The Academy

Tomorrow wasn’t better. Nor the day after or the day after that. I was sitting in the student lounge alone. No one had talked to me for the past week, ever since Michelle showed everyone those photos of me. Michelle and her cronies had practically ruined my life here at Kloss. I made friends here quickly but lost them even quicker. Thankfully though, the guys coming up to me and offering to make my job easier had subsided and the girls just tended to ignore me now rather than give me death glares.

I sighed, sketching a dress on a faceless model. Since I had a lot of freetime because no one was talking to me, I had decided to stop by the Kloss Art Supply store and picked up some sketch books. I wasn’t drawing anything big, just clothing that came to my head, nothing exceptionally great though.

“Riley,” I heard a familiar voice call and I looked up to see Sam.

“Hi Sam,” I smiled as he sat down next to me. “Wait…you’re talking to me now?” I asked, slightly surprised he approached me. He was wearing his usual black t-shirt with skinny jeans and a hat worn backwards, which for some reason was slightly attractive.

“Well, yeah,” He laughed. “The others will come around soon too.”

“I doubt that,” I sighed. “My life is like fucking hell now. The dorm is so awkward now because Cassie won’t talk to me and I’ve been going back early every night so I can avoid the awkward silence. No one is talking to me anymore.” It was silent for a moment. I shaded a bit around the faceless model so it wasn’t completely silent but finally decided to ask the question brooding in my mind. “Why are you talking to me now, though?”

“I missed talking to you,” He shrugged. “And I think the others are blowing this way out of proportion. You also don’t seem like the kind of girl to keep a journal.”

“I’m not,” I laughed, the first laugh in a while. “Never really remembered the nights that were journal worthy so I never kept one.”

“Did you draw those?” He pointed to my sketch book and the evening dress I had been drawing; the strapless, Cinderella kind. I nodded. “Are you trying to become a fashion designer?”

“No, this was just to make me feel less lonely,” I sighed. “Something I took up to pass the time.” He looked at me sympathetically and I shrugged.

“Kloss has made you really fucking soft, hasn’t it?” He stated. I looked at him confused. “What happened to the tough girl Riley? What happened to Riley Fucking Williams? The girl who would have stomped Michelle out the second those pictures got out.”

“That girl is gone. This Riley doesn’t want to stoop to her level.”

“Then you’re letting Michelle win,” he retorted. “You don’t need to stoop to her level to get back at her and getting back at her is exactly what you need to do.”

“I think we can help you with that,” Someone spoke behind us. We turned around to see Charlotte and Breanna, Michelle’s friends. Breanna had her arms crossed at her chest and Charlotte had a hand on her hip, both had a slightly mischievous face and you could tell had something cooking in their minds.

“We’re really sorry, Riley,” Breanna spoke. “We really had no idea Michelle would do that.”

“We didn’t know she would create a fake diary or use the pictures like that, especially photoshopping Christian’s head onto Andy’s,” Charlotte defended. “But we want to help you get back at her.”

“Why?” I asked. They were Michelle’s friends, I had a right to be suspicious. I didn’t know if I could trust them.

“Because we are sick of Michelle pushing us around and you’re the only person in the entire school to stand up to her and we applaud you for that,” Charlotte explained, a slight smirk appearing on her face, but a surprisingly friendly and welcoming one.

I looked at Sam and he shrugged in a ‘why not try’ manner. “I guess it would be a good idea to have somebody on the inside,” I said. “Think you can play friends with Michelle for a little bit longer? Get some good dirt on her for us?”

“No problem,” Breanna nodded, the mischief in her face growing, now rubbing her palms together.

“Yeah, shouldn’t be too hard,” Charlotte added.

“Good, I guess we’ll meet up in a few days,” I smiled, writing my number on a piece of paper. “Just text me if you can’t wait to tell me something.”

They nodded, taking the paper and left. “We’re really going to trust them right now?” Sam asked.

“They’re the only chance we have right now. To take out Michelle we can’t go physically, we have to attack from the inside.”

“Maybe this school hasn’t made you too soft,” He smiled. “I think Riley Fucking Williams is back!”

I started laughing, “Thanks Sam.” I hugged him. “Want to go get a bite to eat? I’m starving.”

“I don’t know if I want to be seen with you…” He said sarcastically to which I hit him playfully in the shoulder. “Café good?” I nodded, standing up and stuffing my sketch book into my bag. Sam stood up next to me and we walked out, over to the café. I ordered a coffee as did he along with two brownies each since dinner wasn’t for another hour.

“It sucks that whole Michelle thing had to happen when it did,” Sam said, taking a drink of his coffee. “Danny, Ben, Cam, James, and I had an announcement to make to you guys that night.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked and he nodded. “What kind of announcement?”

Danny, Ben, Cam, James, and I are starting a band,” He laughed. “It was kind of a requirement after what everyone else did.”

“Is it a graduation requirement to start a band at this school?” I laughed. “First Devin, Brent, Jeff, Andrew, Jimmy, Jeff, and Zack, then it was Andy, Ashley, Jinxx, Christian, and Jake, and now you guys.”

“It was Danny’s idea,” he shrugged. “I think he thought of it because of all the girls he’d get.” I giggled slightly but looked down at my coffee with a sad expression. “You miss them, don’t you?”

“I’ve lost all my friends in such a short period of time,” I sighed. “Of course, some were for the better but I can’t help but feel weaker, like there’s no one backing me up anymore.”

“Well, I am,” He smiled. “And for some reason so are Charlotte and Breanna, though there may be some underlying reason for that. Either way, I’m here and I know the others will be too.”

“Well, whatever our plan is going to be, it better work. I wanna take Michelle down for good.”