"Windsor, don't."

Madison Sutton looks at her dog very carefully until he whines under her crippling, cool gaze, but stays where he is. Years of growing with her trained him well, she thinks, with some satisfaction before turning her attention back to her favourite large Venetian mirror. Music runs faintly through her set of rooms, as Madison eyes herself.

She presses down her black school skirt demurely, her fingers trailing against the immaculate white blouse, with a purse of her lips. School uniform is a bitch, but she still looks good, she thinks approvingly. Madison eyes her white Louboutins carefully before her attention turns to the minimal jewellery she wears (Bulgari necklace and ring ensemble, because she wouldn't be seen dead wearing anything else) and she picks up her Chanel handbag.

It is too small to actually hold anything practical, like the pens and various books school required, or be of any use, other than to hold her phone and look pretty. It is too ambitious of her school teachers to actually expect that Madison Sutton would bring in anything like the oversized ugly backpacks like she is some eager-eyed, first year troll.

Windsor whines for her and Madison lets her heart give in.

"You big lug," she murmurs affectionately.

She bends down quickly and reaches to pet her dog, running her fingers through his coat. Windsor gives an audible rumble of satisfaction and she is sure the dog would smile at her, if it could. The sound of a text trills through the room and makes her still briefly.

Madison rubs Windsor once more before she sends him off and pats down her clothes once more, eyeing herself critically. She reaches for her phone, as it lights up, distractedly and her lip curls with distaste, at the text message.

Have a great first day back at school, Madison!

For a moment, Madison swallows tightly. But she shakes her head in the same moment, presses her lips together in derision.

"Pathetic," she mutters before she dumps the phone disparagingly into the wastepaper basket and turns her back on it.

Madison descends the stairs to the breakfast room as elegantly as she can make it, long and languid as she moves past the hurrying servants. She seats herself at the breakfast table, eyeing Mother's empty seat with some worry, before her gaze turns to her own plate.

The breakfast plate in front of her is pitifully bleak.

Half of a fresh grapefruit gleams up at her, the bone-white china shining brightly. Thin strands of gold sunlight cast against the plate, making it ripple and glow briefly. Madison reaches for the grapefruit but the housekeeper clears her throat awkwardly.

"What is it, Becky?" Madison asks tautly, her fingers lingering in the air, and her stomach aches with hunger.

Becky looks uncomfortable as she reaches forward to pick up the plate of grapefruit. "Sorry, Miss Madison –,"

"Where is my mother?" Madison demands, her voice cool and blank, though her heart hammers uncomfortably in her chest and makes it feel tight. "And my breakfast? Am I to starve for the whole day? Why have you not readied anything, Becky?"

Becky lifts her head and tries to meet her flashing gaze, looking suddenly quite uncomfortable, as her fingers clench the expensive white plate. "Mrs Sutton is on another business trip, Miss Madison. She had to leave quite – quite early," Becky explains and her voice is too soft for Madison, who stiffens immediately. "And, well – she – she said that the late dinner parties have been having too much of an effect on you, Miss Madison. Mrs Sutton believes it is better for you to – to skip a few meals, for a few days."

Madison swallows thickly but she summons up a perfect, sharp smile anyway, though her stomach protests desperately. She eyes the housekeeper's awkward gaze and realises it for what it is, in an instant.

It is sympathy.

Pity.

The housekeeper pities her. The housekeeper, of all people, is pitying her.

The sheer audacity, Madison thinks incredulously, as she breathes hard and presses her lips together, against the shame of it all. Her cheeks are flushed a cool pink but her blush hides it well, she realises, catching sight of her reflection in the mirror next to the clock. Madison swallows tightly once again and though her stomach grumbles, she holds herself taut.

"If my mother so wishes," Madison says evenly, never losing her dignity as she stares coolly at Becky, who falters under her sharp gaze. "But, next time I ask you a question, Becky, try not to use so many words in your answer. I don't care."

The meaning is clear: stay in your lane, Becky.

