CHAPTER 7
“We welcome all of you to the tour of our prestigious school”, the guide says through a microphone and her voice booms through the halls.
It’s been 2 weeks since I had my teeth changed and the pain has lessened considerably but I was still on a liquid only diet and I still gurgle with salt and water, most of the wounds have healed and I could talk without feeling like I was walking on hot coals, generally I felt better and the braces will be put on next week but I got a mail earlier this week that the school would be holding a first tour for people that were handy at the moment and I decided to buy one set of clothing and attend.
That was why I was here on a hot Friday afternoon, in the midst of like a thousand people listening to the tour guide telling us about Gold University, Canada.
“And for you our special intake we have a special guest, the one and only William Smith”, she screams and my heart jumps.
“He’s coming today?” I ask the guy closest to me.
“Dude chill, my family sees him all the time, if you want to see him so bad pay your dues and I will invite you to one of the gatherings my family is holding”, he says.
“Oh well_” I start to say when I’m shoved roughly by the guy I saw at his side a few minutes ago.
“What’s your name pretty boy”, he asks.
“Luca, Luca Gaudion”, I say as I turn to glare at him, “You think this is some high school where you can come show your childishness and money?” I step closer to him folding my hands.
He steps back and measures me with a look, we are the same height but in build I sure am bigger, “Look man, I don’t want no trouble”, he says raising his hands.
“Oh you bet you don’t, and let the message spread, I don’t want no trouble and I wouldn’t start none, but don’t expect me to stay quiet while you bully me, let’s do it peacefully and leave”, I say as I step back and refocus on what the guide was saying ignoring the stares of people around me.
“You say you hang around their place pretty often”, I say after a while.
The guy that spoke to me at first turns pointing at himself, I nod indicating it was really him that I was speaking to, “Well my family gets invited to most of their parties and vice versa”, he shrugs.
“So you know the daughter then”, I ask turning to look at him briefly.
His eyes widen and he looks round, “How the fuck do you know about Emberlynn, no one does and no one should”, he whispers coming close to me.
“Well I do and I want to know more about her”, I whisper back.
“Well not here” he says after a while, “I’ll be in the café facing the school after this tour, lets meet then I’ll see if I can talk to you”, he finishes and I nod, moving with the crowd as the guide leads us to the hall that we will be meeting William.
“So it’s my pleasure to begin this tour with our founder Mr. William Smith”, the tour guide says as William steps out flagged by almost 10 bodyguards, he smiles and stands at the top most step, not bothering to step down, a guard moves to take the microphone from the guide and passes it over to William.
“Well, you’re all welcome to Gold University, over here we are gods and we are treated no less”, there is rumbling of approval that goes through the crowd and he smiles continuing, “A little privilege has been given to a few to be under scholarship, it’s in our best interest to be helpful yet firm with them, there’s no place for men among gods.”, an applause breaks out and I feel like throwing up on all their rich faces, who the fuck did they think gave them a right to say this crap.
“At the end of the year the best 3 students will be given a chance to intern at our company here in Canada and then at the end of the internship period the best will be chosen to work in New York side to side with me, to pick up stuff from me and to learn.” There’s more cheering and whoops.
“I hate dishonesty and cheating, and it is frowned upon in our institution, that’s why there’s no second chance with that here, also limit your curse words and speak with the highest decorum, have your parties but don’t let it interfere with school work, be young kids but have a mature mind. Good afternoon intakes and have a wonderful time”, he rounds up and the applause that follows his departure is ear breaking.
He smiles and turns back around to get into the hall, I rub my hands over my chest, even if our parents gets criticized for being poor, then what of we kids that were born poor, we had no option, we haven’t even had the chance to grow up and begin our journey yet we were being criticized and avoided like a disease, well I’ll show them.
“Looks like a decree has been passed for scholarship kids”, I say loudly, a few people stare at me weirdly then return to following the guide to one of the lecture halls.
