Dirty Fraud Read online

“Not exactly,” he starts, but I’ll not let him use that silver tongue of his to try and explain his way out of things this time. I thought we moved on beyond all that this summer.

  “No, that is exactly what you thought,” I say. “I stand by what I said before. You are a coward, Blair Rashnikov, and I have no use for a coward.”

  Blair is speechless. I’m pretty sure the Richter scale is picking up the shock waves that are registering all over his face. Dana is grinning from ear to ear, but she doesn’t say anything. Wills stands and slides his hand into mine, weaving our fingers together. He too gives Blair a cold look and shakes his head before turning away.

  I start to walk with him, and Astor stands up and looks at Wills and me. I’m expecting him to sit in silence, but he clears his throat to catch our attention right before we leave.

  “At least Wills had the courage to stand up for what he really wants,” Astor says, giving Wills a nod of respect. Then Astor’s eyes meet mine and he gives me a nod too, and I feel butterflies erupt inside me. This is more than the comment back at the college fair. For the first time, he’s actually acknowledging my existence.

  It’s the same as if he outright offered us his blessing.

  Victoria clenches her jaw tightly, and it makes me smile a little.

  Astor looks at Blair. “Now, come back where you belong. At least let some things remain the same.”

  I glance back at Blair I can see that he’s wounded. But like a scolded puppy, he does what he’s told, and walks over and sits down with Astor.

  Wills lets go of my hand and wraps an arm around my shoulder, leaning in to kiss me, and I kiss him in return for a long moment. It’s an extra sweet and wonderful kiss, because I know Astor, Blair, and Victoria are watching.

  When he pulls away, he looks into my face and smiles mischievously. “We’ll win them over yet,” he says, quietly.

  I look away, playing coy. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  He just leans in and kisses the spot right beside my ear. “Oh, I think you do.”

  He’s surprisingly astute this one. With that, he leads Dana and I out of the room together.

  Chapter 13

  With Wills at my side, some of the tension even among the other students starts to abate. It’s a relief to walk through the halls of my own school and not have every single person looking at me like they despise me. There are still several who do, but it’s certainly a lot fewer than it was before.

  If he’s bothered by the split from his friends, Wills doesn’t let on much. Though he doesn’t say as much, he seems pretty positive that it’s only a matter of time before they follow suit. I wish it was as simple as that. I’m not ready to let Blair back in, not with how he acted before. I need to know that he’s really genuine this time.

  Victoria seems somehow to hate me more now than she did before. I can only guess that it’s because I’ve managed to break up the holy trinity, when no one else in the world could have done that; not even her. There’s no hiding and ignoring me anymore. Her spite is obvious … but it’s my turn to do the ignoring. I focus instead on Wills, Dana, my classes, and my future.

  And it’s that indifference toward her that sends her over the edge.

  I’m coming out of photography club one afternoon on my way to the library to meet Dana and Wills when Victoria, along with Laura and Alisha, corners me in a small hallway. I know right away that this is no mistake.

  “Well look who we have here, girls.” Victoria’s eyes and voice are as cold as ice.

  I’m surprised to see her, but I’m not about to stop for a chat. “I don’t have time for you, Victoria,” I reply coolly as I move to walk past them, but her hand shoots out and she grabs my shoulder. Her perfectly manicured nails are long and sharp, like miniature spears digging into the fabric of my uniform.

  “I thought we could have a little girl time together. You know, have some fun, like the old days when you were pretending to be someone else.” She yanks me toward her, but I wrench myself away.

  “Listen, Victoria, I was holding back last year … but if you lay a hand on me again, I’m going to knock you on your ass. I come from the other side of the tracks, remember?” I make no effort to hide the threat, and I mean it.

  I’ve let her get away with too much already, but now that I have at least Wills with me, it doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t have to try to be good so that the boys won’t hate me. To be quite honest, Wills would probably be thrilled to hear that I finally stood up to the queen bitch. She’s tried to ruin our lives long enough, I think.