The housekeeper nods her head quickly and Madison watches as she clears away the pitiful plates but she does not dwell on it for long. She lifts herself from her seat quickly and walks out of the house in a hungry daze, waving away her driver.

"Elliot is picking me up, Louie," Madison tells him.

Her driver nods and gives his polite greetings before he leaves. Madison watches him leave, her gaze flickering. Becky ought to learn a few lessons from him, she thinks as she waits and presses the handle of her bag deep within the flesh of her palms. She doesn't realise how much pressure she had put on until she switches her bag to the other hand and sees that she had left a vivid, red imprint against her palm.

Furious with herself for marring herself and looking a fool, Madison holds her bag loosely and reaches for her iPhone, impatiently. Elliot is always late, she thinks irritably.

But before her fingers even begin to tap at the screen, there is the sound of the beeps of a car. Elliot's bright smile is evident from where she stands and Madison feels something lighten with relief, when she sees her friend, that replaces her hunger. When she walks towards the Mercedes, she does not falter.

Elliot swings open the door for her. "Good holiday, Your Majesty?"

"The best," Madison says dryly.

She throws him an annoyed scowl, rolling her eyes disparagingly towards him, but he's too busy laughing at his own joke to notice. She steps into the car and makes herself comfortable in her seat. She adjusts her skirt accordingly, leaning one leg elegantly over the other.

Elliot is a tall, broad-shouldered boy, with a ravenous penchant for expensive things and an even more insatiable taste for long, legged blondes. His bright blue eyes wink at her playfully from his sleek black Mercedes and his carefully brushed hair is swept across his head in an artful, effortless fashion that makes it seem as though he's just gotten out of bed.

Out of all her friends, Elliot is the only one who has no siblings like her and so, like her, is the sole heir to his family's company. If he wasn't a Bradford, Madison wouldn't have even considered him but Elliot is the type of friend who has always been around. He's been with her for so long that she's forgotten cleanly how they even met or that there was even a time without him.

"Dad's been on my case for the family business..." Elliot is beginning to say, rolling his eyes towards Madison with a tired huff.

His family is in the oil business and already, his parents are beginning to heap the staggering pressure over him, in their admittedly pitiful attempts to groom him to take over once he left Redwood Academy. Elliot is always exaggerating about his parents, who are lovely folk and have been nothing but nice to Madison every time she visits. Their careful attentions are probably because she is a Sutton and the richest heiress in the entire countryside but Madison knows how much his parents love him. She's seen it.

She says so much to Elliot, who lets out a disparaging scoff.

"Stop being such a thoughtless idiot," Madison tells him. "Would it kill you to sit in the office, instead of in those sweaty clubs?"

Madison takes so many pains to examine every piece of her own company and works with her mother to understand the corporate kingdom so that she may, one day, rule it. It grates on her that Elliot would prefer to be gyrated on by girls, rather than take on the world, too.

"Yes," Elliot deadpans. "Because I will take a pen and stab it through my heart."

"And I thought Lula was bad," Madison mutters and scoffs at Elliot. "Overdramatic ass."

"Miss Madison," Elliot's driver greets politely, her eyes bright in the mirror.

Her lips press together in approval and Madison simply nods to her, in acknowledgement.

One of Mother's rules was that you must never trouble yourself to speak to another servant that was not on your payroll, the only exception, of course, being that if you were planning to bring the servant over to your payroll. In which case, all would be excused.

In any case, Elliot's driver, Julia, seems a sweet enough one and Madison hopes that Elliot has not slept with the girl. She has a good eye and Julia seems the type to obey the orders she was given and to never open her mouth for longer than is necessary.

Good servants like that are hard to come by, Madison thinks and she thinks of Becky, her lip curling. She won't fire the housekeeper, not unless she does something utterly terrible, but there's nothing stopping her from putting the fear of God in the woman. Servants in the Sutton household had to be well trained to deal with Elizabeth and Madison Sutton.

Elliot is nattering away to her as Julia pulls away from Madison's home, towards Lula's place, speaking of the parties he's been to and the things he's seen, in his holiday in Switzerland, in that lazy, languid way of his.

