Throne | A THREE

My uncle gave me a strict curfew of six o'clock.

Which meant limited time to deal with schoolwork before having any free time left, resulting in a large lack of a social life. Though, I was prepared to sacrifice. Call me weird but I quite liked homework. I was fortunate enough to meet two people who crammed themselves into my tight schedule so I didn't end up a total loner.

Ashton and Liam happily invited themselves over since I didn't have enough time left to visit them. They always insisted they enjoyed being in my hotel room more than their own houses which I doubted but I kept it to myself.

They were eager for me to tell them all that occurred at the club meeting so I did.

"You have butlers?!" Liam exclaimed.

"Callahan called himself an attendant but yeah, I guess. In a way."

Ashton gawked, shaking her head. "That is mad. We were dead on to call that place the Nerd Cave."

"Yeah, do you have a satellite and a high tech automobile to fight crime too?" Liam joked.

"Nah, the automobile is for the seniors only."

My friends had their jaws dropping and I could only sustain the straight façade for three seconds before a snort escaped. "Oh my god, you should see the look on your faces. I'm kidding."

Liam exhaled a large breath while Ashton smacked my arm but I continued laughing.

"See, and The Aces weren't a problem now, were they?" Liam brought up and I knew it would reach that topic eventually.

I held back a groan. "No. Garren did dampen the mood a bit with his rude attitude but it was bearable."

They were wearing those smug grins now. Oh, great.

"Now what do you have to say for yourself?" Ashton started.

I played with my duvet covers, not wanting to yield.

"Stevie?" she pressed.

"You know, I'm kind of hungry. Wanna order some room service?" I suggested.

"Stevie, I take a psych class. Changing the subject to avoid confessing is the oldest trick in the book."

I let out a groan, "Okay, okay. You guys were right. I shouldn't have let Garren scare me away from what I wanted. It was stupid. I regret it."

The two imps exchanged that smirk before springing up to their feet to perform their dance of victory that meant 'We were right.' It was the most annoying thing in the world and not to mention cringey. Ashton would start shuffling while Liam was attempting to do break dancing. He defined the white boy with no rhythm.

They continued to jump about, shaking their bodies on my bed and I couldn't stand it anymore. "Okay, you two are just the worst." I took out my phone to run my favourite playlist. "This is how it's done."

The three of us were dancing horribly to our heart's content until we got a noise complaint from the guests next door so we called it a night at that.

***

I stood at my locker, rifling through the large textbooks stacked inside to find the right one and mulling over stopping by the Coeus clubhouse later on to use the study room. As a member now, the Coeus library was accessible to me at all times, even exceeding school hours, as stated in the club rules Michael handed me. However, I was concerned how it would go if one of The Aces happened to be there.

I wasn't worried of getting targeted by them but I still grew anxious in their presence. On an opposing thought, using the library meant a chance of running into Amina too which sounded great. I wondered how she looked when she was concentrating, if she had habits or cute quirks or methods I could learn.

"Stevie."

I drew out of my reverie and saw a short boy standing before me eyeing me with a funny look.

"Oh, hi Archie," I greeted.

Archie Norton was a scrawny kid in Year Twelve who skipped two grades and a journalist for the school newspaper, always carrying a notebook. Sadly, puberty had not been merciful to his face ridden with acne and gained him a lot of unwanted stares.

"You okay? You were just staring into space and smiling," he stated.

"I uh, was thinking about lunch," I answered. I was glad it wasn't one of those two schemers who caught me day dreaming about Amina. They teased me enough when I slightly got too excited when I told them yesterday.

"There was something I wanted to ask you about," Archie began.

"What is it?"

"Sources have informed me you're a part of Coeus now and it was brought by headmaster Shepherd's persuasion."

I never knew who these mysterious sources were but I stopped asking a long time ago and just nodded.

There was a spark in Archie's eyes as he jotted something down on his booklet. "I see... Care to tell me what brought the headmaster to become so keen on your membership? I know you're bright but why now when you've been up to apply since last year? And at such a random time too?"

"I honestly don't know, Arch," I confessed. I'd been curious on it too because it was still kind of confusing.

He nodded, writing again. "There's one more thing..."

