Disarray | A NINE

My brain was telling me that clearly, there was something off about Amina Pahlavi but I ignored all the red flags because I wanted her to remain golden in my eyes. She was innocent until proven undeniably guilty.

Leaving me only left to face the three boys I'd decided to dine with. The stares by peers had subsided but that didn't mean it wasn't going to be a topic later on.

The Aces were obviously used to attracting attention and had casually delved into conversation like it was any other day.

"So where did you disappear to at the badminton court?" Will questioned Garren. "Coach Anderson looked closed to popping a vein."

"Yeah, it's funny when that happens." chuckled Ben.

"That man needs to know how to calm the hell down. Makes a fuss over nothing," claimed Garren.

"Or maybe, just maybe it's because you walked out during him talking without a single word," replied Will. "So come on, where'd you go?"

"Shepherd's office. I wanted her to get Michael off my back about the stupid quiz game thing," he answered with a sigh.

"And?"

"Pointless. The hag insisted it would be good for me to go for something fun instead of the regular serious contests and it would boost my image appeal." Garren rolled his eyes.

"I think she has a point," I spoke up.

Defending the crazy headmaster was the last thing I wanted but it was true.

"Involving myself in things like this will only convert my image," Garren argued. "Game shows like that are just for the public's entertainment; common folk. The questions will all be amateur level with silly razzle dazzle added to please the masses' pathetic attention span. The public eye will think I enjoy contests on a playful scene as well."

"Don't you?" I questioned.

"Hell no,” Garren denied. "What I enjoy is challenge and crushing the soul of my opponents."

I rolled my eyes and took a jab at my beef with my fork.

"There's no gain when it's easy,” the soul crusher complained.

"Sorry," Will said but he hardly sounded apologetic. "Guess you're going whether you like it or not."

Garren's frown deepened. "That Michael has gotten a lot of nerve these days. Who does he think he is to be bossing me about?"

"Um, he's the captain," Will reminded him. "That's literally in the job description."

"Well it needs to change." Garren muttered, a brooding visage as he focused on his lunch.

"How would you change that?" asked Ben.

"If I knew, I wouldn't be stuck having to participate in some dumb game show now would I?"

Ben shrunk back in his seat at Garren's harsh tone, meekly bringing his grape juice to his silenced lips.

My chewing became strenuous, not appreciating the subject. It made me think back to what I'd seen by the clubhouse earlier and I seriously didn't want to.

"Look on the bright side,” started Will. "We'll be broadcasted on a major network station and getting cued by a classic comedian instead of the regular boring old men in designer label suits that'll live longer than they will."

"Yeah, cool." chirped Ben. "Imagine getting awarded a trophy by Michael McIntyre or something." His face lighting up in excitement.

"Uh, that's only if we win, Ben," I reminded him.

"Of course we'll win." The three of them spoke without missing a beat and in complete sync.

I stared, spooked by their smouldering confidence. "Right..."

**

The stares were fortunately not as vibrant by the time I'd left the dinning hall but there was no time to relax because I knew two people in mention were soon to confront me. Ashton and Liam were camped by my locker like underlings of a mob in expectancy to whack someone on their hit list. That someone being me in this case.

"Hey guys." I approached with a smile. "So the minced beef was really on point today, wasn't it?"

"Oh, save it Stevie." Ashton gripped my hand with narrowed eyes. "You have got some explaining to do."

I was hauled for the second time that day as Ashton shredded through the corridors, alongside Liam for a private place to interrogate me that the teachers wouldn't catch us loitering. She steered a course to the girl's toilets.

"Whoa, wait. I am not going in there," Liam refused.

Ashton cocked a brow. "Then what, we should pick the boys? Grow a pair, Sherwood and I know this wouldn't be your first time."

Liam's eyes shot wide, flicking back and forth between the two of us with his ears going red. "That was a dare! Completely different." He sighed. "God, that's the last time I trust you with a secret..."

