For the first time in Nouveau history, Tessa O'Connell was rejected on the spot. That only means one thing for us. Griffin King really is trouble, isn't he?

yours truly,
Queen B.

***

I personally had nothing against Tessa O'Connell even though our dynamic had changed drastically over the years.

The O'Connells moved into Brighton two months before the seasons rotated, the color change of deciduous leaves marking the arrival of fourth grade and double digits on birthday cakes. Rumors enveloped the town as a series of moving trucks backed into the looping driveway of the stone estate located two miles from Nouveau. Everyone waited anxiously for the informal hierarchy to rearrange itself, letting their minds wander aimlessly about the family responsible for their social demise.

From the minute Giselle and Jason O'Connell stepped out of their sleek black convertible, everyone knew they belonged on airbrushed covers of magazines. Though between her petite stature and his signature grin, they didn't need much airbrushing. Their presence at weekly parent meetings only pulled attention away from the speakers, adding to a deep sense of envy in the crowd.

They left California with their only daughter weeks after Jason permanently tore his labrum, an injury that forced him to retire from professional baseball. Giselle followed her husband's impulsive decision to move across the country, hoping to find another part of herself in a new city. For all fifteen years of their relationship, she had been known as Mrs. Jason O'Connell. All she wanted was to be Giselle, simply Giselle.

Tessa, much like her parents, was complexity wrapped elegantly in a rose colored package, but things weren't always this complicated. At one point, we had been friends who shared pages of long abandoned diaries and passed crumbled notes back and forth in class. By the time ninth grade rolled around, I learned that even the most beautiful roses came attached with an endless supply of thorns.

Tessa smacked her glossed lips and flashed an elastic smile that stretched from one ear to the other. Her bright blue eyes twinkled with surprise at Griffin's response. Rejection was not a part of her vocabulary, the word completely foreign to her ears.

"I guess I'll just have to catch you tonight in the dining hall then," she told Griffin as her attention drifted to Molly who was waving her over in the distance with repeated flicks of the wrist.

Griffin returned her smile effortlessly with a gentle nod of the head.

"I'll see you guys later," were the last words she said to us before she maneuvered her way back to the center of the Elites, positioning herself under the spotlight. That was where she belonged, anyway.

"You didn't really have to do that," I mumbled under my breath, the corner of my lips barely moving.

"Do what?" Griffin turned in his seat, but I strategically ignored the way his sky blue eyes begged for my undivided attention.

"Sit with me," I responded casually, desperately searching the auditorium for a pair of familiar brown eyes. Where the hell were Alden and Becca? "You didn't have to sit with me, Griffin."

The seat screeched as I slumped farther down into it. After seeing no signs of Becca or Alden anywhere, I released a heavy sigh and fumbled with a snagged thread at the hem of my pleated skirt. Groups of students and faculty members continued to rush through the doors. Whispers circulated in the air, fragments of sentences finding their way to my ears. In thirty seconds of empty thoughts, I had heard Griffin's name more times than I could count with my fingers. That must've been a new record.

We traded glances from the corner of our eyes. He seemed unconvinced, and my first instinct was to switch to defense, letting it find a home in the contorted muscles of my face and emphasized words. "My friends are coming, you know."

"Am I missing something or are your friends imaginary?" His voice was smooth, the way consecutive words glided into each other playful. A smirk slowly spread across his lips with a careful look of carelessness. He used the armrests on either side of him to prop himself up, surveying the room.

I glared at him from my seat, my eyes focusing on his golden hair, the only part of his head I could see from behind.

He knocked his arm against mine lightly when he sat back down, nearly springing my phone out of my hands. "I was just joking, Kennedy."

"You really need some better jokes."

"Don't you worry, Marx. I've got a couple more up my sleeve. I will make you laugh one day, and that's a promise," he said confidently. "So, what are my chances of being able to avoid Tessa at the dining hall tonight?"

I raised a brow at him. The gears in my head churned, wondering why he would turn down Tessa. No one, and I mean no one, turned down Tessa O'Connell.

"Do you want an honest answer?"

He nodded affirmatively, tugging on the corner of his bottom lip.

"Slim to none," I delivered the news with a sympathetic shrug of the shoulder.

"Well fuck, Kennedy. I wasn't really ready for that."

"I wouldn't really worry about it much," I said earnestly. "Half of the people in this school would kill to be where you are right now."