"...hot ski instructor, too, and she was – what's wrong?"

They have just pulled up to Lula's house when Madison sees something monstrous.

"What the hell is that?" Madison says, her voice cool yet thrumming with horror.

Another old friend, Tallulah Worthington is a lithe girl, short like Madison herself but while Madison's features are sharp and coldly beautiful, Tallulah's are small and delicate, almost elfin, and her smile is a permanent fixture. Madison still remembers Lula shaking back her yellow-gold curls and sticking out her palm to shake her hand as she introduced herself happily to Madison, with a dazzling beam.

Playful and prone to dancing on the balls of her feet, Lula is an unstoppable battery and even now, she dances from one foot to another, impatient for them. Standing at her doorstep, Lula beams at them, her smile wide enough to break her face, as she waves at them happily, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Her eyes are bright and when the car pulls up to her side, she reaches to open the car door.

Madison shakes her head and Elliot stops to roll his eyes for the barest moment, but he reaches for the lock, flicking it casually. Behind the door of the car, Lula is frowning to herself as she mouths her confusion to them and continues to fail to open the door. Taking some pity, Elliot reaches forward to roll down the window.

"Lula," Madison says as her eyes are promptly assaulted and she has to stop herself from throwing up, pressing her slender fingers against her mouth. "What have you done?"

She can't even summon the words to actually say it.

Lula's eyes brighten beautifully as her smile grows wider, if possible, in her excitement. The rest of her is fine, Madison knows, for Lula's exquisite taste is unrivalled, except perhaps by herself. Lula is fitted out in her school uniform, too, making the black skirt and white blouse work by hitching up the former scandalously and tightening the latter across her waist. She even wears beautiful black Manolo Blahniks and Madison would be enamoured, except she cannot stop staring at the genuine monstrosity.

The lithe girl lifts a hand to carefully adjust the horrendous beanie against her head.

Madison thinks she might faint.

"Doesn't it look cool?" she says happily. "You know I was in Paris this summer and I met all these French people and they're all wearing berets, right? So I was like, berets are cute but I'm not some braindead copycat either. Beanies, Madison! It's genius, right? I bet you wish you'd thought of it first."

Madison is distraught. "Baby, no," she says to Lula, her brows furrowed together in sympathy for the girl. "Those things are for hipster trolls."

"Oh my God."

The realisation of her stupidity finally hits her and Lula's eyes widen in shock as she presses her fingers against her mouth. Madison offers a comforting smile towards the girl and she would reach out to pat her, except she doesn't know what the offending beanie has touched.

"Deep down," she tells Lula, who is beginning to panic, "I think you knew."

"What have I done? Madison, what do I do?" Lula asks, in a blind panic, as she lifts the beanie from her head and throws the offending article on the ground. "God, I look like Olivia!"

"Give it to Olivia," Elliot says, his lips downturned at the mention of the girl who has a crush on him and is not afraid to show it.

"Burn it," Madison offers as answer, shooting Elliot a look for not helping Lula through these trying times. "There's no other alternative."

Elliot reaches for a lighter that he keeps handy for these very occasions and they all say their farewells to the offending material. Madison finally deems Lula clean enough to enter the car and as Lula makes herself comfortable, she tells them where the rest of the girls are.

"Audrey's getting dropped off by her boyfriend," Lula says, pulling a face, "and Maria's still on her plane." She gives a delighted, little laugh. "Well, she says she's on her plane. She's probably still on her Greek guy. Did you see those pictures, Madison? Didn't he look hot?"

Madison has to think about it, pursing her lips together, but she shakes her head absently towards Lula, who looks disappointed. "I still think Maria could do better," she says. "Especially, considering she was wearing my dress."

"You always think we could all do better," Elliot points out. "You ever going to be happy, Madison?"

Lula's smile is bright and teasing. "You should know better than to ask her that, Elliot," she says. "Nobody knows what goes on in the ice queen's mind."

Her lips curl a little as Elliot and Lula laugh.

"I don't know which troll decided to call me that," Madison says, affronted. "It's an insult."

