I mean, she isn't wrong about that.

My expression is hard when I meet her gaze.

“Not just that you hired them,” she continues, and I can tell she isn't the only one in the class that's listening. “But that you're actually one of them now, like a member of the gang or something.”

I smile as the bell rings, and our teacher—Mr. Darkwood—hustles in at the last second, dumping a stack of books on his desk. He's one of those tragically nice guys who got into teaching to help people. He's always trying to save souls here at Prescott. He’s also a literary snob. I kind of hate him.

“Kali, please take your seat,” he says, and she frowns hard at me, leaning over to put her palms on the surface of the desk. Our noses are a scant few inches apart, but unlike the last time we faced off, I'm not backing down.

Granted, last time I didn't have much of a choice, now did I? With the full weight of Havoc behind her, Kali was a force to be reckoned with.

“If you send them after me, I'll finish what I started sophomore year,” she whispers, and I laugh. I can't help it; the sound just slips past my lips.

“You can sure try,” I tell her, lifting a single brow. “But I have a feeling you won't get very far.”

Kali slams her palm onto the surface of the desk and sneers.

“Billie and her brothers have teamed up with the Ensbrook boys. They're out for blood after what your pimps did to Kyler the other day. Havoc used to be a powerhouse on campus, but not anymore. Prescott High is a different place today than it was two years ago. Watch your back, Bernadette.” Kali shoves back to her feet and moves over to her desk, sitting down just as Mr. Darkwood finishes writing today's itinerary on the board.

I ignore her and focus on my schoolwork about as much as I always do. That is, not at all. Instead, I hold my phone in my hand and debate telling the guys about Kali. If they were willing to beat Kyler to a pulp for looking in a window, what would they do to her?

Eventually, I decide against it and tuck my phone away for the rest of class. We're supposed to be writing poems today, so I put my pencil against the page and let myself bleed across it.

Token friendships between poor girls.

Both of us wanting so desperately for more, our screams drowned out by the wicked silence of the world.

Nobody listens when bad girls cry.

I decide after a good twenty minutes staring at the words in front of me that I hate poetry, that it hurts too much, that I suck at it, and that I'm not writing a damn word more. Mr. Darkwood doesn't stop me when I head into the hall five minutes early and lean against the wall outside my next class.

By lunch, word has already spread about my confrontation with Kali, and I find myself looking up and into the face of a very angry Vic.

“What did she say to you?” he demands, and I know this isn't a request for information. Nah, it's an order.

“She said the Ensbrook boys are teaming up with Billie and her brothers. They're all furious with you, and they're out for blood. She threatened to finish what she started sophomore year.”

Vic's jaw tightens, and he rises to his feet, just as Principal Vaughn and a few of his cronies enter the cafeteria and start toward us. Everyone is watching, the whole student body. Not that that's surprising. Vic made me wear my ring to school today; they're all dying to know what's up with that.

“Mr. Channing,” Principal Vaughn says to Vic, giving the rest of us a cursory scan. His eyes light on mine, and I glare right back. My only regret in going forward with my deal with Havoc is that my targets might not know why they're being punished or how bad they hurt me with their actions.

My jaw clenches, and I turn away.

“What?” Vic asks, rising to his full height. Even at seventeen and three quarters, he's bigger than Principal Vaughn, made of solid muscle and youthful rage. He could kill the principal with his bare hands, if he wanted to.

“Come with me to my office, please.” Vaughn turns like that's that, but Vic doesn't move. Instead, he stays rooted to the spot, mouth turned down in a severe frown.

“What's all this about?” Callum whispers from his end of the table, pushing his hood back and studying the retreating backs of the employees.

“No idea,” Vic says, staring after the faculty members before he turns back to us. “Don't care. If I get kicked out of Prescott, it'll just be the inevitable coming to bite me in the ass. Boys, find Kali Rose-Kennedy for me after school. She's been having that rich boyfriend of hers pick her up out front. You'll have to be quick.”

“What are you going to do?” I ask, unsure why I care so much about it. This is what I asked for. This is what I'm paying for.

Vic doesn't bother to answer me, and I grit my teeth as he walks off, dismissing my question like it's nothing. Swear to fuck, I'm going to punch him one of these days.

“Don't worry about Kali,” Hael says, cracking his knuckles. He's got this shit-eating grin on his face that makes me want to slap him. “We've got it handled. You only have to help if you want to.”

“That wasn't what I asked,” I start, but then the bell rings again, and the boys rise to their feet. I'm not even sure why they all come to class anymore. They've clearly chosen their path in life, and it's not academics.

“Are you going to help or not?” Aaron asks, looking at me like I'm shit stuck to the bottom of his shoe. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do after school today, go home with him or head back to my mom's place.

Neither sounds particularly appealing, to be honest.

But either way, I can’t leave Heather. Whatever I do, she has to be with me at all times.

“I'll be there,” I say, pushing up to my feet and taking my tray with me. Kali is watching us from across the room, like she knows we're discussing her eventual fate. I dump my tray and stack it with the others before I flip her off. As much as she claims not to be afraid of Havoc, she turns away pretty quick and takes off.

If she were smart, she’d run faster. And never look back.

After school, I get a text from Callum that they've cornered Kali on her way back from gym. I run as fast as I can, backpack slapping my shoulder as I jog toward the path that leads to the football field.

That's where the boys are, with Kali held between Callum and Hael. Facing off against them, I find the Charter brothers along with the Ensbrook boys.

Guess Kali was right.

“This is such bullshit,” Aaron says, standing at the front of the group, like a vice president while Vic is away. Nobody's seen him since lunch, and it's freaking me out. “What do you care what happens to this bitch?”

Whoa.

Still weirds me out, hearing Aaron talk like a thug.

I pause in the half circle behind Aaron, casting a glance in Oscar's direction. Do these other guys know how fucking crazy Oscar is? I just saw him put a bullet through some random dude's leg. What else is he capable of, I wonder?

Oscar turns his gray eyes over to mine and smiles, an awful sort of smile that promises he's not afraid of violence. He rubs his tattooed fingers over his equally inked-up throat, and I shiver.

“Because we're dating, you piece of shit,” Mitch Charter, one of Billie's brothers, says. She's standing not too far behind him, and off to one side, her glare dark and accusatory. Guess she's pissed that we beat the snot out of her new beau.