Rhyland and Jaxon are in my next two classes. Rhyland tries to strike up a conversation with me a couple of times but gives up when I give him the cold shoulder. When I try to make small chitchat with a couple of people outside of the Porterson clan, figuring it might be good to have some friends—or allies—I get snubbed and laughed at. The only person that acknowledges my existence is Scarlett.

“Sorry, but I tried to warn you not to go up against them,” she says as we pass by each other in the hallway.

“I didn’t really go up against them,” I point out. “Well, not until about an hour ago.” When Blaise found me in the library looking up information about his family.

The only reason I knew how to access most of those records is because of my dad. But there’s no way I’ll ever tell Blaise that. Although, I’m surprised he couldn’t figure it out on his own. I mean, after digging up all that dirt on my family, he has to know my dad used to work as a detective.

“Why?” What happened an hour ago?” she asks, intrigued.

“I’m sure Blaise will tell you about it.” I’m surprised he hasn’t already.

“My brothers don’t really tell me much about their extra-curricular activities.” She pulls out a package of M&Ms from her bag and pops a handful into her mouth, then offers me some.

Even though the motive behind Scarlett’s friendliness is questionable, I’m hungry so I take a handful and pop them into my mouth.

“So torturing me and my sisters is considered extra-curricular activities for your brothers?” I ask as she stuffs the package of candy back into her bag.

She chuckles. “For now, I guess it is. Don’t worry, though. Blaise will get it under control eventually.”

“You say that like he has no control over his own actions?”

“No, he does, it’s the others he has a problem with.” She throws me a wave as she turns to leave. “See you around Hadley. And if this thing with my brothers ends up ending, we should hang out sometime. I don’t have much in the line of friends, mostly because most people around here are afraid of my brothers. You don’t seem to have that problem, though.”

I think about what I read about her. How she spent some time in a psychiatric ward. I couldn’t find out why. Doesn’t really matter, though. She seems nice enough, unlike her brothers.

“Yeah, if that ever happens, we definitely should.” I smile at her as I start to turn for my next class.

“If you really want to end this feud quicker, you could always challenge one of them,” she calls out, stopping me in my tracks.

I twist back around, ignoring the group of cheerleaders laughing as they stare at me from just down the busy hallway. “What do you mean by challenge one of them? Challenge them to what?”

She adjusts her backpack with a smile on her face. A smile which could either be extremely genuine or creepily malicious—she’s very hard to read.

“A drag race.” She hitches her thumbs around the handles of her backpack as she shrugs. “It’s sort of a thing in Honeyton.”

“Drag racing?”

“Duel drag racing.”

I’m unsure what to make of this and she must read the confusion on my face because she adds, “Okay, so let’s say Nina over there,” she gestures at a brown-haired girl standing amongst the group of cheerleaders, “Has a thing for Jock head number one,” she points at a blonde-haired guy wearing a jersey, “And jock head number two,” she points to the guy standing next to him, “And she ends up sleeping with both of them. And they both find out and for some dumb reason, start fighting over her. Instead of throwing fists, they declare a racing duel. Winner gets Nina’s heart forever.” Her face pinches in disgust.

I stare blankly at her. “That’s really a thing?”

“Well, not the whole thing about Nina and jock head one and two. I was just giving you an example. But yes, in this hick of a town you’ve decided to declare your new home, we sometimes settle our lame ass problems with racing.”

I mull over the idea. While a drag racing duel seems a bit strange and old-school, getting Blaise to back off does sound appealing. Plus, I’d get a lot of satisfaction in beating his ass in a race. On the other hand, he slit my tires and showed the entire school my family’s fucked up history, and winning him in a race doesn’t seem like much of a payback.

“Just think about it,” Scarlett says then walks off as the bell rings, announcing that yes, once again, I’m late to class.

Needless to say, by lunchtime, I’m pretty tired of the day. So, when I go to meet up with my sisters at my locker and Londyn and Bailey inform me that Payton went home before school even started, I volunteer to go check on her.

“Are you sure?” Londyn double-checks as I put my stuff in my bag. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to miss half a day on our first day of school.”

“I’ll be fine,” I assure her as I bump my locker shut. “It’s not like I’ve never missed a first day of school before.”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t mean you should continually do it.” Londyn walks down the hallway beside me with Bailey trailing at our heels.

She’s right, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to do it. I don’t like that Payton is home alone upset. Or worse, isn’t home alone upset because our dad came home drunk.

“I’ll see if I can coax her into coming back to school,” I tell Londyn as we reach the exit doors. “I’ll text you if we do. If not, I’ll pick you guys up when school gets out.”

Sighing, Londyn steps back. “Fine. But I’m really starting to hate the Porterson brothers.”

“Me, too,” I agree, thinking about how the duel could end this, if I could just get over my pride and let what Blaise did go.

“Give Payton a hug for me,” Bailey says. “She was really upset when she took off … Those flyers … They said a lot of bad stuff about her—about all of us.”

“I’ll give her ten hugs,” I promise, then wave goodbye and push out the doors.

The drive should take about ten minutes but I manage to make it in seven by speeding and cutting corners. By the time I pull up, I’m fuming mad. Not at Payton. No, I can understand why she was upset and took off. She has one of the worst reps out of the four of us, and that flyer basically declared she was a kleptomaniac.

All because of Blaise Porterson.

I don’t give a shit if he bailed me out of getting detention. He never should’ve messed with my sisters.

My rage only simmers more when I find Payton locked in her bedroom.

“Go away!” she shouts through a sob.

I knock softly on the door. “Come on, Payton. You’re stronger than this.”

“No, I’m not,” she cries out. “Just leave me alone!” She then cranks the music up, the walls vibrating with the bass.

I consider picking the lock, but decide to give her a bit of time to wallow before I go that far.

I send Londyn and Bailey a text that Payton and I aren’t returning to school today. Then I trudge up to my room and work on bottling up my pride while I wait.

Wait until it’s time to go pick up my sisters then I’ll declare a duel and hopefully put an end to this battle with the Porterson brothers that’s making my sisters lives and mine a living hell.