*ally's pov*

Kildare Academy wasn't the ideal place for someone like me. And it definitely wasn't the place for someone like my twin brother, Holden, who wasn't built for academics at all.

Which is why the two of us were sitting in the headmaster's office again.

For the fifth time in two weeks.

"Mr and Ms. Rayle," the headmaster said entering the room and taking a seat in his large lether office chair. "How nice to see you again?"

"Are we your favorites yet?" I asked cheekily.

"Would you be surprised, Ms. Rayle, if I were to say you are not."

"Not really. Maybe soon though! I'm sure we can manage another visit back tomorrow," Holden said.

"I don't think that will be nessacary, Mr. Rayle."

"What the hell does that mean?" I asked, leaning forward.

"I called your parents this afternoon. They were quite unaware of your escapades, unlike your signed behavior forms would suggest."

I saw Holden smirk. The signatures were his idea. I had been ready to give the forms to our parents. "That's weird," he said.

"I thought it was interesting. Your parents have already enrolled you in public school in Kildare County."

"You're kicking us out?" I wasn't surprised, but I sort of was.

"The technical form is expel, and I do believe that is what I'm about to do, Ms. Rayle."

"Both of us?" I asked, "I barley even did anything!"

"I didn't do anything awful either?" Holden said sarcastically.

"Do I need to read you two a list of offenses?"

"I think that would help refresh my memory, yeah," I told him.

"Ally!" Holden hissed.

"Well, Ms. Rayle, does the East Wing Science Lab ring any bells?"

"Can't say it does."

"Well I suppose that would be because you set it on fire."

"It was part of class that day. We were learning about combustion reactions."

"You were doing an experiment that had to do with disolving zinc, according to your teacher and every other student in the class but the man sitting beside you."

"I wouldn't call Holden here a man."

Holden rolled his eyes at me and then flipped me off.

Looking at him, I said, "What about him?"

"Perhaps the only student worse than you at this acadamy is your brother. Mr. Rayle, I suppose you don't know who Topper Thorton is?"

"No, I do," Holden smiled.

"So I suppose you know that his grandfather is a very esteemed judge."

"Yeah, I'm aware," Holden says dryly.

"It, therefore, is a very half brained idea to put his grandson in a hospital."

"Maybe it is, but it's not like it wasn't unprovoked!"

"Unfortunately for you, Mr. Rayle, I cannot take the word of a delinquent over the word over one of the school's top students."

"That's dumb," I blurt out.

"And Ms. Rayle, you got into another physical altercation with Ruthie Peters-"

"Ruthie's a princess. Even more entitled than the rest of this school. She acts like she can get away with anything."

"I could say the same about both of you. Both of you have been expelled. Your parents will be here to pick you up shortly."

His security shuffles us out of the office without another word.

☀️🥥🐚

Our entire car ride home was silent. It was a long drive back to the Outer Banks from the mainland. My brother and I sat in the backseat, both of us with rumpled Acadamy uniforms.

"Do you think they're mad?" Holden whispers in my ear.

"They are, but we are making it cheaper for them, so maybe they shouldn't be," I whisper back.

"Money isn't the concern, kids," my mother says, overhearing our conversation.

"Okay?" I snap, "It's still cheaper, now that you're paying an ass-ton in Island Club fees."

"Language, Alessandra. Money isn't an issue for this family, and we're thankful for that. However, you two getting kicked out of a very high status private school is not what this family needs right now."

"Is it? It's not like the school was helping us anyways, and we certaintly weren't helping the school," Holden insists.

"Any school would be lucky to have you two, and you know it," my father tells us.

I raise my eyebrows, "The acadamy certainly didn't think so," I slump down in the car seat, and the car ride again turns silent.

☀️🥥🐚

The next day, my parents sent us to school, blazer and formal uniform free, in my brother's white Jeep. Techincally, it was both of ours, but I sucked at driving, so it was just his.

We would be probably the only kids from Figure Eight at the school. One other girl went, that I knew of.

Kiara Carrera was the only other kid that lived on the rich side of the island, or "kook", as we were called, who went to the public school. Kiara used to go to the Academy until her parents took her out after she called the cops on Sarah Cameron's birthday party.

I don't really know what that was about but it was a whole crazy beef that probably still exists. Kiara hangs out with the "pogues" now, or the kids that live on The Cut, the poorer side of the island. One of them, John B Routledge, worked for the Camerons. Another, JJ Maybank, used to work for us before my oldest brother, Wyatt, caught him smoking weed and smelling up our boat.

I didn't blame him, my parents were a real headache. I had to take drugs too when I was dealing with them.

"You think the kids are going to be rude?" Holden asks.

"Well, they're not going to be nice," I tap my foot on the ground, and he turns to look at me, "eyes on the road!"

"Sorry. I mean, the pogues can't be good news."

"I don't think they suck or anything. They're just delinquents."

"So are we," he shrugged.

I smirked, "well, Kiara Carrera, you know that girl that hangs out with them after she called the cops on us like a year ago? She goes here."

"Is she the only one?"

"Basically no one goes to this school. That's what Wyatt said. He said he only knows like five kids that go and they all worked for us."

"That's just because we don't associate with any of them."

"Well, Wyatt also said we'd fit right in."

"He's probably right," Wyatt rolled his eyes.

We got out of the car and pulled open the curved metal handles of the peeling doors of the school. White paint flaked at my feet. It matched the white sandals I was wearing, but showed on the tan canvas sneakers my brother chose.

"Which one is the office?" I asked Holden, but I don't really know why I thought he would know.

"It's right there," someone said from behind me. It was a girl, with tan curly hair streaked with blonde and tanned skin.

"Thanks," my brother said to her.

"No problem. You're the Rayles right? Your parents are the billionares?"

"Yeah," I said, somewhat sheepishly.

"It's okay. My parents live in Figure Eight too," she shrugged, "the restrictions suck, but at least there's sane people on the island." She glanced at a trio of boys who were messing around behind her.

"Wait, you're Kiara," Holden realized, "you used to go to the Academy."

"Yeah... a while ago. You two went there?"

"Yep," I said, "got kicked out yesterday."

"No way!" she crowed, "what'd you do to get kicked out of that school? With your parents' money?"

"We did a lot," Holden said.

"Did you burn down the school or something?" One of the boys asked from behind her. He was blonde and muscular. JJ Maybank. The one that used to work for us.

"No one would do that but you, JJ," another boy, this one with brown curly hair and brown skin, said.

"Not all of the school, anyways. Just a wing," I answered his sarcastic question.

"See, Pope, other people do rowdy shit," he pointed out to his friend.

"We beat up a couple kids too," Holden piped up. I elbowed him as the blonde, JJ, laughed with a brunette boy behind him, the third of the trio.

"Which ones?" JJ asked.

"Topper Thornton. You know him?" Holden asked.

JJ and the brunette boy started crowing loudly again. "Know him do we ever!" JJ shouted, "makes sense why you fought him, he's a total kook."

"What about his girlfriend?" Kiara asked, intrigued.

"Sarah?" I asked, and she nodded, "no, we don't talk to her much, but Wyatt, my older brother, and Rafe Cameron are like best friends at this point."

"Rafe, as in the guy who's probably high right now?" The brunette questioned.

"That's the one," I confirmed.

"You didn't beat him up too?" JJ smiled.

"No, like I said, him and my brother are friends."

"That sucks," the brunette says.

"Yeah, it really does," Holden rolls his eyes.

The bell rings for school to begin and I think all six of us left that conversation with a smile on our face.

"I told you it wouldn't be that bad," I nudge Holden and he smiles.