  She raises her eyebrows at me and crosses her arms over her chest. “Oh, you think you can take me?”

  I laugh and nod slightly. “I’ve seen and done things you can only dream of.”

  She takes a step toward me. “Why don’t you go for it, and see how fast you get expelled from this school.” She grins wickedly. “Like Astor’s, my family has been here a long, long time, and there’s a reason I rule this school with him. So, you want to try to kick my ass? Go for it. We’ll see whose whole world is changed then.”

  Therein lies the real reason I’ve never really fought back. I know that she’s right, and there’s nothing I can do about it. She knows it too.

  “See,” she says, her voice purring. “Exactly as I thought. All bark … but no bite.”

  She puts one of her claw-like nails to her bottom lip, and pretends to be thinking of something just now. I can tell from the look in her eyes that whatever it is, has been long, long in the making.

  “I’ve had it with you and your attitude. Ever since you got here, you’ve been stealing things that don’t belong to you. I think it’s time that the real girls of Hawthorne took you down to your own level where you belong. Girls?” She smiles evilly, and suddenly Laura and Alisha have both reached for me and are pinning me face first against the wall so hard that I can’t break free, even though I try.

  Fear and anger flood through me and I struggle as much as I can, but to no avail. How the hell are these girls so strong?

  “What are you doing? Leave me the hell alone!” I shout at her, but she only laughs and digs her hands into my hair and twists it up in her fingers before giving it a good yank. It pulls my head back with it until I’m looking up into her gleeful face.

  “Oh no way, you little bitch. I’m just getting started with you.” She yanks hard on my hair again, making sure I see the massive pair of metal shears in her hand. “We’ll see how Wills likes you without all this straw you’ve tried to pass off as hair.”

  “Stop!” I yell, as I realize what she’s about to do. I try to break free again, but Victoria only pulls my hair tighter and her goons shove me harder into the wall. She takes her time selecting the perfect place to start, the scissors making a metallic slicing sound as each lock of hair is severed at the back of my neck in long, golden strands.

  They don’t let me go until it’s all cut off, and then Victoria pushes me to the floor before I can regain my balance. I turn fast and look up at her, ready to get up and take her down for real this time. I’m seeing red, and probably would kill her if her words from earlier don’t slap me plain in the face.

  She sees it too, and crouches down patronizingly to wave a finger in my face.

  “Ah, ah, ah … no, no. You don’t try to take me on unless you’re ready to let it cost you your future. Got it? Good. I’m going to give you a warning. You stay the hell away from Astor, or things are going to get a lot worse. You’d better remember that.”

  She turns on her heel, laughing loud as the three of them turn the corner and leave me there alone, in tears, sitting in the middle of a pile of my own severed hair. I reach my hands up and touch the edges of my hair. It’s choppy and it’s so, so short.

  It takes everything in me just to clamber back to my feet. I’m shaking all over. It’s just hair … but it’s not. I feel violated.

  I walk to the library in a daze. Dana and Wills are waiting for me when I get there; both of them look u
p at me with smiles that fade as fast as they formed.

  Dana leaps to her feet with Wills close behind her. “What happened?” she asks, running over and reaching for my shorn locks—but doesn’t quite dare to touch me.

  Wills just takes my face in his hands, his own expression sober.

  “Are you okay?”

  I shake my head and look down as the tears come anew. He pulls me into a big hug and holds me tight until I stop crying. When he lets me go, Dana takes my hand and looks at me seriously.

  “This was her, wasn’t it?” she asks, and I nod silently. Dana closes her eyes and exhales slowly. “She really knows no bounds, does she?”

  I’m still in shock. “Is it that bad?” I ask. “I haven’t been able to look.”

  Neither of them says anything, and that’s enough.

  Wills pulls out his phone and takes my hand. “Don’t worry. We’re going to fix it.” He starts walking with me toward the door and Dana grabs their books and comes after us.

