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IMANI
“It’s six in the morning!” I shouted at the Poison boys, who had dragged me into school bright and goddamn early in the morning. “Why did you bring me here this early? And why the hell are we heading toward the principal’s office? Did you guys get in trouble or something?”
After Friday night, I hadn’t talked to any of the guys until this morning. I didn’t know what I had done to piss them off, but even Landon and Kai hadn’t said a word to me when João showed up at my house earlier with them.
“Did you guys have fun Friday night?” Landon asked, walking down the hallway.
I glanced over at João, who continued walking with his jaw clenched. “You told them?”
“I didn’t tell them shit,” he said.
While I couldn’t really tell if he was annoyed or not, Landon stopped in the middle of the hallway right before we passed a meeting room. The windows were covered with blinds, the door closed, and people were crowded into the room.
Kai peeked into the small crack between the blinds, letting him see into the room. “Just as I expected—a meeting with the most influential men in Redwood. But what the hell are they doing here, talking to the principal?”
Inching closer to him, I glanced into the room to see the police chief, the principal, some cops, and other men dressed in fancy suits who worked down in the city. It was such an odd group of people to be crowded in a school room this early in the morning.
“Is this why we’re here?” I whispered.
“No,” Kai said, backing up into me.
Almost immediately, his hand came around my waist to steady me, and then he pulled it away quickly, as if he didn’t want to touch me. But maybe that was my mind fucking with me.
I would’ve told them that João and I were going out, but I thought it was going to be, like, a quick stop at a fast-food joint or something. I hadn’t thought it would be this huge deal that João—and now, Landon and Kai—made it out to be.
“Then, why are we here?” I asked.
“João didn’t tell you after all the time you spent together?” Landon asked.
Rolling my eyes, I followed them farther down the hallway. “Oh my God. You guys are so dramatic. All that happened was a date because I forced him to. He owed me a favor, and I wanted him to have a fun night.”
Landon grabbed my hand for the first time today. “I bet it was really fun.”
“It was, dickhead,” João said, stopping at the principal’s office door and pulling a key out of his pocket. He thrust the key into the door, turned the knob, and opened the door. “Now, fucking drop it. We need information.”
My eyes widened slightly as I watched Kai and João walk into the room as if it were the most normal thing ever. I glanced back down the hallway at the meeting room and clutched my stomach.
“We’re breaking into the principal’s office?!” I whisper-yelled.
“If we don’t get caught from that big mouth of yours,” João snapped, holding the door open and narrowing his dark eyes at me. Unlike Friday night, those eyes were back to being hard and unreadable. “Shut it and get in here.”
Landon pulled me into the room, locked the door behind us, then closed the window blinds. I stood at the door with wide eyes and crossed my arms, nervous that the principal would walk in here at any second.
They still hadn’t really told me why we were here—or why I was here.
If Vaughn walked into the room and caught us snooping in his drawers, he would either give us detention or suspend us. And I didn’t even want to think about how Mom would react to that kind of news.
All my college acceptances would be revoked, and I’d have to live in this shithole town for the rest of my life. I glanced over my shoulder at the locked door and gnawed on the inside of my cheek. I refused to let that happen.
“Can I leave?” I asked.
Kai sat at Principal Vaughn’s desk, João behind him with one hand posted on the desk while the other was on the back of Kai’s seat.
João glanced up at me and laughed lifelessly. “I thought you wanted to be part of Poison? You don’t get to pick and choose what jobs you do.”
“But—”
“You’re not leaving.”
