"If you don't want people to know it's you, you should try to not leave evidence."

I folded my arms and snapped my head away from the white-haired headmistress.

"If your father heard about this, he would be very disappointed," she continued with her speech, intertwining her fingers and resting her chin there with a pathetically sympathetic look.

I rolled my eyes at her attempt to turn my frustration into guilt. "It was to drive my point home," I replied. "Maybe even spark a revolution."

Pfft. Yeah, right.

I almost laughed at my own words.

The only revolution these preppy brats would stir up would be banning me from the world. Aka: A suspicious event where I mysteriously disappeared and no body was ever found until thousands of years later when my body was no longer recognizable and I was found at the bottom of the deepest pit in the world.

"Listen, Miss Adair," Headmistress something said, drawing my attention back to her.

"It's Tempest," I corrected subconsciously.

"Miss Tempest." She lifted her head from her folded fingers and leaned back in her seat. "You've put me in quite the situation."

"Because I can't be expelled?"

She frowned. "You have this twisted idea that nothing you do matters because nothing has consequences for you."

"Which is true."

"Everything has a consequence."

"What's the consequence for breaking every rule in your little book?"

"Expulsion."

"What if I told you that I broke every rule today? All one thousand, four hundred and fifty-three." I leaned forward, resting my elbows on her perfectly polished desk.

She imitated my action and narrowed her eyes. "Impossible," she stated.

I narrowed my eyes back. "Rule number one: Don't be dumb. Rule number two: Don't do dumb things. Rule number three: If you followed the first two rules, then you are better than everyone else. Rule number four: Think before you act. Rule number five: Protect your pride. Rule number six: Always be on time for class. Rule number seven: Never skip class. Rule number eight: Wear school uniform." I gestured to my casual onesie, the pants tucked into my tall boots. "Rule number nine: Follow the dress code outside of school." I ran my hands through my loose hair, unlike the headmistress' which was tucked into a perfect tight bun. "Rule number ten: Never enter the tunnels. Rule number eleven: Do not enter the restricted areas. Rule number twelve: Do not touch anything restricted. Rule number thirteen: Do nothing suspicious. Rule number fourteen: Do not go off on your own. Rule number fifteen: No exploring. Rule number sixteen..." I rambled on as I watched the headmistress become increasingly more annoyed. Her eye started twitching by the time I got to two hundred and she was squirming by five hundred.

She finally stopped me as I neared a thousand. "You have proved your point. So is expulsion your goal?"

"Even if it was, it isn't possible."

We both stared, each knowing the outcome of our match. I was the one to break the silence first. "If that is all, I will be heading back to the dorms now."

"School still isn't over."

"Is it not?" I questioned before swiping up my backpack and heading for the door.

Suddenly the headmistress spoke. "Miss Wren Bertillon wasn't at class today."

I froze, my hand hovering over the bronze door handle. My blood began boiling with anger. My face was red when I whipped around to face the old lady. But before I could say a word, she said, "You think that nothing has consequence. You may want to rethink that idea of yours."

My stomach twisted with guilt, but I masked it as I stormed back toward her. I slammed a hand down on her desk, making her jump and nearly fall out of her chair. "If you involve my best friend, losing your job will be the least of your problems. Do you understand?"

The headmistress' eyes burned with fire and I noticed her lips beginning to move with her reply. I leaned forward and pushed her glasses back from their perch on the tip of her nose. I swiftly turned back around and walked back to the door, opening it and calling, "Ta-ta!" I waved. "Remember!" I said with my pointer finger aimed at her, just before I slipped out into the corridor. "Worse than losing your job. Imagine that." I winked at her through the small crack in the door and then slammed it shut.

My face turned dark as soon as I noticed I was alone. I have the headmistress right where I want her.

I bet she's silently screaming in rage, waiting for me to get out of earshot so she can start throwing breakables at the wall. I guess the sound of them shattering is calming for her.

I shrugged my shoulders and rested my hands in my pockets.

It's not like I'm the one paying for those expensive china dolls and vases or whatever weird things she keeps in there.

———————

"I'm back!" I yelled, throwing my bag onto my monstrous four-poster bed.

"Welcome back," Wren mumbled through her toothbrush, her mouth filled with toothpaste. Her pale blonde hair was pulled into a perfect tight bun. I guess some people did follow the rules.

Actually, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who didn't.

"Why are you brushing your teeth? It's the middle of the day."

She was wearing a baggy black shirt and pants that made her look even smaller than she already was. "Because they were dirty." She turned on her heels, barely visible under the long pants, and walked back to the single enormous bathroom we shared.

Our only place of privacy was our own room and bathroom. It was the only place I could actually breathe.

