Royal High was built mainly for the younger generation of wealthy families, the sons and daughters of ministers, politicians, CEOs, royalties and so on and so forth.
It was close to impossible for anyone from the middle class to ever step foot into the school, depending on scholarship or not. The school was administered by the Catholic Church, it was the most prestigious high school in the state, and the most expensive.
The school was built like a palace, a student could decide to stay in the dormitory or not, everything was available for the students. It was the type of school, low class teens only saw in their dreams.
The student's of Royal High were always in uniform or in their gym clothes, there was no room for any other outfit. The girls were clothed with a black skirt reaching the top of their knees, at the hem of the black skirt was a gold lining, the jacket was long sleeved with pockets and golden buttons, at first sight the uniform didn't seem as much, but then with another look, it did give off the impression of wealth, royalty and sophistication.
The boy's wear was the same, except the skirt was replaced with a pair of black pants, the jacket for them was optional, but the white shirt was mandatory.
The halls of the school were filled with students talking about this and that, they knew better than to yell because to them that was unceremonial, so when a scream wafted into the ears of the students, they all were compelled to find the source of such an unrefined act.
Lucy had screamed in surprise upon seeing a pink note drop to the ground after Bree opened her locker.
"Bree got a love letter" she yelled out, attracting glares from jealous or disturbed students.
"Who would write Bree a love letter, does he not value his life?" Lucas asked rhetorically as he walked to Lucy and Bree from the opposite locker row.
"Charles Rick" Bree said
"Who's Charles Rick?" Andrea asked, wondering who had such bad taste, Bree was beautiful no doubt, but who would want to date her, especially a boy at that, was he blind to the obvious truth?
"You, of course don't know him, he's the fourth on the list of the top five students, coming before me" Lucy explained with a hint of fury and envy, possibly directed at the person who got placed over her at the recognition list.
"You're the fifth on the list"? Andrea queried shocked, last time she checked, Lucy was on the fourth spot, right after Lucas.
"You should be ashamed of yourself" Lucas scolded "why would a nerd be writing love letters, I thought they only cared for their grades?"
"Charles is a cunning son of a bitch" Lucy explained in hope that her siblings would realize the reason she didn't come in fourth place "He's full of conspiracies, he's probably doing this to make Bree falter in her studies, so that he could go right to the top"
"If that's the case, why didn't he come after me or Andrea, why go for the top dog when the underlings are alive and well?" Lucas inquired but the manner and words of his inquiry gave Andrea the urge to yell at him that she definitely wasn't Bree's underling, though Bree was in first place on the recognition list, she was right after Bree, that wouldn't make her Bree's underling, would it?
Bree must've caught on to what Lucy was trying to accomplish "He is a cunning scumbag" she said looking straight into Lucy's eyes which caused the latter to blush a little and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.
"And I'll make sure he never sends these again" she puts the note out on display.
Andrea, having seen what transpired between Bree and Lucy, forcefully jerked the pink note out from Bree's hold, she read out loud;
"Bree, I think you're very beautiful and I'm sure you know that, I really like you and I wish you could pay some attention to me, the intimate kind, not the glares I get from you, I really like you, it's specially genuine"
"Fucking scumbag" Andrea thought as she applied force into her palm, turning the note into a crumpled mess.
"What are you going to do?" Lucy asked the infuriated Bree, but didn't wait for Bree to answer "don't hit him" she added hastily as she grabbed Bree's arm.
Bree rolled her eyes at Lucy "I won't, I'm just going to talk to him"
"Oh please, you're not going to just talk to him, you'll threaten him, will you not?" Andrea asked rhetorically because she knew what Bree was capable of doing "Don't make a mountain out of a molehill, just simply tell him you don't like the likes of him"
Lucas adjusted his stance and slipped his hands into his pocket, assuming airs of superiority "What do you mean by that?"
Andrea peeled her gaze from Lucas and placed them on Bree, but the traitor had her lips sealed shut, giving her the leeway to explain what she meant by 'the likes of him'.
Andrea cleared her throat and eyed her cousins and their adopted sister, she was about to put her gift of gab to use.
"You know, nerdy, romantic, cunning, just the sort" with every reason she gave she gestured to something that ostensibly proved her right; the notice board that was situated in the middle of the hallway, the pink note and Lucy, respectively.
The twins seemed to be already taken in by her reasons until Bree spoke up "you really do know how to pull the wool over one's eye"
"You were the one who didn't want to say anything, I can't let the cat out of the bag when it's not mine" Andrea defended boldly finally able to breathe freely.
Bree let out a soft chuckle and that simple action seemed to have hit Andrea like a ton of bricks. "I don't like the 'likes' of him means I don't like boys, I like girls" Bree admitted shamelessly.
The twins were stomped by that sudden information. Lucas never thought of Bree that way, maybe sometimes she does act like the football team going shirtless did not affect her, Lucas would've never thought that this was the reason.
Looking at Bree, she really didn't seem like a lesbian, she had no boyish air over her neither was she unnecessarily rude, her problem was the fact that she always liked staying aloof, she was intelligent, the smartest student in the school, and when she should've been known as the smartest student in the state, she had refused to go for the competition. She had no desire to be popular especially for something she was doing in a spur of the moment.
Not everybody would want such responsibility bestowed on them, living life faultlessly, because as a bright student, you shouldn't try to do things contrary to what people expects of you, living a life to please others and even forgetting or casting aside what you want to do, because to the public, your feelings doesn't matter. The society has put you on a pedestal you can't climb down from or even mistakenly slip and fall from, you will be forever tagged as a bright student, any mistake from you, would tell the world you were a monster.
Bree was certainly not ready for that, she didn't want to be energetic for the rest of her life especially towards her studies, she did not want to be always alert, being a bookworm wasn't any of her goals.
Most people had thought she refused because she was scared even Lucas thought so, but Bree knew what she was capable of, she had watched the competition from her couch and to her, most of the questions weren't a challenge, but there was no reason in explaining yourself to people when you don't even know what you felt.
But looking at Bree now, Lucas seemed to have grasped a good part of the concept, if Bree had gone for that competition, she would've been forced to live righteously, pleasing the society, she couldn't admit her sexuality to people, a bookworm was supposed to be straight, according to the public and Bree wasn't and she was obviously not willing to lie about herself.
"How phenomenal" Lucas thought, Bree's ability to think ahead was really a cause for wonder.
"Does Mom know?" Lucy asked with an unreadable expression.
"Yes, she does" Bree answered and the bell rang almost immediately, Bree gave the twins another look and walked away.
Lucy followed right after her.
"Lucy would still think Bree was cool if she were a serial killer" Lucas joked as he watched Lucy as she walked right behind Bree. Lucy must've said something which she assumed to be funny because she laughed but Bree did not.
"Come on, Lucy isn't that stupid" Andrea chuckled.
Having realized something, Lucas turned his gaze towards Andrea "how did you know Bree was a lesbian?"
"Isn't it obvious" Andrea gestured towards Bree "everything about her screams lesbian, and moreover, her eyes linger more on girls than it does on boys" Andrea added without sufficient thought.
"Well, you see, not everybody would have made such a precise guess, '' Lucas said with a smirk and fished out his books from his locker.
"Why do you think so?" Andrea paid zero attention to the expression on Lucas' face, her eyes were fixed on her locker where she was busy fishing out her notebooks, her thoughts probably on the class she was expected to be sitting in.
"Because we don't spend a superfluous amount of time staring at Bree" Lucas walked away from her and Andrea's thoughts about class wavered for a minute.