A Girl Called Malice. Aurelia Rowl B.

       Chapter Twenty-Eight

       Chapter Twenty-Nine

       Chapter Thirty

       Chapter Thirty-One

       Soundtrack

       Excerpt

       Endpages

       Copyright

       Chapter one

      Alone

       Alice Taylor, you’re an idiot.

      My one and only day off work all week yet I’d been up since the crack of dawn, unable to sleep after a night of tossing and turning. Summer was officially over and the first day of Year 13—Upper Sixth—had arrived. To quote Rizzo from Grease, it was my time to ‘rule the school’.

       Except it isn’t.

      Instead of strutting my stuff and causing chaos and mayhem in my wake, I was hiding out in my mum’s sleek-but-forgettable car like some crazy stalker because my own car was too noticeable. In a half-arsed attempt at a disguise, I’d pulled my hair back into a kill-me-now ponytail and wore over-sized sunglasses to hide my face and cover my bloodshot eyes. What the hell was I even doing there?

       Torturing myself; that’s what.

      Since there was nowhere else I wanted to be, I just sat there, with the window cranked down an inch to stop my breath from clouding the windscreen and blocking my view. One bus after another came and went, but then three girls stepped into view causing my empty stomach to lurch. Nina, Petra and Caroline had arrived on the scene and they looked magnificent, all tanned and glowing with health.

      A twinge of regret rippled over me as I wished I could be with them. They took up our usual position next to the main double entrance. We’d claimed it as ‘our’ spot on the first day of Year 12, what with it being the ideal place to check everyone out as they made their way inside. Every day, we’d tear the dweebs to shreds with a look or a catty remark and, ideally, we’d make somebody cry before the first bell.

      The absolute best way to start any term and to set the standard, we’d let everyone know who we were. Putting other people down gave me a back-handed boost, making me feel like I was better than them somehow and it soon became my coping mechanism, especially on the days I’d had a fight with Mum. Not that I’d ever admit why I’d done it, nor could I confide in anyone, which meant it was now up to Nina, Petra and Caroline to continue my tradition.

      So why weren’t they?

      Scratch that: it was obvious they were too busy looking for me. Their three heads turned this way and that, glancing at every car arriving in the car park and peering into the last wave of buses as they pulled up. It was pitiful how lost they looked without me and so they should, I was their leader after all.

      No…I’d been their leader but not any more.

      For a year they’d hung onto my every word and did whatever I told them to do. Back-up in numbers was always handy when your sole purpose at college was to offend everyone. I happened to be particularly talented at rubbing people up the wrong way and my last day in Year 12 was sure to go down in college folklore. I’d known even then that I was jacking in college but I really wanted to go out with a bang. How else would I be remembered otherwise?

      I didn’t want to be just another faceless nobody, I got enough of that at home, and Virginia’s total and utter humiliation had been top of my wish list. When her pathetic Operation: Popping the Cherry shortlist had landed at my feet, the stupid bitch hadn’t even realised she’d given me the ammunition I needed for her downfall until it was too late.

      Bittersweet, that last day at college just so happened to be my finest moment to date: the day I’d finally knocked the virtuous Virginia off her pedestal and brought her squeaky-clean reputation crashing down around her. Virginia wasn’t her real name of course; it was just the nickname I’d come up with for Valentina, another girl in my year on account of her being a virgin and a regular goody-two-shoes.

      At least that’s the image she portrayed, but according to two of her exes, Damian and Hayden, she was a total cock-tease, yet she had the nerve to call me a slut. It was no wonder they’d both come looking for me. You wouldn’t catch me getting a guy all hot and bothered and then withholding the goods. Far from it. As guys went, I’d had worse. In fact, Hayden and I now had a bit of a ‘friends-with-benefits’ thing going on; aside from the fact we weren’t actually friends and neither did I want to be.

      Judging from Virginia’s total no-show, I could take some comfort that I wasn’t the only one whose sixth form college education was over. Pity it wasn’t enough to take the edge off the bitter aftertaste left in my mouth. I looked back at my friends among the swarms of losers and total nobodies in their bland uniform of jeans and tees and got my second twinge of regret in as many seconds. I should have been over there, adding a much-needed dose of glamour, not hiding out.

      Petra’s gaze turned in my direction and forced me to duck even lower into my seat. Through the open window, the sounds of the first warning bell reached my ears and tugged on my resolve. All I had to do was show up for class and no one would be any the wiser. Well, aside from the fact I looked a mess and had a job these days.

      Nina, Petra and Caroline shared a glance, then Caroline checked her phone but if there was any message there, it wasn’t from me. I could see her fingers moving as she typed something and my phone buzzed less than ten seconds later. Straight to the point, her text simply read,

       ‘Where R U?’

      I started typing a reply but my fingers stilled when the words failed to come. Guilt crawled the length of my arms and made my skin prickle as if an army of ants was marching all over me. They were my only friends. They’d be gutted, or worse…What if they hated me for leaving them in the lurch? I should have told them I was quitting as soon as I’d made the decision but something had held me back.

      When I did finally decide to tell them, they’d practically disappeared. I barely saw them over the summer holidays to the extent they didn’t realise I worked full time. Some friends. How exactly was I supposed to inform them that I was dropping out of college if they didn’t keep in touch?

      Music blared from nearby and I lifted my gaze from my phone to see where it was coming from. A little black car drove into the car park and pulled up alongside me. Whoever it was had a decent taste in music and I couldn’t help looking across to see who was driving. I regretted it instantly when a familiar face came into view. The music shut off the instant Virginia cut the engine. She’d shown up for college after all.

       Perfect.

      Thankfully, she was too busy gathering up her stuff to notice me staring. For how long though? Little Miss Perfect was going to have to walk right by me and I couldn’t afford to be noticed, not when I was alone and in no fit state of mind for that sort of confrontation. Left with no other option, I flattened myself against the passenger seat and counted to thirty before I risked a peek over the dashboard.

      Certain the coast was clear, I sat up fully and spotted Virginia on college ground as she headed straight towards Nina, Petra and Caroline, who straightened as Virginia approached. Nina, Petra and Caroline’s lips moved and their sneers were awesome but their words seemed to fall on deaf ears. Virginia sauntered past them with her head held high. The smug cow. Talk about rubbing salt into the wound. She had no right to be smiling, looking all happy while I was slowly dying inside, and she definitely had no right to walk past my girls as if they weren’t there.

      At least I knew what to write in my reply to Caroline now. I snatched up my phone from where it had fallen into the footwell and typed, ‘You’re on your own this