Erika knew she was on fire tonight. Her chart? One life ruined, one relationship destroyed, and a free pass to the 2017 roster of Princeton.  She was doing handsomely well - although she could have sufficed without that incident on the red carpet.

As Mr. Fitzgerald sold a guitar that happened to be owned by the late singer Elvis Presley, Erika watched from the corner of her eye as Paisely Mont Vernon and Benny Costa slid out of their chairs in the back row, ducking their heads as they hurried out the back entrance.

Erika shifted in her seat, looking at her father at the very center of the ballroom who was listening immensely to the bidding before putting in a million dollars for the legendary guitar. The man was always a Elvis Presley fan. He was too preoccupied with beating Sarah Palin's bid to notice his daughter get up from a table across the venue and follow Paisely out.

The afternoon had completely vanished, leaving the night sky and tranquil stars in its place. THe Greystone Mansion was a beautiful sight especially its park. With a glittering fountain that looked as if it were spewing out diamonds rather than water, cobblestoned grounds that seemd straight out of a fairytale forest, and exotic wildflowers and rose bushes, it was the biggest Beverly Hills tourist attraction.

Paisely, however, certainly didn't seem to be enjoying the sight, leaning against the hard brick wall of the mansion, head in her hands as she cried.  Benny Costa, who for once didn't look like a Nike tomboy in a Aidan Mattox black aztec embellished two-piece gown, glowing in a mix of Smashbox and Elizabeth Arden makeup, comforted her although it didn't seem to do much to calm the girl.

Erika smirked. "Whats wrong, Paisely?" She asked in faux concern.

Both girls looked up, startled. Erika could see tears streaming down Paisely's face - and actually felt....well she felt bad but she wasn't going to voice that emotion.

Benny shook her head. "Erika, you are so fucked up."

"How so? I think I look beautiful tonight," She shrugged. "Actually I know I look beautiful tonight."

"Why would you sleep with Chris when he's my boyfriend?" Paisely exclaimed. "Is it- is it because I don't like you?"

"Sleep with your boyfriend?" Erika gasped. "Don't ever! That was Veronica on the video. Her face is just blurred." She knew she had ruined any chance Veronica had of getting back into the group. She had pissed off Jac and now Paisely - 'Oh well, she was a slut anyway'.

Paisely sniffled and Benny hugged her awkwardly, wearing a face of someone who didn't really want to be there. "I call group meeting," Benny cried. "Wheres Jac?"

"Probably with my brother," Erika leered which is where she always was. That was what she had really enjoyed about their break up, Damon wasn't constantly stealing her friend away. It was the same reason why she enjoyed the fact that Benny couldn't be with Brett, Veronica jumped from guy to guy, and Paisely couldn't get anyone. 

"Well if it was Veronica why would you even show me that video," Paisely cried, breaking away from Benny. "That....that was mean."

"I don't really care," Erika looked down at her perfect nails, pleased by the sight. Broken nails weren't her style.

"Then how do you expect me to like you when all you do is try to ruin my life?"

"I don't like-"

"Yes you do!" Paisely cut her off, angry tears spilling over her blue eyes and Erika was stunned into speechlessness. The girl was growing balls way too big for her frame which says a lot considering she's practically a plus-sized model -  a size four is a disgrace to humanity in Erika's world. "You can't just kiss me and then deny you even like me!"

Benny gasped, looking back and forth between the girls. "You guys kissed?"

Erika couldn't muster up a word.

"I don't even want to be your friend anymore!" Paisely went on as if she were on fire. "You're really evil and you're not going to change! Plus, I cherish Doritos and if thats not allowed in the Palace then I don't want any part of it!"

"Did she just use the word 'cherish'?" Benny exclaimed as if that had been the most important part of Paisely's speech. "She spelled that wrong ten times on our English test!"

Erika still couldn't get a word out. This was the practically the third time the girl had rendered her speechless. 'Where the hell is Paisely getting her plastic ball surgery from?' So she could pay off the surgeon to drop her as a client.

"You're  psy-psy-psychotic?" She looked to Benny who nodded encouragingly. Then she turned back to Erika with a gleaming smile. "Yeah, you're psychotic and I don't want to be friends with someone like you."

"You realize you're committing social suicide right?" Erika reminded her pointedly, relieved to have finally found her voice. She had been afraid Paisely was just going to talk her out the door and that would be pretty humiliating considering this was Paisely Mont Vernon - the blonde ditsy party girl who didn't have a back bone.

