Chapter |9|

"Any luck choosing your other two clubs?" Sharpay asked as they had their usual seats in the school cafeteria the following Monday.

Eden groaned out loud. "I forgot about that. I could neglect and avoid, I'm sure they'll forget too."

Sharpay snorted as she began digging into her lunch. "Good luck with that. If I thought it'd be that easy to slip anything past these people, I'd be sneaking in wine in my bag to help me through the day."

After eyeing her warily for that confession, Eden sighed in defeat. "But I have no idea what else to choose. I tried going through the list Alicia gave me, but it was seriously long. We're not in college, why do they have so many curriculars?"

"Because they're overzealous, they're oppressive, they're anal... the list goes on and on."

Eden groaned again.

"Okay, look. If you don't decide, they'll decide for you, and you will end up regretting it. Most definitely. So why don't I give you my list of the clubs that don't completely suck and you pick?"

"Fine," Eden caved reluctantly, after a bite of her spaghetti. The explosive flavor of the sauce in her mouth might have made her more agreeable. Food had a way of doing that.

"You already joined one of the best, cheerleading. Seriously, if I could put up with fakeness and blondeness, that would have been my first choice."

"Not actual words and you're also blonde, but I'm listening."

Sharpay wiggled her lips to the side as she gave it a thought. "After them, we have the football team. You would fit right in with those guys. How about that?"

Eden rolled her eyes as Sharpay laughed. "How about I just stick to avoiding Alicia for the rest of my senior year?"

Sharpay's laughter died down to a chuckle. "Seriously now, you could join our delinquent club. Not only are you gangsta enough to fit in, you could find out who vandalized Everly's locker for you because the mystery is killing me."

The blonde continued to chuckle when all Eden did was give her a deadpan look, but she eventually grew serious. "There's our swim team," she suggested. "We're fairly good and we make nationals. The only downside is, you'll be on the same team as Tamika Robinson. She's a delight," she muttered dryly.

Eden took another bite of her meal before pointing her fork in other girl's direction. "I sense hidden feelings of hatred and rivalry."

"Trust me, none of that hatred is hidden. And I don't compete with skanks. Especially skanks who sleep with your boyfriend of over seven months and justify themselves by saying they were giving him a better lay. On second thought, you'll run into another terrible, repulsive thing. My cheating ex, Ricky."

"Noted, swimming is off," Eden muttered. That tirade did it. "I couldn't even. The only sports approved by my doctor are aerobic sports and even that has to be kept to a minimum."

"Right. You did almost die in water."

Eden glared at her. "Yeah, there's the reason."

"Sorry, sensitive topic," Sharpay apologized. "So, um, swimming is definitely scratched. How about chess? Our academy chess club was ranked second best in the whole country last tournament."

Eden shook her head. "Cheerleading is gonna take up far too much of my time, and I'm already behind on my schoolwork. Isn't there a Language Club, or a Cooking Club? We had a Culinary Arts club at my old school."

"Language, yes. Culinary, no"

"Really?" She made a tsk sound, shaking her head. No opportunity to indulge her gluttony. "It's like they want to suck out what little fun there is in school. You're right, they are oppressive."

Sharpay pretended to gasp in shock. "You're complaining already? Try attending the school for more than a week, or I don't know...since middle school. You just wait till they tell you your grade can't get low or you're expelled."

Eden frowned. "They'd do that?"

"They've done that," Sharpay corrected her. "Twice. One was this guy who's always been the bottom of our class. The other was a scholarship student who got really sick. She was diagnosed with cancer."

Eden gaped. "You're kidding. They expelled a sick student?"

"l wish I was. There was a petition and everything to stop them, but since she was a scholarship student, there wasn't anything anyone could do. The board didn't care she was dying, neither did the Principal."

How cold-hearted did you have to be to do something so cruel? "What about the girl's parents? Didn't they do anything?"

