Author's note: Thanks for adding this story to your reading lists and voting on my story! I don't know whether its a must read though...tootles!

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James:

In this crowded auditorium, I could barely hear a thing and that was just fine by me.

Slouching in the back, I maintained a "don't give a care" attitude whilst still looking serious. I called it my Frankly face. I wore many faces and today at this new boarding school, again, I wore another identity, Jack. I had never been a Jack before and this school needed a bad boy. Last school last year, I was the lacrosse team captain and squeaky clean. It was my thing to become someone else each time I switched schools, every stinking year.

If you only had a year to make your mark on a school, how would you do it? Anything but crime I would do. Crime had gotten me in trouble back when I was Jim and I still paid dearly for that every time my father mentioned his disappointment in the heir's behavior. As if it mattered how my identity fared in front of my father, it was my mother who determined me the star and saddled me with an empire to rule from the age of 5. Taking care of an empire built on lies and evil willingly was not on my priority list, so I made identities for myself and acted the *beep* out of them.

Maybe I would join theater in this school...Already, my performance at our family's house every summer to convince my mother of my utter villainy deserved an Oscar because her charms were supernatural to say the least and she was a villain in her own right. Sometimes, I wondered why send me to schools, when she could have hired tutors as both of my parents worked full-time, my mother in crisis management and my father was a corporate lawyer.

Hearing a yell above the cacophony, I actually looked up for once and saw a familiar face greeting the student body as an alumni of this school. Unfortunately, it was the she-devil herself.

My mother was addressing the student body.

I hated her with a passion. Too bad she didn't know it.

She walked with a strut not demeaning a horse. It was like she owned the place and your soul. Her cat-like eyes captivated you to listen to what she had to say as if she was the queen of this jungle. Unfortunately, I was immune to my mother's flattery and eloquently-rehearsed speeches. It made me angry to think that I could escape her by leaving home and attending school. Now, it was personal this time and I, like a moth drawn to a flame, would not resist messing with her.

"Excuse me, Ms.?" I raised my hand high up in the back and drawled it out like I was some Kentucky-born native.

"The Hocking School at Alexandria has an exemplar reputation as..." That witch was ignoring me!

I wrenched my body into a standing position, letting the chair I was sitting on just a moment ago bang onto the seat in front me and make a crashing noise as someone got hit in the back. I cringed internally, but could not back down now from this moment of triumph over my mother.

"Yes...", my mother purred as her smile widened to include all her teeth and her eyes revealed a slight scowl.

"Ms..." "Ms. Evergreen to you, sir.", she replied nonchalantly, not letting her eyes match her lop-sided grin.

"Ms. Evergreen, what is the purpose of us being here?" I uttered as if my life depended on my speaking these words aloud, which to me they did. For once in my life, I was not 'faking' it and pleasing my mother.

"This is boarding school, young sir. You are here to learn...", she answered with a flourish.

If I had just let it be, I would not be in the situation I am currently in, but me being the fool that I am decided to go along with the charade and test her in front of a public audience.

"Is this not a scam for rich parents? To learn tedious information that could be learned on the Internet and recite poems? For what? Pure edification? Public schools could do the same thing and cost less on the uniforms, I think."

That was the last straw as my mother rode from the stage, came up to me and smiled egotistically as she replied to my critique on the school system.

"Sir, if you cause this much trouble, the admin will have to have a word with your parents. And what will they think?"

The boys in the front guffawed at my expense and whispered that I had just been, lack of a better word, burned in front of the whole class. So much for being the school's bad boy, more like the school's buffoon.

After supper, I was to be escorted to my dorm room when a familiar arm yanked me into a side hallway.

"I see what you did, mister. And believe me, your punishment will come when its due."

I looked up into the eyes of a snake and groaned.

"Soon enough, you will pay....Alas, you were right."

I watched her eyes while she told me of my fate. That yes, this school was merely a front for the Ambassadors of Evil. The kids would be sent to the school that my brother and sister had attended all their lives while I was 'privileged' to go to boarding schools.

"However," she continued, "as punishment for your transgressions, you will be sent to the warehouse. This very night!" she screamed, causing my earlobes to burn with pain.

"What's the warehouse?" I yelled at her while she laughed maniacally, running in 10-in high heels down the corridor.

This was not my lucky day.