Dirty Wicked Prince (Court Legacy Book 1)
Dirty Wicked Prince: Chapter 4

Sloane

Moments later, my younger brother and I sat in the headmaster’s office. Well, the lobby that led to her office. We were told to wait so she could hand us our welcome packets and answer any questions we might have about attending the academy. This task was apparently something the headmaster did personally, and I was happy it was her since I’d actually already met her.

I looked forward to seeing Principal Mayberry again, but I had to say, the wait had been awkward as hell. Bru was still mad at me, obviously. He pretty much steamed beside me, and I’d already apologized.

Twice.

I really hadn’t meant to go off the handle. I never did, but it just happened. We moved a lot, and people tended to bully us because of that.

“I just don’t get why you can’t keep your mouth shut for once,” he huffed, folding his arms. His head touched the back of the wall in his chair. “You’re going to get me fucking killed. You’re going to make shit a nightmare once again.”

It was because I stood up for us that life at all these schools we went to weren’t nightmares. I crossed my legs, my heel bouncing. “You’re being melodramatic.”

“I’m not.”

I started to give a retort, to check him. I was the older sibling. I was in charge and needed to take care of him.

So why did I feel socked in the gut when I looked at him?

He sat there completely locked up, looking at everything but me in the wide office. I think he really had wanted a fresh start here, to be normal. I dropped my leg and turned to him. “I’m sorry.” I really was. I shook my head. “We have to draw first blood. Otherwise, our blood will be the ones that coat these pretty walls.”

It was the simple “get them first before they got us” mentality, and I didn’t understand why he didn’t get that.

“You’re so goddamn negative,” he said, facing me. “Maybe if we came at people right, they won’t handle us.”

“You don’t know that.”

“You never gave us a chance to try. Always flying off the handle.” He leaned back. “It’s like you’re doing everything you can to be the opposite of Dad.”

Our dad who hadn’t fought. Our dad who had stood back. He used to get so mad when he’d gotten calls about me. His stance had been to stay out of things first and definitely not my approach.

I cuffed my arms. “I’m really sorry, Bruno.”

“Say you’re sorry by staying out of shit,” he said, then we both sat up when the secretary said the headmaster was ready for us. Bru and I stood, grabbing our bags, but before we could go anywhere, we were met in the lobby by a familiar face.

“Noa Sloane,” Principal Mayberry said, certainly different today when she stood in the center of the Windsor Prep crest donning the cherrywood panels. She wore pressed pants and a white blouse, her hair pinned back like a disciplinarian. She pointed at me. “I mean, Sloane. I haven’t forgotten that.”

And I appreciated that, smiling when I took her hand. “Good to see you again.”

“And you,” she said, studying me. I was different today too, I supposed. I mean, I wore a fucking pleated skirt, and that didn’t happen. I even rocked the heels with dark knee-highs, wanting to really put an effort into this. My navy jacket lined with orange trim was ironed and crisp, and though I didn’t pin my hair back like the headmaster, I’d braided it down. Currently, my dark hair sat at my butt, and though I’d have to avoid sitting on it all day, it was a far cry better than my normal messy bun.

Bru had even worked mousse into his chestnut-brown locks, trying to empress too, and the fact the headmaster and I knew each other clearly threw him for a loop.

I think the headmaster picked up on that after she introduced herself to him because after, she waved a hand in my direction.

“Met your sister last night,” she said, Bru’s eyes twitching wide. “She saved me from a thug. The guy tried to rob me blind.”

Bru’s brown eyes expanded. Not two seconds ago he’d gotten onto me for being the first to jump into battle, but at this, he smiled.

I supposed the circumstances had been different.

“She’s good for that,” he said, with a smile in my direction. He pocketed his hands. “She’s always taken care of me.”

And I had, but somewhere along the way, I think I had forgotten that he’d gotten older. That he probably could take care of himself.

If you let him.

