This girl was really going to eat crackers.
I let out a smile—a rare, elusive creature for me—and said, “I’m Vaughn.”
“Jaz,” she muttered, sounding unhappy as she shared her name, as if she was giving me the key to her heart. She looked like she was putting up a front, trying to act tough…or maybe that was simply because, compared to what I’d seen and had to deal with, no one around here was really tough.
True toughness was something you were molded into. These other kids might think they could stand strong when the going got tough, but they couldn’t. One drop of blood and most of them would run for the hills, fearing for their lives.
Jaz. I liked its shortness. Short and sweet and to the point.
She tore her eyes away from me, surveying the cafeteria. “This is going to be a long semester,” she muttered, frowning to herself. If she was a self-proclaimed outcast, she’d stay that way. I didn’t blame her for not wanting to integrate herself into anyone’s group. People around here were just annoying.
“Time tends to fly around here,” I said, causing her eyes to snap back at me.
“Not for me,” she said. “Never for me.”
I grinned, though the grin fell off my face the moment she no longer looked at me. All throughout lunch, I watched her, trying to figure her out. I liked to think I could read people pretty well, that I noticed little ticks and cracks in masks most people wouldn’t, but for whatever reason, I could not decipher her.
She was, for all intents and purposes, an unknown.
Something inside me hardened, and I stuck my spork in a piece of meat, knowing I’d have to get to the bottom of her. I didn’t like unknowns.
Lunch was over far too soon, and we parted ways. I didn’t see her at all the rest of the day, our schedules too different. All day I kept repeating her name to myself: Jaz. I kept picturing the way she’d looked at me, how she kept herself closed off from everyone else. I would get to the bottom of her sooner or later.
I might’ve blinked, and the rest of the day was over. When school let out, I grabbed everything I had to from my locker and walked outside. Many of the kids had their own cars, and those that didn’t were either picked up by a parent in a fancy vehicle or by drivers. I had a driver who always pulled up to the front door and blocked the rest of the cars behind him, the car sleek and black.
I got in the back, slamming the door behind me. The windows were tinted, allowing me to gaze outside in privacy, no one looking at me. It was as the car was put into gear and slowly pulled away that I saw Jaz exiting the glass doors of the school, looking lost as she glanced all around.
Bundled up in a coat, the wind whipping at her hair, she looked even better than I remembered her being at lunch. A bit wild, a bit frightened. A part of me rather liked seeing the expression on her face, even though I wasn’t able to stare at her for long.
Once we were on the road, I settled in the seat. I didn’t bother buckling my seatbelt. Our estate stood on the far outer reaches of Midpark, where the mansions had acres and acres of land surrounding them on all sides. Long, winding driveways, gates and guards that kept most people away. My family’s estate had cameras everywhere, along with multiple guards who walked the property at all hours of the day and night.
When you had an illegal business, you tended to be careful, and when that illegal business was sometimes had in your own basement, you were extra careful.
We pulled into the drive, slowing to a stop as the guard at the gate checked credentials. No one could just walk or drive onto our property. We probably had the biggest estate in Midpark, and that was because we had the most money. And the biggest family.
My father was older than the dads of other students at Midpark. He had quite a few wives, a lot of girlfriends, and more mistresses than that. The business had stayed in the family for generations, and he’d had this mansion and all of its fancy—ahem, not-so-legal parts—built. He ensured the family legacy would continue.
Needless to say, my family was huge. A lot of brothers, some full-blooded and others merely half since some of us didn’t share mothers. Cousins aplenty. Sisters who were either inducted into the family business or who were thrown out if they refused. But even then, my father always kept an eye on them.
The gate was slow to open, and we drove through. The driver let me out near the front door, needing to go around back to park it.
Jaz.
As I entered the house, I couldn’t get my mind off her. Was there more to her than met the eye? Was there something more to her than the lonely transfer student who put up walls to keep everyone out, or was that it?
I would find out what she had hidden in the depths of her soul. It wasn’t like I had much else to do around here except wait to graduate. Jaz seemed as good of an obsession as any. Plucking her petals off one by one until she was laid bare. Was it wrong to be excited?
Because I was. Almost unreasonably so.
Chapter Five – Jaz
One day down. The rest should be easy compared to this horrible day—the freaking minutes seemed to drag on and on for hours, the hours lasting days. I knew that didn’t make sense, but time literally crawled today.
And, what was worse, I had so much homework to do, so much to catch up on. Cue the typical teenage eye-rolling.
I exited the school, shivering once as the cool winter air hit me. Other Midpark students lingered around the door, waiting for their rides, while others headed straight into the parking lot to their expensive cars.
I didn’t envy them because of their money. I envied them because of their superior, carefree attitude. They probably didn’t have a care in the world. They didn’t know what it was like to drop everything and move, to change their number and delete all of their social media accounts because they were worried about their mom.
When Mom had come into my room and told me what to do, that we were moving the very next week and that I needed to leave everything behind, I was scared. Of course I was. I couldn’t help but feel like there was something she wasn’t telling me, almost like we were on the run.
Which was ridiculous, because my mom was a good person. She didn’t have a criminal bone in her body, so I had no idea what we could possibly be on the run from, but still. Mom was too tight-lipped about it to be of any help.
I searched for my mom’s van; I didn’t assume Ollie was picking me up again. I knew that him dropping me off this morning was probably all I’d get from him, which was more than okay. We lived in his freaking house and my mom worked for him. I didn’t need him to drive me to school, anyways. In fact, after hearing what I did from Bobbi, I’d rather be seen in my mom’s crusty old van than Ollie’s car anyway.
“Hey, you!” A shrill voice behind me called out, but I assumed they were talking to someone else, and I stepped out, still looking for my mom’s van when I felt a hand curl around my arm and spin me around.
A girl wearing the thinnest jacket ever stood before me in heeled boots. Her blonde hair was curled, its tendrils pinned to the back of her head in an up-do that made me wonder if she was going to the country club after school.
Rich people went to country clubs, right? It sounded like something they’d do.
Her eyes were a light amber, narrowed as she studied me, slow to release my arm. Her nails had acrylic on them, a wintry design on their long, pointed lengths. Small golden hoops sat in her ears, and she wore a pensive expression. Two dark-haired girls stood behind her; they were not nearly as studious of me as she was, though.