  I still haven’t been able to process it all, so I don’t think to ask where he’s taking me. I just follow dutifully, trying to shake the deep feeling of being defiled.

  He calls a rideshare and within half an hour, we’re walking into a salon. The snobby receptionist tries to tell us there aren’t any openings, but money exchanges hands and I’m in a chair right away. I turn away from the mirror and give the stylist free range to do whatever he can with it. He tries to keep a straight face, but I know he’s dying to ask what the hell happened.

  I’m dreading the inevitable moment where I have to finally look, but when I do, all that dread turns into surprise. The stylist is a true master. He’s given me a bob that is somehow both blunt and soft at the same time, and now that all the bleach is cut from the ends of my hair, the natural curl has returned.

  It’s still going to take some getting used to, but it’s not the disaster I expected. It’s definitely not what Victoria meant, and that is the true vindication.

  By the time Wills steps back in, three large coffees steaming in a to-go holder in his hands, I’m all nervous smiles.

  He’s even more shocked than me. He has to set the coffees down so he can run his fingers through my hair. “Wow, Teddy. This really suits you.”

  I leap out of the chair and hug Wills as tight as I can. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  He only smiles at me and kisses me on the forehead. “With that haircut, I’m sure you’d be fine.” When he pulls back to look at me at arm’s length, there’s an intense look in his eyes. “It’s hot.”

  “Yeah?” I ruffle the ends at the front. “You really think so?”

  He draws me closer, his voice dropping to a whisper just as my heart races upward. “Stop being so damn cute, or I’ll have to take you here and now.”

  Dana appears around the corner, and we break away before we embarrass ourselves any more.

  “Do you like it?” I ask as she grins my way.

  She grins back. “I love it! Do you think it comes in my size?”

  Within minutes, Dana’s long brown hair hits the floor and by the time another car comes to pick us up, we are both grinning over our new short hairdo’s, and I am profoundly grateful once again that no matter what happens to me at that school and in my life, I have a good friend to see me through it. Two of them, now, with Wills.

  I lean my head on his shoulder the whole way back up to school, the whole terrible ordeal forgotten—replaced, instead, with a memory I will cherish for the rest of my life.

  Victoria’s hateful action has the exact opposite effect she meant for it to have. Instead of leaving me beaten down, I am reminded that I too have powerful friends … and while the new hairstyle she forced me to get is certainly drawing attention, it’s not in the way she wants. Even Astor can’t keep his eyes off me when I walk into the dining hall the next morning.

  She’s livid, plain in the way she crushes the protein shake in her hand—completely oblivious to the liquid pouring out over her fingers and spilling onto the table below.

  It’s as if every time she tries to be ruthless, she’s the one who comes out with the short straw. I don’t like what she does to me, but I have to admit that I kind of love it when she fails so spectacularly.

  I think it’s over between her and me now, at least for a while, until I’m stopped by one the actors in my drama club later in the afternoon between classes. His name is Drew, and though we don’t speak much … it still isn’t like him to look so awkward about it.

  “Hey, Teddy,” he says cautiously, looking as if he has a bombshell to drop and he doesn’t want to do it. I stop and smile at him.

  “Hi Drew, what’s up?” I ask, giving him a friendly tone and hoping to lighten his mood with it. He clearly thinks I care a lot more about drama club than I do. Right now, he could tell me I’m banned for life and it still wouldn’t shatter my glow.

  Still, he looks apprehensive. “Um … I don’t know if you already knew about it, but I didn’t want you to hear it from somebody else.”

  I raise a brow. I’ve learned to not be surprised anymore, at least as much as I can be. “What is it?”

  He holds out his smartphone to me so I can see. “I got an invitation from Victoria to like this new page she made. It’s called The Fake Girl, and it’s basically a homage to you ... but it’s not very flattering.”

  I look at the page and sigh, shaking my head. “She just never gives up.”

