“Taryn.”

Yep, that’s my name. I just rolled my eyes, not pausing as I made my way down the school’s hallway. My sister could screech all she wanted—I wasn’t going to help her. Ever. At least not in the way she wanted me to.

“Taryn,” Mandy shouted again, pitter-pattering her way to me. No one should run when wearing high heels, at least those high heels—they arched halfway up to her calves. That was my sister—she wore high heels, clingy tank tops, miniskirts, and on some days, a cheerleading outfit.

My new sister was a cheerleader. I had been adopted into a family that raised those kinds of kids—the God blessed, rich kids. And Mandy was the epitome of the golden child. At least she thought so—blonde, petite, smart and popular by all accounts. She wasn’t the head of her clique, but she was one of them. You know the crowd. The highest of the high. The crowd where only a handful actually hold the power. The rest of the popular crowd just drooled to get into their circle.

“Taryn, for God’s sake—stop!”

I ignored her, opening my locker as I heard her stumble to a halt, panting slightly beside me.

Eyebrows arched, I whistled. “Thought you were in shape there, sister. All those late night activities with Devon, right?”

“I’m not here to talk about Devon,” she snapped. Ooh, Mandy was on a mission. I knew what she wanted, which meant I needed to distract her.

“I heard Devon hooked up with Stephanie Markswith at Brent’s party,” I commented casually, grabbing my calculus book.

“Not gonna work, sister dear,” she said scathingly, but it had. I saw the twitch in her eye. Oh yeah, she knew I was trying to distract her, but she couldn’t let it go. “There’s no chance in hell that he would hook up with her. No way in hell!”

“Not what I heard.”

“She’s not suicidal.”

“She was drunk. Don’t think she was thinking all that clearly,” I remarked, shutting my locker and moving away.

Mandy latched to my side and I could see she was seething from the corner of my eye. “The girl’s dead!” she said.

“Better tell her that.”

I saw Stephanie turn the corner up ahead, along with her mini-Stephanie-wanna-be friends tagging behind: Jackie, Slappy, and Curlie. Of course those weren’t their real names, that’s just what I called them. They were little anorexic bubbles with air inside. They had no personalities and their only mission in life was to get popular. Stephanie was their first rung on the ladder so that’s where they started.

Stephanie wasn’t quite where my sister was in the social status, but she was almost there.

Mandy saw her at the same time I did. She immediately veered off in her direction.

I couldn’t stop a faint grin. Stephanie was about to be knocked down from whatever standing she had achieved and it was all because of me. I’m such a bitch, but the thing is, I had a reason to sic my sister on Stephanie.

Yeah. I had lied. Stephanie hadn’t hooked up with Devon. I have no idea who she had hooked up with, but there was without a doubt something—note that I said something, not someone, she was just that nasty. I smiled knowing she was about to be knocked down; she deserved it. The first week of school—my new life in place with my new resolutions firmly in place—she spread a rumor that I stole our biology exam. She only spread that rumor because her boyfriend hit on me.

Yeah, it might’ve been something that I’d have done in the past, but this time I was innocent. All of my history had been pulled up, making me look guilty as hell and didn’t help my innocence in the situation. They couldn’t prove it was me, but it didn’t matter.

Instead of being suspended, I received detention for two months. But Stephanie had tarnished my name and all my intents and purposes to be a ‘good’ kid had gone down the drain.

So I served my sentence, got pretty close with Mr. Hollings, the unlucky teacher who had pulled the detention straw, and I set about trying to reclaim my ‘good’ name again.

After that incident, I declared war on Stephanie, but for the past few months things have been quiet…guess that’s over now.

I could still hear Mandy’s screech as I ducked inside my classroom. I couldn’t help but chuckle.

*

Glancing up from my lunch tray, I saw Tray Evans drop into the seat opposite mine. Grinning, so self-assured, he drawled, “Your sis preaches about some of your skills.”

