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The news of my adoption came as a shocking surprise to Melissa, Callie and Kevin.

“It’s like a twist in a drama,” Callie gasped.

“How are you holding up?” Melissa asked, placing my head on her shoulder.

“I’m holding,” I sighed.

“Did you talk to them about it this morning?”

“It was a very awkward morning,” I admitted. “I skipped breakfast and took the bus. I didn’t know how to face them.”

“We’re here for you,” Callie assured me, rubbing my hair.

It was nice knowing that I could talk to them. I couldn’t tell them where I’d gotten the information from, and they didn’t press me. It was already hard enough to talk about.

“Kev… please don’t say anything to Ashton,” I whispered as we went to class. “I’ll tell him soon, just not now.”

Kevin’s eyes softened as he looked at me. “Of course. You should tell him when you’re ready to.”

I smiled at him and went to class. The day was extremely long. After school ended, I had a science club meeting and then after that, there was a prefect meeting. I sighed when the head prefect announced that the academics committee would be on class patrol.

Just my luck. The prefect body was split into different committees. We had the planning committee, sports committee, etc. My committee was the academics committee.

After the meeting, me, Xander and Elena went off to check the classrooms and make sure no one was loitering about.

“You okay, Elizabeth?”

I looked over to see Xander giving me a worried look.

“Yeah, just a little tired, that’s all.”

“You seemed out of it in Chemistry,” Elena observed. “Get some rest. You don’t want to ruin your health.”

I nodded. “I have the second floor, Elena you do the first floor and Xander you take the third floor.”

They nodded and Elena went in the direction of the classrooms while Xander and I headed upstairs. Noise greeted us as soon as we reached the second floor. I rolled my eyes and he came over to see what was going on.

I pushed the door open and sighed. Of course it was them.

Ashton was sitting on top of the teacher’s desk and Nicole was cuddled in his lap. They were watching something on her phone. Ramona was in one corner of the room, giggling with a guy who held her by the waist. A lit cigarette hung from his bottom lip.

Alexis was in another corner practicing some cheerleading moves. Some other people were lounging in the chairs chatting, laughing and smoking. They shot us some annoyed looks as we entered.

“Great, the fun patrol’s here,” a girl groaned.

“Do you guys have any idea how many rules you’re breaking right now?” Xander asked in irritation. “Can’t you do all of this somewhere else? You know, somewhere that’s not school?”

“I’m not interested in getting preached to by some rich kid,” one of the guys grumbled, coming over to us. He gave Xander a push and cocked his head to the door. “Get out of here.”

“My finances have nothing to do with this,” Xander protested.

“You’re just a spoiled, upper class, rich boy who doesn’t know how to have fun,” the guy pressed. He glanced at me. “You two should run along before you get hurt.”

“It’s fine, Xander,” I said, ignoring the guy. “Go check the third floor.”

“I’m not leaving you alone with them,” he insisted.

“I’ll be fine,” I assured him. “If you don’t run into any trouble, you can just come back down to assist me.”

He sighed. “Fine, but be careful.”

He glared at the guy and stormed out of the room. I turned my attention back to him and he raised an eyebrow.

“Oh? Looks like someone got bolder.”

I rolled my eyes and walked past him. “You guys need to leave,” I told them. “It’s against the rules for you to be in here now, especially smoking.” I crinkled my nose at the smell.

“Give us a break, sis,” another girl drawled. “School’s over.”

“That doesn’t change anything,” I sighed tiredly.

I was just glad that Kevin didn’t get involved in these kind of things and I wished he’d taken Ashton with him.

“Hey, you need to chill out,” a guy said, slinging a hand around my shoulder. He wore a wide smile and his eyes were red.

“This,” he motioned to whatever it was he was smoking, “This is organic. It’s plant stuff and plant stuff is made of star stuff, so it’s cool.”

“What?” I frowned, shaking his hand off me.

“Try it and you’ll calm down,” he suggested with a smile.

I rolled my eyes. “I really don’t have the time or energy to write up detentions for all of you.”

“What did I do?”

I looked over at Alexis, who wore a pout.

“You didn’t do anything. And that’s the point, you should have stopped them.”

She scoffed. “Just let us do what we want. Other prefects let us.”

“You know it’s against the rules,” I argued tiredly. “I’m tired of telling you guys that you can’t smoke here.”

Everyone started shouting and jeering and someone threw a soda can, which I managed to dodge.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Ashton growled and the room got quiet.

He eased Nicole out of his lap and came over to me.

“Can’t you control your friends?” I sighed. “I’m tired and I really don’t want to do this right now.”

He took my wrist and pulled me out of the classroom.

“Just forget you saw anything.”

“Ashton,” I seethed, massaging my temples. The lack of sleep and long day was starting to get to me.

“If you’re that tired, just go home.”

“I have a responsibility.”

He rolled his eyes.

I glared at him. “It’s really hard to believe who you are when you act like this.”

His eyes hardened. “At least I know who I am. Do you?”

I stepped back, reeling from what he’d just said. That was a low blow. I let out a shaky breath.

“Ashton, I-”

“Just leave.”

He went back into the room, locking the door behind him this time. I tried the handle, but it was no use, he locked it from the inside. I sighed.

In a second, Xander reappeared by my side.

“The third floor was clear, except for some students waiting for their parents. They weren’t doing anything wrong, so I left them to it.”

I nodded. He glanced at the door and the loud noise that came from inside.

“They’re still in there?”

“I got locked out,” I sighed.

He shook his head. “Come on, let’s go home. They won’t listen.”

I nodded, too tired to argue with them.

When I got to the parking lot, my parents’ car was there. When I got closer, they came out of the car.

“Lizzy, I know you don’t feel comfortable with everything that’s happening, and you don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to… but we just don’t want to lose you,” mom sighed.

I nodded tiredly. I just wanted to go home and sleep. They gave me a worried look, but didn’t press me anymore and we went home.

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