  He takes his phone back, and shoves it into his back pocket. “You know,” he says, “you’re taking this all surprisingly well. If someone did that to me, I’d be devastated.”

  I just shrug. “I’ve been through worse. Victoria is just scared. I’ll take that as a win.”

  That win doesn’t last long enough for me to even tell Wills or Dana about the page.

  When I hear my name called over the intercom to report to the principal’s office, I know it’s got to have something to do with this mess. For once, I’ve really done nothing wrong … so while I’m annoyed, I’m not worried.

  The last time I was in his office, it was because they’d found out about my real identity. Even though the parents of the girl I’d been impersonating, Mr. and Mrs. White, made a hefty donation in order for me to say at the school, Dr. Baxter has never been particularly fond of me. I’m actually pretty surprised he hasn’t called me up before on some sort of made-up offence just to get me out of here for good.

  That lack of fondness is still clearly present when I walk into his office today.

  “Miss Price.” He states my name as if the taste of it is something he doesn’t want in his mouth.

  “Hello, Dr. Baxter.” I greet him with a polite tone, but I think it’s pretty obvious I don’t like him either. “What can I do for you?”

  He gives me a harsh look. “You can explain to me what is going on between you and Victoria Waldorf.”

  “I figured this was what this is all about,” I say, sitting in one of the chairs in front of him. “You saw the page?”

  “And you really have nothing to say about it?”

  My confidence fades and a pit forms in my stomach. “Sorry,” I say. “Am I missing something? I thought the page was bullying me. I don’t see how this is my fault.”

  Dr. Baxter frowns sharply, and turns the monitor on his computer to face me so I can read all the comments. I really didn’t plan on getting into this, in fact, I prefer not to … but now, as I read the contents of the page, I realize that was a mistake.

  “As you can see,” Dr. Baxter says, sitting back in his seat and glaring at me across the desk, “Victoria has made some pretty hefty accusations here. She claims you’ve been bullying her ever since you arrived. Is that true?”

  I am truly, utterly lost for words.

  I just sit there and gape, open mouthed at him, until he sighs and deflates a little.

  “I spoke to Victoria already. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have any proof, but I promise you this miss Price.” Here
, he leans forward, one fat finger jammed between my eyes. “If there’s any truth to these accusations, I’ll have you out of here before you know what hit you.”

  When I finally do find my words, I have to speak them through gritted teeth. “Then I guess I have nothing to worry about. There won’t be any proof, because none of it ever happened.”

  This answer doesn’t satisfy him, but there’s nothing else to be done. I’m not going to admit to something I didn’t do, and he’s certainly not going to listen if I try to tell him the truth.

  I leave Dr. Baxter’s office with nothing more than a warning, but I know this is far from over.

  Chapter 14

  I was too quick to think I’d defeated Victoria. I should have remembered that unlike normal, actual, humans she has no limits. If she has to kill me to wind up on top, I have no doubt she’d do just that.

  I head outside to get some fresh air, and I don’t get too far when I notice Victoria in the quad. Miraculously, she is by herself; sans minions. This is a real rarity. I know I shouldn’t confront her, but I can’t help it. Everything bad that’s happening to me at the school is because of her. It all boils down to her stupid, infectious, hatred. I go straight for her and I don’t stop until we’re face to face, eye to eye, and that hatred burns equally between us.

  “I just left Dr. Baxter’s office, and I think you know why,” I shoot at her.

  She shrugs and the corner of her mouth rises slightly in what might almost be a smile. “Is all this about that stupid little Facebook page I set up?”

  “It’s about the lies you posted there,” I say. “Do you really think anyone is going to believe you?”

  “I think they already did,” she says. “At least, the only people who matter, or else you wouldn’t be here.”

  Anything I say to her isn’t going to make a difference. For one second, I thought I might be able to appeal to her logical side. Only problem is, she doesn’t have one.

  “You need to find a new hobby, Victoria. Seriously.”