"I think I'm out too," Benny admitted sheepishly, coming to stand next to Paisely. "You're kind of overwhelming."

Erika's eyes nearly rolled back into her head in disbelief. "What?"

"Your angst," Benny explained. "Its too much. I'm done."

'Done?' They were done with her? They were done with her after everything she had done for them? She had practically made these girls relevant. If it wasn't for Erika, they would still be wannabes eating lunch with all the girls wishing to be her. If this was Ancient Rome, Erika would be saying, 'Et tu, Benny?'

"Benny, you can't walk away from this," Erika said snidely. "I know your secret."

Benny rolled her eyes. "I've had worse." Then the girl strutted away, pulling open the french doors that lead back into the auction, giving Erika one last knowing look before going inside.

Tearing her eyes away from the girl, Erika found herself face to face with Paisely, who was staring at her solemnly. Then the girl leaned forward  - and kissed her. It was a soft kiss, a sad one but more genuine than the kiss in the bathroom. It was as if there was a goodbye on Paisely's lips and all Erika could do was kiss her back.

However, Paisely quickly tore away from her, solemnity turning into a content smile. "Good luck, Erika." She said serenly, heading for the door then and leaving the fallen Queen in utter confusion.

She found her hands touching where the girl had left her mark - and there was an odd pain in a place she couldn't quite pinpoint. Then she quickly realized it must be her heart, she didn't even know she had one of those.

As the night breeze grew colder, causing her to shiver, Erika decided to head back inside, in a  daze from what had just happened. She had just been, in a way, dethroned. She had lost two valuable members - members because Erika didn't consider those she acquainted with friends.

Just as she pulled open the door back into the venue, she immediately took in the oddity of the Greystone Mansion; no one sat at the candle-lit tables anymore. Instead they all stood, gaping and staring at her. Then there were the students of every preperatory school in the district, laughing at something on their expensive phones and jeering......at her.

Something definetly wasn't right about this picture.

However, Erika didn't have to stay in the dark long. Chris Edwards, a deep smirk on his face, came out of the baffled crowd, walking slowly up to her. "You say you're the real bitch," He sighed, outstretching his hand which held his iPhone. "But the difference between you and I.....is that I actually press 'send'."

"Chris, what are you talking about?" She scoffed.

"Find out for yourself." He winked then, placing the phone in her hands.

Erika looked down at the phone with a frown - and could have died on the spot.

Staring her in the face - on the very front page of Alabaster Prep's site - was Erika's dirty little secret for the whole school to see; she and Paisely locking lips, the kiss they had just shared only moments ago. The headline; 'Don't fuck with Chris Edwards.'

She felt a stirring inside of her and she realized it was her heart splitting in two. Looking up at Chris, the boy snickered, backing away from her. Horrified, Erika studied the crowd, opening her mouth to explain that this was all a mistake - but the words were only drowned in tears.

Paisely Mont Vernon stood at the very front of the crowd - smiling triumphantly. Erika immediately knew the kiss had been a setup, she had been in on her downfall all along. Then there was Benny Costa, still gaping at the image on her phone and Mr. Carter who was shaking his head in disgust.

Addie Anderson stood at the front as well, all the wannabes giggling into their hands. 

She couldn't even scowl when Damon pushed his way through the stunned crowd, eyes on his phone, and then looking up at her. The look he wore said it all, 'Karma is a bitch, isn't it?'

However the most horrific face was her father, the man she would do anything for, glaring at her. It was a ugly, blood boiling, heartwrenching glare. A look far worse than the ones he gave to Damon. A look of pure hatred, a look she couldn't handle. His eyes bore into her and then he stepped forward, fists clenched, as he came towards his daughter.

Erika grimaced at what she thought was coming - but he only snatched the heavy 55 million dollar necklace off of her neck, the chain breaking from his grip. She watched as he looked at the beautiful necklace in his hands and then back at her, his repugnance visible for everyone to see. Then he wordlessly fled through the crowd, disappearing completely.

The fact that he hadn't hit her only made her feel worse. It meant she wasn't anyone to waste the energy on. It meant she was truly nothing to him.

In disbelief, Erika looked down at the photo again - and she felt a tear spill over, marring the perfection of her hazel eyes.

Moments ago, when her friends had abandoned her, hadn't been her downfall. Her downfall was now, in front of every elite in Beverly Hills.

                                                                           ⓇⒾⒸⒽⓀⒾⒹⓈ

"Ahhh, well I have to say I'm very happy to be seeing you again," was the first thing Damon heard as he stepped off the Eastlake Juvenilie Hall bus. Glaring through the florescent sunlight shining down on his new Hell, Damons scowled at his old "friend".

