The Academy

I was sitting in my last period history class. It was Friday and also the day I would be taking Michelle down. I was just waiting for the text from Breanna or Charlotte giving me the signal to go since they both had study hall this period.

My eyes wouldn’t stray from the clock which made time go seemingly slower. Internally, I was crying but externally, I was putting up a strong front. You never let your opponent see you cry and right now my opponent was the entire school. Mr. Row was just lecturing today so I wasn’t missing much.

Five minutes before class was over I received the text. “We got her diary, in the bathroom near your history class. Come now,” it read. My hand shot up faster than it had in my entire life.

“Miss Williams?” Mr. Row stopped his lecture.

“May I go to the bathroom? It’s an emergency,” I lied. With an emergency, teachers always let you go, especially the male teachers.

He rolled his eyes, “Bring your stuff.” He knew I wouldn’t be back. I grabbed my bag and ran out the door to the bathroom. Breanna and Charlotte were standing by the sink pretending to fix their makeup. When they saw me, they smiled mischievously and Charlotte reached into her bag taking out the small purple book.

“You better go to the courtyard now if you want to get there before your friends,” Breanna said.

“We’ll get Michelle there, no worries,” Charlotte added. I nodded and stuffed the journal into my bag. “Good luck!”

I almost ran out of the building and to the courtyard. Sam was already there waiting for me by the fountain. “Are you sure you want to do this Riley?”

“I have to get my life back, Sam,” I sighed as the bell rang across campus.

“Well, if this doesn’t work, you’ll always have me.” His smile was genuine and his hand reached up to touch my cheek. Slowly he bent down and let his lips touch mine. His hands moved to wrap around my waist and mine went around his neck. It felt strange, different actually, the feeling I got when he kissed me. The feeling of not wanting to stop. Inevitably, he broke off and I let out a slight giggle, something I rarely ever do. He smiled. “Go get your life back, Riley.”

He helped me onto the edge of the fountain, the exact spot Michelle was when she ruined my life. I looked around slightly nervous. I saw Breanna and Charlotte walking with Michelle on one side and the group walking on the other. I looked down at Sam and he grabbed my hand and squeezed it lightly. I took a deep breath and looked back up.

“Attention everyone!” I exclaimed causing everyone to stop and look, including Michelle and Cassie, both looking annoyed at seeing me. “A few months ago, you might have heard what Michelle said about me, saying I wanted to hook up with every guy at Kloss. This is entirely false. I came to Kloss to get away from that part of me. That journal she held up? That was hers, not mine.” I paused and took the book out of my bag. “And I have it here courtesy of Breanna and Charlotte. In it,” I opened it up to the page they had marked for me. “It contains the plan to take me down including a step to photoshop a picture of me and Christian.”

I saw Michelle glare at Breanna and Charlotte, which caused me to smile a bit. She knew she’d been played.

“Not only has she photoshopped a picture of Christian and I, making it seem like I hooked up with him, she was so upset over the loss of her precious boys that she started stalking them, taking pictures of them and their friends.” I took a large folder out of my bag next. Breanna and Charlotte were right when they said there were lots of pictures. “These are those pictures, taken mostly last school year as the time stamps show. She planned to use these pictures to blackmail me since I’m in more than half of them.” There were whispers across the courtyard and a very pissed off expression on Michelle’s face. “Michelle has done nothing since I got here but try and bring me down for being friends with her precious boys who have no interest in her…and for a while, I thought she did but I’m Riley Williams and I fight back. I may have gotten with Danny and Andy but I’d never do that to Cassie.” I turned to look straight at her. “You were my first and best friend at Kloss and I know my boundaries and kissing my best friend’s boyfriend isn’t within them.”

“She’s lying! She’s making everything up!” Michelle stormed over and stood next to me. I had briefly thought about pushing her into the fountain. “None of what she’s saying is true!”

“Yes it is!” Charlotte shouted from the sidelines. “All of what Riley is saying is true! I’m done with following you around, Michelle. Riley is a good person and I’d rather be around her!”