“She is very brave,” Principal Mayberry said, then waved her secretary over. The headmaster’s digs were quite frankly ridiculous just like the rest of this place. The administration building was lined with dark oak in the interior, the building wide and all brick on the outside. A handsome garden led up to the whole thing, and we were only on the main point of the campus.

Bru and I watched as the secretary handed Principal Mayberry two packets. The headmaster gave us each one.

“Your welcome packets,” she informed, smiling. “They have your schedules, maps, and everything else you need. All that’s left now is, I suppose, the tour.” The woman angled around to her secretary, who had returned to her desk. “Diane, I’ll be back in an hour. I’m going to escort these students around campus, then to their first classes.”

Floored, I simply stared at here. “You’re giving us a tour?”

The woman was already putting her suit jacket on, the Windsor Prep crest on her chest. “Of course, I am,” she said, passing me a smile. “It’s the least I can do. You saved my life after all.”

She waved us out, and I exchanged a glance with Bru. It seemed maybe I was doing well at starting to get some of those brownie points back.

I guess that was a start.

Principal Mayberry had a golf cart set up outside the administration building for our tour with another staff member driving it.

That was how big this fucking campus was.

She directed the driver, and he took us where she wanted, which was as much of the campus as she could show us in an hour. She mentioned she had another meeting to attend after, but in the meantime, proceeded to show us all she could before class. Bru and I got to skip first period, which was apparently typically homeroom anyway.

With classes in session, we stayed on pathways usually filled with walking students but were currently clear for our tour. She pointed out the academy’s greenhouse, as well as the various sport pitches and buildings reserved for classes. Apparently, each year held classes in their own buildings, so the juniors, where Bru’s classes would be held, were separate from mine since I was a senior.

I wasn’t sure about how good I felt about being separated from him, but he was a big boy I guess and could take care of himself. I needed to start giving him a chance to start doing that, and I supposed the distance was good for both of us. We dropped him off at his building first, where he was to be handed off to another student. The student hadn’t arrived yet, but Principal Mayberry said he would be there soon. He’d be Bru’s guide for as long as he needed him, a junior like himself.

“His name is Wells Ambrose,” she said, smiling at Bru from the cart. “He’ll be around to help you with anything you need, but if you ever need anything else, please feel free to stop by my office anytime.”

Principal Mayberry was super accommodating, and I really was confident Bru would be okay. I left him via the cart with a wave, one he gave back as he waited for his guide.

He’ll be fine, and you will too.

I hoped we would. I wasn’t one of those people to say life constantly kicked me in the ass, but my brother and I held our fair share of traumas. I mean, we were orphans at seventeen and eighteen.

I supposed others had it worse, and I tried to remind myself of that as the tour concluded and Principal Mayberry dropped me off at the buildings reserved for senior classes. I thought she’d leave me to wait for my guide like Bru, but she physically escorted me inside to the first class.

Again, she said it was the least she could do.

I really appreciated that. This transition would be hard enough, and it’d be nice to have someone in my brother’s and my corner. I shook her hand outside of the class, and while I did, I noticed a set of eyes on us.

He passed us.

The blond guy from outside, the boss dog.

Daddy himself.

He was sans Wolf and his other friends at the present, and where his gaze had casually passed over me before, it didn’t now.

If anything, it blazed.

Seriously, his expression cut in my direction, but through further observation, I noticed it more so laid on Principal Mayberry beside me.

Noticing my attention had shifted, Principal Mayberry shifted hers in the same direction. And I noticed she stood taller in front of the guy. Like he was the headmaster and she was the student. I found that weird as fuck, and she didn’t look at me again until the boy passed and turned a corner down the hallway. I had no idea where he was going, but I still felt that heated gaze well after he’d disappeared around the corner.

“So your guide will meet you inside once next period starts,” she said, but I noticed her attention still at that corner. This possibly could be in my head, though. I mean, he was just a boy, a student. Even still, she obviously noticed the look. She pressed a hand down her jacket before facing me. “Her name is Bow Reed. She’ll help you.”

“Thank you.”

