"This is your last year here," Mrs Miller announces loudly.

Her voice is drowned out by the vast array of cheers that erupts and ripples across the crowd. Madison smooths down her skirt in a business-like fashion, her back straight, and her gaze flickers distractedly across to her friends. As usual, Elliot is sleeping the daily assembly away, while Maria and Lula are taking selfies, snapping pictures of themselves. Beside her, Audrey is texting Kyle, fiddling absently with the sleeves of her blouse.

All of them happily ignore the teachers, those who dare to give them scalding looks.

Madison lets out a cool breath, something strange and curling within her heart.

Ever since Mrs Hawthorne had hurried her embarrassment of a son away, the carnage of the brunch left behind them, she's been stuck within herself. He had told her that her name was the only thing she owned of value. Madison has been realising the truth of it, through the crawl of the days. The teachers say nothing to her because of her name, Becky cowers because of her name, her friends flock to her –

No.

She can't let such a common ape distract her like this.

Her friends are her friends, Madison thinks.

She only wants the best for them. It's why, as soon as she returned home to an empty five-storey mansion, Madison had sent the anonymous donation to Lula's family and called to accept Maria's mother's invitation to dinner. She's doing the right thing, she knows.

She always does the right thing.

Madison's iPhone blares brightly again and she risks a glance before pressing her lips together into a thin, unimpressed line. When will he get the message? She's ignored hundreds of his texts and yet, he continues. Even the most stubborn horses would stop, Madison thinks. She swipes the message and deletes it swiftly, tapping at her phone idly before her finger drifts against a picture of a train.

She pauses.

The train is long and sleek, elegant in its white colours as it lazily stretches out across the picture. It is caught against a flushing red backdrop of black mountains and a sunset-soaked sky. Madison thinks of a lavish train ride, of seating herself amongst rippling velvet and dreamily watching the world fly by in those glazed windows.

She's never been anywhere, not outside of sleepy Redwood.

Mother has.

Mother has seen everything in the world, everywhere there is to see. She tells Madison the rest of the world is an ugly, broken thing and not worth seeking out. What matters is their company, is their money, is themselves.

Madison knows this.

And yet, unbidden, Madison thinks of taking the train to anywhere – and someone beside her.

She inhales sharply, just as soon as the thought hits her, and straightens herself, feeling the flush crawl to her cheeks. Madison switches off her phone, her heart thumping in her ribbed cage, and drops it into her Prada bag. It's silly to think that she could even want to leave Redwood, let alone with some random stranger.

Just as soon as her phone drops into her bag, the lights go out.

Darkness plunges down all around them and Madison stills automatically, her breaths taut. The air is ringing with the screams and shouts of students and the teachers trying to restore calm and order, in vain. Madison can feel air rippling across her cheeks and the sound of running footsteps is loud; students are clearly taking advantage and hurrying out.

"It must be another prank – everyone, calm down –,"

"Get everyone outside –,"

"What do you think they're planning, now?"

Madison can hear a few teachers muttering in annoyance. For her part, Madison reaches for her bag and stands up.

"Audrey?" she says, her voice quiet, as she turns her head. "Elliot?"

Her friends are nowhere around her. Madison resists the urge to let out an annoyed huff. It's clear that they fled the school hall, too, most probably thinking that she was right beside them. She's frustrated that she's left alone to navigate her way through whatever carnage of a prank bored students think they're clever enough to pull off.

The place is drenched in darkness and Madison hates it.

She swallows thickly, edging out of the school hall into the hallways, where she can see the quiet flush of gold light. It beckons to her, like a promise. But as soon as Madison steps out into the light, something grabs her and pulls her hard. She's so surprised she lets herself be pulled away and narrowly avoids colliding into a door by planting her Louboutin heels down.

Madison recognises the heavy build, the dark shadow flickering across her, before she catches her own breath. "What do you think you're doing?" she bites out viciously, breathlessly. "How dare you think you can touch –,"

The sound of something crashes stops her and Madison turns to see a large bucket of red-coloured water spilling across the floor, gleaming in the sunlight. Her voice is stolen from within her chest and she swallows thickly, again, flushing hotly as she turns to face Nick.

He is looking defiant, his bright eyes flashing towards her. "Sorry for daring to touch Your Highness," Nick says hotly, raising his hands in mock surrender. "Burn my fingerprints –,"

"Shut up."

Madison is so curt, so short, that Nick actually shuts up, looking startled. She avoids his gaze, hating the hot clenching of her stomach and the quiet humiliation that surges through her. She doesn't want to admit it but he did pull her from becoming an unwitting victim of the pranks.

The air between them crackles with unspoken sentiments.

Faded sunlight casts a soft, dewy glow against the walls of the empty classroom. Madison parts her lips to thank him but she can't bring herself to voice the sentiment, feeling vaguely sick. Her gaze drifts once more to the spilled water and she swallows again.

The atmosphere has changed, now.

Their fight during Elliot's brunch, which had been one of the most humiliating things Madison had ever had to go through, though this meeting was fast climbing the list, had left her burning. His words had rankled her, like none other, and she was sure her own words had crossed some invisible line. Their argument lies out before them, crackling and thickening the air with uncomfortable tension.

