Chapter Text
Xaden’s POV:
I’m currently walking to my English class; it’s the first day back after Fall break, and the halls are crowded.
Garrick is walking next to me, showing off his tattoo that our group of bikers had gotten over the break.
We all have one now, and they’re all distinctly similar but different at the same time. It’s thick black swirls on our right arms; my tattoo starts right under my jawline and ends right above my wrist. It’s also the biggest out of the entire group.
“Earth to Xaden.” Garrick’s looking at me like he’s tried calling me a million times.
“What?” I know I sound broody, but can you blame me? The fucking English class teacher believes that since we’re an A.P class, we don’t get breaks. He assigned us three book reports due when we came back.
“Yesh, I was just asking if you heard about the freshman who’s supposedly joining our English class.”
A freshman? Not possible; I must be hearing Garrick wrong, because there is no way that Markham allowed a freshman to join his roster over Fall Break. He will go on and on about how we barely deserve to be in his class and that our future will be a failure.
“A what?”
“You heard me, a freshman. Apparently she scored the highest on one of the quartly testing that Devera decided she needed to be bumped up.” He sounds like he’s in as much disbelief as I am.
“There is no way, it’s probably just a stupid rumor.”
“Well, I guess we’re gonna find out, right?”
We will, because we’re at the classroom door, and the bell's gonna ring in about twenty. Garrick opens the door and walks in first, with me following behind.
We don’t bother finding our seats yet. Markham had told us on the first day that every quarter he would change the seating arrangement.
It also appears that a handful of students are already here. I’m not looking for conversation, though, so I just wait until Markham realises that Garrick and I have entered.
“Hello Professor Markham.” Garrick greets him, a false show of happiness; we hate his guts, but it’s best to stay on your teacher’s good side.
“Ah Tavis, Rioroson. I assume you’re waiting for me to tell you where your new seats are?” His voice is an old type of raspy that comes with age, but to me it will always sound like nails on a chalkboard.
“That would be correct, Professor,” I say it with all the false respect I can muster.
He doesn’t smile; he often doesn’t. He has claimed that showing emotions will eventually make you a weaker person, that people who wear their emotions on their sleeve are an easy target of manipulation. It’s one of the only things I’ll agree with him on.
He gives me a nod, though, and gives Garrick and me both a piece of paper that has a desk number.
“What desk are you at?” Garrick asks, showing me his.
Lucky me, I’m stuck next to him because he’s seat twenty-three and I’m twenty-two. “Twenty-two.”
The desks are all rectengular that fit up to three people, though. That means whoever has twenty-one will be our seatmate, Great.
We walk over to a table that’s in the back of the room, against one of the windows. Twenty-one is the first chair by the window, twenty-two right after that, and then twenty-three.
It appears that our seatmate has already made their way to their seat, though. They’re sitting down with their arms crossed on the table, their head resting on them. They’re wearing a black hoodie, the hood up. This should be the universal sign to not engage.
But, of course, Garrick, ever the friendly one, decides to make contact- curse him.
“Hi there, looks like we’re seatmates.” He’s all happy, like he’s proud of himself. “I’m Garrick Tavis and this here is Xaden Riorson.”
I’m not the most social in our small friend group, and that causes our friend group to remain small, but leave it to Garrick to be friendly to everybody.
She lifts her head, rolling her shoulders. She gives a small wave with a nod of acknowledgement. “Violet.” She lowers her hood, and fuck me.
Her hair has to be one of the unique types I’ve ever seen. Her roots start as a warm chestnut brown that fades into a metallic silver. It’s currently in a ponytail. Her complexion is a pale milk white, making it look like she doesn’t see the sun often. Her eyes are a mix of colors, the most prominent right now being amber and a hint of green. Her lips look soft, and for some reason I already want to kiss and bite them.
We don’t even know each other; what the hell is wrong with me?
“Are you new? I don’t remember seeing you last quarter.” Garrick asks, clearly trying to place her.
“To the school? No. To the class? Yes. I just transferred from Devera’s English class,” Violet answers.
Then it clicks; she’s the freshman that transferred from Devera’s class.
“So the rumours are true" Garrick looks like his day just got ten times better.
She nods but doesn’t speak to go into detail. The bell rings just a second later, and both Garrick and I sit down.
The rest of the class trails in over the next 5 minutes before the bell that marks your tardiness rings.
“Alright, class,” Markham starts settling us all down. “We have a new student joining us today; treat her with the same respect you show the rest of your peers. Now onto class, I assigned three book reports that would be due today. Violet, since today’s your first day in the class, you’ll have an extension to next week; the books were: The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, and The Invisible Man. Should you have any questions, ask your peers.”
She nods her understanding. She nods like she knows that he’ll overwork us all.