"No, it won't," Ashton boldly declared. She proceeded inside with him tailing behind us and it appeared that aside from us, it was empty. Irrespective of the vacancy, Liam was a little uneasy.

Ashton was swift to start. "Okay, out with it then. Mind explaining what the hell happened back there?"

"I don't know! I mean, you were there. Ben just showed up and then it sorta all happened so quickly," I answered. "Then people were just looking at me..."

"Peer pressure," Liam concluded. "Most common and effective denominator of someone's willpower and desire to meet expectations. Learnt all about it in the first term of psych class—"

"Yeah, alright thanks professor X," Ashton replied. "Stevie this isn't gonna be a reoccurring thing now is it? You getting dragged off by those guys?"

"No way," I denied.

"Is Garren still bothering you to join?" Liam questioned.

"Yeah but he'll let it go when he realises I'm not interested."

My words didn't seem to provide any comfort to him as he studied me. "You sure you didn't give him any impression that you actually were?"

Then I made a fatal mistake. I hesitated. "... No."

"Stevie," Ashton spoke sternly.

I swallowed, peering at the tiled floors. I clenched my hands and braced myself for the negative reaction that was soon to come as I uttered, "... I might've given him the impression that I was kind of... maybe reconsidering."

"You what?!" The two exclaimed, eyes filled with shock and alarm.

"I know, I know. That doesn't sound good but listen. It occured to me that all I've been thinking about was if I joined Coeus, was how terrible it would be with Garren there but that was just an excuse. And I forced myself to believe I was doing the right thing, all because I was scared I'd quit.

Michael's told me how difficult things were with other former members that had issues with Garren and made it a problem for everyone in the club involved. I don't want to put Michael in that situation again or have some tool influence where I want to be anymore. And it's not that I'm saying I'm agreeing to be an Ace, but if there's a chance that we can simply coexist in Coeus as club associates, why not try to at least get along?"

There was a brief silence and I knew my response had gotten to them. "... Okay, that makes sense," admitted Ashton with a sigh.

I glanced to Liam.

"Yeah, it's fine," he said. "I just thought you meant you were actually accepting their recruitment— nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Hold on," started Ashton. "What about Amina? From what you've told us, she shares our mutual hatred. I don't think she was thrilled that you had picked having lunch with The Aces over her. What if she gets the wrong idea and thinks you're friends with them?"

I lapped my upper lip over the lower one. "Actually, about that..."

I confessed to them about my run in with Archie that morning. Ashton looked ready to scold me for it until I mentioned the alleged fan website. Archie was an absolute creep in her eyes, but she couldn't deny that when he had intel, ninety six percent of the time it was legit.

"We need to see this,” Ashton declared. "Right now." Liam vigorously nodded in agreement.

"But we have class," I replied.

"... Okay, afterwards," Ashton rescheduled. "We'll meet at yours."

**

I hardly held up a protest as my objections were as feeble as the four percent out of Archie's accuracy. My friends showed up to my hotel room in urgency and in a flash, the three of us were all huddled on my bed with the laptop in front of us.

"Okay, show me the link," Liam requested.

Reluctantly, I sent it. When they saw it, the pair glanced up at me and then burst into a fit of laughter. At least they could find it amusing, I was too flustered to even attempt typing it in. Liam had no issue and as he hit search, the link instantly transferred to a valid URL:

www.WetForAdler.com

"It's actually real..." I gaped in disbelief.

The homepage was enough of a mouthful for me. It had a layout that closely resembled Pinterest in design with the site cover being a large portrait photo of Garren fitted in a filtered frame, adorned with hearts.

Below was a gallery of threads/hash tags pinned to countless pics and videos of Garren I presumed were from social media. Although a few seemed a bit dodgy and falling in to potential lines of evidence of stalking. Never had I thought so many people could obsess over one mere human being who wasn't a celebrity or even won a Nobel Prize. It was earth-shattering.

Ashton was in stitches. She'd laughed so hard she'd fallen off the bed, then continued laughing.

