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“Yes. Please, be aware of that now that you’re going to teach her.”
Nodding, I get up and rebutton my suit. “If that’s all. I should go to my first class.”
“One more thing, Mr. Hayes. The word of our Lord is what will truly save my girls. You are a very charming man, but they must always know that Jesus is the only one who belongs in their hearts. Make sure to remember that.”
I chuckle low, putting my hands in my slacks. “I was convicted for torture and murder, Ms. Moore. Not for intercourse with minors. I’m not interested in your girls.”
CHAPTER TWO
HALEY
Walking through the cold, stone hallways of Holy Rose never gets cheerier. The entire school is freezing, forcing us to wear a hundred layers in the winter. I’m pretty sure Moore keeps the radiators off so we don’t get any ideas about showing our skin. At least it’s spring now, so the skirt and shirt feel fine to wear.
“Haley!” Claire calls out as she runs toward me, her heavy backpack hitting against her back and some papers in her hand. She’s the epitome of what this school does to us. I’m the before and she’s the after. Her white button-down is neatly tucked into the dark gray and royal blue plaid skirt we are all forced to wear. It stops below her knees, right where her gray socks can meet the hem. Her blue tie is perfectly placed below the collar of our summer shirt, and the short sleeves reach adequately over her shoulders.
Her hair is separated in two and braided on each side of her head. The braids come to rest all the way to her tits and she’s put royal blue bows to hold them.
Little miss perfect. Little miss ‘I’m going to leave this school in a few months when everyone graduates’.
The sight of her pisses me off.
She stops right in front of me, and I do the same.
“Here,” she says as she passes me a piece of paper.
I smile down at the sheet of homework we were given a few days ago.
“Good,” I tell Claire. Then I throw her a dark look. “Did you put some different answers on yours? I don’t want to get caught.”
“Yes,” she says shyly. “I put three wrong answers on mine and only one on yours.”
Nodding, I fold the piece of paper and shove it in my satchel. The same black leather one we all have. I look back up and she’s still there, looking at her feet. “Alright, get out of my way now,” I snarl.
“I…um…I was wondering if I could ask for something in exchange. I’ve done your homework practically all year and…well, we’re coming to the summer break soon. I thought. I thought maybe you could give me my phone back?”
Next to me, my good friend Katya snorts. “Who does she think she is?”
“I’m sorry,” Claire panics as she takes a step back. “It’s just…I-I’m going to graduate, and I can’t afford another one once I leave. And you…”
She doesn’t dare finish her sentence. I know what it is anyway. You’re going to be stuck here until you grow a brain and get the grades you need.
“It’s okay.” I give her a wide smile and grab her phone in my bag. “This is what you want, right?” I wave it in front of her face.
She nods quietly, her cheeks red. My parents took everything from me when they put me in here four years ago. I was over the moon to start freshman year in our local high school with all my friends and more particularly my boyfriend.
But my parents had other plans. The day school started again they drove past my old school and all the way to Holy Rose, Catholic School for Trouble Girls. They said they were sick of my behavior. That my older sister never gave them any trouble and was doing amazing at college. They wondered how they could have ended up with a second daughter who already has a criminal record at fourteen. All I did was steal their car while drunk. And I guess I beat up some girls in my middle school but that was never put on record.
They took my phone, credit card, laptop. Everything. I didn’t have one piece of clothing that was mine anymore, apart from the short skirt and cropped top I wore that day. Needless to say, I can never wear it here. Not even on Saturdays when we’re free to wear real clothes rather than our shitty, shapeless uniform. Because even on Saturdays we have to wear skirts below our knees and not show our stomach or shoulders.
It took me years to figure out how to escape. But when I did, I couldn’t keep still. My pride took over and I had to get revenge on the man who deserved my wrath.
Which is what got me right back here. For good. Until I graduate. I turned eighteen in this shithole and I won’t turn nineteen here. I would rather die stuck between the barbed wire that lines the tall walls of the school than spend another birthday here.
I tighten the phone in my hand, my smile turning into a smirk. I stole Claire’s phone a few months after I was brought back, when I realized my parents would not come to visit me anymore and that I wouldn’t escape again. The poor girl thought I wanted to become her friend. It was quite a surprise when I cornered her against one of the walls in the library and threatened her with a butter knife I took from the canteen. I couldn’t really hurt her, but I guess my reputation preceded me at that point.
We all have a reason to be at Holy Rose. Our families put us here because we’d become too much for them. But there are different levels families can handle. My parents had the justice system put me here after I tried to stab a man. They never wondered why. He agreed to leave them alone if I wrote a letter of apology. I would never. My mom did it for me and it was hard enough to read it to him in court. I hate her for putting my name at the bottom of it.
Claire is here because she kept going out with friends rather than praying calmly in her room or with her parents. Claire is the kind of girl who only uses her phone on Saturdays between ten am and one pm. When it’s allowed. In other words, she’s a normal teenager who was put in a school full of truly troubled girls. If I wasn’t the one eating her, another shark would. Claire is prey and I’m hunter. I’ve always been.
