Glitter to Ashes

REINA

Reina: you guys won't believe this but yacht party is ON!!!

Iris: wait. No way! YOUR DAD agreed??

Maya: Oh I am so in for this, it's going to blow up on I*!

Liv: omg Reina you’re insanely lucky. Like I'm so jealous I wanna wear your skin! I’m already picking my outfit.

I laughed so hard a hiccup slipped out. My friends were weird but then, so am I. “Stop worshipping me, guys,” I muttered under my breath even as a stupid grin crawled up my face. The bubbles kept popping up, one after another as my fingers flew over my keyboard.

Tina: tell your dad we love him. I wanna marry him.

Iris: ewww Tina. That's just wrong to say

Liv: I understand Tina lol. But seriously I thought he was allergic to teenagers on his boat?

Maya: this is gonna be legendary. The whole school is invited right?

I was still grinning, still half-typing some snarky reply about playlists and champagne glasses filled with secretly snuck in alcohol, when my heels clacked against the marble steps. I didn’t even look up from my phone, why would I? I’d walked these stairs a thousand times.

Then a sound broke through my bubble. Not just one sound but a tangle of them, shouts, heavy boots and then... Cuffs?

“What—” I lifted my head to find lights, cameras and a hell lot of bodies in my house. Suddenly I saw my father, my untouchable multi millionaire father had his hands twisted behind him with silver cuffs on them.

“Daddy?” My phone slid out of my hand and fell as I stared at my mother who just stood there with mascara streaking down her cheeks as she grabbed at one of the men. “What is this? What is going on? Frederick! Frederick!”

Reporters were pressed against the glass doors, screaming questions I couldn’t make out. The cameras kept flashing. My father turned his head and his eyes landed on me at the top of the stairs.

“Daddy!” I called but his head fell. “Daddy, no! Stop! This is—this is a mistake!”

He tried to speak to me but a hand pressed against his back, steering him toward the door.

I staggered down another step rushing to him but then someone stopped me. “Reina don't go down there. I'll fix this okay,”

I stared back to find my elder sister Sienna, with tears streaming down her face. Seeing my dad disappearing, I shrugged out of her hold and ran towards him but stopped when I heard the news lady's voice from the TV.

“We’re live outside the Cole residence where CEO Frederick Cole has just been arrested on charges of embezzlement…”

“No.” Embezzlement? My dad. “Hell no, Daddy! Daddy!” My feet wouldn’t move fast enough. The camera's got more bright and violent and people tousled me with questions.

“Reina get back inside!”

“Daddy!”

“Daddy!!”

“Daddy!!!!”

“Reina! Reina, wake up!”

My eyes snapped open to peeling wallpaper and a water-stained ceiling. My heart was still trying to punch out of my chest and I felt sweaty all over.

“You’re gonna be late for your first day,” my mother’s voice floated from the kitchenette. “Come on, sweetheart.”

I sat up slowly, breathing out a sigh as I realised it was just a dream. A dream that was reality two years ago and it still played back in HD the second I closed my eyes. Two years since the arrest. Two years of trials that went nowhere. Instead my father was sentenced to ten years in prison and all his assets locked up with him. Only unlike him they were locked up forever.

“You okay?” My mother stood in the doorway with a coffee mug trembling in her hand. She looked at me the way people look at old photographs, like she was trying to find someone who wasn’t there anymore.

“No.” The word slipped out before I could fake something better.

She glanced around our one-room apartment, the stacks of unpaid bills, the suitcase in the corner.

“This isn’t what I wanted for you,” she whispered. “It’s been two years, you should… feel less uncomfortable by now, right?”

I forced a smile so tight it hurt. “I’ll survive. I just… I won’t miss this place, but I’ll miss you.”

“Get dressed, baby. Your aunt’s waiting outside.” She tried to sound brisk as she faked a smile, but it came out wobbly.

In the bathroom, the mirror was small and cracked, but it held the whole story. I splashed water on my face and stared at the girl staring back. Brown hair yanked into a bun, circles under her eyes. She didn’t look like the girl who grew up in a castle with maids at her every Beck and call.

Who knew money was the only thing I actually had. Who knew how the second it disappeared, the friends who once begged for invitations would ghost me. How every door slammed in me, my mother and sister's face when we got kicked out of the house.

How the name Cole, once my crown, became a curse I had to hide.

I pulled on the uniform we’d scrimped to buy secondhand. The blazer was a size too big, but I rolled the sleeves and put on a hoodie. I didn’t bother with breakfast and instead placed one kiss on my mother’s cheek. “I’ll call you,” I murmured before leaving.

The house smelled like stale paint and frying oil. My aunt’s old Toyota was idling at the curb, sputtering like it might die at any second.

“So this is it,” I muttered to myself as I slid into the passenger seat. “The restart.” my aunt smiled sadly and then began driving.

During the drive, I unlocked my phone and scrolled through my old account even though it had been disabled for two years now. Paparazzi  had taken photos of me and my mother hauling groceries. The caption underneath was worse than the photo: Fallen princess spotted in the wild.

I felt sick and clicked my phone shut.  “You’ll be fine,” my aunt said, eyes on the road. “I guess.”

“She’s a good woman, your new headmistress. And Gravemont Academy is just the right push you need to get back into the real world.” she urged.

“Or it's the best way to keep me away from my mum because she's embarrassed of our new way of living and wants me back around spoilt rich brats.” I didn't mean to sound ungrateful, but I am a brutally honest person.

“Reina, your mother just doesn't want this to be your life. It's been two years and Sienna is now back in new York and thriving. You also need to get back in school. You just keep your head down, study hard and don’t give them a reason to sniff around.”

“I know.... Reina Moore it is I guess.” I pushed my hoodie up over my head anyway.

Gravemont Academy looked like a fucking castle. It had towering spires, windows glittering with morning sun. Kids in crisp uniforms walking across the courtyard like swans. The place looked like it had been built to outlast every storm.

My aunt parked by the main gate. “This is you,” she said. “Thanks for the ride.” I said as I got out embarrassed by my ride.

“You call me if anything feels off, okay?”

“Yeah.”

She squeezed my hand. “Go show them who you are. Or who you’re going to be.”

I nodded and walked towards the school's entrance. I shoved my earbuds in, pulled the hoodie tighter, and tried to melt into the crowd.

Keep a low profile. Don’t let them see you.

When I was told i'd be attending Gravemont Academy I bursted out laughing at my mother and her sister's face. It was an elite school and even the rich still had to strive hard to even make it there on a normal enrollment. But they wanted me to get in on a scholarship programme after being absent from society for two years.

My mother's friend, Eloise Knox was the headmistress so it's no surprise I made it. Still, I was forced to use my maiden surname instead to avoid tabloids. Gravemont is supposed to be a restart for me, but what if I'm not ready for it?

I was scrolling through the campus map on my phone when I suddenly hit something solid. My head hit so hard I stumbled back, rubbing my forehead.

“What in the actual fu—” I started, then looked up. I was met with a pair of golden-hazel eyes. They weren’t just pretty, they were lethal, like they could peel me apart with a single glance.

The rest of his face only made it worse. His face was unfair, the kind of unfair that made your stomach drop because God himself had played favorites.

Sharp cheekbones, a mouth curved in that lazy almost-smirk. His hair was dark and careless, strands falling into his face, like he’d just stepped out of some magazine and into my personal nightmare.

My tongue felt glued to the roof of my mouth, my body refusing to move until....

"Move."