“Now I won’t be asking for any presentations. I do not feel like bringing my mood down with what I know will be a disappointment. Turn it in. If you did a digital, please email it to me; if you did a physical, put it in your period box. Now onto class, today we will be going over”
I drone him out; I really don’t care what we’ll be doing. I know I should be, but I like the class just as much as I like the teacher. The only reason I’m doing this is because of a deal with my dad. The Fen Riorson.
We had struck a deal in my freshman year that if I graduate with an above 4.0 GPA, I could start running the smaller companies of Riorson Enterprise.
I’m still letting my mind wander when Garrick elbows me in the side; when I look at him, I see that Markham must finally be done with instructions because he’s pulling out his computer.
Apparently it’s going to be a group project with your seatmates.
The assignment is something about a new book we’ll be assigned to read, and we will have to give a presentation about it. Luckily, we get to choose the book, but it has to be grade-appropriate. It will also be due in two weeks, which doesn’t give us a lot of time, but enough time.
“So what book are we picking?” Violet asks.
It’s a good question, because I haven’t the slightest clue either.
Garrick shrugs.
“Okay, that’s helpful.”
So she’s beautiful and sarcastic.
“Okay, then let me ask this: what do we want for our presentation?”
“I think we should go for something that we can gather evidence ourselves.”
Wow, Garrick’s being smart; wait till Im finds out.
“That’s a… good idea. Markham prefers visual representations from students; he believes that it shows that we’re taking the class seriously.”
We both shoot her a questioning look; how the hell does she, a freshman, know that, when she’s just got into the class, when nobody else does?
“Let’s just say that he used to tutor me when I was younger. I don’t feel like diving into that though, so let’s not.”
We both nod, but I know that I’m a bit surprised.
She looks up, her brows scrunched. “Have you heard of the book, A Hundred Nights?”
I raise a brow. “By Asher Sorrengail? Isn’t that a book about an abandoned hospital in Aretia? ”
“Yeah, it is. Have you read it?”
Garrick nods, and so do I. My dad had made Garrick, Bodhi, and me read it at 13, to help us better understand something or teach us a lesson. I forget what the lesson was, but I definitely didn’t forget the book.
We agree to do the report about the book, since we’ve all read it.
Soon enough, the class comes to an end, and it’s time to go to our second period.
Off to advanced science.
---
The day carries on, and I find out that I have Violet in my math class and my culinary class. I was a bit surprised about the math class since it’s also an AP class, but not too much about the culinary. It’s an elective after all.
Now it’s lunch, and I’m truly starting to see that Violet has been a part of my schedule for a while without me noticing. Which seems impossible because now that I have noticed her, I can’t imagine not noticing her.
It turns out she’s friends with the freshman who’s dating my younger cousin. Bodhi is a sophomore who is dating Ridoc Gamlyn. They had gone to the same middle school and had become close. Over the last summer break, they had started dating.
She was sitting at a table wth her back against a wall, her computer in front of her rather than a lunch tray, when Ridoc and Bodhi sat down at the table she was at. I saw Garrick go and sit down, Imogen behind him, only because they’re dating and Quinn’s sick today. Ridoc’s other friends joined shortly after. Rhiannon Matthias, Sawyer Henrick, his girlfriend Jesnia Neilwart, and Liam Mairi.
Liam’s mom is a family friend, so I’ve grown up with him and his younger sister Sloane, who’s currently an eighth grader.
It looks like I’m eating lunch with Violet today. No, not Violet; I’m eating with Bodhi’s friends.
I make my way to the table and sit down next to Garrick, positioning myself right across from Violet.
“I’m just saying, we haven’t gone Haunting in weeks, and now you're doing a book report on A Hundred Nights.” Ridoc is practically shaking Violet.
“True, we haven’t,” Violet responds.
“Haunting?”
Violet looks over at Bodhi, and then back to Ridoc. “You haven’t told your boyfriend?”
“It keeps slipping my mind.” Ridoc turns to Bodhi. “So basically, Haunting is an activity that our friend group does. Originally it was Violet’s thing, but after we became friends it became our thing.”
“Does it have any reason to do with why your location will sometimes pop up in weird places at night?” Bodhi asks.
“Yeah, it does actually. I kinda forget you have my location. Gods, I must be scaring the hell out of you when my tag shows up in random places.”
Bodhi just nods.
“But anyways, Haunting is basically us exploring abandoned places, like schools, stores, hospitals, etc.” Ridoc sums up, and everyone who isn’t a part of his friend group just stares at them.
“Come again?” Garrick asks.
Violet steps in. “It’s exactly what Ridoc says.”
“But he also said that it was originally a you thing, meaning you used to do that alone.” She just shrugs and nods.
“It’s actually really fun.” Jesina signs; Rhiannon had been helping her keep up with the conversation. “As long as you let Ridoc have control of the speaker , and not Violet”
She gasps in mock offense. “Rude.”