Destroying the cameras had been the first thing I did when moving into my shared dorm. To keep it under wraps—so they wouldn't come secretly fix them in the middle of the night like the creeps they were—I recorded Wren and me going through our daily routine and then paid a guy off to sneak it in and set it on repeat. There are too many students to watch for them to notice that our movements, order, and clothing are exactly the same—not that it would be unusual for us to have a wardrobe full of sweater vests and suits that look exactly the same.

A small strand of hair fell from Wren's bun and she subconsciously pulled it back, wrapping it tightly around the bun and sticking it in place. She turned toward me, her large glasses nearly falling off her face. She quickly dried her hands on a nearby towel and adjusted her glasses.

"Thanks for your help today, Wren," I said as she continued to stare. Her hands fell to her side and her head cocked.

"Do I have something on my face, or—?"

"No," she replied.

I blinked and then raised an eyebrow. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Her head straightened as she looked me in the eye. "Low levels of stress, high levels of anger and frustration. Headmistress Blackmark could not do anything to you because your father is the top school sponsor so she threatened my expulsion."

"Pretty much," I answered, already used to her ability to read people. When we were younger, I used to wonder if she could read minds.

But, no, she's just that good.

She blinked and then narrowed her eyes. "Your mission failed. One would expect more disappointment written on your face." Her ear touched her shoulder again. I heard the sound of her pen clicking in her pocket.

"Gee, thanks for the reminder," I mumbled. "The mission's goal wasn't the important part. I managed to lower the height of those pigs' tower of pride. We made it to the center of the premise, didn't we? That's supposed to be a feat pretty much impossible."

"Technically, you did not make it," Wren replied, bringing her finger to her glasses to push them back against her face. She settled her hands behind her back and walked around me back toward the door that led back into the main room.

I gasped and whipped around to face her, but her back was turned. "But I was close!"

"But you did not make it," she stated. She turned back to me, her lips rising ever so slightly. "But there is always next time."

I grinned. "I'm guessing that means you'll help me again?"

"I suggest we try something different next time."

I nodded, bringing my hand up to rub my chin in thought. "They will probably double up security toward the center of the property—where we made our attempt—but that also means other areas will be thinner."

"I would not be so sure, Tempest."

"What are you thinking?

We both stepped into our bedrooms. I sat on my bed and she sat on her's so that we were facing each other. She placed her hands in her lap, her back straight as a board as it always was. I had already settled into a more comfortable position, my legs crossed and my body leaning against a pillow resting in my lap.

"Your father is the top sponsor of this school. That means he believes in this school. He believes in its morals, its conductivity, and its view of the world. He's also your father, and you go to this school. If he finds out that someone breached security, then he would gladly fund more."

"But I'm the one who breached security!"

She shook her head, helping me realize how little it mattered who the threat was.

"I'm sure the school will make me sound like I'm the victim and overdramatize how much danger I'm in," I murmured. "Gosh, they're so good at twisting things." My eye twitched and I began braiding my hair so my hands would have something to do.

Wren nodded silently.

Halfway through my braid, I gave up and fell backward on the bed. I stared up at the ceiling and said, "What should we do? We still have over half the day ahead of us."

"Sleep."

I turned my head just to see Wren fall onto her side and nearly disappear into the comforter and mattress. When I went over to check up on her, she was completely conked out. "I guess I'm on my own," I murmured to myself.

I checked my watch. School was out in about five hours, which meant that I had less than an hour to raid the cafeteria before the lunch mob.

Sounded like a plan.

I slid into my converse, grabbed my sweater from the metal rack, and raced out the door, trying and failing to make my footfalls silent.

I was so focused on my running and the rumble of my stomach that I didn't notice the figure standing in my path until I ran straight into a wall of bricks.

But when I looked up from my fallen place on the floor, I realized that I had not run into a brick wall. Just something a thousand times worse. "Aren't you supposed to be in class, Theo?" I questioned him with a death glare, ignoring the pain radiating through my back. "What are you doing in the dorms?"

A single piece of black hair fell from its place on Theo's perfectly parted hair and crossed in front of his piercing blue eyes. He used those eyes to stare down at me with the sharpest glare I have ever seen. If I didn't hate him so much, I almost would have been terrified. 

Theo was the headmistress' nephew, which was only part of the reason for his insane school popularity. The other reason? Well his grades for one. His posture was perfect, his clothing always immaculate, and his feelings were always kept under control. He was also known for his good looks, something I never quite understood. He could be considered relatively handsome...if he didn't have that frown permanently etched on his face.

"I didn't see you in class today, so I asked for permission to see if you had fallen ill." His thick British accent hit me like the wrong chord on a piano. "But it seems as though you are perfectly fine, running down the halls like a desperate, wild animal."

I scowled at him, a growl nearly escaping my lips, but instead, a growl escaped my stomach. My face heated it fury and embarrassment.

