Chapter Text
“I need to get railed,” Maddy says wistfully, her cheek sitting in the palm of her hand. She looks around the library at the surrounding tables, uncaring of the widened eyes at her vulgarity. “Is it bad that the thing I miss the most about Nate is his dick?”
Lexi sputters her pumpkin coffee across her AP History Prep book, quickly dabbing the page with the corner of her jacket. “Shit, this is a rental!”
A harsh, “Shhh!”, from one of the sections of the library cuts through the sound of pages turning, students' hushed whispers and Rue's choked snorts.
Lexi rolls her eyes, no need to guess who is shushing them. Since the summer of freshman year Lexi has worked at the school library for some extra money. Most of the other students in the summer are backpacking across Europe or spending time at their family home in the Hamptons which leaves her ample down time to study, so she’s become pretty uses Mr. Gables, the librarian who has worked here since the eighties and runs this place like a Naval ship.
“I mean, look, I know we’ve had our ups and downs–”
“That’s putting it lightly,” Kat interrupts Maddy in a low voice.
Although Kat is right, Rue, Cassie and Lexi shoot glances at her, a silent conversation had among them to be supportive of their friend. Maddy's eyes bounce between the four girls, picking up on the implication of their silence before she groans and bangs her forehead against the worn wood of the table that they have spent their afternoon studying at.
Well, at least, Lexi has spent it studying.
The Friday afternoon study session quickly went from calculus and history to upcoming Halloween plans before diverting to Maddy’s on-again-off-again, now currently off, relationship with Nate Jacobs. He’s always come off as manipulative and cold to Lexi, walking in the hallway like students should part for him to get through, probably because his dad donates a hefty sum of money yearly. Simply put, she doesn't like him one bit.
Honestly, Lexi doesn’t know what her friend or any girl sees in him which is why she’s kept her eyes down to her papers instead of trying to convince Maddy that she should officially end things with Nate. It’s not that she doesn’t care for her friend, but in the past her advice has gone in one ear and out the other, and before the week was over Maddy was seen walking the halls of East Highland Academy with his arm possessively slung around her while sporting a new piece of apology jewelry.
Maddy sighs dramatically, turning towards Lexi’s older sister to ask, “Cass, what do you think...should I hear him out?”
Cassie’s blue eyes rise from where they were locked onto her phone that is hidden from view underneath the table. “No. I-I mean, follow your heart.”
“Cass,” Rue sighs in disappointment. “We are supposed to tell her absolutely no and that’s it. We don’t think that she should hear this fuck wad out for the billionth time.”
“Sorry, Rue-Rue. They’ve been together since freshman year, there’s bound to be some attachments there. But, maybe it is time you consider breaking it off for good.” A ding from her phone has Cassie’s attention dropping to her lap once more to view her message.
Maddy purses her lips as her dark brown eyes narrow at her best friend failing to give her undivided attention. “Are you really texting someone during my crisis, bitch? Who is it?”
Cassie’s eyes rise from her phone once more, but they don’t meet any of the girls, instead fixing on a drop of water rolling down her iced matcha. After gulping audibly, she slowly says, “It’s..BB. She wants to know what I’m wearing for Virgil’s party tonight.”
Lexi has spent enough time with her sister to know that the long pauses and stuttering means she’s lying. She’s probably texting the same guy that she tried calling ten times last night, who sent her to voicemail mail every time. Unfortunately Lexi has had to watch many of Cassie’s relationships repeat the same cycle, but with two upcoming tests and the SATs in March, she doesn’t have time to deal with her sister’s emotional fall out.
“Speaking of BB,” Cassie says, turning to Kat, “Are you guys okay?”
Earlier today, BB and Kat got into a nasty argument in the school cafeteria. What started as back and forth of jabs being thrown quickly escalated into a shouting match, each of them accusing the other of being a bad friend.
Kat pauses for a moment before answering, “Right now, no. But I’ll talk to her tomorrow when we both have calmed down.”
