JAMES: A Dark Bully Romance (The Baron Kings Book 1) Read online

  Annie headed out of the tower, walking towards the main building where the male and female students mixed. It was a strange place. A boarding school that felt like it belonged to a different world. As soon as Patty had dropped Annie off between those gates, she felt as though she had left Hampshire, England. Instead, she had entered a land where only power and rank ruled.

  Very poetic, Annie thought.

  Annie took a brief glance at the ornate, archaic oil paintings of former aristocrats and barons. They were the history of Barcourt and they ruled its present.

  A group of barons holding all the strings. Ghosts of the past and present.

  Her mind flashed back to James Knightley in the gardens. His perfect appearance. His aristocratic sneer. He looked every inch of the pampered, spoilt son of a minister. Yet, it didn’t matter if Annie Howell didn’t like him. James Knightley was the modern day baron - the royalty that had this place under his thumb.

  He ran this place and he would likely run the country too, if he had a say in it.

  From what she remembered, his ancestors had attended Barcourt for decades. Bloodline after bloodline, the dynasty never ended.

  Annie dawdled towards the dining hall, grabbing a plate. She placed a few scones there, alongside a couple of warm pastries. It wasn’t the healthiest supper, but after the day she had, carbs were a welcome friend to her diet.

  The dining hall was a shadow of its former self. During the lunch and dinner hours, it would be filled with students from the Lower and Upper Sixth, chattering away over their steak and kidney pies, lamenting over the cruel workload they were given in their first week. Today, however, was one of those rare days where Barcourt was asleep. Only a handful of students sat on the tables, reading their books or lightly talking to friends amidst the sunlight.

  Annie wondered if she ever had a chance of being a normal Barcourt student.

  She moved to sit down on an empty table, in the hall's corner, away from the prying eyes of students. It was better to look lonely when no-one could see her. She could have taken her dinner to her room. No-one would have noticed. It wasn’t as though there were any teachers to catch her red-handed.

  Yet Annie stayed. She wanted to push herself this term. Her comfort zone was being locked away in her tiny refuge of a room, away from the judgemental stares of her classmates, and in the company of a relaxing view, and a delightful book. But today was different. She promised herself that she wouldn’t hide anymore.

  “Did you hear about that girl in the year above?” A freckled boy murmured to his friend on the table opposite. His friend - a rounder, plump boy - shrugged, tucking into his dessert.

  “I heard it on the grapevine,” he said.

  “You really think she jumped?” The freckled boy raised his ginger eyebrows.

  The gossip of the year. The suicide of the blonde-haired girl in the year above.

  “What else? It’s not look like somebody pushed her. It was at night,” the boy said with a mouthful of pie.

  “How do you know? Huh?”

  “Well, how do you know she wasn’t murdered?” The freckled boy countered. “Natasha was popular, you know. She wasn’t being bullied or anything. Why jump?”

  “I don’t know, man, I just want to eat my pie,” the plump boy sighed.

  “Think about it! Popular - good-looking, might I add - and a smart senior girl throws herself off the top of the main tower, for no apparent reason. None! She was running to be Head Girl, Greg. There’s no way she wanted to jump.”

  “Jeez, you sound like you’re in love or something, Eddie,” Greg scoffed.

  “Hey, if you saw Natasha like I did, you’d feel the same,” Eddie shrugged. “Personally -”

  Eddie stopped mid-sentence. He caught Annie staring. He quickly cleared his throat, moving on to another benign topic. Greg followed Eddie’s line of vision, staring briefly at Annie. His cherubic face blushed profusely, turning a shade of beetroot red. They both averted their gaze. Annie could hear a faint murmuring under their breath.

  She sighed, focusing back on her forgotten food. She took a big bite. It was better this way. To stay away. Not get too involved. Annie felt like a peeping tom.

  Outsider Annie.

  Outsider. Outsider. Outsider.