"Yes?"

He glanced over his shoulder and leaned in close. "Since you're one of them and have access to those facilities provided, could you offer insight on some of Coeus' endeavours?"

I frowned. "Sorry, no can do."

"Come on, Stevie," Archie urged. "Coeus is the biggest mysterious bonanza on this academy. Even my sources can't scrape a peep. You're my best option. You're not like the other unapproachable members and we're friends, right?"

"Yeah but..."

"I won't tell anyone you're my source."

"Archie, no."

He was pleading earnestly with big puppy eyes but I couldn't. Included in the rules and Michael himself even emphasised not to release any sort of info, trivial or not about the club to non-members. I technically broke that rule by bragging to Ashton and Liam on how cool it was but you have to hear me out- how could I not? There were freaking butlers!

However, I was limiting it only to them as an exception and at a minimal. I could trust they wouldn't say a word to Archie or anyone else for several reasons.

"Oi!" barked a voice that had both of us turning our heads.

Marching towards us was Ashton, alongside Liam. Her eyes zeroed in on a nervous looking Archie.

"Oh, hello Ashton. So nice to see you. I swear, you're getting more beautiful each day."

Liam scoffed. "I think you should go to Specsavers, mate."

Ashton nudged him in his ribcage then replied to Archie. "Don't think you'll get any where by stating the obvious you little cretin. What have I told you about hanging around my friends huh?"

"Ash, calm down. He was just saying hi," I said.

"I don't care. He shouldn't even make eye contact with you unless it's verified by me."

Ashton held well, subjective feelings about Archie. I'd heard the whole history from Liam; in first year, Archie fell head over heels for Ashton and he took his affection a little too far by dropping off flowers at her house everyday or sending her love poems on her Facebook page.

It made her uncomfortable and it went completely off the rails when he sent her a virtual card during ICT that was a pixelated picture of him and her grown up married together with kids.

Ashton actually screamed and threw a chair at her computer. It took a lot of convincing from Liam for her not to throw one at the boy too. Liam told the school council so they contacted his parents and the headmaster gave him a stern talking to about his expressiveness. He promised to no longer do such 'provocative' acts and his parents paid for the computer Ashton damaged.

The flowers and poems stopped, the ordeal subsided but Ashton still held a bit of a grudge towards the boy.

"Stevie might be too nice for her own good but don't think I won't hesitate to strangle you in broad daylight if you go near her again," Ashton threatened. "Now shove off! Scram! Go back to whatever hole you crawled out of."

Archie scurried off without a second's delay and a part of me pitied the lad. I turned to the seething girl. "Do you have to be so hard on him?" I questioned.

"He's a vermin, Stevie."

"He's just an awkward boy who liked you."

"Nah, I'm pretty sure he still fancies her," Liam detected. Then something appeared to have caught his eye as he suddenly smirked. "Speaking of fancy..."

Ashton and I followed his gaze to see Amina strolling by, immersed in conversation with some seniors. Despite her younger age, she was regarded an equal which was understandable with how naturally she fit beside them.

"Oh, if it isn't Stevie's girlfriend," Ashton teased.

"Shut up," I hissed. "Don't you dare do anything to embarrass me or I'll never talk to either of you again."

Liam held up his hands in surrender. "Alright, alright. Calm down. What do you take us for?"

I was a fool to buy it for even a second before the devil shouted with his hands cupping his mouth, "AMINA!"

I prayed and I hoped with all my heart that by some miracle Liam's voice hadn't been as loud as I feared. I apprehensively swivelled my head to see gorgeous brown eyes looking at me and her friends had heard it too so now they were all staring.

My heart was pumping so violently, I feared it would burst right out of my chest. Then the most remarkable thing happened. Amina graced me with a dazzlingly smile and rose her slender hand to perform a light swaying motion.

She was waving at me.

Amina Pahlavi was waving at me.

Somehow, through my shock, I sheepishly waved back and she resumed to walk away out of view with her friends while I tried to control my breathing after what just happened.

"Ooh." cooed two obnoxious voices that reminded me I wasn't alone.

"Never do that again," I warned.

"I think she noticed you." Liam winked.