“What was it even over? You and BB never fight,” Maddy points out.
“It doesn’t matter,” Kat says dismissively. “I think we should go back to studying, if i get it done now I’ll have the weekend off.”
While the others return to their books, and Cassie to her phone, Rue leans over to Lexi. “Hey, you hear about what happened last night?”
“No?” Lexi asks, her hand twirling the maroon ribbon in her hair while watching as Cassie goes back to texting on her phone.
“Do you live under a rock?” Rue waves her phone around in the air. “It was all over the group chat.”
Ah, the group chat that Lexi had named, ‘Unnecessary Distractions’, which supplies her with the very interesting gossip about who is screwing who and how everyone did on their tests. She can’t say she feels any guilt for ignoring the chat, as the name explains, the students at this boarding school are nothing but a distraction. Distractions that ignore her unless they have a question about an upcoming test but have no issue with whispering about how she’s non personable and stuck up.
With not even a hint of remorse, she reveals, “Honestly, I silenced the chat on the first day of freshman year. I can’t focus on studying when there’s a text alerting us every time a cheerleader is caught blowing an athlete behind the school.”
“Hm, I kinda thought you’d become more interested in who’s blowing athletes considering how your slutty summer with Thomas Hamill went.” Rue’s grin is nothing short of devious.
Lexi’s mouth falls open at her secret fling being not so much of a secret like she though as the rest of the table erupts in gasps. With the same shit-eating grin painted on her face, Rue reaches over to push upwards on Lexi’s chin with her index finger.
The clink of her own teeth meeting seems to pull Lexi from the shock. “Where did you– How did you know?”
Cassie’s eyes shoot up, finally finding something to pull her attention from her phone to expel a series of questions. “Wait, what? When? How?”
Kat interjects with maniacal laughter. “Well, you see, Cass, girls have a flower and boys want to pollinate said flower–”
“Thomas Hamill?” Maddy squeaks, thankfully interrupting what would have been the worst innuendo describing sex Lexi has ever heard. “Please tell me he was throwing you around the bedroom like a football.”
Cassie’s frame shudders from laughter. “Who knew you’d get down with the athletes here. I thought your type were theater kids.”
“Go ahead, Lexi,” Rue coaxes, waving her hand to the group of girls. “Share with the class about how you got dicked down by Thomas.”
“Rue, please,” Lexi begs and she sighs in defeat at the awaiting glares on her. “Okay, so over the summer he was repeating Mrs. Burns' English class, which I passed and he kept asking me for my notes so I just said that I could help him out and well, he asked me over to his dorm a few times.”
“Oh, I’m sure you helped him out.” Kat forms a partial fist in front of her mouth to make jerking motions while pushing her tongue against her cheek three times causing everyone to erupt in giggles.
“Kat! That’s so crude,” Lexi whispers quietly despite herself. She’s not a prude by any means but to speak so openly, and in the library at that, about the fact that she did indeed help him out makes her want to duck her head. Especially considering how things ended. Jeez, when did a girl’s sex life get blasted out in the open like this?
“Lex, if you wanted secrecy you should have avoided screwing someone off the football team,” Rue offers with her hands raised. "Everyone knows them and they've slept with over half the girls at school."
Honestly, Rue’s right, but this past summer she wasn’t looking to be logical, she was looking for a much needed release. One that she hasn’t had since she lost her virginity on the backstage couch after she played Sally Bowles in the spring musical at the end of sophomore year to a stagehand . Thomas was nice and funny, and to be honest, had quite the reputation among the girls here at school.
So, sure, call it detective work for the female population to see if the reputation was deserved. Unfortunately, her expectations must have been too high because there were multiple occasions during their two month fling where she had to tell him where her clit was. But she kept going to his dorm because, albeit vain, she liked that the popular guy wanted to sleep with her.
"Some boys too," Kate corrects. "Henry Linh came out last Spring."
“Are you still fucking him?” Maddy asks with her brown eyes wild with excitement.
