Page 155 of Fraternizing with the Enemy
Maybe it wasChalant About Logan Castle.
THE DEATH OF THE TOP TIER
You heard it here first, Bobcats — the reign of Top Tier royalty is officially OVER.
Turns out, when you build your throne on lies, manipulation, and a whole lotta backstabbing, it’s only a matter of time before it all comes crashing down.
I’ve been suuuuper quiet since Homecoming because I’ve been doing some digging, and I’ve finally got my facts straight. Turns out, there’s a good side to the Top Tier… and a very, very bad one.
The good side? Connor Bray, Landon Settler, ReedManning, and Madison Oliphant.
The bad side? Ashton Shaw, Kyle Filmore, Riley Miller, and Jade Dyer.
Rumor has it our so-called “leaders” have been running more schemes than a reality TV villain. Bribes, betrayals, secret deals? Check, check, and check. And now? The truth’s out — and no one’s looking quite so picture-perfect anymore.
Before we get into the TRUE tell-all, let me just say:
RIP to the Top Tier.
Some were heroes. Some were villains.
But none of them will ever be forgotten.
Stay tuned, Bobcats. If this is the end of an era, something new is bound to rise from the ashes, don’t you think?
“Ava has a flare for the dramatics,” I murmured with a small smile on my face, scanning over the article again. “‘Some were heroes’? Who exactly among us was ahero?”
“She’ll probably say Connor,” Maisie muttered at myside, and gripped my arm to steer me straight. We were walking down the sidewalk when Maisie showed me the article, and apparently, I couldn’t do both. “Girl, you’re going to walk into traffic at this rate.”
“That’s why I have you here.” I offered her phone back to her, stuffing my hands back into the pocket of my dark gray coat. October had chilled off almost drastically halfway through the month, and now that Halloween was in three days, it was super chilly. “I know people are going to wonder why it took her so long to post it, but I appreciate her running it by all of us first.”
And, admittedly, there were a few things I’d asked her to keep in—like how Ihadsabotaged Maisie freshman year. Connor asked Ava to include thatJannorwas mostly a lie, but also to affirm that Jade and hehadbeen an actual couple at one point. Landon and Reed had looked it over, too, and we all wanted to make sure of one thing: that everyone in the Top Tier had their secrets laid out. Even ours.
“Please.” Maisie snorted. “She was fangirling over the fact thatConnor BrayandMadison Oliphantwere helping her with her article. I scolded her for it, don’t worry, but some habits are hard to break.”
That had me smiling a little. Rachel and Ava had been hardcore Top Tier fans leading up to its downfall, which made the integration into Maisie’s friend group funny at times. In the beginning, I caught Rachel gaping at Connor open-mouthed sometimes, and then caught Ava sneaking peaks at me at other times. Somewhere through the month, though, after eating lunch together every day and hanging out after school here and there, the sparkle of Connor and I had dulled.
A bit. “Your friends are really sweet,” I told Maisie now.
She nudged me in the side. “Yourfriends, too.”
Right. My friends, too. It made me smile.
We stopped at the crosswalk across from Expresso’s, and from here, I could see that some of the lights were off. Not all of them, though, and I could see a silhouette move through the space like a shadow.
I bounced a little on my toes, waiting for the crosswalk signal to change.
“How do you think everyone else will take it?” Maisie asked, and I could feel her looking at me. “Like, Ashton and Kyle and Riley.”
I let out a slow breath, and it puffed in the air in front of me. It wasn’t like their worst deeds were coming out. Hudson still didn’t want to bring up what happened freshman year again, so Ava didn’t include that. There wasn’t proof that Ashton and Kyle broke Noah’s leg on purpose, so that wasn’t mentioned. But all of their bullying—like targeting Lacey, threatening Maisie and Connor, and everything that happened to me at Homecoming—was going to come out. “Not sure,” I answered honestly. “Without Jade, they’ve been… lost.”
It was a good word for it. Riley, especially. Jade had been the ringleader of our pack, and without her, it was clear that without her guidance, they quickly fell apart. Ashton was already suspended for punching someone in the hallways—thank you, Brentwood’s zero-bullying policy—and Kyle had been keeping his head down. Riley quit the squad after the final football game of the season last week, and I hadn’t run into her in the hallways since.
“It’s weird,” I went on, and the crosswalk signal changed. Maisie and I crossed the street toward Expresso’s. “Jade being gone. I still feel like I look for her in the hallways sometimes. Which is dumb.”
“She was your best friend for nearly a decade,” Maisie said to my defense. “She absolutely sucked, but it’s not dumb that you think about her sometimes.”
It’d only been a few weeks since her and her parents had moved to New York, leaving Brentwood and everything Jade had ever known behind. Even after everything, I still found myself wondering how she was adjusting, going from Queen Bee to nobody. I checked her social medias once, only to find myself blocked.
