《Grudgeford University Section Entrance Above》

She tugged her skirt lower while she marveled at the gate with black iron railings that stood wide open behind her. Taking a closer look, she noticed that it was complimented by two cream pillars with lion statues resting on top of them, and school's logo carved at the center on each side. On the polished stone two insignia bore the school's motto and a brief note about its history with gold letters embedded against a shiny, black background.

From where she stood, she couldn't see the school—just a road leading further in. Her shoulders stiffened as she walked through the unattended gate, her feet scrunching along the gravel path. Cold air slapped her face, making her wince, but she wiped the expression away in a blink. Her eyes darted forward as if expecting a judgmental look even from the bare trees. They found nothing but the grand, deserted luxury of the path ahead.

Jeez, she thought, how in the hell was dad able to afford this?

Grudgeford Academy was known for being an academy for rich, spoiled students with wealthy parents. A wide majority of politicians, millionaires, world renowned doctors and engineers, celebrities and influencers send their children to the Academy. So to say that Ashley couldn't believe that she was here made sense. The school was also known for its strict disciplinary programs intended for the usual delinquents, and also for its success rate with students.

Ashley trailed down the path for what seemed like forever, the bag on her shoulder feeling heavier with every step, and the suitcase she became incredibly aware of the noise her old, fading suitcase was making as she dragged it behind her.

Oh god, what am I doing here? I should just turn back, she thought, looking over her shoulder wearily; watching the gate shrink further and further away into the distance.

As she turned back ahead, she let out a breath of relief when the university entrance slowly grew into view. She squinted her eyes, seeing a figure approaching from the opposite direction. As they got closer, she was able to make him out as the security guard. He was dressed in black slacks that weirdly hugged his legs instead of being baggy as she'd come to expect of them, a dark grey polo shirt with the school's logo on his left breast and a Glock casually sticking out of his right pocket. He looked polite, so Ashley sent him a friendly smile. He raised a bushy eyebrow at her; his eyes shining with amusement.

"A freshie, aye?" He asked, more to himself, shaking his head, "—good luck out de're. Y're gonna need it I tell y'er. Thy're monsters."

"Wait, what?" Ashley asked, thinking she heard him wrong.

She cursed herself for paying attention to his heavy accent instead of his words. He waved his hand as he walked on with Ashley watching him; a scowl on her face.

"Ye shouldn't 'ave transferred this late into de'er semester."

Ashley slowly turned her head back to the school's entrance, not noticing her suddenly shaky hands. The building was enormous with two lion statues back to back standing in the middle with a water fountain between them. They were identical to the ones by the gate, only they were a lot bigger. She gulped and seriously debated turning back with her tail tucked between her legs.

No, she thought, he's just trying to get to you, Ashley. What couldn't you possibly handle? It's technically your fault you got sent here anyway.

With that mini—pep talk, she raised her chin high and closed the remaining distance between her and the reception. She took the first step up, each one causing her dread from earlier to gradually diminish.

Stupid security guard, getting into my head for nothing.

She got in and wasn't surprised to find the hallway deserted, except for the secretary lazily reclined on her seat with her phone in her perfectly manicured hands. She let out a groan and slowly sat up, not even looking at Ashley, who stood in front of her looking as lost as ever. The secretary, dressed in a really tight white blouse and a grey skirt—way shorter than Ashley's—wordlessly picked up the office phone next to the Apple computer in front of her and dialed up a number, before she put it on her ear.

"That new transfer is here. Uh—huh, okay. Get me a damn escort already then." She paused, freezing from looking at her nails, "—he did it? Oh my god, how is he? Good, right? I told you. Especially that thing he does where he sticks his tongue all the way up in your—."

Ashley suddenly broke into a coughing fit, not really wanting to hear the rest of the conversation.

"Sorry, could you hurry up? My bags are killing me." She said, gritting her teeth.

At this rate, my first impression wouldn't be as nice as I planned it to be, she thought to herself.

