#not everybody can beat galan

[chiyohlecter]

people speaking on that draw and they are correct it was in fact very easy, but there are always easy draws, not his fault every single seeded player shat the bed and we are coming to collect an L against father in the semis anyway so what's it to ya? if ruud and fritz held their seed and he beat them they would still be saying easy draw because it's ruud and fritz, he would not have beat them you say? guess we'll never find out... and whose fault is that? not gianni's

[theladyofdeath]

Kings and Queens {Ch 5}

Summary: A Throne of Glass AU inspired by the Breakfast Club (1985). Six students come together for Saturday detention, and realize they are not all that different. You can read previous chapters here.

That previous Tuesday….

I walked into the locker room, and everybody froze. School had just ended, and I was about to dress for practice. I tried not to cower under everyone’s gazes.

I blinked. “What? Do I have something on my face?” I reached up, but I saw Galan shake his head.

Hurrying over to my locker, and throwing the door wide open, I whispered, “What the hell?”

“There’s been…..rumors,” he whispered, back.

“Rumors?” my eyebrows rose as I glanced at him sideways.

“Yeah,” he confirmed, hesitantly. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard. They’ve been spreading like wildfire.”

 Aedion

9:45 a.m.

“What the hell are you doing?” I jerked my hand away, not caring who heard me raise my voice at my cousin.

“He was going to kick your ass,” she spat, fire burning in her eyes, the eyes that matched mine. “Be grateful.”

I scoffed. “I could have won that battle, Aelin. Don’t forget-“

“Don’t forget who you’re talking to,” she interrupted, mocking my voice. “You’re so full of shit.”

“What’s your problem?” I asked, when she turned away to walk off, far from me.

She froze, and turned, slowly, deadly. “My problem is that it’s nine in the morning and I can already smell the liquor on your breath. My problem is that you’re getting into business you have no business being in. My problem-“

“Oh, stop,” I rolled my eyes, pretending her words did not affect me. “Is it necessary to be so dramatic?”

“Ha!” she took a step forward, and for a second, I thought she was going to slap me. “You’re one to talk!”

She waited, and waited, but I didn’t say anymore. It wasn’t until she turned on her heels, and the fear hit me that she may never come back, that I spoke up, “I’m sorry.”

Her shoulders slumped as she rubbed her temples, and turned back to me. “I know you are.”

The two of us fell to the ground and rested our backs against the bookshelves.

She held out her hand, and she didn’t have to say a word as I pulled the flask out of my pocket and handed it over.

“You’re an asshole when you drink,” was all she said, and I nodded. I agreed. “I thought you were working on it.”

“I have been,” I shrugged, and I didn’t know what else to say. “Moment of weakness, I guess.”

“Why?”

“Stress.”

Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t question me any further. “I’m here for you, A, when you want to talk. I love you. I want to help.”

Staring at my tennis shoes, I gave her a curt nod.

It had been after my mother began going away on business trips often that I started sneaking into her alcohol cabinet. Adults say high school is easy, the greatest time of your life, but they don’t remember all the stress that goes along with it. Between trying to be the quarter back that town expected me to be, and the homework, and trying to get a scholarship, and all the other bullshit that went on in that place, every now and then I just….needed a little.

Except a little typically turned into a lot.

After a moment of silence, a moment of her hand sitting gingerly on top of mine, she whispered, “We were close, before you moved here Junior year.”

When I glanced at her to ask her what she meant, I found her looking at him.

He had his chair leaning back on its hind legs, his black boots were crossed on the table top in front of him, his hands clasped behind his neck. And Aelin….her eyes were full of pain.

Pain, longing, and adoration.

I had never heard her mention Rowan before, even if I was drunk, I feel like I would have been so shocked by the statement that they were acquaintances, that I would have remembered. But, Rowan and Aelin? The criminal of Havilliard High and the prom queen? Sounded like the start of a really bad joke.