Officer Hockes - a.k.a peasant cop - was the first man waiting for the delinquents in the gravel driveway of the gray and somber institute with its tall dull building, ridiculously high steel gates and wide grassland that was obviously not taken care of.

"Can't say the same," Damon retorted back but the officer ignored him, barking for everyone to get in line against the hell-ish bus.

Studying his peers, Damon realized he blended in with them thanks to his black eye. Everyone looked like they came straight out of a bad thug flick; scars, tattoos, and permanent scowls on their faces. Then again, he didn't blame them for the dirty looks, he didn't want to be there either.

He'd rather be back in Beverly Hills, relishing in his sister's karma and maybe celebrating with Jac over a magnum-sized bottle of champagne. Just thinking about his carefree lifestyle made him even more hostile to his actual surroundings.

"I told you," Officer Hockes chuckled in his thick country accent. "Being rich doesn't get you out of jail. I told you!"

"Will you shut up?" A female officer who Damon thought vaguely resembled Lindsey Wells opened the steel gates to the facility then, rolling her eyes at Officer Hockes as she made her way to stand in front of them all. "I can take it from here."

As the hillbilly officer glared daggers at the woman's back, she began calling out names and beckoning each delinquent over, whispering to them before sending them off to their new home - if this place was even considered a home.

Damon decided Juvenile Hall was child cruelty.

Just as the woman got to his name, her eyes bugged out and she looked up in astonishment. "Uh...um, Damon Felix." She stammered as if she were in a daze.

Damon was aware of the confused stares he was receiving as he stepped up to the woman, ready to get all the details about who his room mate - a.k.a his murderer - was going to be and what kind of labor - death - he would be subjected to. 

However, he hadn't been expecting the woman's shifting demeanor. "You're Damon Felix.....as in the son of Matthew," She whispered more lowly and he could see from the corner of his eye Officer Hockes trying to listen in.

"Yes....." That's when he saw the woman's glimmering name tag; 'Officer Wells'. 'I thought Lindsey's mom was a banker.' He would have never guessed.  The girl kept up with Beverly Hills' elite social standards well for a peasant.

"These charges," She looked down at the manila folder in her hand. "Seem like misdemeanors. Maybe...if you could, um, remember me when you get your next allowance-"

"Are you bribing me with freedom for money?" Damon asked lowly.

She cleared her throat, looking around hastily at those trying to eavesdrop. However before she could have the chance to take back her words, Damon quickly cut in. " Fifty grand for me to get out of here." Because there was no way he was going inside of that dump.

Eyes darting everywhere, Officer Wells hurriedly handed Damon one of the folders she was holding labeled with his name. Then she ripped out a sheet of paper from one of the other stacks in her other arm, scrawling something quickly and handing that to him too. "Make it ninety and you've got yourself a deal." She whispered.

Damon tsked because ninety grand wasn't anything, looking down at the paper he almost burst out laughing as he realized it was the woman's bank account. 'So desperate.'

Just like that, Damon was being ordered back on to the bus, all his belongings being returned to him; watches, wallet, money.  He watched from the window  as Officer Hockes yelled at his fellow police officer incredulously, all the new Juvie residents giving the tinted windows of the bus envious glares. 

Damon couldn't help himself, to make matters worse, he poked his head out of the bus again, making sure Officer Hockes seen his smug smirk. "I guess you're wrong, officer, being rich can get you out of jail!"

"You little punk, get him out of that bus!" was all he could hear as the bus that was supposed to take him to his fate started up, slowly easing out of the parking lot. Officer Hockes, nostrils flaring, chased the bus as it drove out of the Eastlake steel gates - and Damon flipped him the middle finger through the open window.

"Where to? You might need to call your parents." The bus driver, a heavy set man with a bald spot, asked glumly, not amused by the scene playing out and gesturing to the phone hooked up to the driver controls.

Damon thought to himself. It was Spring Break and there was no way he could show his face to Matthew, not if he wanted to be back in Juvie - for real. Beverly Hills was off limits - but that didn't mean the rest of the country was.

"Well I am supposedly in Eastport right now," He thought aloud then decided thats where he wanted to go. He had to go with his father's cover story.  "Take me to the airport."

As the bus finally left Eastlake Juvenile Hall, Damon relaxed in his seat.

It was safe to say he was kind of on top of the world but then again, he was a rich kid after all.