The Academy

I woke up the next morning, Cassie wasn't in her bed and there was a piece of paper on the nightstand. The clock read 10:30 in big red numbers. I sat up, rubbing my eyes, and picked the piece of paper up. It was a note from Cassie.

'I didn't want to wake you just in case you weren't feeling well. Went out to breakfast with Christian. Will explain when I get back. -Cassie' it read. I guess she did hit it off with Christian last night. I made a mental note to harass her about it today when I saw her. There was a knock at the door and I walked over and looked through the peephole to see Sam.

“Good morning,” I said opening the door.

“Morning,” He smiled. “How are you feeling? I heard you weren't feeling well last night.”

“Oh a little bit better. My stomach was just bothering me,” I shrugged stepping aside to let him in and closing the door behind him. “So, what do I owe this visit?”

“I just wanted to check up on you,” He shrugged sitting on my bed. “Plus, I heard Cassie went out to breakfast with Christian, and Audrina and Claire are with Devin and all them so I figured you were all alone. I wanted to know if you wanted to go to breakfast with me, Danny, Ben, Cam, and James.”

“Sure, just let me get changed,” I smiled walking over to my suitcase taking out my outfit for the day and walking into the bathroom to get changed. After putting my shirt on I walked out and threw on my heels and grabbed my purse. Sam and I walked out the door and started to head down the hallway. “So where are we going for breakfast?” Another secret I had to keep from everyone, I knew pretty much every restaurant in New York from being here so often with my parents.

“Not sure,” He shrugged, pushing the button for the elevator. “We’ll probably walk around and find something along the way. It’s nice to see the city anyway.”

The ride in the elevator was silent, made awkward by the elevator music. We found Danny, Cam, James, and Ben in the lobby waiting for us. They all looked equally as tired which showed the night before was definitely an eventful one. I wondered if Michelle tried anything else last night after I left with Danny. Since the other girls were a bit scared of her, they were easy targets to her and her cronies. I made a mental note to ask them about it when we came back from breakfast.

It was fairly nice outside as we walked down the various blocks. I secretly regretted wearing heels since we were walking so much but since I had been through the same thing so much, my feet were probably used to it. After about a half an hour of walking, we ended up at this little garden restaurant, and since it was so nice, sat outside. Like last night, we all ordered the same thing, French toast, just different sides. Sam and I got bacon, James and Cam got hashbrowns, and Danny and Ben got scrapple, I guess those two had strong stomachs.

“So, I’m guessing you’re feeling better?” Danny asked, taking a sip of Orange juice.

“Much,” I answered. “I guess all the stress from the first week built up so much that I started feeling sick.”

“Well, next week will be loads better,” Ben said playing with his two lip rings. “At least you will know your way around.”

“Yeah, I won’t be receiving any text messages asking where one building is in comparison to another.” James laughed at me and I scoffed, faking that I was offended.

“Well, Sam and I won’t have to be your tour guide after your math class anymore either,” Cam noted. “But don’t worry. It will get easier in terms of finding your way around not classes though.”

The food came and we all started eating and joking around more. About halfway through the meal, my phone went off with a call from my mom. Of course, she would call at a time like this. Knowing her, she probably wanted me to do something for her: pick her up something from Barney’s or one of her other high end stores, pick her up a whole cheesecake if she was going through one of her dry spells, or something of the likes. I sighed and answered it.

“Hi mom,” I said in a mock happy voice, the guys noticed and started chuckling under their breath.

“Hi honey. How’s New York?” She asked, I could tell she was smiling and from her tone, she definitely wanted something.

“It’s good. I’m actually at breakfast with some friends right now.” Now would be the time she would ask me to do something for her.

“Could you do me a favor?” Yeah, she’s so predictable. “There is a fabric and paint book in the penthouse apartment that I left there this past summer.” I was glad the speaker wasn’t up so they could hear the conversation. I’m not sure if I could come up with a lie to cover up the fact my family owned a penthouse. “Could you just pick it up for me and send it over when you get back? We’re planning on redoing the master bedroom in the Laguna Beach house.”

“I wasn’t really planning on stopping anywhere near there,” I answered her. We were actually fairly close to the penthouse I just didn’t know if I could get away from the guys alone.

“Oh please, Riley?” She was begging now. “I tried to get your brother to do it but he’s too lazy to fly over there and grab it.” Yeah, too lazy to hop on a plane just to grab a book and then fly back. If I told anyone from Kloss that, they would think my family was crazy, which was highly likely.

“Fine,” I sighed. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you! Have fun on the rest of your trip!” With that she hung up. I sighed yet again and went through my purse to find a twenty dollar bill.

“Guys, I hate to have to run like this but my mom is forcing me to go grab something for her. I’ll meet you back at the hotel soon.” I threw the twenty on the table, I figured that would pay for my meal, stood up and walked away as Danny, Ben, Cam, James, and Sam looked at me with a confused expression, a million questions were probably running through their head. I feel like that is all people are thinking when they see me, questions about who I am and why I act so weird or leave places so suddenly or why I never answer questions about where I am from. I would probably have to tell them sooner or later, hopefully later.

The building which the penthouse was a couple blocks away. I wondered why my parents couldn’t just buy a new book but I had to make them happy. I waved to the doorman who knew who I was as soon as he saw me and walked over to the elevator, pressing the button and getting in. The ride up was long; of course my parents had to buy the penthouse on the highest floor.

The penthouse was big, elegant, and of course expensive. It was almost like something out of Gossip Girl. It wasn’t my favorite place to stay because of the elegance and though I loved New York, it wasn’t one of my favorite places. I preferred the warm climate and casualness of Southern California not the rush of the city, unless it was Los Angeles; that I could deal with.

The last room redid was my parent’s bedroom here so the book would most likely be on their coffee table in their bedroom sitting room. Their room before was wood floors, wood furniture, and light blue wall color. It was now tan colored walls with marble floors and brand new burnished wood furniture. My father saw it as a way to raise the resale value since it was probably time to “change with the wind” as my mother often worded it.

I grabbed the book where I expected it to be, and went back into the foyer. I noticed beer bottles in the trashcan. My brother, Braden, had obviously been here recently. Just like him to have beer bottles in a trashcan in a marble floored penthouse apartment. What would our father say?

As I went back down the elevator, stuffing the book into my bag, and walking out of the building, I hoped no one from Kloss noticed me. Sure, I would end up telling my friends what was up eventually but I didn’t want someone seeing me and making me tell them sooner than I was ready for. Timing was everything with stuff like this.