Chapter 8: Retaliation

Lilac’s P.O.V

I entered class exactly a minute before the teacher did. Watching Serena and her goon’s panicked expression as they shuffled through their books last minute, trying to figure out what even to write…?

Best. Damn. Thing. Ever.

The four of them, Serena, Aisha, and the terrible twins with an even more terrible choice of names given to them by their parents…Tiffany and Brittany, looked up from all the books scattered on their tables, panic prevalent in their faces and saw me walk in. The change of emotions was instantaneous. However, it was clear that not every one of them felt the same way towards me.

While the other three girls looked relieved enough to pass out, Serena scrunched up the papers in her hand, a low growl escaping her lips as I saw her claws lengthen in her fingers.

I shook my head and headed straight to my seat at the back of the class, pulling the earphones out of my ears so I could listen to the sound of their teeth grinding in anger…knowing that I had enough power over them to cause them some form of panic…just like they had done to me all these years.

Serena was the first person to storm out of her seat, her chair scraping on the marbled floor so harshly that it drew a few people’s attention towards us, before they rolled their eyes and went on with their respective conversation.

Of course! Nothing to see here folks. Just another normal day where Serena bullies the shit out of the traitor girl and gives her exactly what she deserves.

“Where. Is. My. Assignment.” She slammed her fist onto my desk, leaving a dent in the middle of it.

I looked up into her porcelain white face made rosy with a shit ton of makeup. Her golden hair was in delicate curls around her face and her golden brown eyes were currently spitting fire in my direction.

“Where’s my money?” I asked her instead.

“What money?” Yet again, the change in her expression was remarkable.

“You made me do your project, which was yours to be done in the first place.” I reminded her one by one, ticking them off of my fingers. “Then you ruined the entire work for having  my signature on one single paper…and then you made me redo the whole thing again. $500. For the entire paper.”

“What the fu-”

The teacher walked into the room right then, and I had the pleasure of watching Serena’s eyes widen in horror.

“$500 bucks or forget the assignment,” I held up the papers in my hand, ready to tear it down the middle if she so much as made a single wrong move. “Come on, Serena…wasn’t your pocket money $15K a week or something? Or did you lie?”

Her face became deadly serious as she rushed back to her seat, followed by her goony sluts, as the teacher took his seat and we all stood to greet him. However, before we could sit down, Serena was back at my table, slamming the five hundred dollar bill with lesser force than before as she proceeded to snatch the assignment right out of my hands.

“You’re gonna pay for this.” Her voice was a low growl and she made it back to her seat right on time before the advanced English teacher, Mrs. Douglas, could notice her absence.

Fortunately…and surprisingly, this was the only advanced class that she was taking out of all the classes there were, while all I had were advanced classes. I’d always been a studious child, but I was glad my IQ was going to help me get the fuck out of this hell hole as soon as I was done high school.

As expected, the teacher asked us to hand in our assignments as soon as we were done settling down and also, I was once again chosen to be the one to go over to all the students and collect their assignments one by one.

There were a few teachers in the school who appeared to be on my side when it came to academics and helping me out when I was in trouble, but Mrs. Douglas was not one of them. She was one of the pack ‘purists’ who hated that I came from a pack of exploiters and believed that I should have been thrown out of the pack or killed at sight.

But her opinions mattered little to me, especially since she once got utterly humiliated while trying to humiliate me in front of the school. She had failed me on a test on purpose, the first time I was admitted to high school, and since I knew that my answers were correct, I had taken it to the Principal and then she had had to publicly apologize to me in the morning assembly. Neither she nor Alpha Krimson had looked happy about it, but it had been a small win and since then, she never questioned my academic credentials.

Once I had done collecting all the assignments, I placed the heavy pile of files onto her desk, even though I knew she was going to make me take it to the staff room later on.

“Back to your seat.” She said gruffly and I followed orders, going back to plop down on my chair before pulling my hoodie over my head.

It wasn’t really cold inside the classroom, but I had enough bull for the day. With the $500 tucked safely inside a pocked in my jeans, I could rest assured that even if the slut-squad tried to take the money back later, by force…they wouldn’t be able to find it easily. And why should I give it back? I had every right to it, especially after all the shit she put me through.

“For your next assignment, you’ll be partnered into pairs.”

Whispers immediately took over the class as everyone started to decide who they wanted to pair with, that was until Mrs. Douglas’s next announcement. “Pairs that I will decide.” Immediately, the whispers turned to groans.

I turned out the rest of the class as I took out my scheduler and checked what classes I had next and also how my work-study balance fit into my schedule for the next week. I kept changing it weekly to keep things from getting boring and monotonous in my fucked up life. Sometimes it helped…sometimes it made me want to rip a few throats out and bath in their blood.

“Lilac and Liam Hunter.”

The commotion in the room suddenly cut off as I became unnaturally still. “What?” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop myself.

“Is there a problem?” Mrs. Douglas looked like she could eat me alive. She was a middle aged woman with bright orange hair and green eyes and she loved her red lipsticks and floral dresses. Now, as she looked up at me…it oddly looked like she was licking her lips in anticipation for a fight.

“No.” I sank back in my seat , avoiding eye contact.

“Good, because changing partners will mean a credit deduction.” She said slyly. “So either deal with it, or fail.”

Several more groans and a few giggles before Mrs. Douglas started to call out names again.

I felt someone’s eyes bore into mine from across the room and when I looked up, I was startled to find Liam Hunter with his eyes narrowed at me. He looked exactly like his father; the same golden hair and green eyes and the same angular face as Beta Luca. However…I knew for a fact that he hated my guts for all the attention his father gave me; so far as to giving me his surname.

The sound of the bell ringing broke me out of my trance and I realized that I had been staring at him for longer than I had wanted to. Fetching my bag, I got up from my seat and headed to the teacher’s desk, taking the assignment pile without question as I followed Mrs. Douglas out of the class and to the staff room, so she could assign the credits.

I turned and left once she waved me off dismissively and thankfully, Dani was already waiting for me outside the staff room to catch up with me, so I was grateful for her.

“Ugh…” she shuddered as she went through the list of books I had to make reports on. “How on earth are you even surviving this? I couldn’t even tell the difference between Shakespeare and Coleridge for God’s sake and they’re from different eras!”

“At least you remembered that.” I gave a laugh at Dani’s sour expression as she handed me back the assignment broacher. “How was your first class?”

“Boring,” she shrugged as we headed to the stairs that led to the ground floor. “At least I have AP Bio with you. By the way, I just heard from mom this morning that my g-”

“Watch out!”

I don’t know who screamed, but when I turned around to heed that warning…it was already too late.

Someone bumped into me, and not too lightly and before I knew what was happening, my feet slipped at the top of the stairs and I fell backwards.

It felt like everything happened in slow motion…the way I fell back…

My heart slammed against my ribcage, and for a second, everything came to a standstill.

I saw several faces standing over me…Dani being one of them…and then there was Serena, standing to the side and smirking…

The feeling of free fall brought on a feeling of helplessness as I flailed my hands around, trying to grab onto something…anything…before I fell…but nothing came into my grasp.

And then, my head hit something with a crunch of a sound…

Pain exploded all over my body.

Darkness consumed me a second later, and I was out cold.