“Skills that are firmly stocked and locked. Go away,” I said coolly. I didn’t care who he was, I wasn’t going back to my old habits. No way in hell.

“Come on. Why are you so hard-pressed? A girl like you could get laid, easily.”

I fixed him with a steely glare. I knew who he was. He was the resident god of the school. Captain of the soccer team. Heartiest partier. He had his own personal supply of kegs, and, if you were really nice and kissed his ass, he’d even rent a few out to you. Tray Evans was the kind of kid that I hated the most—one of the God blessed. He had the family, the looks, the personality, and the money. He could charm his way anywhere and he did. He was so goddamned lucky because he had everything, but he took it for granted. He chose to spend his days optimizing his level of fun.

He was lazy. Pure and simple.

I hate anyone who’s advantaged and takes it for granted—Mandy now excluded because she’s my sister.

“A girl like me? And who do you think I am?” I asked coolly.

There was a flicker of alarm in his hazel eyes. Yeah, he was back-pedaling a little now. “Chill. Didn’t mean anything by it—it’s just that…any guy would be with you. That’s it. Didn’t mean anything derogatory.”

“Right.” It didn’t set right, the guy was lying. “What do you want?”

Yeah, he was firmly reassessing me. I knew this wasn’t the girl that he had been told about. I hadn’t pulled out my confrontational bitchiness—yet. I’d played in the background, doing passive aggressive stunts (like with Stephanie), but right now…that wouldn’t fly. Not with Tray Evans. He ate those girls for breakfast and came back for seconds.

“Taryn!” Mandy cheerfully greeted, landing in the seat next to mine. “Tray, hey!”

“Matthews,” he greeted smoothly.

“Is it true?” Mandy asked. “Is the party at your place?”

“Thinking about it.”

Catching me studying her intently, Mandy asked warily, “What?”

“Why are you here?” I asked pointedly. She didn’t ever sit by me at lunch. I sat alone. It was my rule.

She sighed. “Come on, Taryn. We need your help.”

“That’s what this is about? Both of you coming to double-team me?”

“Well…yeah,” she said simply.

Tray leaned forward, propping his gorgeous muscled arms on the table, teasing me with a view of a tattoo peeking out from underneath his polo sleeve. I had a thing for tattoos. “Mandy says that you’re good at stealing stuff. We need something swiped.”

“No.”

“Taryn, why are you being so unbelievably difficult? Come on, you’re like a legend at this stuff. Mom and Dad had to attend conferences about this stuff just to prepare the family for you.”

I went cold.

Gasping, Mandy realized what she’d said.

Coolly, I murmured, “Sorry that your family had to learn how to thief-proof their home before their new defected adoptee moved in.”

“I didn’t mean it that way,” she scrambled, “I really didn’t, I’m sorry. Taryn—”

But I wasn’t listening. I had already stood and crossed swiftly out the door and down the hallway. Without thinking, I found myself in the parking lot, my car keys dangling from my fingers, but as I got inside and put the key in the ignition, I stopped myself. What was I doing? It was times like these—when I felt so alone—that I missed Brian Lanser.

The passenger door opened and Tray got inside. Shutting it, he leaned against it, his arms relaxed, hanging on the seat. “Going somewhere?”

“Get out,” I clipped out.

“Where we going?” he counted, grinning.

I couldn’t help it. I found myself checking him out. He really was gorgeous—he had startling hazel eyes, eyelashes that girls would kill for, and full plump lips.

He was a God blessed version of Brian Lanser. The difference was that Brian Lansers never got away with anything. They were hated just because they were associated with criminals. The Tray Evanses of the world pulled the exact same stunts and were worshiped. They were the most dangerous in my mind.

“Like what you see.”

“Oh, you got the package. We both know that, but you have shit for quality,” I drawled back, smirking.

“You think so?”

“All my life, I’ve dealt with boys like you. There’s no surprise there; you’re all the same.”

Leaning forward, his face slowly getting closer to mine, his breath teasing my skin, he whispered, “You think so.” Tilting his head slightly, his cheek grazed against mine.