Sharpay sighed, shaking her head. "It gets worse. She's an orphan. No one to stand up for her, except Chester who started the petition."

"Chester?"

"Yeah, and Adonis too. I heard Adonis caused a scene in the principal's office when he got back."

Eden blinked. "Got back from where?"

Sharpay didn't answer immediately. She glanced over at Adonis's table, and Eden already knew she'd find it empty. She had taken a glimpse earlier when they walked in.

"This is kind of a sensitive matter," Sharpay finally said. "I don't know much either. But I heard Adonis did something really bad, he had to be sent away. A whole year he wasn't at school, he wasn't active on social media or sighted anywhere at all, he didn't attend any social functions with his family. It's like he fell off the face of the planet. Then, a year later he's back and re-enrolls to finish his senior year."

"Where would he go?" Eden wondered. Much against her better judgement, the more she learned about Adonis Rosenvelt, the more intrigued she became.

"My money's on juvie," Sharpay said.

It was likely. Where else would a person go where they'd be away from technology and civilization? Eden was definitely intrigued.

She didn't need to look him up to know he came from one of the wealthiest American families. They had money to sweep a whole massacre under the rug. So what could he have done to be banished from civilization for a whole year? It would no doubt be juicy.

"On second thought, juvie seems like an obvious choice," Sharpay continued to muse. "Maybe a vacation. Rich people are crazy. He could have done something bad and gotten a mere slap on the wrist by being forced to take a vacation."

Eden arched her brow. "You do realize you're classified under the same group." Sometimes the heiress spoke like she didn't come from an expansively wealthy background.

"I do," she sighed. "Anyway, where do you think he went? Though this was probably before you guys met."

"How do you know?" Eden asked.

"It wasn't till he got back I started seeing pictures and videos of you together. But then again, who knows? His romance with Ripley could have started during his vacation." Eden was beginning to see what a vivid imagination she had, and a thirst for drama.

"About that... Are you sure he and Ripley were involved?"

"Yeah. About ninety percent."

Could Eden's dad was wrong? Or had Adonis just been a fling for Ripley like the other guys? Maybe he'd had feelings for her she didn't return. That was hard to picture. He didn't seem like the kind of guy any girl in her right mind would reject.

What the hell? Was Eden developing a crush on him? She was supposed to be figuring out how to appease her guilt, not falling for her dead best friend's ex. Or what other way could Eden explain her unusual curiosity about Adonis Rosenvelt? It was almost a fixation. She noticed now whenever he was in a room with her, and he happened to be in a great deal of her classes. If it wasn't that prickling sensation she got from his unrelenting stare, she was the one covertly searching the room for him.

They hadn't spoken, not since that day in the library, and Eden had consciously avoided the back of the library. Instead of her avoiding him because of his behavior that day, what made her leery was her ill-advised fascination with him. It was almost like meeting him that first time on the field had opened up a floodgate of complex, irrational emotions. It was baffling. The only explanation she could come up with was they had known each other, despite whatever he said, and they hadn't gotten along well. Ripley was probably all they'd had in common and now she was gone, that left feelings of unease and bitterness. Eden uneasy because she didn't remember anything and didn't know how to act around him, Adonis bitter because he blamed her for Ripley's death.

Yet he stared and stared. She could never guess what he was thinking, and it irked her. Was he feeling bad for being rude to her? Was he secretly planning her murder and an acceptable cover story? He was one confusing guy.

Wanting to take her mind off its gloomy track, Eden changed the subject from Adonis Rosenvelt. "Anyway, have had any luck figuring out why my tutor is a no-show?"

Sharpay shook her head. "I see Sami in class. I don't know why he isn't showing up for your appointments."

Eden shrugged. "Works for me. I didn't want a tutor in the first place. I can catch up by myself now that I have the time."

"So I shouldn't talk to him?"

"God, no. I'm good." Really good. Almost an hour to herself in the solitary library, no nosy teenagers and no hovering family members. She used the time to work on her designs and browse the library for books on architecture.