“You were….friends?” I asked, hesitantly.

“At first,” she sighed, as if she was lost in a distant memory. “Then he was everything.”

My breath caught as I watched her twiddle her thumbs, as I watched her eyes tear up and a soft scarlet brush along her cheekbones.

“You fell in love with him,” I stated, and when she didn’t deny it, I knew it was true. “What changed?”

“I felt the need to be popular, to be liked. A few weeks after school started Sophomore year, he told me I was changing, that I wasn’t the same girl he’d met at the start of the Summer. He was right, of course, but I wasn’t about to admit it. I said things I regretted, and walked away. Today is the first time I’ve spoken to him since.” A quick tear escaped, but she quickly wiped it away and crossed her arms over her chest. “It hurts just as bad today as it did then.”

“If you care that much about him, why haven’t you two just talked it out?” I leaned my head against the books, watching her every move.

“The things I said….” She shook her head. “You can’t take those things back. He lost all respect, and whatever love he had for me, that day. Besides, he’s not the same person he was then, either.”

I wanted to ask what she had said that could have been so altering, but I didn’t. I knew she didn’t want to talk about it further. The devastated look on her face told me as much.

I needed to distract her. She needed her mind somewhere else for the next six hours.

I didn’t come up with anything before the main door to the library was thrown open, and Headmistress Maeve came strolling in.

“Where is everyone?” she called, eyes narrowed.

Aelin and I hurried back to our chairs before she could repeat herself. Having Maeve punish us, again, was the last thing we needed.

Once we were seated, Maeve smiled, a cruel, gruesome smile. “Having fun, are we?”

I hated to admit she was attractive, with her long, black hair and deep, violet eyes. She looked like the sexy librarian I couldn’t stop having fantasies about freshman year.

Whitethorn snorted from behind us, but no one else bothered to answer as Maeve continued, “Why weren’t you in your chairs?”

“You said we couldn’t leave the library,” Whitethorn claimed. “You didn’t say we needed to stay sitting.”

She tilted her head at our peer. “I thought it was implied.”

“What if I need to take a piss?” he asked, raising an eyebrow of his own. “Are you going to give me a bottle?”

The Headmistress approached his table, slowly, and laid her hand down on the desk in front of him before leaning forward to meet his hateful gaze. “You’re awfully confident today, Mr. Whitethorn.”

“Someone has to be,” he replied, without missing a beat. “I’m not afraid of you, Maeve.”

Even Lysandra’s eyes widened, but Aelin hardly looked surprised.

“You should be,” she spat, with a quiet venom. “If your mother could see you now, she would be ashamed.”

Green eyes lit up at her words, and for a moment, I thought the criminal of Havilliard High was going to lose his shit. But, he didn’t. He simply looked away, and stared at the wall, jaw hard and lips in a thin line.

Aelin had gone pale, and her breathing had increased. I had the feeling I was missing something, but I didn’t want to ask her. Not again. She didn’t want me prying.

“Anyone else have any comments?” Maeve spun around, taking in the rest of us. “Any concerns?”

We answered her with silence.

“Very well,” she crooned, and resumed her place at the front of the tables. “We have our monthly staff meeting in the cafeteria at 10. I’ll be checking on you all as soon as it’s done, and expect to find you sitting in these spots. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Headmistress,” we replied. Well, everyone but Rowan.

She walked out without another word, locking the door behind her, once again.

No one dared to look at the tall, brooding male behind us.

“They have monthly staff meetings?” I asked, if only to break the uncomfortable silence.

“Oh, yeah,” Dorian answered, thankful to have someone ask a question that he knew the answer to. “They typically last a while.”

“Of course, they do,” I mumbled. “They have to come up with new, inventive ways to torture us.”

This earned a small smile from Dorian, and a quick glance from Aelin. My eyes found Lysandra, who was busy working on her sketch again. She had a strange, ethereal kind of beauty to her, one that most people saw but didn’t actually see. And the way she signed her art: Snow Leopard.