I held firm. I had to, but I hated that I had to ignore the heat that spread through my body. I hated how I had to hold my breath so I wouldn’t jump across the seat and attack him.

I whispered back, “I know so.”

“Bet I could change your mind.”

“Bet you could…if I wanted you to. But,” I pulled away and said flatly, “I don’t.”

His eyes were laughing and the hazel color had darkened to an almost amber color.

“So get out,” I delivered smoothly.

He chuckled softly as he leaned against the door once again. “Listen…business only, okay?”

I was silent, regarding him suspiciously.

He continued, “Next week is homecoming and we play the Panthers from Pedlam.” Judging from my silence, he proceeded, “Anyway, last year they stole our game book and we got screwed. This year, it’s our turn.”

“You want me to steal their game book?”

“Mandy says you used to do this stuff. I respect that you don’t want to do it anymore, but we know that they’ve already been sniffing around campus. We caught a few of ‘em Friday night, they were trying to take our state championship flag from last year.”

“You won the state championship?”

“Yeah.”

“So the one loss didn’t hurt that bad,” I said sardonically.

“It hurt enough. They had to revise an entire new game book.” I could hear the acid dripping from his voice.

“You don’t even play football. Why do you care?”

“Because this is my school. I take care of what’s mine,” he promised firmly.

But this wasn’t my school. I didn’t have a school. Wait—Pedlam?

“I know people at Pedlam.”

“What? You go to school there or something?”

“Yeah…a few times.”

“So—”

“So…I don’t know if I want to help you screw with a school that I’m probably more welcome at than I am here.”

Tray sighed, rolling his eyes. “You’re Mandy’s sister. This is your school too, Taryn.”

That was the first time I’d ever heard him say my name. In fact, until lunch, he’d never spoken to me.

“Get out. I’m not helping you.”

“What? Come on.”

“Out!” I snapped, glaring fiercely.

“Fine,” he clipped out, getting out and slamming the door behind him before stalking off.

Watching him, I narrowed my eyes. Well, if I ever had hopes of climbing the social ladder, it just walked away with him.

*

As I let myself inside the house—correction—the mansion where my new family lived, I dropped my keys in the bowl beside the coat-rack. The place was just massive. I already knew no one was home. My parents—it was hard to think of them as parents, I had to keep reminding myself not to call them Shelley and Kevin in my mind—were gone on a business trip. Kevin was either on-call at the hospital, or, like this weekend, he was at a conference and he always took Shelley with him, leaving me, Mandy, and Austin home alone. Austin, my new brother, was a fourteen year old brat, but I could beat him up so he left me alone for the most part. Our bonding was a work in progress.

Grabbing a pop, I landed on the couch in the media room. I was having a hard time immersing myself in the movie I had put on when I heard the sound of voices coming from the kitchen. Groaning, I could make out Mandy’s friends’ voices.

The gods of the gods.

Ugh.

“She’s down here,” Mandy called out, bouncing down the stairs. “Hey,” she exclaimed, plopping down beside me.

“Hey.”

“So, Tray said you said no. A big fat no actually.”

“No, Mandy.”

“Come on…why not?” she whined with a pout, looking at me with big puppy dog eyes.

“What’s going on?” Jasmine Kent asked, laughing as she sat on the couch opposite us. Tray, Bryce Sethlers, Grant Lancaster, and Devon Hedley trailing behind. The only person missing was Grant’s sister, Amber.

I knew some about them—there were enough rumors swirling about every single one of them. Amber and Grant were twins. Grant had hated Tray at one point because he screwed Amber a few times—apparently, Amber had been panting after Tray for years until he finally succumbed. And Jasmine had a brief stint with him too—but it only lasted six months according to my science partner who wore microscope glasses. (I could never remember her name.)

