"White, are you really not going to let me help you carry anything?"

     "No, I've got this." Chloe dragged her two heavy suitcases and her backpack as well. They were heavy and she could have used more help with them, but she refused to get help from Dominic. Sanford had helped her sign in with the administration, but she'd been so flustered over seeing Dominic that she wasn't really paying attention when they left the office and Dominic convinced Sanford to let him continue giving Chloe her tour.

     Dominic walked at her side, fully dressed in his cream and dark-blue uniform. "Am I reading too much into things, or are you cross with me?"

     Chloe was mad with him. He hadn't done anything specifically bad towards her, but she was upset at him for being right about everything. It would sound so stupid to tell him that though.

"You're right, you are reading way too much into things," she lied. "And I'm serious, I've got this. I'm fine. So, just go do whatever it is you've gotta do."

     Dominic's' eyes gleamed when he'd smile, he looked so amused. "Right, you have everything under control. Like for example, you are heading towards the boys dormitories on purpose."

    Chloe paused in her steps.

     Her eyes lifted to Dominic's and as he watched she slowly turned her suitcases in the opposite direction.

     "This is childish, White." Dominic stated before he reached out to snatch the handles of Chloe's two suitcases.

    "Hey! I can do this myself," Chloe protested, but not too much. 

     Her body was tired and she really didn't have an idea of where she was going. She lifted her hands up in surrender. "Fine. You can carry them, but I don't see why you want to help me. Aren't you the one who said we couldn't be friends?"

     He pulled the cases with ease. "I guess I feel a kinship with you, White. Seeing as our lives were both destroyed by the same woman."

     She didn't falling for it this time. "Prince said she isn't your mother."

     "And apparently, my word isn't as good as his? What, do you not trust this face?" He turned and leaned in close to Chloe. Much too close.

     Her cheeks instantly became hot.

     She pressed a finger against his shoulder to push in some distance between them. "Not even for a second. We don't know each other. From the one day I spent around you I learned that you like to play games with me. I don't know what to believe with you."

     Dominic didn't deny anything, in fact he nodded in agreement. "True. However, have I been wrong? Was I wrong about Elizabeth turning on you? Or wrong in guessing you'd be attending Darkwood with me? Seems I've actually been telling the truth this whole time and you just refused to listen to it. You should have eaten the twizzler, White. You're really going to miss candy here."

     Chloe stopped in her tracks. "What, you want me to say you were right? Fine. You were right. I lost my mother and a man who was like a father to me. I ended up staying with my real father, Henry, and just when I started to feel like maybe, just maybe I could have some kind of family again, Elizabeth took that from me."

     She tried to fight back the tears forming in her eyes, but she couldn't keep her voice from trembling. "So, now I have nothing. I just have to stay here and wait until a year from now and hope Henry changes his mind."

     Dominic released the bag handles, and stepped to stand directly in front of Chloe. He lifted a hand and boldly reached to pat Chloe's head. "I wouldn't say that you have 'nothing'. You have something very powerful."

     Chloe wiggled her nose with a sniff. "What?"

     He smiled. "You have a Huntsman. I know something that will make your father doubt the woman he married. Help me prove that Elizabeth is my mother and with the evidence we can get revenge. . ."

Revenge. The word itself was so strange to Chloe. She'd never wanted revenge on anyone in her life before. 

     There was a young girl, back when she lived in Cairo, who tried to scare her by placing a spider in Chloe's food. That was the one and only time Chloe felt vengeful.

     Chloe laid curled up in her bed. The dormitory room was bigger than the guest room at Henry's house. The room was old and leaned more towards Victorian in style with a dark feeling. It made her feel like Rapunzel locked away in a tower.

     Her uniform hung from her closet door. She knew that tomorrow she'd be wearing it.

   【BUZZ. BUZZ. 】

     Chloe's phone glowed with a text alert.

     It couldn't have been Abigail, she told Chloe to only expect contact in the afternoons. She reached over to her nightstand and drew the screen closer to her face.

   【Heard from Dominic that you are here at Darkwood. I'm coming by your room. -Prince】

     She totally forgot that Prince had her number. Immediately she panicked and bolted from her bed to frantically look for jeans and a comb. She wasn't dressed and as far as she knew, boys weren't allowed in the girls dormitories after hours, so how did Prince expect to come over?

     Chloe tugged her skinny jeans over her hips and combed down her wild hair best she could. It wasn't perfect, but it would have to do.

     There was a tapping sound, but not from her door; it came from her window!

     She turned her head quickly to see Prince stood on the very, very small balcony outside her window. 

     How on earth did he even get there? Quickly, she ran to unlatch it and to let him in to escape from the cold winter air.

     Prince shivered and breathed hard, like he'd performed some physically difficult task to get up to the window. When his eyes laid on Chloe he delivered a warm smile. "Hey."

