Chapter 095
HANNAH
"Did you see her face when you said that stuff about Asher?" Willa asked.
She was trying not to laugh and failing.
"She looked like this." Willa scrunched up her face in a comical way. It looked so much like Julia's expression in those last few seconds.
I burst into laughter. A cackling Willa rolled around on my bed. She had not been able to get past what happened in class. It seemed she had enjoyed Julia’s embarrassment more than me.
"You got it!" I exclaimed, struggling to catch my breath. I pressed my hand against my side. It ached from laughing too much. "Oh Willa. My only regret is that I didn't have my phone out to record her. I would pay a lot of money to get a picture of her face to use as a meme or a sticker."
"The whole class was listening and watching. Who knows? One of the others could have been recording. I'll ask around at school tomorrow." She wiped tears of laughter from her eyes. "That was so much fun than I thought it would be."
I nodded in agreement. "Yeah. I think we've been taking Julia's bullshit quietly for way too long. We should think about some other things we can do to make her as miserable as she deserves to be."
Willa's face grew serious. "I totally agree. Julia's bitchy to almost everybody. I think most people at school want to see her go down. It's just that they don't have the guts to do anything about it. If we start something, others would join in."
I agreed. I remembered the look in Heather's eyes earlier. Perhaps even some of Julia's friends were tired of her bossing them around and acting like she was better than everyone else. Most of them were already tired of Julia, but fear kept them by her side.
Banishing Julia out of my thoughts, I rolled off the bed.
"I'm going to see my mom for a bit before I get started on my homework," I said.
"Okay. I'll come with you. I don't really have much to do until later anyway."
When Willa opened the door, Jace's knuckles were inches away from it. He had been about to knock.
"Jace? What are you doing out here? Were you spying on us?" Willa said in a teasing tone.
Jace completely ignored her. His eyes were fixed on me. "We need to talk. Now."
With a sigh, I looked over his shoulder, down the empty corridor. "Can't it wait? Maybe for thirty minutes? I was about to go and see my mom."
"We were," Willa corrected, linking her arm through mine.
"It can't wait. It's really important. Come with me," he said.
"It had better be," I grumbled, staring at his back as he walked away.
"I guess we'll talk later," Willa said, also staring at her brother's retreat. "He looks kind of grumpy, don't you think?”
Jace stopped, looked back, and raised his brows, silently asking me if I was coming or not. He wasn’t usually the grumpy type, so I felt something was off. I followed him to the music room.
Cade was staring out of the window when I arrived. Chase was pacing. Jace pulled out a chair for me.
I was immediately conscious of the tension in the room.
"What's up?" I asked. “Why is the room gloomy?”
The brothers exchanged looks. Chase and Jace nodded at Cade.
Cade cleared his throat.
"I want us to talk about the next part of the contest coming up, the skill contest coming up soon," he said.
I remembered they had promised to help me win. Did they want to discuss tactics?
No. That couldn't be it. They looked way too serious and grave.
"You guys are acting really weird," I pointed out. "Is everything okay?"
"Depends on how you take this," Chase answered.
I straightened in my chair, feeling incredibly anxious. This was definitely serious.
Cade continued. "We got some inside information about the next stage of the contest. It is going to be a duel. Contestants will have to fight amongst themselves."
So they were worried I wouldn't be able to fight and win? That maybe I would get hurt? How long would they keep underestimating me?
I opened my mouth to tell them that I had already been making a lot of progress with Logan, that once or twice he had told me I was getting 'a little better'—high praise coming from Logan—but Jace started talking first.
"If it's going to be a duel, you can't participate, Hannah."
I blinked, not sure I was hearing correctly. I managed to regain my composure and squared my shoulders. "If this is about you all worrying about me getting hurt, you know I can take care of myself, right?"
"Wish it were that simple," Chase grumbled.