I had also heard that even though Mandy was hot and steady with Devon, it didn’t mean that she had snuffed out the torch she had for Tray since the sixth grade. However, Devon and Mandy were the longest running couple in the school—I think they have been together for four years now. Bryce and Jasmine merely sleep together every now and then; you could usually see them at parties panting and grinding with each other. Most people would take bets on how long it took before they’d either be found in a corner or some closet. The more I think about it, I don’t remember hearing a whole lot about Grant’s love life…maybe he just had more class.

Yep. The social elite were in my living room. Well, Mandy’s living room.

“Leave her alone, Mandy. The girl’s frigid. She said no,” Tray said in a low tone.

I rounded on him. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.” He smirked.

“Got your little knickers all wrapped in a bunch, huh? Rejection must really get you if you gotta resort to name-calling. Kinda superficial, don’t you think?” I taunted.

“Oh, they’re not little.” He grinned, completely at ease.

Bastard.

“Says you.”

“Says me.” Jasmine giggled.

Mandy had fallen uncharacteristically silent.

“And you’re pretty experienced, huh?”

“Taryn!” Mandy hissed.

“Whatever,” I mumbled, standing and moving towards the door.

“Oh, come on,” Mandy called out, “Taryn, come hang out. These are my friends and you’re my sister.”

I turned around. Tray was watching, amused by the scene. Jasmine had turned to glaring at me—guess she didn’t like what I implied. The guys were—well, guys. They were snickering, apparently they thought my comment about Jasmine was funny.

This was a game to them, even to Jasmine as she let a smile slip out after being nudged from Grant.

But it wasn’t a game to me. It used to be, my whole life had been just a game, but the stakes were too high now that I had a family I actually wanted to stay with.

“I’m not doing it. Whatever you want me to take, I’m not doing it.”

“We’re not asking anymore,” Tray remarked, sounding bored.

“Yeah,” Mandy agreed. “We’ll figure something else out, okay? So just chill, alright?”

They were all watching me and I knew whatever I did next would seal my position in the school. Logically I knew that my placement was firm, finalized, because Mandy was my sister, but…that’s not what I felt. I went against what my instincts were screaming at me and I slowly sat back down and resumed watching the movie.

Mandy squeezed my arm slightly before she started chatting to Jasmine over my head.

I was silent throughout the rest of the evening. I think they were a little cautious around me; I kept a low profile at school and I was pretty quiet every time Mandy invited them over the few months they’ve known me. It was the first time anyone had seen the confrontational side of me.

Everyone meandered to the kitchen where Mandy put a pizza in the oven. I had followed and perched on a stool, my hands wrapped around my pop. Tray had been watching me the entire evening, and it was pissing me off. I didn’t like letting people read me—call me paranoid, but I was guarded for a reason—but I knew what he was doing. He was trying to figure me out; figure out my weaknesses and so forth. He didn’t like having someone so unpredictable in his group.

When the phone rang, Mandy handed it over saying, “It’s for you. Dunno know who it is.”

Frowning, I asked, “Hello?”

“Babe.”

Brian.

I jumped off the stool and scooted out through the patio doors, shutting them behind me. “What are you doing calling me?”

“Babe, come on.”

“Brian, leave me alone.”

“Come on,” he said silkily. “After all we’ve been through? You and me? You’re just going to write us off?”

“There’s no us. I made that loud and clear.” But God, it was good to hear his voice. The longer I was away from him, I remembered more of the good times we had together than the bad.

“Let me come over. Let’s talk about this.”

“No.”

“Babe.”

“Brian, no. Go and screw Liza, I know she’s probably panting right behind you.”

“She’s not you, Tar. There’s no one like you, that’s what’s fucked up. I want you. I miss you.” He sighed.

I couldn’t say anything that I hadn’t already said and I wasn’t about to tell him the truth—that I missed him. He’d be relentless.

“Babe, you can’t tell me you don’t miss me. I’m your family, Tar. I’ve been your family for the last XX years. You can’t just dismiss me. You know that. I know you know that.”