"Not. My. Problem." The secretary said as she reclined back into her office chair and slowly twirled around, "—so, what were we talking about? Oh yea, so he like... Oh that? No, just the freshie already acting like a stuck up rich girl."

Ashley gritted her teeth and glared at the back of her head before she dropped her bag on one of the empty seats by the desk and took a seat herself; slouching as she crossed her arms and waited for the said escort to get here.

"Eros? He is so hard to get. I thought the rumors about him never meeting anyone's eyes were just that, but girl, he wouldn't look at me even if I was handing him something. Seb is okay though, but getting him to bed with you is like teaching a fish to climb a tree. I heard though, that they're both real life P—"

Ashley stuffed her ears with her earphones at that exact moment and drowned out the receptionist's voice. With her phone in hand, she scrolled through her social media; her heart heavy as she liked commented and overall checked up on her friends from her former school.

Why did I have to go ahead and mess things up?

After what seemed like eons of scrolling, she pulled out one of her earphones just in time to hear a new voice speak up.

"Hey, Nanc. How are you feeling?" A new, deep voice said, his question holding weight and a secret that Ashley wasn't too keen on knowing.

Her eyes finally landed on the owner of the voice and she nearly drooled. In front of her stood the neatest boy she had ever laid her eyes on. He wore a fitted jet black jacket with the academy's logo—professionally stitched on its left chest pocket—and two parallel, golden circles wrapped around the wrists; inches from each other. Beneath his jacket was a soft, cream tucked in T-shirt that had no crease in sight and a perfectly made black and golden tie that hung beneath his hardened collar. He had on black, slimmed khakis and simple black runners.

Wait, is that the boy's uniform?

She narrowed her eyes, deeming it unfair that the guy's uniform looked like that whereas the girl's uniform was short, hella exposing and typical. The design was basically the same, only that their skirts were a plaid black and golden, and their blouses could be either tucked or un-tucked.

So not cool.

The guy in front of Ashley caught her staring and leaned his elbow on the receptionist's desk, wanting for her to meet his sky blue eyes; even sent a wink her way, of which she cringed and looked away from his smugness. 

"Ah, Austin. We've got a freshie here for ya." The secretary said, her voice weirdly sounding higher than it was before.

"This late in the semester, huh?" Austin said, then looked around the hallway.

"Yup. I'd like to see how that works out for her."

Austin let out a smooth, calculated chuckle, one that however, wasn't fooling Ashley. It was so fake, a pig could do a better job, "Let's not scare her away." he paused, "—don't worry sweetheart, I'll take good care of you."

Ashley took that as her cue to look back at her phone, already knowing how it would end if she paid more attention to him.

There was a very annoyed snarl from the receptionist before she heard footsteps approach her.

"Hello there." Austin said, his voice even lower than before.

He was now towering over her, bent at an awkward angle with his hand stretched out. Ashley put her phone back in her pocket and placed her hand in his, expecting it to be a handshake, only for him to pull her up and way too close to his body.

"Hi." She said, her eye twitching as her patience began to diminish.

She took a step back and took a deep breath; taking in a shit tone of his cologne as she did.

"Name's Austin. May I know yours?" He asked, a tight smile on his lips

She was already annoyed for having waited for almost an hour, and the glint in Austin's eyes—coupled with the very fresh hickey on his neck—told her that he was too, and was putting up and act.

"Just point me in the right direction already." She said, already sick of everything and everyone in this school, even though she's only met three people thus far.

Austin's smile immediately wavered for a split second before he smirked, "Feisty one, aren't ya? Too bad there's like a hundred more like you in here. Otherwise, that would have been such a turn on." He said, then let out a breath through his nose and straightened up. He turned his attention back to 'Nanc' whose face suddenly brightened up.

"Did you already take her fingerprint and give her the codes?" He asked.

Nancy rolled her eyes and opened up her palm, looking at Ashley with disinterest as she waited. Ashley cringed and stared at her hand as if it was offering her a pile of cow shit to eat. There was no way in hell, absolutely no way that she was touching that hand. Judging by the conversation from earlier on the phone, who knows where those hands have been.