Before Lexi can go into why the fling ended before the summer heat had even begun to die down, a clip board is slammed into the edge of the desk causing them all to jump.
Mr. Gables stands over them, his eyes pointing daggers at the girls. “If you ladies cannot adhere to the volume expected at the library, then you need to pack up and find somewhere else to study. Lexi, I’d expect better from you considering you are an employee here.”
Her cheeks burn bright red and she could swear she hears a ringing in her left ear from the embarrassment at being admonished. “Sorry, Mr. Gables,” she murmurs, hating the noticeable tremble in her voice.
As he disappears behind one of the rows of books to help another student, Lexi bites the side of her cheek hard enough she can taste metal.
“It’s alright, Lexi. He’s a nasty old man– Hey, Fez!” Rue shouts, completely disregarding the warning they received on their loudness.
She clenches her jaw. Of course, it’s him. As if this moment couldn't get any worse.
Lexi huffs out a dramatic breath, refocusing her attention on the book in front of her instead of the sound of his sneakers across the wooden floor growing closer. Just the mention of his name is enough to send a wave of irritation that has Lexi tapping the cherry red fountain pen against the table, refusing to give him even the satisfaction of turning towards him.
For the past three years she has had the absolute misfortune of not only sharing classes with Fezco, but sharing a mutual friend. Somehow Rue finds his presence tolerable, which has forced them to be around each other more than she cares to.
Fezco O’ Neill is just like every other wealthy asshole in this school using their family money to pay their way year by year. Sure, when Rue first brought him around she thought he was cute, she’ll place the blame on her teenage hormones at the time for her poor, cliched taste in the bad boy.
That was until he drew a beard with a sharpie on her face the day before freshman portraits. Her dislike of him only grew when midway through freshman year, Saint Anthony’s Catholic School for Boys on the other side of town shut down and merged with East Highland Academy causing her and Fezco to share the majority of their classes where they have been competing for the top spot.
He keeps up with her in classes with ease, despite the fact that she has never seen him studying in the library, which honestly pisses her off. What’s even worse is he doesn’t seem to care about a damn thing at this school.
Lexi on the other hand needs to care. Her dad left a few years ago and before he did he made sure to clean out her and her sister’s college savings. Their mom had used the money from a life insurance policy on her sister who had no children or husband to send them to this boarding school that promises to create doctors, lawyers and overall, successful individuals. She’s hoping if she gets valedictorian she’ll be one of those individuals.
“Ladies,” Fez greets in his raspy voice. At the tug on the back of her chair, she looks over her shoulder to come face to face with his designer belt buckle mere inches from her. Slowly her eyes travel up to see a pair of blue eyes looking down at her. “Howard,” he adds with a smirk.
“I thought the temperature dropped suddenly, now I know why,” Lexi says sharply before turning her head away from him, flicking her hair in the process.
Fez’s hand goes over his heart, a feigned expression of pain marring his usual easiness. “You wound me, Howard.”
With her pen, she brings it down on his hand that is dripping on her chair with a thwack . “Some personal space, O’ Neill."
He pulls his hand back abruptly, shaking the sting off before inspecting the small patch of redness from where her pen made contact. “Feisty today. Maybe you could kiss it better.”
Lexi scoffs at the idea of her lips against any part of his body. “Could you be any more annoying? Some people here are trying to study.”
He wouldn't know the rules of the library because he is never here. Except of course during the summer he would show on the days she was working. He'd look up from his books with a smirk, like he was mocking her.
Rue rolls her eyes, “Did you guys not hear me? Someone was killed !”
“I heard you the first time,” Lexi says through gritted teeth. “How do they know he was killed?”
Rue exhales as if the suspense of holding onto this information was eating her alive. “They are still investigating but the body was found impaled with an arrow.”
“Fuckin’ sick,” Fez murmurs.
“I know right!” Rue responds to the enemy. “Like image, you are walking down the road and bam–” Rue slaps her hand over her chest before continuing, “An arrow right through your fucking chest.”
