Page 9 of Wicked Games

I laughed, already feeling a little calmer. “Thanks.”

The bell finally rang, and our class started. The lesson ended up being fine for me, because we were at the very beginning of the school year, which meant everyone else in the room was in the exact same boat as me—unsure and a little lost, but ready to jump in and figure things out.

The bell rang, and April offered to show me where my next class was. I walked past Maverick’s desk with my eyes stalwartly forward, because I was afraid he might say something if he saw me looking at him. I could feel his gaze on me as I passed, practically burning a hole in my new blazer with the fury held within them, but thankfully he stayed silent.

I stepped out into the hall and didn’t look back, but when April decided to open her phone camera and take a selfie to commemorate the end of the first class on the first day back, I spotted Maverick on the screen, standing a few feet behind us.

Watching me.

Carey

April was right about this school’s predilection for gossip. She was also right about Maverick’s probable campaign against me—by lunchtime, everyone in the school knew my name and the fact that I was here on a scholarship that I seemingly received for breaking the law. Thankfully, the details around my case were still hazy at best to everyone on campus, and I had no intention of sharing them. Not anytime soon, anyway.

The rest of the school day absolutely sucked. People glared at me in the halls and classrooms, whispered to each other while staring at me, or straight-up hurled insults at me as I walked past. They were stupid, uncreative insults like ‘whore’ and ‘trailer trash’, but it still stung to hear those words thrown at me.

The most annoying nickname that my fellow students had come up with was ‘crim’, short for ‘criminal’. Multiple people had addressed me with it over the last few hours, and I was currently staring at it spray-painted in bright red on the locker that had been assigned to me to store my books between classes.

I thought this school was for smart kids, but if ‘crim’ was really the best insult these fuckers could come up with, then Ifigured I probably had a decent shot at a top spot in one or more of my classes. Silver linings and all.

Feeling more than a little deflated at the way the day had gone, but hardly surprised, I returned to my dorm and trudged inside. My dormmate was still yet to reveal herself, so I knew nothing about her, apart from the fact that her aim wasn’t great when it came to tossing things in the washing basket.

Part of me was pointlessly clinging to the hope that it was April, but I already knew that she lived with her parents in one of the staff houses during school terms, so it couldn’t be her. I also knew it wasn’t Brooke—April’s best friend that she’d kindly introduced me to during lunch, along with their other friend Zach—because she’d spent several minutes at lunch complaining to us about her roommate Leah, who was apparently extremely messy.

With a sigh, I dumped my bag on the end of my bed and started properly unpacking my suitcase. After a while, I took a break and headed over to the window to check out the view. The sky was overcast and spitting rain, but it was still nice to look outside and take in the ocean and cliffs. Certainly a lot better than the view from my apartment back home, which was a direct look into a rundown auto repairs shop.

I leaned forward and squinted, spotting something in the distance. A small island, perhaps, or maybe a huge container ship. It was too far to tell. I grabbed my phone and used the camera app to zoom in, confirming that I had in fact spotted an island that lay right off the coast. When I zoomed in further, I was able to make out the vaguest outline of a building. It was made of gray stone and looked a lot like a castle. That was crazy, though. A castle in Northern California? It made no sense.

I texted April.Hey, this sounds kinda nuts, but when I zoom in with my camera, I can see what looks like acastle on an island from my dorm window. Any idea what it is?

She texted back a few minutes later.Yup, that’s Icarus Hall. It used to be part of the school.

Me:Really? So far from the rest?

April:Yeah. Back in the day, like almost 100 years ago, it was the girls’ section. Parents didn’t want their daughters anywhere near the boys at school, so they thought having all that water between their dorms and classrooms would be enough to protect their little darlings. But that fell out of favor in the 60s, and they made this place properly co-ed. Apart from the dorms, obviously, because there’s still separate accommodation halls for boys and girls.

Me:How did they get over there back then? Boat?

April:Yeah, there’s no bridge because the island is too many miles out to build something like that. I think that was part of the reason they wanted to stop using it. It was too annoying to keep taking boats back and forth to transport all the people and stuff like food and equipment. Anyway, now the building is heritage-listed. But no one goes there. No point, really. It’s just an old building that’s basically the same as every building right here on campus. And the island is pretty much a giant rock with nothing else on it.

I was still musing over this piece of information about Babylon’s history when I heard the door open behind me. Before I could turn around to check out my dormmate, a familiar voice carried across the room.

“What the fuck?”

Maverick

Un-fucking-believable.

Carey Saracen was in my dorm. Her shit was all over the place, too—bags, half-unpacked suitcase, textbooks, notebooks. For a second, I thought I had to be hallucinating, but when I blinked, she was still standing there looking at me like a deer in headlights.

My fists curled at my sides as I stared back at her from the entryway. I still couldn’t believe she had the audacity to take that fucking scholarship and show up at my school after the crazy shit she pulled in June. But this? Invading my room with all her crap? That was a whole new level of fuckery.

“What the hell are you doing in here?” I asked, eyes narrowing.

She nervously licked her lips—plump pink lips that looked kissable as fuck, much to my chagrin—and stepped forward. “This is my room. What areyoudoing here?”

I folded my arms over my chest. “It’smyroom.”

“That’s not possible.” Carey shook her head, thick brown hair swishing around her narrow shoulders. “The girls and boys are separated in the dorms here.”

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