Fuck. This was way more advanced than my previous chemistry class. I was going to have to study like a maniac to have a hope of passing. Not that I had any future ambitions of becoming a chemist, but I needed to do well in all my classes if I wanted to try to leverage my time here into getting a scholarship to a good school or something.
When Mr. Young paused to shift topics, I glanced over at Leah one more time and found her chewing on her lower lip, her gaze bouncing between me and the girl who’d scooted away. As soon as class was over, she made a beeline for me, grabbing my elbow and tugging me off my stool before I’d even managed to gather up all my shit.
I scrabbled to collect it all before I was unceremoniously hauled out the door, walking at a quick clip. A few kids turned to look at me like they’d been doing all day, and Leah glanced around before shoving open a stairwell door and pulling me in.
As soon as we were inside, she let go of me, turning to face me.
“What the hell did you do?” she hissed.
“Me?” I blinked. “I haven’t done anything.”
“Well, obviously you did something,” she said, keeping her voice low. “The Princes are pissed. Seriously, did you spill something on them? Insult one of their mothers? You need to figure it out quick and fix it.”
I didn’t have to ask who the Princes were. I wasn’t that stupid, and it was clear from the way those four guys in the mess hall had carried themselves that they thought they were better than everyone else here—but most of all, me.
Heat rose to my cheeks as a fresh wave of anger washed through me. “I didn’t do anything to them. I ran into those two guys, Mason and Cole, in the stairwell, but nothing happened. Then I tried to go to my classes and eat lunch, but apparently, I’m not allowed to do that in fucking peace.”
Leah sighed, taking my elbow again and tugging me down the stairs. “The Princes are the four most popular and richest boys in the school. What they say goes around here. Not everyone may follow them, but we all know damn well not to cross them. And whatever you did, it pissed them all off. We’ve had transfer students before, and they’ve never gone after someone so quickly like this.”
A hard lump settled in my stomach. I was still fucking starving, but I wasn’t sure I could eat right now if I tried. My entire stomach seemed to be filled with cement.
“I didn’t do anything, Leah. I swear.”
She glanced at me as she pulled the door open on the ground floor, reading my expression. Then she sighed. “Yeah, I believe you. But to be honest, it doesn’t really matter. Whether you know what you did or not, it doesn’t change the fact that they’ve got it out for you.”
“What does that mean?” I murmured, avoiding meeting people’s gazes as we made our way toward the exit.
“They’ve declared you trash.” She shook her head, her auburn bob swishing. “Worse than trash. Your social chances at this school are pretty much zero. No one
important is going to want to go anywhere near you.”
I shifted my books to my other arm. I’d been loaded down with so many textbooks today that I couldn’t fit them all in my backpack, and I’d been too busy running from class to class—or hiding out during lunch—to make it to my locker.
“So, what? Those four assholes are some kind of freaking gods?” I scoffed. “They’re just high schoolers like everyone else.”
“Wrong,” Leah groaned. “Totally and completely wrong. The Princes are the elite of the school. They basically run this place—even the teachers are scared of them. They can get away with whatever they want because they’re from the four richest families in town.” She paused, then added, “Well, except for yours. You didn’t tell me your grandparents were the freaking Hildebrands.”
I ignored that comment, and the look of slight awe that entered her eyes as she looked at me. They were my family by blood, but it barely counted as far as I was concerned. And it obviously hadn’t earned me the same respect the Princes commanded.
“This is an actual thing? Everybody just does what they say, because they have money and power?”
“Yes,” Leah pressed. “And it’s serious. The Princes are at the top of the food chain. They’re literally sharks. There are other factions under them, but those four control everything.”
I groaned. How the hell did I even get mixed up with them? I didn’t think I’d stepped on anyone’s toes or done anything wrong.
Then I remembered Mason’s words. Idaho trash. Somehow, they knew all about me—knew that even though my grandparents might have money, I was poor—and they were taking it out on me for some reason.
What was the point? If I was so far below them, what did it matter?
“How come you’re still talking to me then?” I asked Leah. “Aren’t you afraid I’m going to kill your social status too?”
She shook her head. “To be honest, I don’t have that far to fall. I’m low enough on the totem pole to be unimportant to them. I doubt any of them even know I’m alive, honestly. I just barely made it into this school, and I’m definitely not royalty.” At my confused look, she waved her hands. “The whole thing is set up like a tier. The ones with the most money and social status control those below them, and they control the ones below them, and on and on and on. I’m so far down the system, the Princes won’t care.”
“But you’re not trash.”
She shot me a rueful look. “No. Just trash adjacent.”
I scrubbed a hand over my face. I was feeling a little lightheaded by now, and I wasn’t sure if it was low blood sugar or the insane story Leah had just told me. How the hell could four guys have so much sway in this place? They couldn’t be much older than I was, sixteen or seventeen at most. How could they have both students and teachers running scared from them?