     She hugged her arms and offered him a smaller smile in return. "How did you get up here?"

     "I've been going to boarding schools since I was twelve, you learn how to get into places," He explained while he blew on his fingers to keep them warm.

     Chloe thumbed towards the door. "You could have used the door though, it's not broken."

     "Trust me, I'm doing you a favor. If anyone saw me visiting you, then they'd target you." Prince finally caught his breath and there was an awkward pause between the two of them.

     Suddenly, it hit Chloe like a ton of bricks, she was alone in a room with a boy for the first time in her life. She couldn't stop feeling her skin flush with color.

     She had to try and distract herself from those thoughts. "So, why are you here? Did you need to tell me something?"

     Unlike Dominic, Prince's demeanor was more calm and thoughtful. "Yeah, I wanted to see how you were holding up."

     He was concerned about her? Chloe felt touched. She hadn't felt like anyone really cared about her since losing her mother. Why would he be concerned about her though?

     She shook her head in disbelief. "Look, I appreciate that you wanted to check up on me, I really do, but I was given a tour today and I finally understood what Elites are so I don't see why you would want to waste time on some lower status girl you barely even know."

    Prince ran his fingers through his hair, it seemed like he didn't exactly know what he was doing there either. "After the night we hung out, you didn't try to call me or text me or reach out to me even once."

    Chloe winced. "Yeah, sorry about that."

     "No, I liked that!" Prince quickly blurted out. 

     He cleared his throat to regain composure. "Normally, when people force me to meet their daughters, those girls call and text me non-stop, even without me sending a single reply. Everyone wants to know me or be close to me, not because of who I am, but because of who my father is. No one cares what I do in life, or how good I am at studying, because in the end they know I will inherit everything of my father's. So, you see, Chloe. You were the first girl who never gave off the feeling that you wanted anything from me. You had genuine fun with me and Dominic and asked for nothing more than that one day."

She could understand what he was saying. Most girls probably would try to keep in contact with an attractive, sweet billionaires son. The thought had honestly not even crossed her mind. "I did have fun. For once I forgot about all the horrible things in my life and just had fun."

"So did I." Prince mirrored the sentiment.

They stood face-to-face in the dimly lit room. The moonlight poured in from the window and cast a blue hue over them. They didn't say anything, but Chloe felt nervous in the good kind of way.

"I want to hang out with you more," He finally said.

Chloe wasn't going to say no. "I thought you can't be seen with me?"

"I can't, but at night, when everyone is asleep, we can just pretend to be asleep too. I'll come here, wake you and we can hang out, just like this. Next time, I'll bring a movie, or a game or something." Prince suggested.

Chloe couldn't help, but laugh. "I'm sorry, I'm not laughing at you. It's just, you're a 'Prince' and you're going to climb up through my window and awaken me like I'm some kind of fairytale Princess? It just sounds funny."

He winced with embarrassment. "Forget I said anything. Can we go back in time and pretend I didn't say that?"

"No," Chloe said shly. "I could use some friends here. I mean, I'm stuck here for at least a year. I can't think of another person I'd rather be stuck with more than you. So, yeah, we can hang out."

Prince slowly stepped back towards the window again. "Great! So, then I'll see you here tomorrow after hours again?"

Chloe nodded timidly, it felt like he was asking her out on a date, but she wouldn't make assumptions. She followed him to the window and once he left out it she latched it back shut.

BANG. BANG. BANG

Chloe couldn't tell at first if the sound was the pounding in her head from the lack of sleep or if it was her room door. Morning had arrived, golden sun-rays spilled beautifully between the long, heavy drapes. 

The persistent banging didn't stop.  Chloe dragged herself out of bed feet to the door to opened it.

Two girls stood in-front of her. One was a small 4'11" girl with freckled cheeks, frizzy red hair and a bright smile. The other girl had beautiful ebony skin with a model figure and stylish glasses resting against her nose.

The freckled girl extended her hand. "Chloe White, right? I'm Solara and this is Diana. People tell me that I seem like I'm too happy, all the time, but I'm just someone who believes in the power of positivism. Sanford told us to come get you. Since winter break is still here, we have club duties every day."

Chloe tried to recall if she signed up for a club. The memories came flooding back to her. Sandford had asked her about if she wanted to be involved in a club, but she had been so distracted by Dominic that she nodded an agreement without even thinking about it.

Diana sighed. "We don't have all day. We'll give you twenty minutes. Have a quick shower and meet us downstairs."

Diana turned to leave, but before Solara could join her, Chloe reached out to touch Solara's arm.

"Wait, I just need to know exactly, what club is this?" She asked.

Solara practically bubbled with enthusiasm. "Why, only the best Money Misfit club there is! We're called: The Seven. . ."

Author's Note: If you've been reading this far, thank you so much for reading!  Let me know what you think in the comments below. You are a GOLD STAR!