“Sadie, why don’t you sit with us?” I heard a voice say as I passed by with my lunch tray. I turned to see where the voice had come from and met eyes with a girl. She was very pretty with fair skin, long wavy brown hair, and bright blue eyes. She gestured for me to take the seat across from her, and I looked around to see if she was talking to me or someone behind me, but there was no one there, she really wanted me to sit with her. As I sat down, I placed my lunch tray on the table in front of me and peered at the other three people sitting at the table. Next to the girl sat a boy with blond hair and green eyes; he was just as good-looking as all the other teens sitting at the table but there was something about him that made my heart flutter when he smiled at me. Across from him sat a blond girl, and to be honest, my first thoughts were, she’s the kind of girl who has dated every guy in this school. She was eating a single celery stick and had cropped her school uniform as short as possible. Next to me sat a tall boy. He had short red hair and blue eyes. He confidently put his arm around me and with a snide grin asked, “So you’re the mysterious Sadie?” I shrugged his arm off of me, a little uncomfortable.
“Ughhh Brendon, do you really have to hit on every girl that comes within a 10-mile radius of you?” the girl with the brown hair said.
“Hey, I can’t help it. It’s just part of my charm,” he winked at the girl and she rolled her eyes.
Then they turned to me, “So mystery girl, what brings you to the prestigious Winchester Academy?” Brendon asked.
“Aren’t you the one who is here on a scholarship or something?” the blond girl chimed, in a I am so much better than you kind of tone.
“Um yeah, that’s me,” I said nervously. Why was I nervous? Usually, I’d love to put a bougie princess who thinks everyone else is beneath her, in her place, but for some reason, my palms were sweating and my heart was racing. Maybe it’s because of the fact that I haven’t made a single friend since coming to this school, or maybe it’s the fact that at the end of the day, all these kids around me go home to their million-dollar New York apartments, and I’m going home to my rental apartment with creaky floorboards and peeling wallpaper that we keep meaning to fix but never do.
“Ok, well anyway, I’m Blair,” she gestured to that boy next to her, “this is Luke, that’s Jenny, and, of course, Brendon.” Blair gestured to each of them as she said their names. That was the end of my old life. What the next few weeks would bring might cost me my life but what’s a little chaos if it means I might finally belong. Right?
Two weeks later I’m sitting next to Blair in a black stretch limo with Luke, Brendon, and Jenny. “Where are we going?” I ask Blair as she takes a sip of the champagne she’d brought from home.
An hour earlier I had been sitting on the couch getting a lecture from my mother about how ever since I had started hanging out with Blair, Luke, Brendon, and Jenny, I had been changing.I said some words that I wish I could’ve taken back but as I left the house with Blair against my mothers will, it was too late.
We drove out of my neighborhood and towards the inner city. “ So what are we doing tonight?” I was curious as no one had informed me of tonight’s events. “ You’ll see, you all know the plan right?” Blair asked everyone. “ What plans?” I asked, getting a little nervous. Is it going to be fun? Scary? Dangerous!?
We pulled up to a large building and something felt familiar but I hadn’t been paying attention to our surroundings as we drove, and even if I had, the darkness of the night cloaked the identity of this familiar yet mysterious building. We walked up to the front stairs and I was finally able to read the sign over the front door. Winchester Academy.
“We are at… school. What are we doing here?” I was starting to get more and more nervous as the night went on.
“Jenny do your lock thing,” Blair commanded. Jenny walked up to the, pulled a bobby pin out of her hair and started picking the lock.
“Wait we’re going inside but isn’t that breaking and entering or something, isn’t that illegal?!” I exclaimed. I wasn’t about to get arrested for a stupid little prank, no not going to happen, I was going to turn around, walk away and go home where I’d pologize to my mom and go to bed.
“Got it!” Jenny said as she stood up and opened the door with a creak.
They walked inside but I stayed behind Blair turned to me, “ Are you coming or what? You’re one of us now remember, you have to do what we do, or maybe you don’t want to be friends with us after all?” She said as she flipped her hair and walked deeper into the school halfway. Should I follow? I knew in my gut that it wasn’t right, I should just turn around and walk away from this trouble……but, if I did that I’d be back at square one with no friends eating lunch alone. Plus what was the worst that could happen if I took part in a tiny prank on the school, I get detention?
“Wait up!” I called as I followed the group into the dark school.
Our footsteps echoed as we tiptoed through the school. I turned into the computer room, we all ducked down, and I slowly peered up through the glass and saw Kevin sitting at the computer turning on a video game. He was a scrawny kid and I had seen him a couple times around school but he spent most of his days in the computer room, and apparently nights too.
“Oh, it’s just Kevin,” Brendon said with a sigh of relief. We continued down the hallway and stopped once we stood in front of the Principal’s office. Blair signaled us to follow her inside, but as I tried to, Luke held me back, “Not us. We stand guard in case anyone comes.”
“Oh, ok. So what are they planning to do anyways?”
“I’m not really sure, but it’s probably going to be the same old.”
“Wait you guys have done this before?”
“Yeah, Blair always makes us do it. She’s so rich that nothing brings her any excitement anymore so she has found other ways to acquire that thrill.”
“Really, but I thought…….”
My question was cut short by a scream s Blair, Jenny and Brendon came running out of the office. “What’s going on?!” I asked but my question was answered when I turned around and saw that the office was quickly being devoured by flames.
“OH MY GOD!!” panic spread through my body just as fast as the fire spread through the office. I was frozen, unable to move, the fire was creeping towards me but my feet wouldn’t budge. Just as the flames reached my feet a hand grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the way.
“Run!!!” Luke said as he pulled me into a sprint. We ran out the front door and onto the wet dewy grass of the front lawn.I turned to see that the fire was spreading even faster than before as it had already devoured half the building.
“How did this happen?!” I asked Blair, my voice cracking from the panic.
“I lit a match to see what we were doing and accidentally dropped it, I tried to put it out but it was too late,” she said innocently.
I walked over to luke and asked calmly, “What’d she tell you?”
“She said she dropped a match on accident and it set off the fire.”
“An accident? No, knowing Blair, that was no accident.” He gritted his teeth in anger.
“Wait, you mean she did this on purpose?!”
The fire had engulfed the whole school now and I could hear the sound of sirens in the distance, and in the ominous flickering light the words Luke had said about Blair not feeling anymore excitement or thrill anymore dawned on me. The pranks weren’t enough, nothing would ever be enough because she’d always crave more; this wasn’t the end of all the madness no, this was only the beginning.
Blair stood silent watching the fire as it glowed brighter and brighter spreading faster and faster, eating more and more with each passing second, and slowly she started to smile, started to laugh as she watched the chaos she had just birthed. At that moment I knew that this was just the start of her plans and I was a part of it, there was no going back now, I was in it for the long run.