Page 11 of Evil Queen

Nikita

Words couldn’t quite describe how much I wanted the day to be over already. It was stressful, trying to focus on school on top of everything that was going on with The Royal Court, and Cherri’s big reveal certainly wasn’t helping things. I’d gotten pretty lucky, if it could be called that, to share all of my morning classes with Colette, so I was able to keep an eye on her, but it was painful to watch. After her frustrating interaction with Cherri, she hadn’t said much. She only clung to the box of Cherri’s things and stared at whichever teacher was leading the class, though it was obvious she wasn’t listening. By the time I sat down across from Jaxon at The Royal Court’s typical lunch table, I was exhausted beyond measure.

“Okay, that should be the last one,” I said to Jaxon as I sent him the last of the four recordings of my morning lectures while we waited for everyone else to arrive. “You sure she’s gonna listen to them?”

Jaxon poked at the fries on his tray while he made sure all the recording would play properly. “No, but maybe I can play them when we’re driving to and from school or something. I don’t know. I’ll get the info into her somehow. Colette is going to snap out of this at some point, and she is going to flip her shit when she realizes how much she was slacking in her academics. It was brilliant to record the classes. I’m sure she’ll be grateful.”

“I also took pictures of the notes. All things considered, I’m glad the teachers are still operating like Connor and Nathan have control. Otherwise, my phone would have ended up in that little lockbox thingy.”

“No kidding. It was nice getting preferential treatment before, but with all this shit, we’re really gonna need it,” Jaxon replied.

Jaxon definitely wasn’t wrong about how much we were going to need that special treatment. There were about five months of school left, and all of us were graduating, apart from Brayden. It wasn’t like there was ever a good time for all this shit to go down, but there was certainly a worst possible time, and we were in it.

Over the next ten minutes, everyone slowly arrived at the table. Nathan and Kyle arrived at about the same time, both with about the same level of exhaustion on their faces as I felt. Colette, who’d gone right to the bathroom and begged me to leave her alone after their last class, showed up a little after that and immediately sat down next to Jaxon, dropped her head against his shoulder, and was asleep not long after that.

Avery and Alistair were next to arrive, though they came in much later. It was likely because Alistair was damn near pulling Avery to keep her moving while also balancing both of their lunch trays on one arm. He put their trays down before helping Avery to sit down at the bench, and then he sat down next to her and gently rubbed her back.

“Baby, how about some of your salad? Just a little? I have an orange soda you can have if you eat a little,” Alistair coaxed under the watchful gaze of everyone, even Colette, who had stirred once they sat down.

Avery’s normally exuberant cocoa skin was a few shades paler, and though she didn’t look as malnourished as Colette did, she was much thinner than she was before all of this put her under so much stress. She had only managed to pull her hair back into a messy bun, and she wasn’t wearing any makeup. Avery didn’t really need makeup since she was one of those annoyingly natural beauties, but she never left the house without a full face. Still, beautiful though she was, she almost looked sickly without a layer of artistry on. To say I felt bad for her would be an understatement.

Fortunately, in the wake of Alistair’s bargaining, which was so practiced that it made me uncomfortable, Avery finally lifted her fork and stabbed it into her salad. It was almost as if that was what everyone else needed to see before they would start eating. Once she put the first forkful of salad in her mouth, everyone else dug into their plates. It did little to brighten the mood, though. As I ate, I noted that Avery scanned the lunchroom for Cherri every few minutes, only to be distracted in some way or another by Alistair.

“I’m sorry, Avery,” he said. “It’s just going to make it worse.”

Avery ducked her head. “I know. I just miss her.”

“You know what, Avery?” Colette started in a much brighter and cheery voice than I expected. “I talked to Cherri today.”

Avery’s head shot up, and she looked over at Colette. “You did?”

“Uh-huh,” Colette confirmed. “I had to give her back some of the stuff that she had left at Nathan’s. It may take a little while, but trust me, everything is gonna be fine.”

A small smile slid across Avery’s face, and Alistair let out a sigh of relief. He was the only one. The rest of us were there for what happened, and we knew the interaction wasn’t as optimistic as Colette made it seem. I’d been with Colette all day other than when she went to the bathroom before lunch, and the box of stuff was in the locked classroom where she would have her next class. Unless she was some sort of wizard, I was confident that she had not returned the box to Cherri. Whether Colette was lying to make Avery feel better or whether she was that delusional about how their morning interaction went, I wasn’t sure, nor was I sure which one would be worse.

Finally, Brayden arrived at the table, dropping down into a spot across from Nathan with a huff, his tray of food skittering across the table.

“Hey, man,” Nathan greeted. “You okay?”

“No,” he spat back. “You could have fucking died for how many of my calls you returned over the break. If I hadn’t talked to Kyle, who talked to Nikita, who talked to you, I probably would think that you were dead. That’s pretty fucking cold.”

“Hey,” I started, but Nathan put his hand on mine and shook his head.

“You’re right,” he replied to Brayden. “That was totally out of line. I was worried about myself and didn’t stop to think about how it would make you feel.” He looked straight into Brayden’s eyes. “Forgive me?”

Brayden looked Nathan up and down and then rolled his eyes. “I guess.”

“If it makes you feel better, I missed having you around.”

Brayden’s eyes skipped back to Nathan’s. “Really?”

“Yeah. You’re one of my best friends. I missed all of you guys.” He reached across the table and gently tapped a fist against Brayden’s hand. “It killed me not to be able to host the Christmas party. Remember last year, when you dressed up as Santa. I fucking loved that.”

Brayden’s expression seemed to lighten at that. “Yeah. That shit was hilarious.”

“You kept pulling out that mistletoe and holding it over everyone’s head, didn’t matter who it was, trying to get a kiss.”

Brayden laughed. “It didn’t work.” Nathan forced out a laugh to match Brayden’s, and the tension in Brayden’s shoulders released a little bit. “Anyway, don’t do that again. I was worried.”

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