Here With You (A Laurel Heights Novel)

chapter Eleven



The –sons were standing by the lockers, obviously waiting.

Rachel slowed down, wondering if she should just go on to French without her book or homework, but Madame Roche had been un peu peeved at her yesterday for not having her things with her. Madame had even threatened to call her dad. Rachel had wanted to tell her that wasn't much of a threat, because he didn't care what she did as long as it wasn't illegal.

But Madame Roche was nice, and Rachel felt bad for torturing her, so she actually did her homework last night. It'd been lame and easy, but whatever. No way was she going to take a zero for not doing it just because the –sons were waiting—presumably for her.

Sighing, she kept walking toward her locker. Maybe if she ignored them, they wouldn't exist. Or maybe her new underwear would give her magical powers to zap them away, or make her invisible.

But Madison stepped right in front of her, hands on her hips, glaring. "I know what you're doing."

Rachel looked at her locker, directly behind —son number one. "Getting my homework?"

Like a well-behaved sidekick, Addison backed up her friend with an equally vicious look. "FYI, you're not cute."

She rolled her eyes. "Can we cut with the obvious digs and just get to the point? I'm going to be late for French."

Madison poked her shoulder with a hard, skinny finger.

"Ow." Rachel put her hand over the spot and glared at the girl. "What the hell?"

The girl walked up to her, so close Rachel could see the fine outline of her penciled brows. "Stay away from Aaron Hawke," she said, practically hissing. "You don't have anything he needs."

"And you know this... how?" Rachel stared at her steadily. "Because you and Aaron are BFFs?"

"I've known him way longer than you have. We've been in school together forever. We've talked about going out a bunch of times, but I wanted to wait."

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell the evil —son that Aaron had talked about her, but not in any sort of loving way. And if Aaron was so into Madison, why did he ask her over to dinner at his house?

But behind the malevolent light in the girl's gaze, there was hurt. As much as part of her wanted to exploit that, Rachel couldn't bring herself to pick at it and make it worse.

So she shrugged. "Whatever."

Both the –sons smirked as they got out of her way, but they still hung around as she opened her locker.

"I don't know what you were worried about, Mads," Addison said. "Aaron would never choose her over you. That's insane."

"I know. But it's better to have clear communication."

Rachel rolled her eyes again, knowing the girls couldn't see her since she faced her locker. She shut the door, clicked it locked, and stepped around the two witches. The final bell rang, and she sighed. Great—she was late.

"He could never like someone like her," Madison added. "I bet even her parents wish they didn't know her. I mean, her mom probably wishes she had a normal, pretty daughter."

"Yeah, I bet her mom totally regrets her."

Rachel stopped in her tracks. For a moment she just felt frozen, stunned that someone would talk about her mom.

Then the hurt set in. Would her mom want a better daughter? She didn't want to believe it, but she hadn't been acting her best lately.

Still, she knew her mom, and she knew her mom loved her no matter what. So she whirled around. "You don't know what you're talking about."

The –sons looked at her incredulously, like they couldn't believe she'd spoken to them. "Excuse me?" Madison said, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

"You know nothing about my family. You're just acting stupid and petty. Do you think Aaron's going to like that?"

Addison's jaw dropped as Madison strutted up to her, her mouth set in a mean line. "Don't even talk about him. I knew him first. Besides, I have way more going for me."

"Like what?" Rachel asked. "Community college?"

Addison gasped.

Madison got directly in her face. "You're just a loser that no one likes. I bet you don't even have a family. I bet your mom left you, because you were such a loser."

Her fury was quick and sharp. For a moment, Rachel knew she could strangle the evil —son.

Instead, she chose a different method of revenge. She lifted her chin and looked Madison in the eye. "If I were such a loser, Griffin Chase wouldn't be using my poem for lyrics for one of the songs on his upcoming release."

Both the –sons gasped, but it was Madison, of course, who spoke. "You're such a liar."

Her heart beat hard with the slight exaggeration. It wasn't an outright lie because she was going to make it come true. But she wasn't going to show weakness in front of the –sons of anarchy, so she shrugged nonchalantly. "Believe it or not. It's the truth."

She turned on her heels and hurried to French. She was so late, but that was the least of her worries. She'd just told the mortal enemies that Griffin Chase was going to use her poem, and she hadn't managed to talk him into it yet.

What had she done?