The back and forth with Fez has suddenly lost her interest. Just like any girl with an overactive imagination, Lexi has always been drawn to mysteries and those true crime documentaries on Netflix. “Does there seem to be a motive? I mean imagine if there’s a killer running around East Highland?”
“Just in time for Halloween,” Kat chimes in animatedly, dropping her voice an octave to sound like Dracula.
Ethan, a usually quiet student who transferred from Manhattan this semester walks up next to the table and clears his throat, his eyes lingering on Kat, darkening ever so slightly, before he kisses her cheek. They started dating pretty quickly after he started at this school. Somehow they ended up with all the same classes, lunch and homeroom, and his locker is right by hers. Made it pretty hard for them not to bump into each other multiple times a day. Maddy joked that it was fate which caused Kat to blush. “Hey, babe. They say crime increases around Halloween.”
“It’s ‘cause the Scorpios are running amuck.” Rue laughs.
“Actually it’s pretty equal between Scorpio, Pisces and Sagittarius,” Fez counters.
“You forgot Cancers.” Lexi turns towards Fez, her brow raised as she gives him a once over. “Not a shocker there, probably have the highest record among them.”
Fez rolls his eyes at her implication. “Har-har. Actually Capricorns have the most victims between ‘em.”
“How do you know so much about killers? Maybe the police should turn their sights towards you.” Lexi sighs, the irritation within her building. How can someone be so annoying?
“We all have our interests, Howard.” Fez reaches down and picks up Lexi’s copy of The Sonnets , opening the cover to inspect the contents. “Just like you find interest in poetry where they throw a bunch of nonsense around and call it deep. Some of us enjoy a bit more interestin’ subject matter.”
Lexi snatches her book from his hands and brings it to her chest protectively. “That’s rich coming from you, O’ Neill, considering you listen to rap music which derives from poetry.”
“Sounds better with a beat, don’t ya think?” He smirks towards her which causes her blood to boil and heart to hammer in her chest.
“False, I don’t,” she argues. For some reason, there are times when he gets underneath her skin that she finds herself unable to come up with a witty remark, so one day she just started saying ‘false’, which shut him up momentarily which is enough to get her head back in the game.
In a high pitched voice that attempts to mimic her own he repeats, “False.”
“Jesus Christ, are they always like this?” Ethan asks, which Kat nods to confirm. "I thought after a few weeks it would wean down, but it's just non-stop."
When Lexi opens her mouth to respond he cuts her off, “Just cause you don’t like what I’m sayin’ Howard, doesn't mean it’s a lie.”
“Why don’t you grow up, O’ Neill?” She throws at him, her cheeks hot with anger.
How can he get under her skin so easily? She turns to her friends for back up but in the midst of her argument with Fezco, Maddy and Cassie left and Kat is preoccupied with running her hands through Ethan's tawny locks. Rue has opened up a small notebook of tallies that she keeps for their fights. This is what happens when Fez is around her, she acts completely out of character because he is utterly insufferable.
Kat leans across the table and in a hushed voice she says, “Why don’t you two just fuck it out of your systems already and save the rest of this daily mating ritual for another day.”
Two equally horrified gasps fly out of their mouths before a slew of responses trying to one up the other’s previous begins.
“Ew,” Lexi snaps.
"Kat, be for real," Fez scoffs. “Me and Howard? Absolutely never.”
“Rather eat glass,” Lexi says slowly, emphasizing each word.
“Couldn’t pay me,” he throws in.
Lexi pinches her brows together in indignation and asks a little louder than previous to hone in the fact that she would not be fucking Fezco anytime soon. “Did I say ew ?”
“Jesus Christ.” Rue puts a tally underneath both of their names before snapping the book shut. “Gotta call a tie on that one.”
