5
Two weeks passed. My parents‘ company landed a major project in Europe, delaying their return indefinitely. Seeing an opportunity, Willow started acting up again, but my mother, ever vigilant, quickly put a stop to it. To protect me, she had cameras installed throughout the house that she could monitor from her phone.
Thwarted at home, Willow turned her attention to school. She requested a seat change to sit next to Ethan.
When the teacher asked me, I agreed. She spent her days fawning over him, bringing him snacks and hom- emade lunches. Sometimes she’d present him with slightly burnt cookies, claiming she’d baked them herse- If. I had to stifle a laugh–I knew for a fact our cook had thrown out a failed batch of cookies just last week.
That idiot Ethan was eating our garbage.
She started skipping classes to bring water to Ethan during his basketball practice. Unsurprisingly, her grad- es plummeted. At midterms, she had been a middling student. By the next monthly exam, she was at the bottom of the class. Everyone was laughing at her behind her back, but no one bothered to warn her.
Ethan could afford to slack off. He came from a powerful family and was destined for an overseas universi- ty regardless of his grades. But Willow? A poor girl with bad grades? Who was she counting on to save her? The Vances? Our family connections were controlled by my parents. No one would write her a recommenda- tion letter without their approval. Liam? He was still a high
school student himself, living off an allowance
from our father.
I watched her self–destruct with a detached amusement. I placed first in the school again on that exam, so I
had no reason to concern myself with her.
The exam was a joint one with Northwood’s rival, Crestwood Academy, a renowned public school. To celeb- rate my victory over Crestwood’s top student, our school organized a two–day trip to a nearby castle winery.
It didn’t take long for Willow to cause trouble again.
20:17
20:17
Chapter 2
As we were loading our luggage onto the bus, the student council’s arts representative needed to get a cha- rger from her suitcase. To give her space, we formed a protective circle around her.
Willow, oblivious as always, ignored our repeated warnings and continued to flirt and shove playfully with Ethan right next to the open luggage compartment. She lost her footing, stumbled through our circle, and planted her high–heeled shoe directly into the open suitcase.
A bottle of expensive perfume shattered, soaking the surrounding clothes and ruining them completely. The arts representative’s face went dark.
Willow just giggled. “Oops, sorry about that! I’m wearing a skirt, so it’s hard to bend down. You can clean it up yourself.” She then tried to pull Ethan onto the bus.
I grabbed her arm, stopping her. “You think you can just destroy someone’s property and walk away? You
need to pay for the damages.”
Willow looked wounded. “I already said I was sorry. What more do you want?”
Ethan jumped to her defense. “Yeah, she apologized. Stop picking on her.”
The arts representative, trying to be reasonable, said, “Aren’t you going to compensate me? My clothes and perfume are ruined.”
Willow looked as if she were the most wronged person in the world. “Fine. How much?”
“The perfume was from France. I’d only used it once. It was $5,000, but I’ll let it go for $4,000. The clothes are all from the latest collections. Six pieces, worth about $20,000. I’ll let you off with $15,000 since I’ve
worn them.”
Willow’s eyes bugged out. “That’s robbery!”
“Are you going to pay or not?” the girl asked, shrugging.
“I’m just a poor girl,” Willow whined. “I can’t afford that much money. Stop making things difficult for me. Bes- ides, we’re just students. Why do you need such expensive things anyway? You’re rich, you can just buy new
ones.” She stared at us with wide, innocent eyes.
I almost laughed out loud at her audacity. Before I could say anything, Ethan stepped in impatiently. “You’re all so rich, and you’re ganging up on her? Fine! I’ll pay for it!”
He threw his credit card at the girl and stormed onto the bus with his arm around Willow. The arts represen-
tative rolled her eyes, but since she’d been compensated, she let it go. I looked around. Everyone wore the
same expression of disgust. As class president, I helped clean up the mess before we finally got on our way.