Now, Nick is looking awkward, too, ducking his head uncomfortably as he clears his throat.

"Do you know what else they had planned?"

"You weren't a part of this?"

They begin and falter together, glancing at each other.

Madison clears her throat and attempts to roll her eyes at him. "I'm not some common YouTube prankster," she says, with a notable attempt at the usual venom she uses with Nick. "I don't lower myself to the various antics bored students like to get up to."

His lips pressed together, Nick arches his eyebrows, unimpressed. "Forgive me for ever daring to ask," he says and his voice is heavily laid with sarcasm. "Of course you don't lower yourself. You're too good for all of them."

Madison is grateful for it, for it brings them back to familiar ground. The tension snaps like a string and she scoffs at him.

"And you, then?" Madison demands, not liking the balance of the conversation. She glances to the hallways where the lights are still out and refrains from huffing with annoyance. "Taking advantage of the school hierarchical system to establish yourself as the cool, hypocritical outsider. How's that working for you?"

"Just as easy as it is for you to reign as queen," he bites back but like before, there's not much bitterness within his words. Nick lets out an irritated huff. "I didn't think rich kids even knew how to prank."

"We do them way better than you ever could," Madison says and she lifts herself onto a table, seating herself elegantly.

To her surprise, he doesn't argue against it. "Yeah," Nick says, "you've got the money for elaborate ones, I suppose. But simple is sometimes best."

Madison turns her head. "You don't think turning off the lights, setting up tricks all around the hallways and classrooms and therefore rendering the school incapable of working through the entire morning, potentially even the whole day, is any good?" She blinks at him. "And you call me snobby."

His lips curve upwards and Nick shakes his head. "Nah," he says. "That's good but nothing beats papering the headteacher's car with pages from Playboy magazine."

She wants to laugh because that does sound funny, but Madison holds herself back, suppressing her amused smile. Instead, she gives a disparaging scoff. "Of course you would think of something so primitive."

The air between them breaks, thrumming and crackling with suppressed fury, as he rolls his eyes towards her. "And here I was," Nick bites back, his words barbed and angry, "thinking that you were human."

Madison leans back, stung, her eyes flashing murderously. "You just can't accept that my words were the truth," she says angrily. "Nobody wants you here –,"

"No. You don't want me here," Nick retorts furiously, his jaw taut and tense. "You know what I think? I think you're deflecting. You know that what I said was the truth. You're afraid nobody likes you for you and you're right to be afraid. You're nothing without your fancy name –,"

"I would be everything, even without the Sutton name," Madison says, but her heart hammers against her chest. She feels as though the power of the conversation has shifted, as though the imbalance is something she is trying to reach for but it continues to slip through her fingers like rippling silk. "Who are you, here? What place have you found in Redwood? Other than the foolish thug, who flips over tables, overcompensating because he knows he doesn't belong here?"

His gaze flickers briefly, something uncertain flashing through the light of his eyes, in that same way Madison had seen on the weekend. But this time, instead of flipping over another table, Nick stays frustratingly calm.

"You're deflecting, again," he says and he stands, towering over her like a giant. "Because that's what you do, isn't it? You deal and manipulate with the lives of other people because you're too afraid to handle your own."

Liar, she wants to snarl.

What could he ever think to know about her? Who does he – she handles her own life just fine, just perfectly well. Except she's not doing too good of a job because this giant thinks he can speak to her like this.

He thinks he has her all figured out.

What an asshole.

Her heart is hammering away, harder than the galloping hooves of a horse, and Madison parts her lips to give some clever quip of an answer, but there is the sound of footsteps. Their heads snap up, turning towards the door together, at the same time.

"Miss Sutton, Mr Hawthorne," Mr Bates is saying and though he is respectful when he addresses her, his gaze is nothing short of murderous when he sees Nick. "The rest of the school have gathered outside on the school grounds. If you may trouble yourself to join us, Mr Hawthorne."

Madison has never heard the teachers speaking so rudely to a student before but Nick seems to take it in stride. He has turned his head away from her towards Mr Bates and is grinning all over his face. Madison catches her breath as Nick says happily, "I missed you, too, Bates!"

"You will address me by my correct title, Mr Hawthorne," says the teacher. "Or that will be another set of detentions on your head for insubordination and rudeness."

"You just want to spend more time with me –,"

Goading the poor man is doing nothing and Madison can see that Mr Bates is looking furious. He is soaked, too, and she realises that he had had no Nick to save him from the buckets propped up on the doors.

Still, Madison thinks, rankled in spite of herself, that doesn't mean he can speak to Nick in such a way.

"Thank you, Mr Bates," she interrupts Nick heavily. "Mr Hawthorne was kind enough to help me steer clear of these unlawful pranks. I don't see how that warrants a set of detentions on his head, though."

She doesn't know who looks more surprised – Mr Bates or Nick. Or even herself. Madison realises too late what she's said and by then, she can't snatch the words out of the air and push them back into her mouth.

Instead, she holds herself tautly and meets Mr Bates' surprised gaze steadily before reaching for her bag and following the rather stunned teacher out onto the school grounds.

*