I had seen that name before. I had seen her art before. She was the one, the one whom I had been waiting for. She didn’t know it was me, though, and I wasn’t going to be the one to tell her. What would I even say? Hey, so, I’m WarriorPrince, and I’m probably not exactly how you imagined me to be. Actually, you probably already know about me and hate me, so I’ll just end our relationship here, before it even starts.

I see the hate in her eyes when she talks to me. If she found out I was her mystery late-night chat partner, she’d probably never talk to me again, and I didn’t want to risk that happening.

She looked up to find me watching her, and scowled.

“Do you want to go for a walk?”

Aelin rolled her eyes. “No. I’ve walked around this library three times already.”

“Not in here,” I wiggled my eyebrows. “Out there.”

“In the school?” Dorian spoke up from behind me. “But, you aren’t allowed-“

“Come with!” I offered. “You seem like you could use a little rebellion.”

He began to stutter, “I - no, no, that’s – I couldn’t – “

“If Dorian goes, I’ll go,” Aelin smirked, turning to the boy behind us.

His cheeks reddened as he softly closed his book. “I couldn’t.”

“Looks like we’re staying in, then,” Aelin sighed, although I knew that was her plan all along.

“Lysandra?” I beckoned. “A walk?”

“No,” she replied, shortly.

“We could go to the vending machines,” I offered. “I’ll even buy you a bag of chips. Or skittles, if you prefer.”

“Smooth,” Aelin muttered under her breath.

“You could go outside for a smoke,” I offered, instead.

This peaked her interest. Then, quietly, “I’ll go if Rowan goes.”

Whitethorn’s gaze jerked our way. “Why?”

She shrugged. “If we get caught, she’ll be pissed enough at you that she won’t notice the rest of us.”

I swear I almost saw him smile. “Fine.”

“Ah,” I grinned, turning back to Dorian. “See, now you just have to agree so that Aelin will join us. Then, we’ll all be together. Think about it, Dorian, do you really want to be sitting in here alone if she comes back, having to explain to her where the rest of us went off to?”

“If we get caught-“

“Relax, we won’t get caught,” I assured him, all joking aside. “We won’t be gone long, and you said yourself that the meetings typically last a while.”

The four of us watched him contemplate within his own mind, until he finally sighed, closed his eyes, and said, “Okay.”

Jumping to my feet, and pulling Aelin along with me, I grabbed my phone and strode toward the back of the library. “Follow!”

“Where are you going?” Dorian called after me, but he was following. To my surprise, they all were.

“The door is locked, young Dorian,” I explained. “We must find another way out.”

“Where would we find another way out, though?” he asked, and I had a feeling he would be asking questions for the entirety of the outing. “There’s no-“

“Just follow my lead,” I chuckled.

“What makes you think you know how to get out of here?”

Stopping, I turned to face Rowan. “Ah, that’s right, you would know best, wouldn’t you?”

Criminal.

He snorted. “If you’re planning on opening a window in the back of the library, there’s only one window in this place that opens, and you’re going the wrong way.”

Oh. “Fine.” I gestured for him to lead the way, as difficult as it was.

Aelin fell into step behind him, then me, Lysandra, and Dorian.

Her shoulders were tense, Aelin’s, as we followed Rowan in between the rows of books.

“I don’t like this,” Dorian proclaimed, softly.

Rowan entered the bathroom, the rest of us in tow, and turned on the light.

“Okay,” Lysandra told herself, “this is getting weird.”

“Give me a hand, Ashryver,” Whitethorn demanded, and I didn’t hesitate as I grabbed the other side of the supply cabinet.

With a grunt, we moved it out of the way, and to my surprise, there was a small window there with a latch on each side of the glass. After unlatching it, and sliding it open, Rowan looked at the rest of us and sighed. “Who’s first?”

Let me know what you think! Chapter 6 coming soon.

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