"Don't tell me you're one of those germophobes?" She asked.

Ashley frowned, "Nothing wrong with them, but no, I'm not."

"Here, I'll help you out." Austin said, actually sounding genuine this time.

Before Ashley could say she could do it herself, he had already gripped her thumb, dipping it on the fancy black ink pad in front of them and placed it on the scanner.

"Why this is necessary again?" She asked immediately it was done and she'd pulled her hand free from his unwanted grip.

Stupid jerk.

"You do want to be able to access your dorm, library and lecture rooms, right?"

Ah, she thought, of course they had digital door locks.

"Your code is 42069Z. You forget it, that's your problem."

Ashley reached over and got her bags with clenched teeth then wordlessly walk ahead of her escort down the hallway. Not in the mood to stand around and wait for him and the secretary to finish catching up or whatever.

"So, Mr. President, how about we meet up again after your classes?"

Ashley scoffed. That guy was the president?

Why am I not even surprised?

Such bad reception. Not even a school map. Throw me to the wolves why don't you.

🔱🔱🔱

"There you are, bitch. I looked everywhere for you." Casey said, sending an annoyed look her way as she got in line behind her with her receipt.

Ashley took her coffee from the kitchen staff in front of her before moving into the bakery section of the cafeteria. She took a moment to think about how to answer her best friend, who was also part of why she was in Grudgeford.

To say she was hungry would be an understatement. Ashley was used to eating whatever she wanted back at home. Ever since she got kicked out of her former school—Green Field University—her parents had a really hard time looking for a more strict school were they could straighten her out; thus, her ending up in Grudgeford.

They didn't even seem to care that the school was mixed to her suprise, but she wasn't complaining. If Ashley was stuck in another school with only a bunch of uptight girls for the rest of her senior year, she would have gone to a whole other level of crazy.

"Ash?" Casey's voice said, bringing Ashley back to the present, "—more salad, please." She ordered then continued to press, "—you with us?"

"Hm?" Ashley hummed, absentmindedly following Casey after they both got their lunches. If she wasn't so hungry, Ashley would have noticed the stares she was getting, but her mind was clearly on something of greater importance.

Casey smiled sweetly at her and shook her head. "I asked how your first classes were?"

Casey repeated as they walked toward a table with two men and a woman; with the boys facing her and the girl's back towards them.

"Haven't had any yet." Ashley said, shrugging. Casey frowned in confusion,

"You skipped half of your classes on your first day?" She asked in disbelief.

"I couldn't find any of them. No one gave me a map." Ashley answered, feeling like such a new kid; which she was.

"Hi, the University app? The one that shows you literally everything there is to know? I told you this." Casey said, a chuckle escaping her lips.

Ashley scowled and pulled Casey's black bucket hat lower on her head in response then shrugged it off.

They reached the table and took the only remaining seats around the strangers. Ashley offered the woman seated on her right side a smile, trying to appear friendly, but she only briefly looked at her then went on to stab her salad aggressively. She was dressed in uniform like everyone else, but her skirt was replaced by black slacks. Ashley pursed her lips, not knowing that there was an option to switch the skirts for trousers.

Never in her life, did she imagine having to wear a uniform in University, but apparently it was a time in Grudgeford. On the bright side, however, it was only worn on occasion, like when there is an event that every student has to attend, be it from the Kindergarten section, the Primary section, the Secondary section or the University section.

What blew her mind the most was learning that all this sections were in the same piece of land, with the kindergarten being the one closest to the main road, and thus being the official administration office that represented all sections. 

Whoever owns this Academy must be rich as hell.

Finally noticing that she had been staring for incredibly long, Ashley looked at Casey and pursed her lips, silently asking her to do an introduction. She blinked cluelessly at her before straightened up, her cheeks burning with embarrassment.

"Everyone, this is my best friend, Ash the great." Casey joked, a soft smile playing at her lips.

