BLUE BLOOD

3 | just like it did to ella

x

"Do you remember Calvin?" Ella asked me the day before I left for boarding school.

"How could I forget my ex, Ella?" I responded to my older sister in amusement. "I mean, sure, the relationship wasn't serious and I'm leaving and all, but it's only been a couple of months since we broke up."

There was no trace of humor in her face, which dimmed my attitude as well. "Well, do you remember me ever liking him as well?"

I was taken aback. "What?"

"I've always liked him. He had always been in my grade but we hadn't had classes together until high school. Finally, when I invited him over, thinking he would confess his feelings for me, Calvin saw you."

I stared at her, at a loss for words. "I had no idea, Ella. Why didn't you-"

"Say anything?" Ella finished, her eyes blaming me in ways she would never say out loud. "You would have stopped liking him immediately and Calvin would have blamed me. I thought it would pass over, that he would get over my younger sister in middle school."

"But then we started dating," I recounted, faintly. "Almost half a year."

"Yes. I should have realized that no guy would have gotten over you. He still isn't over you," Ella tossed me a look. "But every single day since you guys dated, I had to endure it all."

"Ella, you should have said something."

"Yeah?" she snorted derisively. "And then what? Appear like the villain again? You were in middle school but you were sooo gorgeous that every single goddamn person in the world loved you and only you!" Ella screamed.

Not a single word left me when she slammed the door shut on her way out with tears streaming down her cheeks. The next day, I waited until it was dark for Ella to show up as I boarded my private jet for boarding school. My calls went unanswered. My father said, "I told you she wouldn't come."

He was right.

She never did.

x

"Helen Skye Lorani is the most popular girl in the academy," Camilla said without me asking. "Her father owns a monopoly for petroleum. Her mother is an Oscar winning actress from years ago."

Camilla listed these things about Helen as if they were well-known facts. I wondered then, just what cadre nine, Camilla's cadre, was known for.

"Helen's been dating Blake Everson ever since the first day of the academy. She's rumored to marry him one day and everyone knows that that event will be the event of the century."

Blake Everson. He was the person with the impeccable uniform and cold emerald eyes. Of course he was dating gorgeous Helen. It made perfect sense.

"So, they're the golden couple?" I was watching her intently for only one reason. To see just how much she wanted to be like them.

"Yes," Camilla sighed mockingly, flipping her shiny blonde hair, oddly the same shade as Helen's hair, over her shoulder. "Though no one really thinks they even like each other. Blake Everson is the star quarterback of the school, son of parents ruling empires in fashion and medicine. He had loved Kalina since they were children but that fell flat."