chapter 12 " The queen 's fall "

Brentford Academy had turned cold.

Not because of the approaching winter.

But because Bianca Rivers was winning.

Every hallway Helena walked down was lined with stares. Every classroom was tense silence or whispered laughter. Headlines from the student-run newsletter screamed across lockers:

“Drama Queen or Danger? The Real Story Behind the Gala Collapse.”

“Scholarship Girl’s Scandal: Performance or Breakdown?”

“Sources Say: Helena Hart Obsessed With Greg Carter.”

Helena ripped the latest one down and shoved it into the nearest trash can.

Bianca had turned the press into her personal stage.

“She’s playing the long game,” Theo muttered beside her one afternoon. “You’re the unstable outsider. She’s the elegant informant.”

“And no one questions the girl in pearls,” Helena said darkly.

Later that week – Dean’s Office

Tessy’s hands trembled as she dropped into the chair beside Helena.

“They’re suspending me,” she whispered.

“What?” Helena sat upright. “For what?”

The dean cleared her throat, eyes flat and tired. “Miss Adeyemi was found with a printed copy of the Year 11 exam key in her locker.”

“That’s a lie,” Helena snapped. “Tessy wouldn’t—”

“It’s done,” the dean said curtly. “A week’s suspension pending further investigation.”

Helena looked at her friend. “You didn’t—”

“Of course not,” Tessy said, voice cracking. “I don’t even know how to find something like that. Someone’s setting me up.”

Helena already knew who.

Bianca.

She didn’t just want Helena isolated—she wanted Helena alone.

That Night – Greg’s House

Greg stared at the screen in front of him. His father’s digital records, decrypted and spread across Theo’s spare laptop.

“Student withdrawals. Files going back ten years,” Theo explained.

Greg scrolled through until he found the name.

Sophia Bennett.

There it was—withdrawal form, signed and processed two days after her disappearance.

“She never withdrew,” Greg muttered. “She vanished.”

Theo leaned over his shoulder. “That signature isn’t hers. I’ve seen Sophia’s handwriting. This is forged.”

Greg felt the air leave his lungs.

His father didn’t just cover something up.

He erased her.

The Next Day – Brentford Gymnasium

Helena stayed late after literature club, walking alone past the gym on her way back to the dorms.

A hand clamped over her mouth.

Another grabbed her wrists.

She struggled—kicked—muffled a scream. Shadows moved fast. Three figures. All wearing plain black masks. No words. Just force.

They shoved her through the side door of the gym and locked it behind her.

The lights were off.

Silence.

And then—her breath caught.

Spray paint.

Across the gym walls.

Red.

Stark.

Terrifying.

YOU’RE NEXT.

She ran to the doors.

Locked.

Pounded.

No one came.

Helena sank to the floor, heart racing, the echo of her own gasps the only sound.

She had never felt more alone.

Cliffhanger Ending

When the morning sun spilled through the high gym windows, Helena was still curled in the corner—awake, shaking, and changed.

She stared at the message on the wall as if it might burn her name next.

And she knew…

This wasn’t bullying.

It was a war.

And someone wanted her erased.

Just like Sophia.

By the time the janitor unlocked the side doors at 6:30 a.m., Helena’s hands were raw from banging. Her throat was dry from screaming. Her mind, fogged with questions and adrenaline, was locked in one repeating thought:

This was meant to break me.

She stumbled out into the cold morning air, blinking under the grey sky.

The halls were already buzzing when she returned to the dorm to shower and change. No one knew what had happened—yet. And Helena wasn’t going to tell them. Not until she had proof.

Tessy would’ve known what to do.

Tessy would've waited at her door with hot chocolate and wild conspiracy theories.

But Tessy was gone. Suspended.

And Bianca?

Untouchable.

Brentford Library – Later That Day

Helena sat between Greg and Theo in the dimmed corner behind the shelves.

“I’m done being the victim,” she whispered.

Greg watched her. “Then let’s hit back.”

Theo nodded. “I traced the message from your locker—the one that said ‘You’re next.’ It came from a school IP. Masked, but sloppy.”

“Someone used the media room,” Theo continued. “Last night, around 10:17 p.m.”

Helena’s pulse skipped. “That’s just after literature club.”

Theo pulled up the security feed on his laptop.

Static. A glitch. Then—

Three students. Masked. Entering the gym side door. One of them noticeably taller. One limping slightly.

Greg leaned forward. “Ferdinand.”

“And that’s not all.” Theo opened a second file. “These aren’t just attacks. They’re staged.”

“What do you mean?” Helena asked.

“Check this out.” He clicked again. A split screen appeared: on the left, the gym camera; on the right, Bianca’s private Snapchat story.

It had been deleted—but Theo had cached it.

A blurry video. Helena’s silhouette barely visible. A flash of red letters. A faint giggle behind the lens.

“The queen falls alone.”

Caption: Enjoy the silence, Helena 🥀

Helena’s jaw tightened. “She knew. She orchestrated the whole thing.”

Greg clenched his fists. “Then we stop her. All of them.”

Cliffhanger Scene – That Evening, Off-Campus

Helena sat at the edge of her mother’s bed, phone in her lap. Her fingers shook.

She couldn’t stop staring at the photo from Greg’s mother’s room—the one of her mum, Mrs. Tricia, standing beside Greg’s father at Brentford twenty years ago.

“You were smiling,” Helena whispered. “In front of that same school crest. What were you doing there?”

Her mother’s voice came from the doorway—calm, but cold. “Some ghosts are better left buried, Helena.”

Helena looked up, eyes sharp.

“Then why do they keep haunting me?”

Mrs. Tricia didn’t respond.

But the air between them crackled like truth was about to erupt.

Final Line:

Helena finally understood what this was.

Not just a rivalry.

Not just bullying.

It was legacy.

And she was never meant to survive it.