VERA AND PENELOPE were so different yet so alike at the same time. While Vera had dark curly hair and a beautiful golden compelxion, Penelope had her fiery long locks and gorgeous pale skin. The contrast was so interesting on the canvas.

They were both excited to pose for me when I asked them and they were doing a great job as they nonchalantly laid in the positions I had straigically placed them in. The art room was thankfully empty, allowing us to gossip on everything that had happened over the past week in the ever so scandalous Caldwell Academy.

"Sully is probably regretting accepting you here instead of letting you go to juvie" Vera scoffs as she leans elegantly on the arm of the antique chaise that Miss Rowan had in the art room, "I can't believe you actually jumped into the lake in your underwear."

"Yeah, that was so badass." Penn scoffs as she lays down the other end of the chaise lounge.

I roll my eyes and continue concentrating on the lights and shadows of Vera's skin tone, "Yeah, well I have detention for two weeks so it's not that great. I knew that was going to happen anyway. Chase just pisses me off so much that I don't even think."

"You're probably the only girl who isn't afraid to stand up to him." Penn points out as I glance at her over the top of the white canvas leaning against my wooden easel.

"Well that's because every other girl is too preoccupied with sleeping with him." I retort, "Some nights he doesn't even come back to the dorm until three in the morning. It isn't rocket science to figure out where he's been."

"I don't think it's just the girls." Vera mumbles and I pause my paint brush mere inches from the canvas and glance at her, "He's into some pretty shady shit too."

"What shady shit?" I question, my curiosity getting the better of me, like it always does.

"My ex-boyfriend use to tell me how Chase would always show up to class with busted lips and bruised knuckles even when there hasn't been any fights on school campus." Vera explain and my brain progresses it slowly. I then nod my head in understanding as I connect the dots.

"Well that would explain the bruises I see." I explain with a small shrug before returning to painting, "I just assumed he punched himself in his sleep. I would not be surprised."

"Do you know what he did to get in?" Penn question curiously as she glances at me. I shake my head and mix a few paint colours together on my palette, "He scares the shit out of me."

"We know." I chuckle at her.

"Apparently it was really bad." Vera explains as we glance at her curiosuly once more. She then shrugs, "It's probably just rumours. For all we know he could've run over a kitten."

"I've done that." Penelope holds up a manicured french tip, "Bare in mind that I was drunk and cried for two hours afterwards before giving it a little funeral in my backyard."

We giggle at her little story and I continue painting. Penelope had a bit of a habit of getting drunk and driving. She doesn't drink anymore and she says she never will after she crashed a car through her neighbour's living room. Her dad's a multi-millionaire and has business all over the world and basically her step-mother is apparently a real bitch.

After Penn's mother died, she turned to alcohol as a remedy She was out partying every night, spending her father's money, and driving expensive cars. Crashing into her neighbour's living room was the breaking point.

Yet somehow, Penelope is still one of the sweetest girls I have ever met.

♤♤♤♤

I fumble with my dorm keys as I wait in the elevator, having trouble picking it out from the pool key, my locker key and the key to the Arlington dorm hall which Penn gave to me so I can use the showers there. By the time I had found my dorm key, the doors slid open on my floor.

I walk out and head to my dorm room, only to find that the door was unlocked. Assuming Chase was already inside, I push open the door.

Chase was not inside. Instead, there was a very very naked girl lying across his bed.

There were a few seconds of silence as we just stared at each other. Then, as if all hell was let loose, with both shriek at the top of our lungs. I slap my hand over my eyes as I stumble back towards the door, slamming it shut.

"Um-uh-um." I ramble as I blindly search for my shower towel. When my hand finds the familiar material, I throw it across the room in her direction. After a while, I peek through my fingers to see she was covered by my towel and was perched on the edge of Chase's bed. I drop my hands from my eyes.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know you were here." She apologises quickly her face incredibly red as she holds the towel to her body for dear life.

"Well, this is kinda my dorm room." I explain to her as she hangs her head, obviously embarrassed.

She mumbles under her breath, "I'm sorry."

"Hey, it's fine. A little shocking but it's fine." I laugh it off as I hang my bag on the back of my desk chair, "But just a head's up, it's probably not the best idea lying naked in a unlocked dorm room in an all-male dorm hall."

"Yeah, I know it was so stupid. I just wanted to suprise Chase because he hasn't been returning my texts or calls." She explains and I smile softly at her though inside I was screaming my head off at Everett for ghosting such a nice girl.

"Maybe you should go back to your dorm room and I'll tell Everett to call you." I offer as she nods awith a small grin, "He basically does what I tell him."

"Wow, you're so lucky to be dorming with him." She explains as she begins picking up her clothes from the ground. Lucky is not the word I would use. She then turns around quickly, "Oh, my name's Juliet by the way."

"My name's Hayden." I introduce myself as I grab her shoes that we on my side of the room.

"I know." She says as I hand her shoes back to her, "Everyone in the school knows who you are."

"As everyone keeps telling me." I grit through my teeth and turn around, allowing her to get dressed.

Once she was clothed, I walk her down to the small courtyard at the front of Elwood. She turns to me with now a much more relaxed grin and wraps her arms around me.

"Get back to Arlington safe, okay?" I say as we step back from the small embrace, "And you don't need to do this kind of stuff to impress a guy or get a guy to notice you, Juliet. Especially an asshole like Chase who isn't worth it."

"Thanks, Hayden." She waves as she begins to walk off. I watch until she disappears from view, wrapping my arms around myself as a cold sweeps through the courtyard due to the sun setting. When she was gone, I turn on my heels and make my way back up to my dorm room.