Rhiannon raises a brow. “It was from Saw, Vi. We were in an abandoned hospital, the basement to be exact. Excuse me if, all of a sudden, the music stops, and we hear “Do you want to play a game?” We were terrified.”
“It’s not even my fault, okay?”
“Who sets their ringtone for their mother to be a horror movie line?!”
“Um, what?” Bodhi is looking at the two girls in complete confusion.
“My ringtone for my mom is the line from the movie Saw. We were haunting, and I wasn’t supposed to be out of the house; I was grounded for something. My dad came to check on me, and when he saw I wasn’t in my bed, he snitched on me to my mom. She called me, and it sorta scared the hell out of all of us, because we were in the basement of an abandoned hospital.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you all?” It’s Imogen who asks the question I'm currently thinking.
“A lot actually.” Violet comments offhand, which causes Rhiannon and Ridoc to laugh.
“It’s funny,” Ridoc cuts himself off to laugh again, “because it’s true. Anyways, back to the topic, why can’t we? It could help with your book report.”
“If I wasn't help on my part of the report, I’ll just ask Dad, Ridoc. You are just looking for an excuse to go haunting.” Violet sounds exasperated, like he’s already asked and she said no.
“So what if I am? It’s been ages, please. Also, if we went haunting, you could take up-to-date photos of how the hospital looks now, compared to when Asher wrote it." Ridoc is practically begging.
I personally think it’s ridiculous; I’m pretty sure doing things like that is highly dangerous, and here he is begging to go.
“I’m with Ridoc Vi, it’s been ages.” Rhiannon chimes in.
“Same,” Sawyer adds while Jesinia nods her agreement.
Violet rolls her eyes; the face she’s making is honestly pretty cute. All of a sudden I want to kiss her again.
“Fine, fine. We can go haunting this Friday.”
They all cheer, obviously happy about going ‘haunting’.
Rhiannon looks at Garrick, Bodhi, Imogen, and me. “Do you guys want to join us? You don’t have to, but, seeing as the two of you,” She points at me and Garrick. “Are her partners, it could be beneficial.” Then she points to Bodhi. “And Ridoc is your boyfriend, so it might be helpful to see what he’s actually doing.”
“Hell yes.” Garrick doesn’t even hesitate.
I actually worry about his common sense.
“I mean, sure, I guess,” Bodhi agrees.
His too.
“Only because I don’t need my boyfriend disappearing on me.”
Imogen, I expected better from you.
Rhiannon looks at me in question, and despite my gut telling me I probably shouldn’t, and the fact that I know I shouldn’t. I nod.
What the hell is wrong with me?
Imogen, ever the one for civility, takes a jab at Violet’s outfit choice, her tone full of dislike. Suddenly I’m wondering what the history is there.
“Okay, just because my dad made a phone call to your mom regarding your attitude, Imogen, doesn’t mean you need to take it out on me.”
“Wait, who’s your dad?” Garrck asks, and I’m only now realising she never gave us her last name.
She groans, rolling her eyes.
But she’s saved from answering when my cousin answers for her. “It’s Principal Daxton”
Violet just nods. “But don’t call me Daxton or address me as it; my dad technically took my mom’s last name. He only uses Dxton for work.”
“Wait, so your last name is…?” I ask.
“Her last name is Sorrengail,” Rhiannon says.
Violet just rolls her eyes like it’s not a big deal and making it one is annoying.
But it is a big deal. The Sorrengail Enterprise is as high in market and stocks as the Riorson.
I never would have thought that she was rich, or came from a rich family, from the looks of her.
“So you decided to do a book report on your dad’s book?” Garrick asks, laughing after getting over his initial shock.
“Yes, it’s easier to do a book report and give a presentation when you have access to the author. Also, he wrote the book for me, so why not?”
“Wrote it for you? Explain.” Garrick all but demands in the sweetest voice he can muster.
“He’s a famous author, and he’s written plenty of books, but there are three books that he’s written that are dedicated to his children. One for my older brother Brennan, one for my older sister Mira, and then one for me. He wrote the book A Hundred Nights for me.
“Wow,” Garrick breathes.
Imogen just rolls her eyes and flips her off, and Violet returns with her own. I seriously want to know what’s going on there, but not right now.
“Okay, okay, back to the topic. How about this Friday?” Surprisingly, it’s Ridoc that brings us back.
“Friday sounds good. Are we going to my house after school, and then gonna go?”
“Sounds like a plan. For the newbies, pack extra clothes, flashlights, and a weapon.” Rhiannon informs.
None of us question the weapon part. Exploring abandoned places can’t be that safe.
We all agree, and that's when the bell rings, signaling that lunch is over and the second-to-last period of the day will start.
As I’m walking to my history class, I can’t help but wonder what I just got myself into.