“I wonder what happens when one scholarship student gets the intern position”, I say a second time but like before I get no response.
I retreat as I see them moving forward for the remaining of the tour but I turn back already tired of this whole crap of gods and men and leaches and trees.
“Leaving already?” I hear and turn to see the boy from earlier.
“Well I got bored” I say moving forward.
“Dave Jameson” he says to me and I turn looking at him strangely, “Name, that’s what I’m called.
“Oh, well it suits you”, I say looking at his crazy jeans and jersey singlet.
“I’ve heard differently, most people say I’m the complete opposite of my name, too rough and not buttoned up enough to be a Dave, I prefer Luca”, he says and I laugh.
“Well I enjoy being called Luca”, I say.
“Why?” he asks as we near the café and I move to enter but he shakes his head and we move forward still walking.
“We wouldn’t stop by?” I ask as we pass the coffee shop.
“Walls has ears and here every ear that hears reports to William, you wouldn’t want to be in his black book, its hell”.
“Speaking from experience?” I ask and his eyes clouds over.
“I know someone who has lived in his hell, so yes experience, and indirect one though”, he says.
“Well I like the name Luca because it sound like Lucifer”, I say with a smirk.
“That’s cool”, he says kicking a stone in front of us with his boots.
“Emberlynn is just 14, she came out officially last month when she clocked 14, even I didn’t know about her, it was always a rumor but last month she came for one of the parties and she was surrounded, no one introduced her but it was there, she was obviously a Smith and since no one else is a Smith, she is obviously his daughter, no one knows how she was formed or even the circumstances leading to her birth, the only reason I knew she was 14 was because when a waiter brought her a flute of champagne, she shook her head and said she was only 14”.
I take in this new information, she doesn’t sound like a threat but the ones you least expect become the ones who turn out to be the opposite of your expectation.
“Why did you want to know though”, Dave says bumping his shoulders with mine as I was lost in thoughts.
“I like him, and I want to know all about him, family included”, I say.
“Could have fooled me” he says as he turns around and walks back towards where we came from, “See you in school Luca Gaudion” he shouts as he turns a corner.
CHAPTER 8A week later and I’m still thinking of Emberlynn Smith and how I should treat the case, at first thought I was going to ignore her existence but right now it is no longer an option because I sat to think of what daughter wouldn’t care if someone is a threat to her father and there were only to available options where she was concerned, kill her or love her, and there was no way I was hard enough to kill her with all those guard around her it will be close to impossible to kill her even if it was a hired killer.I walk into the dentist’s and I raise my hand to wave at the receptionist as I pass straight into the dentist’s office, I’m five minutes late already.“Good morning Luca”, the dentists says with a smile, “Are you ready for your braces?” he asks.I nod absentmindedly and my mind travels to a certain daughter and I begin to wonder how hard it will be to fall in love with
CHAPTER 9“I even have to shop for you now”, Emilia grumbles as we walk into the shopping mall, “I’m taking this motherhood thing to a different level”, she sighs.“I promise to buy you pretty things and also do pretty bad things to you later”, I whisper as I bite her ears and she shivers.“Well, with all these promises I can see the good in becoming your mother”, she says using her hands to make quotation marks around the word mother.It’s been a few months since we had the ‘age’ discussion and since then Emilia hadn’t let it go, well except when we were having sex which was getting more often, I had run out of condom more than ten times and I do buy in bulk.Finally today I got her out of bed to do shopping with me in her free time since school was set to resume soon, I was to get a car too but after a while I realized it might be too extreme so a motor