I rolled my eyes, "I seriously hate you guys."

"Amina and Stevie sitting in a tree," Ashton began to sing.

At that point, I abandoned trying to find my textbook and sped off to class but the lunatics were quick to hurry after me.

Desperate to spend some time away from those pair of trolls, I went to the one place their relentless teasing wouldn't reach.

A different attendant opened the door for me at the clubhouse entrance. He was much younger and looked a lot less friendly. Luckily, I was able to sought out a familiar face as I spotted Callahan dusting a frame of one of the paintings. Gambling the odds of inconveniencing him, I asked for directions to the library because I didn't want to ask Mr. Grumpy. I got bad vibes from him. To my relief, Callahan wore a smile and kindly guided me.

I was slightly disappointed that Amina wasn't there as I'd fantasised but luckily, neither were the Aces. It was only one senior who went by the name Ewen O'Riley.

He seemed like the very quiet type and it was difficult to decipher what went through his mind due to his expressionless face. He said less than ten words when he introduced himself.

The bangs of his sandy blonde hair covered most of his face. I only caught a glimpse of his small, round eyes when regarding me then quickly lowered back to his book. I didn't get the impression my presence was unwanted nor welcomed.

The Coeus library may have been smaller than the one in the academy but it held a vastly superior range of literature. Many of the collections rare finds that definitely had been shipped for a hefty price from overseas, some were even still in the original text of the language and others I'd never even heard of. It was incredible. Now I had access to it all.

A squeal of joy escaped my lips and I clasped my hands over my mouth too late. Ewen stared at me.

"S-Sorry," I said in a whisper.

He resumed his reading and I scooted myself deeper into the shelves so the towers of books would hide me if I had another dorky outburst.

I had a spring in my steps as I picked out book after book that I planned to invest a whole summer holiday's worth of reading. If not for Ashton or Liam or food, I'd definitely spend every single second outside of school cooped up in my hotel room reading it. This was probably how my mum felt when they were having a sale at the stores.

"Ben, cut it out."

The sound of a voice drew me out of me out of my bliss. That definitely wasn't Ewen's.

I only heard it briefly but I recalled how deep it was. This other voice was familiar though. I hesitantly walked to the front section where Ewen was seated to spot two more members had entered the library.

Will had a displeased look with his hands on his hips as Ben was leaning on the edge of the desk Ewen was sat at.

"Stop bothering him," said Will.

"If I'm bothering him, then he'd say so," countered Ben. "You're fine with me telling you about my trip to the dentist, aren't you pal?" He draped an arm around Ewen.

The boy didn't say a word or even blink. He just kept reading the book in his hands.

"See?" Ben smirked. "You should be more like Ewen. He's always chill and doesn't throw a bitch fit if some of his sweets go missing and accuse me."

"You do eat my sweets, that's why you had to go to the bloody dentist in the first place," snapped Will.

"Okay, okay. Stop it with the nagging." Ben groaned. His fingers absentmindedly ruffled the top of Ewen's hair who simply just turned the page. "I hear enough of it from you-know-who everyday."

"Well then why don't you..." Will trailed off from his reply when his eyes strayed and locked onto me.

Like the idiot I was, I stupidly stared back instead of hiding.

Now Will had caught Ben's attention who beamed at me with a wave. "Oh hey, it's the tranny."

I frowned and retreated back to the chamber of books. I could hear hurried footsteps nearing and soon enough, the two Aces were at both my sides.

"Ignore that. Benny's brain is like a four year old's. It only picks up all sorts of useless commentary so half of the words that come out of his mouth are rubbish," Will stated.

"Your face is rubbish," Ben shot back.

"I rest my case. Anyway, it's Stevie, right?" There was something about the way Will's bright smile would dip that had me growing uneasy.

I didn't like the idea of letting either onto that and gave a neutral head nod, skimming my fingers along the bases of the books.

"I kinda thought you looked familiar when I saw you yesterday. You're in my chemistry class, aren't you?"

I nodded again, hoping they would get the message that I wasn't interested in chatting with them. Why were they even following me anyway? I highly doubted they were keen to be chummy towards a girl he vaguely recalled in class- we technically shared three, in fact. Even if I was a fellow member now, from the meeting, I could tell they didn't care to associate themselves.

