Sweet Harmony (3 page)

"You know, it's usually better to fight back if somebody's picking on you," she said. "Otherwise, they'll never stop."

"I can't fight back," the boy said.

"Why not?" she asked. "I know from first-hand experience Daniel couldn't take a punch to save his life."

"My dad owns a business involved with Marino Technology Group," the boy said quietly. "Daniel has a lot of power. He could shut down my dad's business in a second if he wanted to. I can't risk that."

She pitied him. Even she would be less likely to fight back if her family was at stake. Luckily, she doubted Daniel had any ability to stop her parents from being musicians. Maybe
he could take away a concert hall or something, but that wouldn't make them lose fans.

"How about you just hang with me from now on?" she asked. "
Daniel hates me so much he won't even look at you. There's not really anything he can do to me either."

"You're a funny girl, you know that? All of the others here would do anything to end up in Daniel's good books, so they kiss up to him all the time. Then there's you…" The boy shook his head and snorted. "I'm Owen
Riesling. It's a little embarrassing that I had to be saved by a girl, but I guess it's better than getting beat up."

"I'm Annamarie
Chadwick." She extended her hand.

Maybe this mea
nt she'd actually made a friend.

"You're Annamarie
Chadwick
?" Owen stared at her in awe. "I've heard about you. You're the daughter of Francis Chadwick and Yuki Neko. I can't believe it. You're not anything like I expected."

She sighed. "I have a feeling I'm not what anyone expected."

The bells dinged. That meant it was curfew.

"We'd better go," Owen said.
"If we're not in our rooms, we'll be in loads of trouble."

"Yeah. I'd rather not spend any more time with my arms in the toilet." The last thing she wanted was to get busted and have more detention.

"Why would you stick your arms in the toilet?" Owen stared at her curiously.

"Never mind." She sighed. "I'll see you later. I'm going back to my dorm."

She rushed off before she could get caught by the principal.

Chapter Three

Annamarie stood in the music classroom next to Daniel. Mrs. Carmichael guarded the door, refusing to let her leave unless she played "Don Juan" on her flute. Daniel smirked because she couldn't play anything.

"A person like you doesn't belong here," he said.

Even though she didn't disagree with him, she didn't like anybody saying what she could or could not do.

"I'm going to play it!" she yelled, even though she knew she never could.

"Yeah, right," Daniel said.

He
grinned at her, his eyes staring deep into her own. Soon slime came out of his eyeballs and drenched the floor. She yelped in disgust and tried to step back, but Daniel seized her arm and refused to let her go.

"Stop it!" she yelled, flailing.

"You're going to loathe the day you messed with me," Daniel said.

Soon she was covered in smelly slime. Her uniform was drenched. She started to punch every inch of
Daniel she could reach. At first his chest was pillow soft until she hit his shoulder and her knuckle burned.

Annamarie yelped and woke with a start.
I'm not in the music classroom. I'm in my dorm.
She breathed out a sigh of relief and rolled onto her side. Her alarm clock was on. She'd set it to play the morning news.

"Today criminal mastermind Frank Monaco is still at large," said the newscaster. "This man is armed and highly dangerous. He was initially charged with the kidnapping and murder of famous classical composer Kim
Smith and esteemed pianist Alvin Pocatello. Law enforcement suspects—"

With a sigh, she turned off the radio and blinked the sleep from her eyes. She clambered out of bed and pulled on her uniform. After she brushed her hair, she went to the bathroom to get cleaned up and then left the dorm to head to the dining hall. When she was halfway across the
lawn, somebody walked close behind her. The person laid a hand on her shoulder.

After being in karate for so many years, her first reaction when grabbed from behind was to put the
attacker's arm in a lock.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch,
" Owen yelled.

She looked straight into brown eyes. She released her expert hold at once.

"I'm so sorry," she said.

"What the heck was that?" he asked.

"An arm lock." She scratched the back of her neck sheepishly. "I'm not in my right mind right now. I had an awful dream about Daniel and it's making me paranoid."

"
Well, you should be worried about him." Owen gulped. "That's why I've been waiting by your dorm all morning. I heard Daniel talking to his friends. He's got it in for you. He said he's going to make your life miserable."

She raised an eyebrow.

"I'd like to see what he can do," she said.