CHAPTER 10I put the last cloth into my box and sigh, today I was officially moving to a house near the school, according to them tomorrow would be the first day of resumption, the only thing still pushing me to actually go on with this was the fact that I had to have that power that William sat on and that I got to see Aria everyday now.I smiled as I thought of Aria, at first what I wanted from her was all knacks but getting to know her had been eye opening and like a breath of fresh air.She loved to draw and she was actually going in for an art major, when she told me she had a whole dream of why she chose arts, so I felt really ashamed when she asked my major and I said business, but when she asked of the why, all that came to my mind was power.But I recovered when she said one of her turn on was power, I felt like I had found my soul mate, she would just have to wait a while before we had our happily ever, a long time really becaus
CHAPTER 11“I’m not going for the orientation Aria, it’ll just be like the tour, where they pull down some and lift some and it would also be a forum for sorority houses to put in their nets”, I grumble as Aria ties to convince me to attend the orientation.Its been a week since we moved in, or rather I moved in and Aria has been here every other day, she insisted on getting her room in the hostel like a good kid, but she ended up here every day, it was a good thing for me since we had to share the bed whenever she came over.And yes, nothing ever happens, I respect her and I want whatever happening to be more than the shit with Emilia.Speaking of, Emilia had been one of the thorns in my flesh in this past week, when she was taken to the hospital and stitched, the management questioned her and she said I was responsible for the cut, which wasn’t a lie, but there was no way I would admit that ever.Any
CHAPTER 12“This place is super crowded”, Aria says pushing into me to avoid the guys hollering at the edges of the hall.At all corner there was a different group.“You think the orientation is over already”, she asks shouting right into my ear since the crowd was deafening, “Or maybe they haven’t even begun” she says.“I really doubt it, it looks like its sorority picking time”, I say with disgust and she glares at me.“Try saying it without disgust Luca, or _” she gets cut off by someone calling my name or maybe it’s just another person with the same name as mine that is been called.“Gaudion”, I hear and we both turn, that is definitely me, I scan the crowd behind us and don’t see anyone who might have called out my name.“Making friends already? You're smooth”, Aria says poking at my sides and I grin at her and w
CHAPTER 13“You’re behaving weird”, Aria says as she steps out of the kitchen with 2 cups of coffee and my t-shirt on.Get your minds out of the gutter, nothing had happened between us yet.She hadn’t gone home yesterday either and spent the night here and as usual she was in my shirt, since she slept in it.“How?” I ask as I take the coffee from her and smile in appreciation.“I don’t know, you have been walking around, looking all restless and stuff”, she mutters into her coffee shrugging.“I uhm, I am not acting weird”, I say taking a sip, “Or rather I don’t think I am”, I mutter too.“Is it because I practically asked you out yesterday?” she says and the coffee chose that time to follow the wrong path.I immediately start coughing, she moves from her chair and rubs my back looking at me guiltily.“I&
CHAPTER 14“That was stupid”, I hear after a while of sitting at the café, I had already texted him that I would be there, so I wasn’t surprised when he showed up.“If her dad was there, you’ll be out on your ass and there’s no certainty that the guards wont report back”, he says as I didn’t respond to his earlier comment.“Well you should have given me a heads up”, I say as I turn to him.He winces, “The acting wouldn’t have been superb if you knew”, he says calling for water.“Well I can’t argue with that but the princess pissed me off, I couldn’t hold it in, especially after that punch”, I touch my nose which still felt tender.“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to go that hard but I needed you to bleed, that would have been sure to move her”, he says.“Well I couldn’t tell if she
CHAPTER 15“Before we continue, we would like to call our valedictorian” pause “and for the first time it’s a scholarship student”, there was a murmur in the crowd and I smiled.My braces were off and I have been complimented to have the best set of teeth, I had paid it no mind, but I loved my teeth.“I know, I know, they didn’t just come to take our money this year”, I hear a few snickers and I remember the argument William had with the various heads at the school.I was the best and he had tried to see a way they could bypass all that and have one of the rich kids be valedictorian, but he couldn’t, apart from the clear gap in my result I had posted it online using an anonymous account, I let the public do the judging.And here I was today_“_Luca Gaudion”, I smile as I’m announced on stage.“WOW”I exclaim amidst the glares, “I