He gave me an unimpressed look as his eyes turned to slits. "Always causing trouble for everyone."

He turned to leave, but I stopped him with my next words. "I can't believe you were actually worried about me," I said in a sweet, shy voice.

When he turned around to protest, I leapt up, grabbing his perfectly ironed shirt in my fist and pulling his forehead toward mine. As they made contact, the sound was surprisingly hollow. I gasped in shock at the pain.

But I had an extremely hard head, which meant that—

The ear-piercing girl scream that echoed through the hall made me completely deaf for a whole minute. It hurt even more than our heads butting.

I opened my eyes and saw Theo sitting on the floor, his hand rubbing his forehead.

"Rubbing it is only going to irritate it more," I stated. "And did you bring a girl with you?" I looked around, pretending to search for the source of the scream. "I just heard what sounded like a girl screaming." I barely suppressed a cheeky smile at his deep blush of embarrassment.

Dude, I get it. You have your manly pride on the line.

But honestly? I don't care.

He cleared his throat. "Perhaps it was your roommate."

I nodded, deciding to go along with his attempt at a cover. "I should go check on her then," I said, feigning concern.

"No, no," he said quickly. "It wasn't like a serious scream. It was more like an 'Omg! Is that a bug?!' scream. You know? She probably doesn't need any help." He laughed awkwardly with his hand scratching the back of his head, his entire demeanor completely flipping.

"It doesn't hurt to go check on her, does it?" I turned on my heel and headed back down the hall. Suddenly an arm latched onto my wrist, pulling me from my path and back the other way.

As I turned, I raised my foot in the air and brought it back down with my entire body weight onto Theo's shiny shoes. Another girl shriek sounded through the hall.

I hid my smile behind my hand. "Oh, my. Two screams in one minute. Must be serious." I nodded and turned back around. When he attempted to keep me from continuing again, I reeled on him so quickly, that he didn't have time to think before I had grabbed his wrist and flipped him over my shoulder. With the breath knocked out of him, he couldn't speak.

One step down for the preppy brats. One step up for me.

If only I had recorded the whole performance.

I shook my head in disappointment and walked right over him and back toward my first goal: food.

I could hear his weird noises of pain all the way to the door leading out of the dorms. I rolled my eyes as I swiped my id card across the panel.

"I'm sorry, the cafeteria is not for you," an automated voice sounded.

"Wait what?"

"Thank you, goodbye. Beep."

I hadn't realized that the pain noises had stopped until deep laughter exploded behind me. "I think it's trying to tell you to lay off the food," Theo said from behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see him bent over with silent laughter, his arms cradling his stomach and tears dripping down his face.

"Shut your pie hole," I snapped. "How does it even know I was going to the cafeteria anyway?"

"It probably heard your stomach growling from miles away."

My eye twitched almost painfully. Suddenly I whipped around and leapt on his back, shaking his shoulders and trying to bring him to the floor. For such a serious guy, he couldn't stop laughing.

He wouldn't stop laughing. Even when I punched and kicked him with the strength of a baby elephant. It might not sound very powerful, but trust me, he would probably find a lot of bruises tomorrow morning.

"Just use your id card to get me out of here," I yelled in his ear.

"Why should I?!"

"Because I'm hungry!"

"You're not a princess and I'm not a servant!"

I released my hands from his messed-up hair and pulled his id over his head, swiftly falling back and onto my hands. I released my leg hold on his waist and allowed my arms to fall to the concrete floor. I pulled my legs up and over and then lifted myself into a standing position. From there, I raced over to the panel and swiped it with a smirk directed at Theo's shocked face.

"I'm sorry, you are not Theo the fiftieth of England."

"Huh? Huh?!" I gritted my teeth. "Is that seriously how you're logged into the system? And you were acting like I thought I was a princess. You're the one with the princey title and fake British accent."

He adjusted his tie and brushed invisible dirt off of himself. Clearing his throat he replied, "I am the fiftieth Theo in my long line of purebred ancestors. And my accent is not fake."

"What are you? A dog?"

"I think we both know who the dog is here." He glared at me.

"The thing you need more than a fancy crown to go with your big fat ego is therapy." I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, see ya." I turned and swung my leg up, dropping my heel on the id panel. It sparked for a minute before going dark. Then I aimed my foot at the door. It let way surprisingly easily. Saluting, I disappeared through the open door.

He hated when people broke things for no reason—I mean, I had a reason (hunger), but he probably doesn't count that as a valid reason...

And foot and hand prints on clear surfaces. Those really triggered him.

I wonder what he would do if he found out how much the headmistress broke after every meeting with me. Or how much hair she pulled out and left floating around her office like a tumbleweed. Even I was starting to get triggered just thinking about it.