"Wow, this is unbelievable,” murmured Liam. "No wonder the prick thinks he's a god. There's a whole sea of bumbling idiots out there actually worshipping him."

"Okay, that's enough," I announced.

Ashton whipped her head to me. "What? Are you kidding me? We're just getting started."

"No, Ash. We've proved the site exists. I've seen more than enough. Just exit."

"Oh come, let's take a little look around. This is pure gold," replied Liam.

My friends were eager to feed their curiosity and for entertainment but I just wanted it closed because if the site was real, then most certainly Amina's attraction for Garren was real.

There wasn't a way to verify if she was a fan as the usernames were all random handles which I assumed was to let the users leave comments anonymously.

"Hey, you're in this picture, Stevie," said Liam suddenly.

"What?" I peered at the screen to view a shot which must've been taken from a phone of me getting abducted by The Aces two weeks back. There was heaps of comments on it.

"Oh my god, you're part of a whole thread." Ashton directed the mouse to click on the attachment.

A whole page appeared with quadruple the number of comments on the single photo. The heading was in bold;

Adler's New Girl?!?!!?

The page had a number of three additional photos of me beside The Aces. The abduction, at the lunch hall  and somehow when we were by the café. How did they get that? Did Garren have actual stalkers?

Liam whistled. "You're hot gossip, Stevie."

I joined them to read through the comments and came to see that Garren's fans didn't just consist of St. Sinclair students but neighbouring prep schools. There was a flood of comments from users who didn't attend St. Sinclair questioning my identity.

UnicornPrincess: O_O omfg who is this??????

castleinthe_sky: pls tell me it's fake. It's gotta be fake

Saucysally: I wish I went to St. Sinclair instead of North Eastchester. I'd just want to be close enough to sniff that sexy beast

The ones who did go to the academy and knew my identity had more concerning comments.

Yohops; girl called Stevie Powell. In my maths class. Doesn't do much other than get full marks but our academy has lots of smart kids. Recently joined the school's academic club that the aces are in. Nothing special :/

queenboss; yh she's in the Coeus club. That's all. Garren can snag waaayyy better hotties than that

AllforAdler; I can't believe there's retards reaching such a conclusion. Clearly don't know a thing about Garren. He doesn't go for lanky girls, especially if they're that much of a plain jane. Do u see the b*tchs' hairstyle? Looks like some soul train reject from the 1950's. She's just a new member of the club and leeches onto the Aces like a parasite ¬_¬ nothing else to it

Liam hastily closed the link when I'd just read that comment. "Yep, okay. You were right, Stevie. This was enough. It got pretty boring after a bit."

"Yeah," Ashton agreed with a neutral expression. "To think there were so many sad, pathetic freaks in one community— can't believe I breath the same air as them."

I stared at the two, unsure as of what to say. I looked down on to my fingers perched on my thighs. An unnerving silence emerged so I tried to break it. "But I guess they're right about my hairstyle. It's seriously outdated." I chuckled.

Liam and Ashton weren't looking amused in the slightest, making me all the more anxious.

"Your hair is fine, Stevie," Liam said.

"Don't think about anything that they wrote. Those girls are just being spiteful,” Ashton told me in a stern tone.

I was lost at first where the sudden seriousness was coming until I examined the look in their eyes. Worry. I would never know what kind of expression I was making while reading that they'd worry it got to me. I'd honestly heard a lot worse but I guessed that wouldn't be comforting to hear so I resolved to displaying my best reassuring smile. "I know. I won't."

It hadn't completely cleared the apprehension but it had significantly decreased it, deducting from how their expressions softened as they smiled back.

"Alright, who's up for taking a dive at the pool?" Liam suggested.

"Sure," Ashton complied.

My eyebrows dropped down. "Downstairs?"

"Well, obviously," said Liam.

"But, you guys aren't guests."

"So? I've never seen signs anywhere that state only guests can use the pool," Liam argued.