  The faint murmuring increased to a slightly annoying noise level. Were they talking about her? She raised her head. They weren’t looking at her. They latched their attention onto a group near the front. Annie followed their gaze. Her heart rate nudged up at the sight.

  James Knightley had sauntered inside. A lazy, handsome smile lifted his features as he greeted two other tall boys near the entrance. They gave him a brotherly hug, fully embracing each other before playfully hitting each other in the arms. The ultimate ‘no homo’, it’s all platonic love, bro.

  Annie observed the group. James had changed into a light, relaxed young man that was happy to see his friends. There was no sign of the animosity that wrinkled the side of his chiseled face earlier in the gardens.

  Did he reserve that handsome, boyish smile for his friends only? For his girlfriends?

  Would he ever smile at someone like her? Just like that?

  Annie shook her head, looking down to her plate. This was stupid. She had no right to snoop. Yes, he was an attractive man. Yes, he had a certain aura about him that made it difficult to take her eyes off of him.

  But she wouldn’t forget who he was.

  The leader of the Barons.

  James and the other members of the Barons took their seats on a table near the window, grabbing a helping of food before sitting down. Annie knew who the two boys were. Theo Hamlish and Jasper Rashford. His goons.

  She shouldn’t be staring so much.

  But it was hard to keep her eyes off them. Something about the Barons had irked every part of her soul. They could rule the school how they pleased, without a thought to the consequences.

  The girl who had jumped off the cliff was a known victim of theirs. Natasha. Gorgeous, well-liked, and a complete anomaly. Girls like that weren’t like Annie. They weren’t outcasts.

  Yet, the Barons treated her just as though she was. An outsider.

  Annie tried to remember what happened last year.

  Memories of Natasha smiling with her friends - friends that often ridiculed Annie - as she joked about boys, grades and parties. The usual.

  But then a darker, harsher memory came back. James. Taunting her. Jasper. Deliberately dropping her bag to the floor. Theo. Standing there. Tristan. Unreadable expression in the corner.

  Annie was hiding behind a corner, frozen in place. Why hadn’t she helped Natasha?

  Because people like Natasha would have thought twice about helping someone like Annie. She had tried helping her before. In the start of that year, Natasha had fallen over - deliberately tripped by Jasper - and abandoned by her so-called friends.

  Annie went over to where she had tripped and had gathered her things. Yet, Natasha had taken one look at her and her face recoiled in disgust as she moved away from the area where Annie had crouched. Annie was left on her own, surrounded by the Barons. Utterly mortified.

  She had escaped being tormented by the boys. They glanced at her and when she thought they were going to wreak havoc, instead James had stared at her with an intensity that unsettled her more than anything.

  Thankfully, James had walked away with the rest of the crew following. It wasn’t until the next day where she had found her locker completely vandalised, covered in red paint, that she had underestimated her escape.

  “Dude, he’s calling you over,” the plump boy, Greg, nudged his friend.

  The freckled boy - Eddie - turned his head towards James and his friends. They were beckoning him over, with James lifting his fingers to gesture to the empty seat next to him. Eddie stood up quickly, slightly unbalanced, but he walked to their side in one piece.

  She couldn’t really catch much of their conversation, but suddenly, James had stood up and had placed his
drink all over Eddie.

  A few students around them looked on in bewilderment. Half shocked, half amused. Eddie was drenched in orange juice, dripping from the head downwards. Annie couldn’t read his expression, but she knew well enough that it mortified the boy on the inside.

  After two seconds, she could see Eddie nod quickly before scurrying out of the hall. Greg left his food and went to follow him.

  A laugh spilled out of James’ cruel face, prompting the other boys to chuckle. Despite the evil in his actions, the laughter in his face made him look even more attractive than he was. The laughter wrinkled his bright, emerald eyes and lifted his aristocratic, refined features. He tilted his head slightly, recovering from his amusement to catch Annie’s eyes.

  Her stomach turned at the sight.

  Harsh. Cold. Unrelenting. That was the entire aura of James Knightley. And it ensnared Annie into his grip.