If this was back at my old secondary school, I would've pegged this sudden interest to be just to coax me for notes. Not with the test scores Will and Ben had, though. It wasn't Adler level impressive but still above average, so what could the boy possibly be after?

"Are you a monk?" Ben's question was abrupt as it was random.

I was so thrown off, I just blurted, "What?"

"You know..." Ben brought his palms together. "When they're in those monetaries and have a vow of silence, that sort of thing. Ewen's kinda like that too. Please don't tell me there'll be two of him in the club now."

"No, I'm not a monk. Or transgender."

"Alright." He nodded, wearing a mellow smile that I was beginning to believe he truly wasn't trying to be patronising prior.

Regardless, this was getting far too weird and awkward which were feelings I wasn't meant to be having at the library of all places.

"Um, I have some studying to get to so..." I tried to speak politely.

"Oh, okay. We'll leave you to it."

At the brush of Will's slender fingers patting my shoulder, I slightly flinched. The blonde didn't appear to notice and just beamed one last radiant smile before the pair finally moved along.

I let out a breath of relief that I was left alone again to resume my browsing in peace and quiet. Aside the noise of chattering and chuckling from the two Aces here and there. Another thing different from the club library was that it had no librarian to shush people but after hours on end prepping for school admission forms while riding the rowdy train or the curb outside a pub, I could tune out anything.

Once I'd settled on what to revise for the day, I scoured for a place to sit. There was only the long desk where Ewen was located and then three lounging chairs, one which was occupied by the Aces. Ben sat slouched on the armrest with his legs dangling at the edge while they both tapped away on their phones.

Even if Ewen probably wouldn't say anything, I thought it was best to let him have his space and opted to sit on the lounges. A particular large chrome leather chair anchored by the window caught my eye and I hauled a low table to stack my reading materials, then settled down. Within seconds of grooving into the tender cushions, I heard a loud gasp.

I glanced to see the Aces gaping at me with pale faces like they'd just seen a ghost. Ben with a hand over his mouth and Will had actually dropped his phone. I peered around for the source but came up empty.

"What?" I asked.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Will's eyes were wide with horror.

"Um, sitting?"

"You can't sit there!" Ben bawled, looking over his shoulder in a frantic manner.

"Why not?"

"Questions later! Move first!" Will ordered.

"But why do I have to- oi!" I yelped when Ben grabbed my by the waist and raised me up in the air in a spin momently until I was back on my two feet on the ground. "What's the big deal?! Why can't I sit there?"

"That's Garren's seat," said Will.

I furrowed my brows. "What?"

"It's the seat that only Gary's allowed to use. No one else," Ben elaborated.

The hell? Why hadn't I heard about this? "Wait, members can have seats reserved?"

"Technically, no. It's just that Garren finds that seat the most comfortable and holds the perfect reading light so he claimed it as his own," Will explained.

I stared long and hard, yet no hints of humour arose in the boys' deadly serious expressions. "... Are you actually being serious?"

They vigorously nodded.

Unbelievable. "Right, okay then."

"Don't worry, we won't tell him about this," Will said, hastily.

"Um, thanks?" It came out of just as utterly lost as I felt than any real thought to be grateful.

Maybe I should've tried harder to understand with how visibly petrified they looked but this was challenging all level of belief I could muster. I mean, they were so jittery and panicked when Garren wasn't even around.

"Ewen," Ben called out.

The boy cocked his head, wearing a blank visage.

"You didn't see anything, all right?"

I saw complete lack of interest or care in his eyes as he blinked, reverting his attention to his book.

"I think we can trust he won't snitch to anyone," Ben spoke in all seriousness. "I'm not sure how to go about wiping her fingers prints though."

Will threw the boy a deadpanned look. "Last time I checked, Garren isn't the CSI so I think we'll be good."

"Right, yeah." Ben bobbed his head.

Will's hands found its way back to my shoulder and more prepared, I managed to hide all unease when facing those honey brown eyes looking down at me. "This'll be our little secret then." He winked.

I wryly smiled and nodded. The Aces were a bizarre bunch, indeed.