The bell rang, signifying the end of their lunch. "I might not see you again today. I've got robotics meeting after school," Sharpay informed her as they stood up. Eden was surprised, she never asked why Sharpay often disappeared and Sharpay never told her.

"I've got cheerleading," she reported back.

"I'll see you tomorrow then."

Eden nodded, after which they left the cafeteria and went their separate ways. She now knew her way around pretty well she didn't need any directions.

On getting to her next class, Eden took a seat up front and waited for the teacher to arrive. As usual, no one approached her; the students more or less ignored her during classes. So she was shocked when a lanky auburn-haired guy walked in, spotted her in front and came over, taking the empty seat next to her. She watched him curiously, getting the feeling she knew him from somewhere though she'd never seen him around the academy.

"I'm sorry, do we know each other?" she asked because it would just nag at her.

"You remember me." The guy, boyishly cute with freckles and the most adorable lisp, smiled shyly at Eden. "I wasn't sure you would, especially without the glasses." She noticed he had green-eyes, they must be contacts. "I'm Davison, but most people call me Davis. Don't know if you remember that. I was told your memory can be tricky."

That was the first sign. Eden wanted to be suspicious but wasn't. He looked pretty harmless. "Who told you this?"

He sheepishly grinned, averting his gaze. "I can't say. I was just tasked with delivering a message." He summoned up the courage to look up and meet her eyes. "Someone would like for you to attend a party this weekend. I don't know if you remember the mixers we usually have with other schools. We're having one Friday night."

Eden mulled it over. "What schools will be there?"

"Northview Academy, Cypress Creek Academy, Central Valley High, and Milan Prep."

Eden immediately refused. "Thanks, but tell whoever sent you I'm gonna have to decline." The last thing she needed was running into her old classmates from Milan Prep. There was a reason she had left the school. "What I would like to know is, how do I know you?"

He had seemed disappointed at her rebuff, but perked up at her question. "Well, you did change my life."

Eden's eyes widened. "Excuse me?"

He sheepishly looked away. "It was at one of those mixers. I was invited as a prank and when it was all going down, you stepped in and helped me out. After that, because of you, Adonis—"

"Settle down, everyone," the teacher interrupted after arriving late. Eden inwardly groaned, knowing she had just missed an important information Davison was about to divulge. He seemed like he knew something worthwhile to her and wanted to tell her. Something told her that wouldn't be the case much longer. She also had an inkling who had sent him.

During the class, she tore out a piece of paper and wrote a note for him. Did Adonis send you? she asked then discreetly slid the paper over to his side.

She noted his expression didn't change when he read it, but his hand shook a little as he wrote back. I can't say, he scribbled in neat, calligraphy penmanship. Even his writing was adorable, she thought, unable to get mad at him. He was innocent in all this, just a messenger. But Eden was almost a hundred percent sure Adonis had sent him. That confused her, starting another inconclusive train of thoughts.

Why had he wanted to invite her to a party? Did he think forcing her into an environment she and Ripley had been together in would have some effect on her? Maybe he was going to confront her there. Or what if it was a harmless invitation to apologize for being an ass?

Regardless, she wouldn't be going for a number of reasons. But her decision left her feeling bereft. This could be her only chance till who knew to spend time with Adonis outside of school. She didn't know when the next mixer would be and if Milan Prep would still be among.

By the end of class though, Eden had come back to her senses. Why on earth would she want to spend time with Adonis outside of school? That was simply a recipe for disaster. He was Ripley's ex and very possibly hated her guts.

This made it easier to let Davison go, missing what was probably her only opportunity to get answers. She was beginning to care too much about both her past, and even without her memories she knew that wouldn't end well. Not at all.

When she got up to leave, she sighed in resignation, knowing she had made the right decision. It hadn't been easy, but she knew the best thing for her was to let Adonis Rosenvelt go.