"How can you be so calm?" Owen looked over his shoulder as if fearing he might see a ghost looming. "Daniel is rich and has a lot of popularity and power. Everyone is talking about
how much he hates you. If he doesn't hurt you, then somebody else on campus will."

She threw her head back and laughed. What was the worst they could do?

"Stop being so melodramatic." She shook her head. "Trust me. After the rigorous test I had to do to get my black belt, I'm not scared at all."

Owen just shook his head. She wondered if he was always so nervous.

"Let's go eat," she said. "I barely had anything yesterday. You'll sit with me, right?"

"Yeah." He nodded.

Strangely, even with the new threat of being attacked by fellow students, the thought of entering the dining hall was a lot less daunting now she had somebody to eat with. The two of them fell in stride together. For the first time, she noticed Owen's nose whistled as he breathed. She turned a corner and approached the glass doors with him in tow. In the reflection in the pane, she saw somebody in a plaid skirt dart behind a car in the parking lot and disappear.
Strange,
she thought.
It looked like somebody was following me.
The person didn't re-appear from beyond the car.

"Earth to Annamarie." Owen tapped her shoulder. "You okay?"

"Sure." She shrugged it off. If she wasn't going to get jumpy over Daniel and his threats, she wasn't going to get jump over a girl.

She opened the door and went inside
the dining hall. After she took a seat at the end of the table, Owen took the place beside her. Every person near her stood up and re-located to another table.

"Hoo boy." Owen shook his head.

"Ignore it," she said.

After several minutes went by, Daniel, Jaiden, and Gavin entered the dining hall. Several girls almost gave themselves whiplash
because they looked up so fast. Unfortunately for them, Daniel didn't pay attention to any of them and stared straight into Annamarie's eyes. He pointed at her and mouthed the word, "Dead," before taking his usual place with his friends.

"Hoo boy," Owen said again.

"If you aren't comfortable, you don't have to sit with me." No use taking Owen down with her.

"No, I'm staying," he said, though he sounded frightened of his own words.

The doors opened again and the cooks rolled in long tables filled with bins of chilled berries and glass bowls full of fresh whipped cream. Pools of yogurt sat next to mountains of granola. Another table was rolled in covered with steaming piles of pancakes and waffles.

"Are meals always this elegant?" she asked.
Back home in London, her cook had always made bacon and eggs.

"Haven't you been here a day already?" He raised an eyebrow. "
Meals are always like this."

"I wasn't in the mood to be
ridiculed yesterday." She shrugged. "I've only eaten in the dining hall for one meal."

Everybody stood up and lined up at the
main table to get food. She abandoned her backpack and waited to receive a pancake. Something slapped against the back of head. Cool slime oozed down her neck. She stiffened and touched the goo. When she looked at her fingers, she discovered they were covered in egg yolk.
Ew, ew, ew!
she screamed in her head while fighting to save face. She immediately sought out Daniel and saw there was no way he was the culprit—somehow he'd skipped to the front of the line with his dopey friends and was in the middle of getting pancakes. It had to have been somebody else.

She heard a familiar, high-pitched laugh to her right.
Annamarie looked for the source of the cackling. Leaning against the table was Bridget, the girl whose scarf she'd accidentally ruined. She wore a giant ornamental butterfly on her jacket.

"That's a new fashion," Bridget said. "I never thought of wearing an egg in my hair."

"How's your Italian scarf?" she asked. "Did my five dollars buy you a new one or did you use the money to buy that pin on your jacket?"

The color drained out of Bridget's face.

"You're such a waste of space," Bridget said.

"
Well, if your brain exploded, it wouldn't even mess up your hair," she returned.

"Ms. Chadwick, w
hat did you just say?" somebody hissed from behind her.

It was Mrs. Carmichael. Somehow she'd come through the double-doors without
Annamarie hearing. She turned slowly and met a pair of angry eyes.

"Let me guess…" She swallowed. "Detention?"

Mrs. Carmichael gave a disgusted nod. The woman swept around the dining hall like an oversized bat. She met Daniel's eyes and saw he was done grabbing his pancakes. The smirk on his face revealed he'd seen the exchange.

"Are you okay?" Owen asked.

"Yep." She could handle worse.

At least, she hoped so.