Suddenly, Lexi remembers that they got their tests back earlier today. They history teacher implemented a new rule where they are no longer able to talk about their test scores while in the classroom, something about arguments breaking out which she knows nothing about. Okay, maybe a few times either her or Fez made their teacher go over each question to see if a mistake was made. Either way, it's stolen the satisfaction she gets when she beats Fezco.
“So, what did you get on your test?”
Fez’s smirk grows large, and for a second she wonders if she is going to be the one regretting bringing this up. Reaching into his bag he produces the test but covers the grade with his thumb. “How ‘bout you tell me, first.”
“But I asked you ,” she argues, opening her folder labeled for tests and keeping it face down.
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” he offers with a raise of his brows.
Lexi scoffs at the innuendo.“Real mature…I got a 99.” She flips over her test to reveal the score.
Fez’s smirk dies down as his thumb lifts to reveal his own score. “98.5.”
“Oh, bummer,” she says with a fake frown, placing her test back in the folder and throwing her books in her bag. “Better luck next time. As much as I’d love to stay and chat, I think I’m going to call it a night.”
Just as she stands up, maneuvering herself around Fezco who stays planted and brushing his arm in the process, she ignores the goosebumps that the contact leaves in its wake.
Kat calls after her, “Lexi, please tell me you will be gracing us with your presence tonight at Virgils.”
Lexi shrugs, trying to think of an excuse on why she can’t go to yet another party. “I don’t know, I’m not sure I can go.”
“Bullshit, yes you can,” Rue chimes in.
“You have to! Oh, c’mon, you can take one night off,” Kat pleads.
Kat’s not wrong. Lexi has about two weeks of assignments completed, but still she’ll have to work a little harder to make up for tonight. Lexi finally relents. “Um, okay.”
Uncharacteristically, Kat squeals with excitement. “You know it's my favorite time of year! Listen, no pressure but it’s a Halloween party, so you are totally expected to dress up.”
And as if it couldn’t get any worse, Rue turns to both Fezco and Ethan and says, “Hey, you guys better fucking be there too.”
Fez’s blue eyes lock on Lexi, his tongue darting out to run across his bottom lip. “Yeah, I’ll be there.”
📚🔪☕️🔪📚
“I hate this. I hate this. I hate this,” Lexi chants before stumbling, nearly twisting her ankle on the uneven brick path leading up to the house that Virgil and a few other seniors stay at rather than the dorms. Wearing her chunky black platform heels that Maddy told her that she has to wear for tonight’s ensemble she feels like a baby deer taking their first steps.
“Maybe you’d hate it less if you actually wore a costume.” Rue gestures to the East Highland Academy uniform that Maddy and Cassie had transformed into Britney’s iconic “Baby One More Time…” school girl outfit.
Maddy raises a perfectly manicured brow. “I know that Party City was out of the Juliet costume she wanted, but please do not talk shit on my masterpiece.”
Lexi sighs, maybe she should be more grateful that she has a costume at all.
Less than two hours after coming back from the costume store empty handed, Maddy grabbed scissors to cut last year’s tartan skirt short enough to warrant a detention slip and told her to put on a sexy bra. Cassie helped her to adjust her white collared blouse so that it exposes the lacy black bra she bought when she thought things with Thomas were going to go somewhere.
Her mom, very happy that Lexi wasn’t going to dress up as Bob Ross again, told her that she had packed hair accessories before sending her off for the fall semester. In the box were two pink pom-poms to secure her pigtails from her Halloween costume in the first grade when she went as cotton candy. Apparently, this Halloween season is all about recycling so Lexi is going to roll with the costume.
“Well, I didn’t know that I was going to be here until two hours ago.” Lexi shrugs, wrapping her gray cardigan over her exposed midriff to shield from the late October air that stings her skin while Rue opens the front door to the house.
The loud thumping of the bass vibrates underneath Lexi’s feet as she navigates her way through the packed party. Her nails dig into her palms, definitely feeling out of her element.