“Of course, and if you need anything…”

She didn’t finish, instead nodding before heading in the opposite direction of the boy. Again, that felt weird, but I’d had a rather exciting morning, so I passed it off. Instead, I headed inside the classroom, and since second period classes hadn’t started yet, the room was empty.

Not for long. The bell rang, and seconds later, the room’s activity started.

I took a seat, watching as the room filled up and students milled about in their academy uniforms. Many of the girls had designer handbags, labels I’d only seen knockoffs for where I came from.

The culture here was most certainly different.

I waited, feeling awkward. I wondered if I’d need to tell the teacher I was the new kid so my guide could replace me. I stood, starting to do that.

“Holy crap, you’re tall.”

I directed a look down, way down to what looked like a little girl, but then again, I was tall. The girl had dark hair, wavy and long, and so much fire red in her cheeks one would have thought she ran all the way here.

Maybe she did.

She shot a hand out. “Are you Noa Sloane? If so, I’m your guide. Hi. My name’s Bow. Well, Rainbow, but most people call me Bow. My whole name’s Rainbow Reed, but you can call me Bow like everyone else.”

She said that in one breath if one could imagine.

I took her hand, and she shook mine so hard I questioned her sized.

She grinned. “Wow, you are tall. How tall?”

“Five ten,” I said, eyeing her. She wasn’t tall. Maybe five foot. Maybe. I studied her sparkling broach where normally an academy tie sat. The thing looked real, like an actual ruby.

Well, she has money.

I supposed like the rest of them. I took in the heeled Mary Janes on her feet. She wore knee-highs like me, but along with her height, the shoe choice made her seriously look like a little kid. I frowned. “You sure you’re a senior?”

“Oh, no.” She giggled so spritely she gained the attention of the others who’d filtered in. She tucked hair behind her ear. “I’m a sophomore, but I’m advanced for my age. I rock at math, hence why I’m in a senior algebra class with you.”

I looked behind the girl, wondering if the enchanted forest animals would catch up behind her. She was literally adorable, rosy cheeks and everything. They went along quite well with the ruby studs in her ears.

They matched the expensive-ass-looking broach.

As it appeared, she’d come by herself to this class, no animals in tow. She proceeded to wave to the teacher ahead, informing him of my presence in this class, and that I was the new kid.

The man seemed unconcerned but did make me introduce myself to the class. Our teacher was Mr. Green, and he informed me to take a seat at the front with Bow.

Once seated, the little one continued to assist me by taking my bag. She even tried to hang it on the back of my chair like my mother.

“I got it,” I said, the girl moving a mile a minute. She spoke just as quick, a full smile on her face. I watched in fascination as she told me she’d be with me for the next two weeks and was here for anything I needed.

She’d again, said it all in one breath.

“Of course, let me know if you ever need anything,” she ended with. “I’ll be outside of all your classes. I have many in the same building already.”

This girl was obviously smart like Bru if she was taking senior-level classes. She kept talking, seriously happy. I mean, there was nothing wrong with that, but she was going so fast I wasn’t quite sure I could keep up.

She giggled after the last thing she said. Like all that happy just had to seep out somewhere. She pointed at me. “So Noa, that’s a really cool name.”

“Sloane,” I said. “No one calls me Noa.”

“Sloane because that’s your last name,” she said, obviously putting that together. “That’s so cool. Mine’s Reed, I could never go by that.”

She laughed again, loud enough where someone actually jumped in their seat. By the way Mr. Green lifted his eyes, something told me this might be a normal occurrence with this girl.

She grinned at me. “Can’t wait to show you around campus. This place is awesome. You’re going to love it. Like I said, I’ll be escorting you to all your classes, so you won’t have to worry about getting lost or anything.”

She said this right before Mr. Green started senior algebra. A girl named Rainbow Reed would be my personal stalker for the upcoming days. A girl who spoke a mile a minute, and with her speed, seriously made me question if she had rabbit DNA.

Life at Windsor Prep was most certainly going to be interesting.