Page 109 of Unspoken Truths

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JARED

Rachelle doesn’t meet anyone’s gaze as she walks into statistics. As far as I know from Theo after I met him at his locker after his fuck fest, this is the only class her grades weren’t fucked over. It still means that she won’t be seeing any kind of decent ranking among the sophomore students.

Mr. Richardson makes the testing process quick and relatively painless, though looking over the exam, I know I’m going to need to focus on this one. Formulas come relatively easily for me, but I don’t want to fuck this up.

The class period is spent in silence until we all turn in our exam. After today, students will only come to school if they have a project to turn in or a later exam. I have a chemistry exam tomorrow that’s labs based, so I’ll be coming to school for that, but I’m basically done after.

Grades and rankings will be emailed to both parents and students next Monday. I know I’ll have a top ranking in the bag. The headmaster said that the top six ranked students will be able to meet with the company of their choice. This means, regardless of what my parents want, I can still speak to anyone I want.

I love math and science. I want to learn more about the laboratory field, particularly in infectious diseases. I want to know how they come into being, how they multiply and spread. If my parents find out about where I decided to go, they’ll at least accept that this is adjacent to the pharmaceutical industry.

I think one of the reasons I have so many issues with what my parents do is because of how much it costs people. They have the cures to so many different types of diseases, with no intention to make it cost effective. Only insurance companies or the very wealthy can afford it.

That’s what ultimately pisses me off about their industry. If I could, I’d live in the lab and create medications and cures simply for the joy of knowing it was being administered to more people. I know that’s not how the world works, but maybe I can open some kind of charity that can help more people receive their life saving medications.

I may be a dick, but I’m not completely heartless. I’m competitive, ruthless even. Rachelle doesn’t deserve my respect as an interloper in my world. I’m willing to help others as long as they stay in their lane. Maybe that’s fucked up. That's all I know, though.

Dropping the exam at the teacher’s desk, I walk out of the classroom, knowing I did the best I could on it. It also makes me happy to know that no matter how hard Rachelle studied, it’s impossible for her to rise from the bottom.

She’s the shit that sticks to someone’s shoe, that’s all.

I’m practically on cloud nine as I walk out of school by the end of the day, surrounded by my friends who are also done. No more clubs, sports, or responsibilities.

Fuck, it feels good.

“How are we all feeling?” I ask with a grin.

“Fucking fantastic,” Nacio confirms with a nod. I haven’t seen very much of him outside of school since his father is riding his ass.

I have a feeling it’s because we’re fucking with his father’s precious new adoptive daughter. I was pissed off on Nacio’s behalf over the wedding, I’m even more annoyed about the adoption.

Who the fuck adopts a girl they barely know?

“I feel really good about it,” Elijah says, stretching his neck out from the stress of leaning over a desk all day.

“Same,” Theo grunts. “Lunch was spent in the best way. I’m willing to say it was the highlight of the day.”

Ignacio smirks, knowing that means it was spent fucking someone.

“Who did you spend it with?” he asks as we stop by his car.

“Miss Marie,” Theo says. “A little anal does a growing boy good. Also, the little mouse’s grades are thoroughly fucked. There’s no way she’s coming back from it.”

“Yeah, I heard all about it,” Nacio says with a wince. “Dad’s been giving me some pretty nasty jobs in the meantime.”

“Fuck. Because we’re fucking with Rachelle?” Elijah asks.

He didn’t find out till after the fact either, but he said he didn’t mind. As long as the building blocks to her demise were being built, it was fine.

“Pretty much,” Nacio replies. “Those guys who attacked her on campus property have been dealt with. They won’t be coming back.”

“Was it rival shit?” I ask, curious.

“Yeah,” he says, a shadow rolling over his face as he nods. There’s something more to his answer, but if it has to do with his father’s business, I’ll leave it be.

I don’t want anything to do with it.

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