"Because they shouldn't have to. Plus, you don't have swimsuits," I added.

"We'll buy at the gift shop," Ashton answered coolly.

Their sly retorts had me struggling to find a loophole and suspecting if they'd planned this crime beforehand. Nah, they were nowhere near that clever.

I folded my arms. "It's not right."

"Oh please, Stevie. We'll only be in there for about ten minutes," claimed Liam.

"But what if you get caught?" I questioned.

"What are they gonna do? Kick us out of a hotel that we're not staying at?" Liam shot back. "Stop being such a wuss, Steves. It'll be fine."

"Yeah, come on,” Ashton urged. "What's the big deal?"

I knew the blatant psychology in this. If declined, they'd revert to that place of concern as if that was the only way to prove I was indeed fine. So I agreed.

That had the pair grinning like Cheshire cats.

In roughly fifteen minutes, I was all set to be an accomplice to a crime. While I was panicking, Ashton and Liam were casually strutting to the pool as if they owned the place.

After a few minutes and concluding that nobody was paying us much mind, my nerves calmed and I began to relax in the chlorinated water. The highlight of the swim was watching Liam roleplaying as a sea monster for twin five year olds on floats and soon more kids were joining in to play. The best part was when a tubby seven year old almost accidentally drowned Liam by leaping onto him.

Ashton and I were sat by the edge when he swam over to us. Dark hair completely drenched and locks clinging to his cheeks. "Get this, those twins' mum gave me ten quid for playing with them while she got a massage." He flashed the money in our faces.

Ashton snatched it from his hand to examine it.

"Maybe I should become a babysitter,” he mused. "Good way to get some extra cash and show my parents how independent I am."

"And have someone else to brag about your psych class to?" I quipped.

"Jealous are we?" He smirked which I merely rolled my eyes to.

"You think there's a fan site for Will Butler too?" Ashton abruptly queried.

Liam and I shot her quizzical glances.

"What? He's fit," she justified.

Liam immediately frowned at that. "I'm pretty sure he's bent."

"No, he's not. Just 'cause he has some flair and good hair doesn't mean he's gay," Ashton argued.

"What about when he kissed Josh Whitaker on Valentines Day at the school football pitch?" Liam brought up.

"Yeah, 'cause Erick Young dared him to. Like the time you got dared to go into the girl's bathroom—"

"Don't bring it up!" Liam sent a tidal wave onto Ashton which involuntarily splashed me too. "And the rumours just say it was a dare which honestly doesn't make any sense in my opinion. What guy dares another guy to snog someone for laughs?"

"The logic of men's immature activities— that's your argument here? Really?" Ashton cocked a brow. "Stevie, do you think Will's gay?"

"Um, I don't think so," I answered.

"Ask him," ordered Liam, not breaking eye contact with Ash.

"What? Why me?"

"Well since you're planning to be buddy buddy with the pricks, who better?" He reasoned.

"Seems a bit of a more personal question to just ask though," I said.

"Whatever, straight or not doesn't change the fact that he has a nice face so I'm gonna check it out." Ashton decided.

Liam didn't seemed pleased at all by the statement and rolled his eyes, muttering something under his breath I didn't quite catch.

Ashton narrowed her eyes. "What was that?"

"Nothing. Give me back my tenner,” Liam demanded, extending his hand.

Ashton evaded it. "Come and get it, super nanny." She leaped onto her two feet and took off. Liam was speedy to climb out of the water to pursue her.

I calmly watched from the sidelines as the two ran about the No Diving Area, artfully dodging people in the process. I was glad to know they weren't as hot and bothered by my confession about the Aces compared to the hateful comments on the fan site. I felt encouraged to be more honest with myself because that was one thing I feared to confront more than anything else.

Not from the overall result, but if my friends would change how they looked at me if I was one hundred percent truthful.

If I told them I did find some sense in Garren's ideologies.

If I told them I didn't mind the thought of getting more involved with the Aces.

What would they think?