boyfriend/girlfriend” tally up to 92. She would have to remember to tell Marco about it.
“And just because two people hang out doesn’t mean they’re dating,” Shady bluntly corrected. “I don’t know if your hearing was fucked up a second ago or not, but I clearly said Mac’s my bro, man. He’s my brother. I don’t want him in that way.”
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