My leg bounces as I count the minutes to last period. I was fucking done with this day. I had been done as soon as my eyes landed on hers. We saw her yesterday when she arrived and when she went to check out the campus, but it had been nothing like being that close with her again. Seeing her so near, touching her.

My whole fucking day ruined. She is like an avenging spirit, sent here to torment all of us once more. But this time it wouldn't happen. I would make sure of it. She doesn't have that power over us anymore.

The bell rings and I jump up and walk out. Frenchie's heels click behind me as she chases. The girl is a fun time, but she could never read the room. I am clearly getting away from everything, but she wants to be dumb and come and ask me dumb questions. Which she will in 3...2...

"Hey, Mase. Aren't we going to my dorm?"

I don't even bother to slow down. This girl is running on my last fucking nerve and there was no telling what I'd do if I turn right now. So I just walk.

"Get lost." Leo's voice comes in cold as usual as he steps beside me. He looks like how I feel. Like I want to punch the whole damn world and watch it bleed.

None of us say anything. But there is no need, we all know where we need to be. We have a long conversation.

Luckily Leo doesn't have hockey practice today on account of coach being sick or some shit. Not that the team is five-star anyway. But it's how Leo works some of his aggression out, on the field, he also has the fight club.

And me? I am an adrenaline junkie. Jose has his knives, and he often disappears to the neighboring city to explore his proclivities there with paid women. And Bas? He has his nerd shit. He is a boogeyman in the dark web, and he deals in information. When he's feeling aggressive, he destroys some loser's life.

After we enter, I throw my bag on the floor as I head to the kitchen fridge. I know Leo's OCD won't let him leave the bag on the floor. He hates what I am doing, and he doesn't want to pick up the bag, but his sickness will scream at him until he does.

It was something I used to do when we were fighting; I rearranged his shit. Drives him mad. So mad we almost killed each other this one time because I swapped all his CDs and Vinyl's around to wrong holders. He almost went insane, and after putting everything back, he came to drag my ass from my house, and he threw a few punches before I threw them back. We were 14.

The door bursts open and Bas and Jose walk in. I throw them beers before I go to stand next to the fireplace. A useless piece of something, it doesn't even snow in this god forsaken town. There is hardly even a winter.

None of us say anything for a while. We are all just pissed, and the source of our anguish is the same.

That fucking face.

I thought I had moved on from that nightmare. But Satan always has more shit to give you. And to think me and my brothers were finally at a good place. We were finishing high school and we were going to finally make our vision a reality, then she had to happen. Perfect fucking timing.

"Fuck this shit." Leo starts

The barely drank beer splutters as the bottle smashes on the wall. Bas.

"Why the fuck does she even look like that? Fuck!" he spits out, sounding even angrier but with a hint of something else...longing.

"Yeah, and what game is her and her father playing? Why is she here?" Jose murmurs

"That's what we need to find out." I say coolly, even though my insides are turning like they are in a tumble dryer.

"There was an agreement. What is she doing here where we are?" Jose says

"I know."

"We can't let her in again." Leo says what we are all thinking

"Never again." I echo what he just said

Jose plays with his knife. He keeps flipping it open and then closed. He is trying to calm himself down.

"Fuck, why now? Does she think she can fool us again? Is she here to finish us off? You know with her father wanting to join the senate and all." he says, more to himself than us

"We have to find out what she wants." Bas says

We all look at him. Out of all of us, he is the weakest when it comes to her. It took a long time for him to see her as the snake she is.

"And you thinking of going in there and asking her, lover boy?" Jose tilts his head

"Don't fucking call me that. But why not me?"

"Because you can't see clearly where she is concerned. If we are doing this, then we are doing it together, we can't let what happened last time happen again, and we need a plan...a new plan."

Our original plan had been to plant spies next to her and bug her room and hack her devices and see what we can find but that doesn't look like it's going to work anymore. We can't let this opportunity go by.

"And revenge." Leo adds

I smirk for the first time. I like where this is going. I am met with other smirks.

"Make her pay." Jose muses

"And then some." I add

We have a whole year to gather information. We can spare some time for good ole revenge.

"I'm in." Bas mutters

"So, where will we start?"