*

When Audrey arrives, she arrives, just in time, at the exact moment their car pulls up in the parking lot of the school. Lula lets out a delighted squeal and Audrey reciprocates eagerly as they hug. Elliot wraps an arm around Audrey and Madison lets herself be embraced before she quickly pulls away to fix her hair.

Audrey Chadwick is a tall, graceful girl, with the sharpest cheekbones Madison has ever seen. She's a supermodel in her spare time and her long legs prove it, too. The school's rumour mill pins her down as a Victoria's Secret Angel but while Audrey's done a few shows, her mother forbids doing too many because she believes her school education comes first. A big family in their own right, the Chadwicks are in the Hollywood industry and they've got their fingers stuck in every pie.

"Hey," Audrey's boyfriend is speaking to them but Madison ignores him.

Kyle is the classic cut American type, with bright blue eyes and gleaming grin. He looks like he just stepped out of Vogue magazine and while that's enough reason for Audrey to fall head over heels, Madison is less easily swayed.

Not that Kyle will be deterred because every time they meet, he is always trying to speak to them and joke with them. Madison scoffs.

As though he's worthy of her company.

Elliot glances towards her but he gives his answers to Kyle, in short and curt replies. They none of them like Kyle but unlike the rest of her friends, Madison is not stupid enough to keep her feelings hidden from Audrey or her boyfriend. She expresses her dislike of Audrey's boyfriend well enough to both, but Audrey is a determined one and wants to have both her and Kyle.

Madison thinks, as Kyle attempts to speak to her, she will have to do something. Kyle is getting too big for his boots. Most of her friends' boyfriends and girlfriends have at least the courtesy of understanding that Madison doesn't waste her breath on just anyone. She'll have to get rid of Kyle. It's not like it's her first time getting rid of one of her friends' relationships because they annoyed her.

Her gaze flickers to Audrey, who is lovestruck, as she presses her lips to Kyle's. Her eyes are wide and lit with clear love and Madison resists the urge to roll her eyes.

Maybe she will do something a little later, then, she decides.

"Hey, Madison, you doing good, then? How was your holiday?" Kyle still thinks he can speak to her.

Turning her back on him, Madison turns on one heel effortlessly.

She barely has to walk a few steps before her friends join her, effortless and smooth as though they were always meant to be there. They enter the school like kings and queens, their heads held high. Madison is flanked by her friends as they walk the hallways. Usually Maria would take her right and though her absence was deeply felt, Audrey slipped in quickly. Madison listens to Lula speak happily, her arms gesturing animatedly.

As they walk through the hallway of the school, the rest of the students hurry away, parting for them like the red sea. Most of them watch Madison with awestruck, hungry expressions, a few do not care to conceal their jealousy, the bitter trolls, and the ones left are new and confused.

Madison's gaze is cool as she eyes everything before her.

Everyone is watching them and she lets a small, pleased smile lift her lips into the barest of curves. She is the queen of Redwood Academy, she rules them all. She is adored, she is loved.

Best of all, she knows it, too.

*

"This is Diana..."

The teacher, Miss Teal, is introducing the scholarship student to the class and uninterested, Madison doesn't look up. She only thinks idly, scholarship girl, impressive, second-hand uniform, not so much, before she begins to reach for her books, her fingers brushing against the polished wood of her desk. Audrey is still gushing about Kyle and even Lula, long-suffering, sweet Lula who would never say a bad word against anyone, is growing tired of it.

"And Kyle is just so romantic, like, he brought me flowers last week and it wasn't even for anything special. It was just these big, beautiful red roses – oh, I took a picture, Lula. You want to see?"

Lula gives a small, pained smile towards Audrey and turns her head to throw pleading looks to both Madison and Elliot. Madison has no interest in fishing her friend out and Elliot is too busy laughing at her to help.

Miss Teal's gaze continues to flicker towards them with some annoyance and Madison watches her curiously. She is huffing towards them but though her eyes linger tentatively on Madison, Madison knows, even the new teachers aren't stupid enough to complain about her.

Instead, Miss Teal's attention turns to her friends.