****

Annamarie decided on skipping lunch again and carried vending machine food over to the tree she'd sat under the day before. It was probably better if she skipped eating in the dining hall altogether. It made her too easy to target.
Later this week, she'd have to go to the store to buy herself some cheap food. She could live three months on instant noodles. With a sigh, she sunk down in front of the tree trunk. It wasn't comfortable, but it was better than being the target of egg snipers. She hoped Owen didn't spend too much time looking for her.

As she opened a pack of donuts, somebody said, "
Out here again?"

She recognized the voice. She looked up into a pair of bright green eyes. Holy crap, it was Jaiden, one of Daniel's cronies.
He must have been behind the tree. She leapt to her feet and immediately prepared for a fight.

"Stay back," she said. "I'll…I'll…"

She wasn't sure what she'd do. Maybe squash a donut on his head?

"Calm down." Jaiden grinned and
took a seat by the tree. "Your fight is with Daniel, not with me."

"Oh." She swallowed, unsure she could trust this strange, beautiful boy.

After a moment of hesitation, she sunk to her butt on the grass and chewed her lip. Jaiden was even more gorgeous up close. Unlike Daniel, his skin was pale. Thick eyelashes enhanced his already large eyes. His beauty was unusual, but maybe that was what made him even more perfect. She realized she'd been staring and looked away—this guy was Daniel's friend and she didn't want to ogle anybody related to that creep.

"Did you follow me out here?" She imagined this being the start of a trap Daniel had set.

"No." Jaiden laughed. "I always go out here during lunch. The dining hall is too crowded. Not to mention the girls are a bit overwhelming."

Was he whining because he was so popular?

"You know, some guys would kill to have girls swarm them." She raised an eyebrow.

"I guess I'm not one of them." He shrugged and then yawned.

Suddenly, she realized she'd seen him last time she'd come outside during lunch break. Jaiden was the boy she'd spotted sleeping under the tree.

"You take naps out here," she said.

"So you did see me last time." He nodded. "Napping is my favorite activity. I wish I could nap all day. I'm much more of a night person."

She could relate. If she could set her own schedule, her day would start at noon and end at two o'clock in the morning.

"Um, can I ask you something?" she asked.

"Sure." Jaiden shrugged.

"If my fight is with Daniel, why exactly are you talking to me?" She knew it wasn't because of her overwhelming attractiveness. After all, she still had egg yolk stuck to her hair because she hadn't had time to wash it out.

"You fascinate me." He grinned. "Daniel, Gavin, and I have been together
since we were two years old. We've stuck together for so long because it's hard to make true friends when you're rich and everybody wants something from you. I guess we bonded because of that. Never once, not during our many years together, has anybody ever stood up to Daniel. All the other girls at this place would lick his shoe if it meant he'd say hi to them. Not you. You've been here two days and have already punched him and dumped soda on his head. To be honest, I think you may be the best thing that's ever happened to this school."

She realized from his earnest expression that he was telling the truth.

"Why is he like that anyway?" she asked. "Daniel acts like a jerk."

"He's not as bad as he seems." Jaiden shrugged. "He never really had anyone around except for butlers and maids. I'm not sure he knows how to handle
it when people aren't at his beck and call. He's been pissed at you since the day you came because he can't figure out why you aren't enraptured by him."

"So he's
my biggest fan," she said sarcastically.

"If fans want to rip your heart out and staple it to
the wall, then yes." Jaiden chuckled.

The bell dinged, cutting off their conversation. She'd spent so long choosing her lunch at the vending machine she must have wasted most o
f her break. She shoved a donut in her mouth, making sugar dust her lips.

"Nice talking to you," she said, straining to make her words understandable with the donut in her mouth. "I have to go to class now."

"Nice talking to you too." Jaiden waved at her but made no effort to stand up to head to class. "You'd better swallow that donut before you choke."

She nodded and
forced the donut down. Her throat ached for a moment, but then she breathed a sigh of relief. She raced to class, shoving the remains of her pathetic lunch in her mouth as she ran.

****

Annamarie stared at the object floating in a toilet. Somebody—she had no idea who—had thrust an action figure inside of the basin.
Somebody knew I was cleaning the toilets today,
she thought darkly as she shut her eyes and eased her gloved hand into the basin. She pulled out the action figure and tossed it into the garbage bag, gagging.
Seriously. Cleaning toilets should be against student rights.
She headed out of the stall and saw Raphael was humming happily as he mopped the tile.