I think for a second then I grin. "The initiation."

"That's for freshmen."

"It's for new students." Leo tells our dear brother

I nod in agreement.

Jose runs his finger on the knife. Fucker probably is just itching to break the skin and bleed himself. I have never understood his obsession with blood. I love blood as much as the next murderer, but he has a real hard on for making things bleed. He has a thing for virgins too, part of his obsession. I guess, it's hard to make a woman who's had sex with 17 different men bleed for you and Jose likes fucking them bloody.

We are all fucked up here.

Leo is a volcano. His wrath always simmering underneath the surface. You'd never tell just by looking at him because he is a bit reserved, but he will fight anywhere and for whatever reason. We used to call him Jackie Chan when we were young and dumb. Not because he's Asian, but he's always ready to throw hands.

Bas is the nerd of the group, the nice guy. Or at least that's what he'll have everyone believing. Bas is the most cunning of us. I may be the man with the plan, but Bas can always tell you if something will work or not. He also knows how to play people and make them do exactly what he wanted. And because he has a sincere face, people just trust him and think he's a good kid.

And me? They call me the crazy Italian, or Diavolo in the streets, and I am the leader of this little syndicate.

We are four best friends, and our fathers are best friends too. They are the four dons from the four organizations (Italian mafia, Cuban mafia, Greek mafia and the yakuza) that have control over half the US. The West and the South.

Our fathers started the syndicate when they were growing up. They had been sons of the dons and after seeing there could be more good than harm in collaborating, they sought to raise us the same way too.

They still meet every month even though each has their own states they are looking after. Many have tried to come between them, but they failed. They had us all in the same year and we used to all play together. We have always gone to the same schools, and we have always been best friends.

Well, at one point there was her too, but that all changed 9 years ago when she and her father betrayed us all.

My chest tightens in rage as I think of what happened 9 years ago. We can never forgive, and we can never forget. Zara and her father are traitors, and she made a big mistake by coming to this school. We will make sure to remind her of that.

She may think she still has one on us, but we will show her that those naïve 9-year-old boys don't exist anymore.

I plop down next to Bas on the couch. Leo goes to the kitchen and comes back with another beer and a rolled joint. He lights the joint and then puffs smoke and he visibly relaxes. He pulls the second time before he passes it. Jose takes his hit and passes it to Bas who passes it to me.

"Why does she have to look like that?" Bas voices something that's slightly bothering me too. I may hate her, but she really grew into her body. She doesn't have her locks anymore, but she has a puff of curly hair that bounces whenever she walks.

If she had been another girl with Cele then we would have made her one of our playthings. I shake my head and pass the joint back as I expel the smoke from my lungs. I can't entertain those thoughts.

"I don't give a shit what she looks like, she is fucking paying." Leo says with that dark look in his eyes.

"Yeah, fuck her and her ass." I murmur

Jose chuckles. No doubt the idiot thinking about fucking her ass.

"I bet it's sweet though." He has a dreamy look on his eyes. "We will punish her, but it doesn't mean we can't fuck her eventually." He shrugs. "For old time's sake. She does belong to us."

Our eyes all shift to him. All our demeanors change at the idea of fucking her.

"It's too dangerous. There's too much that can trap us. I say let's not." Leo says

"Come on, can't you imagine what it'll be like sinking your cock in her? She may be the devil's spawn, but I bet that pussy is sweet." Bas says

"No. we can't let her." I say sternly, even though I want to punch myself in the face. I know playing with her at that level will not be good for us. We have to focus. Zara owes us an unrepayable debt and its time she suffered.

Jose and Leo nod. I focus my gaze on Bas and after a few moments he nods as well. It's settled.

Now on punishing her. We are about to make all her nightmares a reality. We will not stop until she cries and even then, we will demand more until she is nothing.

"So, she needs to be invited to the initiation this Friday."

I nod.

"How far are we going with her?" Jose asks as he flips the knife, open close, in sharp snaps

"All the fucking way. We don't spare the rod." I say before I take a hit of the joint again.

"Yeah, she should know we aren't those naïve boys anymore." Jose says

We all nod.

Zahara Clark made a huge mistake by coming to this school. We will make her regret the day she thought she could just prance back into our lives.