BLUE BLOOD

2 | we call them the blue bloods

x

"Look at you," Ella sneered at me. "So poised, so perfect, so much like a Du Sang."

"I know you're furious I left for boarding school instead of Queens but-"

"Do you know why Father never punished you for your decisions? Why he never raised his voice or cut you off?" Ella slammed the table with tears in her eyes. "Did you ever wonder why?"

"Why?" I asked quietly, rattled by her sudden violence.

"He punished me instead."

x

"Who are you?" 

On my first day of school, I tried to not appear unapproachable but it had taken until lunch for someone to breath a word to me. Most unexpectedly it was a girl who dressed too well for a student to be the first to speak with me.

My fingers tightened slightly against my books. "Vesper."

"Camilla Vanderbilt." The corners of her eyes wrinkled upward in kindness when she heard the tightness in my voice. "I'm assuming you don't want to share your last name?"

I had forgotten how people in our tax bracket placed so much importance on last name. After all, you couldn't buy your bloodline. "You would be right assuming that, Camilla."

"Sorry, it's a reflex asking," she shrugged in acceptance to my answer, though the curiosity in her electric blue eyes never faded. "Anyway, we're all just curious of who you are."

I stowed my books away in my black sleek locker and started making my way down the hall. "Really? I didn't think anyone would notice me in such a huge place."

There were no locks on the lockers. It was the academy's not so subtle way of saying "our students are too rich to steal."

Camilla followed me and I found that I didn't mind her presence. Eyes trailed toward me but I didn't make any indication of being uncomfortable. Camilla gave me a wry smile at my surprise. "No one unimportant can transfer to Queens Academy two whole weeks late. Speaking of which, how did you get to transfer?"

"Legacy," I shrugged, trying to play off the half lie. "My parents knew people."

"Oh," Camilla nodded, but I knew she wasn't convinced. Everyone's parents knew people. "So, are you a year seven like me?"

"Yeah, I am." Though I didn't mention that I skipped a grade. The less she knew about me, the better.

The grading system was different here. The standard was four years of high school, but in the upper circles, we had seven years of education. However, when we enroll for elite schools like Yale, for example, we get enough credits to skip to third year if we didn't want to be freshman.

Honestly, colleges like Harvard were basically a guarantee for people like us.

A brief silence passed over us as we walked past several prep school students and turned through hallways, hoping she would take the hint to leave me alone. I had only one reason attending this school, and it wasn't to make friends.

However, I didn't have the heart to tell Camilla to leave.

I also couldn't help but think that she looked like Ella, the way she was before everything that happened.

Camilla broke the silence between us by remarking, "You don't have a lot to say."

I glanced at her sideways. "I didn't realize I was supposed to talk a lot."