As a junior, she can count on one hand the amount of parties she’s attended. It’s not something she boasts about, and she doesn’t use it to say she doesn’t need to be seen at these parties, mostly because those are the only parties she’s actually been invited to. Usually she’s invited as a tag along with Cassie, who is beautiful, a cheerleader and one of the most popular girls at this school.
While Rue leaves to grab drinks from the large cauldron that Lexi assumes is filled with a concoction of god knows how many types of cheap liquor, juice and sodas, she finds an empty couch and plops herself down. The awkwardness of being alone has Lexi twisting her hands in her lap, scanning the face of everyone in hopes that she can find someone she knows. Hell she’d even be a little relieved seeing Fezco, at least arguing with him would beat sitting here alone.
Instead of seeing her class rival, she sees Thomas with his arm around Stacey Lipton, a popular blonde whose family owns the Lipton Tea company. One of the reasons that she didn’t run to her friends about getting dicked down by a hot football player is currently licking up said football player's neck, hand gripping his forearm possessively . Even though she and Thomas didn’t have a conversation about what was going to happen once school started, he made it seem like he was interested in more than just the sex. Then she walked down the hallway on the first day and saw pink lipstick smeared across his plush lips, lips that had smirked at her when she stood with her mouth agape in disbelief.
To protect her pride, she decided to pretend it never happened but obviously someone was whispering about it which is how Rue found out.
Getting off the couch, she pushes her way through the students dancing, dodging elbows and swaying hips in the process of getting to the stairs to find an unoccupied bathroom.
She takes her time, readjusting her button up so that the tie is tightened once more, and adjusting the thin baby pink ribbons on the ends of her pigtails. For a moment she stares at the reflection of herself in the mirror, noticing the slightly overlined lips and soft sheen of her eyeshadow courtesy of Maddy. She’s pretty, she thinks, but that sentiment isn’t enough to keep the flow of thoughts that infiltrate her brain at bay.
She’s not Cassie level hot or able to make head turns like Maddy, and she doesn’t have Kat’s new found confidence. She also lacks the ability to make friends as easily as Rue. It’s a thought she’s had since she was younger, when she would look at every photo of herself and compare it to her sister, she’s plain.
As she comes out of the bathroom, fiddling with her phone to come up with a text to send Rue on why she left the party earlier, she is nearly knocked off her feet by a wall, except it’s not a wall, its Fez who has his arms around her to keep her steady.
“Watch where you are going, O’ Neill.”
Fez’s auburn brows pull together before removing his hands from her shoulder. “I know you don’t get out much but when someone helps you, you supposed to thank them.”
“Well, you’re not helping me, you ran into me,” she argues, rolling her shoulder to get the feeling of his hands off of her.
His laugh is humorless and flat. “You on one, tonight.”
She notes the way his eyes fall from her face down to her neck, tracing the low v-neck that her tied blouse creates.
“My eyes are up here, perv,” she admonishes, hating the way the blush radiates from his cheeks to the tips of his ears. She hates it even more that she thinks she likes it.
He leans in closely, enough that she can smell the weed lingering on his tongue, causing Lexi to step back until she rests against the cold wall of the hallway. “Aren’t you tired of this?”
“Tired of what?” She asks quietly even though there is no one else in this third floor hallway to hear them.
“This gam–” Whatever Fez is about to say is cut off by the blaring alarm on not only Lexi’s phone, but the phones of every single person in this party which causes both of them to jolt and cover their ears from the obnoxious cacophony. He looks to her, the confusion on his face no doubt mirroring Lexi’s.
“What the fuck?” She shouts.
Barely a second after the final alarm finishes, shocked gasps and horrid screams replace the alarms. Lexi flips her phone over and she can’t stop her own sharp intake of breath at the headline on her phone.
“Holy shit,” Lexi breathes, gripping her phone so hard the palm of her hand feels as though it’s going to bruise before turning it so Fezco can read the headline that has rattled the whole student body.
East Highland News: Local East Highland senior, Barbara Brooks, found dead. Homicide likely. No suspects at this time.