“Me too!” Breanna exclaimed, nodding. I smiled victoriously, at least on some counts.

“Sorry Michelle,” I smirked. “I guess I just won the war.”

“Ugh!” Michelle stormed off, pushing people out of her way. My smile grew as Sam helped me off the fountain and gave me a strong hug. I suddenly noticed the elated effects of the kiss hadn’t worn off and I realized I kind of wanted to kiss him again. Then I noticed the group walking over. Cassie ran the last ten feet after I let go of Sam and hugged me.

“You did great, Riley!” She exclaimed, the bubbly smile I knew showing off once again.

“You’re not mad anymore?” I asked still hugging her.

“I haven’t been mad for a while,” She laughed. I gave her a confused look. “I called Christian and asked him that night. After I found out the truth I realized maybe if I pretended to be mad at you, you’d get back at Michelle for good and everyone agreed.”

“But when you weren’t doing anything we realized you needed motivation so Sam volunteered to help,” Audrina added.

“So wait, this whole thing was planned?” I asked. They all nodded.

“Even Breanna and Charlotte helping was planned,” Sam smiled. “I did that. It’s easy to tell when minions are fed up by the leader.”

“We wanted to get back at Michelle once and for all,” Brent laughed. “And I think we did.”

“Assholes!” I laughed. “You made me think you were mad at me! But I love how you guys planned all that, you took a page out of my book.”

“We learned from the best,” Claire laughed.

“My little Claire was in on this?” I asked, shocked. She nodded.

“She was the mastermind of it,” Andrew explained. “She planted the idea in Cassie’s head.”

“It’s always the quiet ones you have to watch out for.”

“Yeah well, come on,” Cassie laughed. “It’s pizza and movie night.” They all started walking in the direction of the lounge.

“Riley and I will catch up with you guys,” Sam called and everyone nodded though I think I saw Ben wink in our direction. I must have been seeing things.

“Is something wrong same?” I asked confused, crossing my arms over my chest.

“I just want you to know that not everything was planned,” He explained.

“What do you mean?” I felt my heart sink and slight butterflies in my stomach and I didn’t know where they came from.

“The kiss wasn’t planned, Riley,” He sighed. “I mean sure I’ve thought about it but I didn’t think it would be now, everyone else has no clue I did it.” He paused for a minute and let out a slight breath. “I didn’t even know I was going to.”

I guess you could say I jumped at the opportunity but I got on my tip toes and planted a quick peck on Sam’s lips. Then, I looked up at him with a slight smirk on my face and giggled once more as I watched the surprised but genuine smile appear on his face. He had a really nice smile.

“I wasn’t expecting that to happen,” He laughed. “Why’d you do that?”

“
If I want something, I get it,” I giggled again. He smirked and grabbed me by the waist, bringing me in to kiss him again. The feeling of not wanting him to stop appeared once again. I felt him smile in the kiss making me smile in return as I played with the curls on the back of his neck.

“So Riley Fucking Williams, would you do the honor of being my girlfriend?” He asked after breaking off.

I smirked and bit my lip. Sam and I had grown close over the past few months and I realized how close we really were now. I realized how much he actually cared for me and surprisingly I had begun to care about him just the same. “Yes, I will Sam Fucking Bettley.” I hugged him tight. This would be my first actual relationship, not just casual hookup. “I guess we should meet up with everyone now. We don’t want Danny to eat our slices of pizza.”

Sam grabbed my hand and we walked to the lounge to meet everyone. When we walked in we were greeted by three girly squeals and a lot of “When did this happen?”

“You finally fucking did it, mate!” Ben exclaimed jumping up to give Sam a hug and then gave me one. The freak outs ended and we started the movie, a horror film of Danny’s choosing. Sam and I sat on the couch, his arm around me, my head on his chest, his hand running through my hair.

I had my friends back and Michelle was officially defeated. All four months before graduation and I had to head back to Beverly Hills. Part of me wanted the four months to go by slow so I wouldn’t have to leave my friends.