“Yeah, well…” What I said next was harsh, but I had to, “I have a new family now.” I hung up. Breathing heavily, I leaned against the wall, hidden from inside where I knew there were at least a few pairs of eyes on me, I tried to pull myself together.

Mandy came to the patio door and opened it a crack as she stuck her head outside. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” I said shakily, trying to paste a grin on my face.

“You don’t look okay. Who was that?”

“Just…someone from my past.”

“An old boyfriend?”

“Guess you could call him that.”

“He sounded hot over the phone. Is he hot?”

“Oh yeah, and he knows it.” I chuckled. He was different from Tray. Tray’s looks could mesmerize people. Brian’s almost scared people away—he has the cliché bad boy look and everyone saw that when they looked at him. They’d be correct in stereotyping him; he is a bad boy—he’s spent more than his fair share of time in juvie.

The phone rang in my hands. I saw Mandy reach for it, ready to do my dirty work, but I shook my head. “No. I have to do this.” Clicking the button, I murmured, “What?”

“Babe.”

Yep, he was relentless.

“You call me again and I’ll get a restraining order on your ass. You know I’ll do it,” I snapped as I turned away from Mandy.

“You don’t mean that. You don’t really want me out of your life.”

That pissed me off. I’d lived my life not letting anyone tell me what I wanted or didn’t want, and Brian knew that—he just screwed up. “Just watch me.”

“Babe, you don’t really want to do that.”

“Oh really? Why? You think I don’t know all about your shit you got going on? About your little deal with Carmen Rizzo or about the drugs you always keep at Christian’s house? Oh wait, no…here’s the best one—how about the videos of that bank you robbed. I have those, I know where they are.”

Maybe I’d gone too far because Brian was quiet on his end. I couldn’t let it get to me though, I had to be a stone cold bitch to get him to let go of me.

“You mean the robbery you were an accomplice in? The vids you’re on too?” he countered.

I laughed. “Oh please. I’m the professional. You think I’d be reckless enough to get caught on video? Oh no, those vids have you and you alone on them. I was nowhere near those cameras; not even my shadow came close to being videoed. Remember who taught who.”

“You threatening me, Taryn?”

“It’s Taryn now? Not Tar? Not babe? Is Liza crawling all over your lap?”

“You’re pushing me,” he warned.

“Then stay away from me, Brian. I mean it or else I’ll get my hands on that shit and hang you out to dry. Don’t think I won’t and don’t you dare think I can’t, because you know more than anyone exactly what I’m capable of doing.”

He knew I was right. Brian had watched in amazement as I could slip through any crack, and make my way under any security program. By the time I was reunited with Brian, I was already at a professional level.

“Fine. I’d forgotten how much of a bitch you are,” he bit out.

“Oh no, baby. I was your equal. That makes you a bitch just as much as me,” I said smoothly and hung up.

Oh my God. I’d burned one of the sturdiest bridges I had ever had in my life and I didn’t know if it was worth it. I was still gambling with how this new family would work out.

“Holy hell,” Jasmine breathed out.

Whirling, I paled seeing the entire gang on the patio. Amber had shown up at some point and looked shocked.

Tray was staring at me with an unnamed emotion, one (I shivered) I didn’t know if I wanted to identify.

Mandy looked like she wasn’t breathing.

“Mandy,” I said, faltering self-consciously. “I—”

“Mom and Dad told me some stuff, but they don’t know about any of that. That’s some…that’s like some serious stuff.”

“It wasn’t me. Most of it was…Brian.”

“Yeah, I remember hearing Mom talking about him to a parole officer.”

“Look,” I let the parole officer slide by, I wasn’t really surprised at her lack of knowledge, “it’s why I don’t want to steal whatever it is you want for you. This life, with you guys, is a fresh start for me. Yeah, I’m good at stealing stuff, but I don’t want to do that anymore.”

Everyone was quietly processing what they’d heard; when I looked at their faces I saw their emotions range from disgust, fear, and awe. When I looked into Tray’s eyes, I saw condemnation.

He knew I was lying.