Taking the time I had before Chase inevitably returned, I quickly change out of my uniform and into a pair of frilly grey pyjama shorts and a navy sweatshirt. I decide to put on one of the clay face masks I had bought with me. I put my hair up into a messy bun to keep it out of my face and begin applying the cold cream to my face.

I was massaging it onto my cheeks when the sound of rattling keys echo from the other side of the door and Chase walks in, bringing my good mood down instantly. It's funny how that happens.

He glances up from the ground and closes the door behind him.

"Where's Jessica? She said she was here." Is the first thing to come out of his mouth.

"Juliet left." I scoff and roll my eyes while continuing to apply the mask, "You probably won't be seeing her again which is okay because I had the unfortunate pleasure of seeing her naked for you."

Chase chuckles as he drops his bag to ground and places his keys on the surface of his desk, "Was she really naked?"

"Yes." I cringe, staring at him with a blank face. Chase removes his leather jacket from his shoulders and throws it on the end of his bed in true bad boy style. Note the sarcasm. "She was a really nice girl too, and you shouldn't treat girls like the way you were inevitably going to treat her."

"And how exactly was I going to treat her?" Chase questions with a small amused snort.

"Like she's a toy. You'd probably sleep with her and tell her to leave early so you don't wake up spooning because god forbid that Chase Everett has actual feelings and is a big, romantic softy." I fold my arms across my chest as I cock my head to the side in an all-knwoing manner.

He shrugs nonchalantly, "They know what they're getting themselves into when they get involved in me. Those girls believe that they can change me, they want to change me. I just go along with it until they realise they can't."

"Spoken like a true asshole." I scoff as Chase puts his phone on charge.

"What's that shit on your face?" Chase questions as he glances at me over his shoulder.

"That shit is a clay face mask, idiot. It's soothing and really good for your face." I explain as I glance down at the tube, "You should try it."

♤♤♤♤

I don't know how the hell we got to this situation, but we were damn well here. Chase sat on his bed and I sat on mine respectively. Both of our legs were folded as we stared at each other in complete silence from opposite sides of the room. I had spent a solid twenty minutes trying to apply the mask to Chase's face because he kept moving.

But after a few arguments that ended in both of us just swearing, I successfully covered his face with the clay. As we sat in the quiet, I couldn't stop my eyes from travelling from his face down go his naked torso. Of course he had to be shirtless. I mean, I wasn't exactly complaining because it was quite the sight.

He had a collage of tattoos that ran up his left arm and few sprawled across the side of his left rib cage. I don't know what the hell possessed me, but some part of me wanted to run my fingertip of his tattoos.

He notices me ogling his shirtless torso, tilts his chin up slightly and smirks as if he was challenging me. His eyes were daring me to come closer, to follow through with that weird small part of me and actually touch him. 

I shake my head and glance away.  I was annoying myself more than him. The room fades to silence once more and the tension in the air was crackling.

I try to distract myself from the buzzing sensation, "Let's play twenty questions."

"I thought you wanted to be all zen and that spiritual shit." Chase explains referring back to when I almost bit his arm off when he wanted to play some music from his phone.

"It's getting boring. And since we're going to be living with each other for a year, we should at least try to get to know each other." I explain as Chase stares at me, a small smile teasing his lips. Holy damn, how can one human be so fucking hot? Even when his face is covered in greyish-brown cream.

Chase chuckles to himself quietly, "Only twelve year old girls play twenty questions."

"I'll go first." I announce, completely ignoring his insult, "Can we stop this whole prank wall thing and call it a truce?"

"Okay." He agrees with a small nod. Seriously, just like that?

He then sighs, his finger tapping against the side of his calf as he glances up at me through his long lashes, "What's your favourite food?"

I smile slightly, proud that I actually got him to play and that he was asking me about food, "Raspberry cheesecake. It's so fucking good."

Chase chuckles as I was basically frothing over the thought of the delicious cake. It's a shame that the dining hall doesn't offer it on it's menu even though it has almost everything else.

"My turn." I hum as I lean forward slightly, "What did you do to get into Caldwell?"

"Next question."

"Huh—What—No—You can't just next question a question. That's not how this works, Everett." I ramble, getting extremely flustered that he was altering the rules.

"Fine. I did stuff." Chase shrugs it off before I could object, "What's your favourite colour."

"Lilac." I answer quickly before pressing further, "What sort of stuff?"

"I think this game is over." Chase huffs as he reaches for his phone. Anger and frustration fill my veins as I stand up and walk across the room. I know it was his choice to tell me but I was honestly just so damn curious. He literally says nothing about himself leaving me wondering how dangerous he actually is.

I sit down on his bed and face him, "Why won't you tell me?"

"You won't like the answer." Chase answers simply as he gazes up at me. I tilt my chin up in defiance.

"Try me."

Chase stares at me with his big brown eyes that were swirling with so many mixed emotions. I gulp slightly at the sight. I could tell he was rolling it over inside his head, fighting with himself whether to tell me or not.

He then shakes his head and looks away, "No."

I sag my shoulders in disappointment. I wasn't getting anywhere and we'd both end up more angry than we were now if I kept pushing. So instead I pushed to my feet and swiped my toilet bag from where it sat on my desk. I grab my dorm key as I turn and head to the door.

I glance back at Chase who was staring at his phone in his hand one last time before ducking my head and walking out into the cold and empty hallway.

yay, they're getting to know each other.

kinda....not really.

chase is still a mysterious asshole and hayden is an insatiable snoop.

what a great combination right?