"Ash-ley." She corrected, and bumped her shoulder against Casey's right one as a form of payback for the little joke.

"Jason." The guy in front of her said, giving her one of those boyish chin nods, causing his jet black hair to fall on his forehead, before he lowered his forest green eyes back to his food with sauce trickling from his chin.

"Blake, pleased to make your acquaintance." The guy next to Jason said, his hazel eyes shining with humour and mischief as the corner of his mouth kicked up into a wide grin.

"Ally." The girl said next to her, briefly glancing at Ashley once again and seizing her up with a blank look in her grey eyes. She then turned back to her food.

"What course are you taking?" Blake asked, an eyebrow raised as he watched her curiously.

"Art and Culinary Arts."

"So, what made you transfer here?" Jason asked, swiping his hand across the side of his lip.

"I got expelled from Green Field." Ashley said, like it was no big deal.

"You were in Green Field?" Blake said disbelief clouding his features.

Ashley frowned but nodded.

"Yeah, why?"

"Only, super smart girls go there, right?" Jason remarked, about to continue but Ashley interjected with the tiniest scowl on her face.

"What? I am smart."

"For some reason, I find that hard to believe." Ally said. Ashley turned to her, the corner of her lips turned down in displeasure.

"You don't know shit about me though." She retorted, her brown eyes dancing between Ally's hard, green ones.

Without saying anything more, Ally turned back to her food and acted as if she hadn't just assumed.

Ashley turned to Casey and raised a confused brow at her. She only scoffed, turned away and went back to her meal, making Ashley do the same.

"Why did you get expelled?"

She stopped abruptly, lowered her pizza slice from her mouth and looked at Blake. She told him what happened as the rest listened; she told them about her art lecture who was a creepy and would make inappropriate advances on not just her, but other girls doing the course. She had had enough and picked a fight with him, kneeing him between his legs and embarrassing him during assembly.

She got expelled for causing a scene and acting out of order while he was only given a warning. You would think that with it being a catholic all girls school, such things wouldn't be taken so kindly. Though now that Ashley had time to think about it, he was a very famous artist so naturally, the administrator would be reluctant to lose him over one, trouble making student.

She gritted her teeth and looked at Casey from the corner of her eyes in a silent bid to not say more than she already did. She knew there was much more to the story, but Ashley didn't want to get in to the rest of the details so soon. The whole table blinked at her once she was finished. Jason and Blake's eyes shone with adoration, and Ally surprisingly looked amused.

"You've got spunk." She muttered more to herself. Just as Ashley was about to say that it was no big deal and that anyone could have done what she did, a giant, tower of a man appeared beside Ally, blocking her whole frame from the soft white glow of the ceiling light above them.

Ally followed Ashley's mesmerized gaze and her whole face dropped into nothing the second she saw who had grabbed her attention. She said nothing as the two of them stared at each other.

The man's jaw twitched as he eyed her; his dark, intense eyes holding Ally's for a while before he let out a breath through his nose and looked ahead, seeming a little hesitant to speak. He, unlike every guy in the cafeteria, was dressed in a cream dress shirt that hid underneath a beige suit jacket with a black tie between them, beige fitting slacks, and black shoes to match his tie.

His clothes did absolutely nothing at concealing his built, muscular frame as one could see the subtle ridges of his arm muscles and the tattoos that peaked the cuff of his jacket. His pants hugged his powerful thighs and calves deliciously. Ashley blinked and shook her head, realizing how much staying at an all girls school had affected her.

"I need you." He ordered, his voice almost echoing of the walls of the suddenly quiet hall. His voice was soft, but deep and demanding enough to exercise to be heard. It was soulful yet calming at the same time. It appeared that Ashley wasn't the only one who felt this way as she looked around the room.

Only a few people were minding their own business while the rest had their bodies turned towards their table. She turned back to the two and tilted her head to the side curiously. It was very clear that there was some drama of some shape or form that involved Ally and this man if even the cooks serving the food were interested in them.

Somethings just never miss.

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