"Sitting next to you?" Griffin adjusted the cuffs of his sleeves, his fingertips meticulously tracing the ironed crease. He inched forward in his seat and cracked a smile from behind his shoulder.

"You don't see anyone lining up over here to join me, do you?"

"They could be imaginary," he suggested, "much like your friends who have yet to show up. Maybe I was just the first person in line."

"Shut up."

Surprise paralyzed me when Griffin leaned over the armrest and whispered, "Make me, Kennedy," into my ear, his words lingering on the surface of my skin.

I shook my head but couldn't suppress my lips from twitching into an obnoxious grin. He laughed as I pressed my hand against his chest, pushing him back down into his seat.

"Why are you still smiling?" I asked after our eyes locked, the golden ring around his pupils shining like the sun's rays against the sky. For the first time today, I allowed myself to hold his gaze with an intensity I felt rushing through my bloodstream.

"Can't a guy just smile and not be asked why he's smiling?"

"Can't a girl ask a question and just expect a simple response for once?"

The smile that framed his chiseled facial features widened by a fraction.

"Would you seriously stop smiling. It's really throwing me off. No one's ever this excited during these assemblies," I tried to say sternly, but it was an empty handed threat, and he knew it.

"Come on, Kennedy," Griffin complained, throwing his hands up in the air. "That's like telling someone to stop breathing."

"Are you being serious right now?"

"How would you feel if I told you me to stop being cute. Is there anything you can physically do about that?"

It took me a couple of painfully long seconds before I processed exactly what Griffin had said. When all I could manage was unsuccessful starts to abandoned sentences, he slumped back into his seat, feeling triumphant that he had produced the exact reaction he wanted. Words continued to escape me as Dean Witterby grabbed the microphone from behind the wooden podium. He cleared his throat right before he spoke, the microphone catching bits and pieces of his vocal warmup.

"How are all of you doing on this fine September day?" Dean Witterby started cheerily, his voice booming through the speakers situated on the walls around the auditorium. If there were two things the Dean was known for, it was the volume of his voice and his elaborate tie collection.

A mixture of responses chorused back to him from the audience, mostly freshmen still trying to adapt to the inner workings of the boarding school. The upperclassmen continued on with their conversations because we had had heard the lines so many times before. Every year, Dean Witterby gave us the same spiel about making it the greatest year yet and writing our names in Nouveau's history. We could probably recite the entire speech on command.

At the end of his speech, the Dean introduced Molly. "And now we'll hear from senior class president Molly Peterson who has some announcements for all of you."

The Elites clapped enthusiastically as Molly stood up from her aisle seat, making her way to the stage. Anxiety danced in the curve of her lips, the gentle force of her strides bringing the waves in her hair to life. She commanded the stage in heels she'd borrowed from Tessa's closet. I watched closely as she grabbed the microphone and leaned against the podium for support.

Like Tessa, Molly could be stripped down to her nearly flawless porcelain skin, runway legs, and shiny strawberry blonde hair. Whereas Tessa lived in a stone palace with thick walls capable of hiding the O'Connells' darkest secrets, Molly's castle was constructed almost entirely from glass. Between her parents crumbling marriage and her brother's repeated suicide attempts, the glass walls that shielded her from the world were seconds away from shattering.

The Elites were probably waiting for that moment, but Molly was better at living with a broken heart than them all combined.

"Good afternoon, Nouveau! This is your senior class president Molly Peterson speaking. I hope you've all had a wonderful first day of school. I definitely know I have."

"And how has your day been, Kennedy?"Griffin whispered to me.

"Well," I faltered momentarily, dragging out the word on the tip of my tongue. "I was having a good day until I met you."

He snickered, clearly amused at our rapid exchange of words. "Why do I have a hard time believing that?"

"I just have some quick reminders for the upcoming week," Molly continued before I got the chance to respond, her confidence gradually building from the crowd's attention. "We have our first football game against Briarton at home this Friday. Come out and support our football team! Tickets are only five dollars at the gates of the stadium."

The football team cheered from the back of the auditorium, chanting Molly's name. She smiled and waved at them from the stage. There were rumors that she was dating Erik Alexander, the quarterback.

"And lastly, we'll be hosting our senior formal next Saturday at the Grande. The theme is Once Upon a Fairytale."