  She looked away quickly, picking at her food. She prayed to the gods out there that they would show her some mercy and get her out of James’ sight. She did not need a similar fate like Eddie’s.

  Like Natasha’s.

  As much as she tried to put away the nagging feeling that someone was watching her, Annie stayed resolute. She ignored that specific table in her vision, choosing to chomp down her food and hibernate in her room where no-one could find her.

  Barcourt was a minefield made in hell. This was the place that originality went to die, she thought.

  This was enough playtime in the wild.

  Annie lost her appetite. Collecting her tray, she moved towards the bins, dumping her rubbish. She turned around and made her way down the hall towards the exit. Unfortunately, this meant she had to pass that table. Striding with purpose, she mentally counted to ten until she could finally relax and loosen her shoulders. She just needed to get out of there.

  Walking.

  Walking.

  Walking.

  She felt her body tense up when she passed their table, but she didn’t face any immediate confrontation. She was in the clear.

  Until she felt something hard thud against her back, knocking her down to the floor.

  A snigger echoed behind her. She turned to find James, Jasper and Theo standing behind her. Looking down on the floor, she realised they had thrown a backpack straight at her.

  “Something the matter?” James chirped. His playful green eyes latched on Annie. “You seemed to find something awfully interesting just a second ago.” He crouched down to where she had fallen, staring at her carefully.

  She had never been this close to him before. Ever. Up close she could count the honey freckles splattered across her defined face, the fullness of his lips as it curled in derision.

  Such a waste.

  “No,” Annie replied cautiously.

  “Hmm,” he pondered. A contemplative, dreamy expression took over his eyes as he watched Annie. The intense attention he was paying to her was terrifying. He looked at her like she was something he wanted to play with. A toy to chew on and spit out.

  “I’m feeling benevolent today,” he murmured.

  He tucked a loose brown curl behind Annie’s ear, playing gently with the end. “If I find you in my path again, though, you won’t be so lucky next time.” As he finished his sentence, he sharply tugged at her hair, sending a jolt of soreness to her scalp. Annie winced, trying to move away from him.

  “Careful, you might hurt yourself, Annie.”

  “Don’t touch me,” Annie growled.

  James chuckled, leaning away from Annie as though she had said nothing. He stood up, standing next to Jasper and Theo. They sauntered past her, leaving her on the floor again.

  Her body trembled in fear.

  He knew her name.

  He knew her name.

  No. Please, no.

  Annie couldn’t stop shaking. How did he know who she was?

  He would know her name. They were in the same year.

  That had to be it.

  But they had never interacted.

  Ever.

  She stayed in the shadows.

  Always.

  Had he been... watching her?

  CHAPTER TWO

  The following Monday was the first day of classes. Annie hibernated in her room during the entire weekend, only coming out to grab food and her books in the library before darting back inside.

  The encounter in the dining hall had left her spooked. She didn’t want to jinx her first day. Keeping away from the students was the best idea.

  Annie took one look in her long mirror, eyeing the invisible creases in her black uniform. The Barcourt uniform looked like something designed by Halloween fantasists. The all black look was impracticable for summer, but she was grateful that it flattered her curvy body.

  Small wins.

  Her loosely coiled hair was brushed back into a high ponytail, but Annie could still see the stubborn stray hairs that refused to stay in place. She wanted to try today. One step at a time, she was going to change. No more hiding.

  Well, slow and steady wins the race.

  Annie grabbed her bag and moved out of her room, walking down the corridor of the ladies’ tower. A handful of the senior students were still in their rooms, quickly fussing over their hair, itching to get ready. She marched ahead towards the main tower. Once she arrived, she walked along the long, drafty corridor until she reached the main auditorium hall.

  She was brought in for an introductory talk by the head teacher that would officially start the term. Attendance was mandatory.

  Most of the students were seated in the large ornate hall. The building was archaic, designed with traces of religious architecture. It felt more like a grand church than a school.

  Annie took her place towards the middle of the wooden rows, right next to her classmates. They divided the seniors into five groups according to the subjects they had taken; Newton, Bach, Austen, Marx and Leviathan.

  She belonged to the Bach group, seated next to the students gifted in music. Bach was a smaller group, but she had taken comfort because her classmates were relatively neutral and not viciously cruel. Unlike the boys and girls in Newton and Leviathan.

  Taking her seat, she turned slightly to her right, smiling at the girl next to her. That was odd. She hadn’t seen her before. Maybe she was an external transfer. There were quite a few of those in the senior year. Perhaps she would have a better chance of making friends with outsiders too.

  “Hi,” Annie breathed quietly. The Asian girl next to her smiled back. She had thick wavy hair and a full set of lashes that stressed her almond eyes. Her round, almost cherubic face added to her soft beauty, putting Annie at ease. “I’m Annie.”

  “I’m Zara,” she replied confidently. She put her hand out for Annie to shake. “New and external. Are you new too?”

  “No, I’ve been here since I was eleven,” Annie said, shaking her hand. “Got the scars and all.”

  “Lucky,” Zara laughed, raising her eyebrows. “So you skipped the newbie phase that I’m going through.”

  “Not really. That feeling hasn’t really gone away,” Annie chuckled weakly. It was better if they talked about something else. Something more light. Something that didn’t revolve around her lonely early years. “So you’re in Bach. What drew you to music?”

  Zara’s features lit up. This was a subject she was happy to talk about. “Ballet. Piano. The works. Turns out I sucked at Ballet, but not so much piano. Much to the delight of my mum. So I stuck with it and now I’m good enough to study it. Again, much to the delight of my soprano mum.”

  “That’s amazing,” Annie nodded. “I play piano too. Maybe I’ll see you around in class sometime?”

  “Sure,” Zara said lightly.

  A faint shuffling reverberated at the front, drawing both of the girls’ attention. The head teacher had arrived. Looking around her, Annie noted that the room was practically full and brimming with a mixture of Barcourt students; old and new. Her eyes caught the Barons sitting to
the far left, casually lounging on the chairs next to Anchal and another senior called Verity. James smirked at something Verity had said, before turning their attention to the front. James’ head shifted slightly and Annie quickly averted her gaze. He wouldn’t find her again. Not after last time.

  “Barcourt students, welcome. We shall begin,” he drawled. A tall man with an angular face stood at the podium, casting his fox-like eyes across the audience. He was a handsome man, despite being twice Annie’s age. Often, she had to avoid his gaze. Her cheeks flamed in self-consciousness every time she looked at him. The last thing she wanted to do was make a fool of herself in front of the headmaster.

  “For those of you who have just joined us, my name is Headmaster Defoe. I have managed this school for over ten years. Most of you will know me, some of you won’t. I imagine I won’t be seeing a lot of you in your day-to-day routine, but please know I am responsible for the smooth completion of your education at Barcourt,” he smiled handsomely. His angular face tilted slightly, highlighting the curve of his upper lip. “All of you here have been selected to complete your education here with us because of the talents you possess. Exceptional talents.”

  Annie inhaled deeply. This was the same speech given in her first year.

  His dark brown eyes surveyed the audience, catching Annie’s eyes briefly. She held her breath, willing her body not to burst into flames. He released her gaze after a second, moving to glance at another spot in the audience. She exhaled heavily.

  “Make no mistake. Some of you here will graduate to become leaders of our society. We have every tool at our disposal to help you all achieve that goal,” he bellowed proudly.

  Annie shifted awkwardly. The tone of the speech was to reiterate the unspoken mantra at Barcourt. They will all rule the country.

  Everyone except people like Annie.

  “Now, before I begin our usual announcements, I must discuss a matter that has troubled us all. I’m sure most of you are aware - but for those who are new,” he paused. Defoe weighed his words carefully, pursing his fine lips. “We found a senior female student from the Leviathan faction dead on our school grounds last term. A tragic suicide. A situation that should never have happened.”