Bow Down To Your King

Chapter 4

POV JULIA

Zeke wouldn't stop watching me. Fucking creep. I didn't want anything to do with him. The best way to secure my freedom from his weird, sexual influence was to keep to myself.

Especially after he tried to bait me with that loser hallway comment. Who even does that?

I focused my attention on the only item on my tray that looked edible, the Jell-O. I would've killed to start up a youtube video, maybe a documentary on cult history, but I was left high and dry.

As a part of my sentencing, my father gave the Dean my phone to "help me acclimate to St. Anne's for the first two weeks of school". Therefore, I had buttfuck nothing to do or look at to pretend I had something to do.

In other words, I was bored out of my mind and vulnerable to horny assholes like Zeke and his sniveling crew.

I was used to being alone, eating by myself, but at St. Anne's I felt more exposed like all the eyes in the cafeteria moved over me when I wasn't paying attention.

So, when a girl from a neighboring table walked over in her frilly perfectly pressed uniform skirt, I didn't turn her away.

"You're new, right?"

Apparently, it was that obvious. I nodded.

She smiled, "it's nice to meet you, Julia."

"How do you know my name?" I asked, already suspecting Zeke of foul play.

"Your roommate," she pointed to the table and Katie waved. "Do you wanna come sit with us?"

I scanned the table. They seemed normal enough. "Yeah sure," I said, admittedly lonely, and welcoming any reprieve from wandering eyes.

I carried my tray over to the table. Katie scooted over to make room for me, pushing her lunch to the side. "Oh my god, yay! I totally thought you would turn us down."

"Why?" I asked. We had met once formally and then only seen each other in passing since.

"Well, you know, you have that, scary loaner thing going on that the guys like." She twisted her faded red hair nervously as if she regretted ever speaking up.

But she was right. At my old university, if I sat alone, it was usually only a matter of minutes before some guy saw me across the room and came to join me.

Maybe that was what scared me out of sitting by myself: Zeke running over, making me drown in his cologne, and trying to eat what they called meatloaf while he rambled about his conquests.

"How are your classes?" one of the girls asked, her long braided golden hair reminded me of Rapunzel, "I heard you had a little showdown."

Katie shot her a glare but she shrugged, "What? I have a friend in their class. It's not a crime to gossip."

I glanced at Zeke, then turned away before he could be flattered. "No, it's okay. It was nothing, really. His royal majesty just wanted my seat."

Katie raised her perfectly plucked eyebrow, "Did you give it up?"

I frowned, "Was I supposed to?"

The other girls looked at each other, making me feel like the only idiot that wasn't privy to the secret.

"What?" I asked, getting annoyed.

Rapunzel sighed, "When the All-Saints game starts next week, you'll probably have a target on your back."

"Excuse me?" I leaned forward, "Is that threat?"

"Not by us," Katie said, putting her hand on my shoulder, subduing me.

I crossed my arms, "Then who?"

"The guys that run the game," another girl down the table said.

"Which are?"

"Zeke and his little lackeys over there, they call themselves the royal court."

I turned to see Zeke's table where the guys patted him on the back for breathing and the few girls in the mix fawned over him.

"That's embarrassing," I scoffed, "So, it's like a homecoming thing?"

"No, we wish," Rapunzel said, "basically at the beginning of the semester the royal court submits this list of points and how to earn them," I frowned but she continued, "Like who's worth what. The goal is to get as many points as possible before the game ends."

I shook my head, "That makes no sense. You can easily lie."

"You're required to submit proof of every point-earning action to this like super encrypted website," Kaie added.

"Yeah, that's not a thing." No way in hell.

"Yeah, actually, it is," Rapunzel rolled her green eyes, "We've all ended up on it one way or another."

"So why don't you say something then? Tell the Dean." Did I just suggest snitching? This school is fucking changing me.

"It's not that easy," the girl that retrieved me from my loner table spoke up.

"I think it is."

Rapunzel, their spokesperson continued, "When you participate in the games, you're sworn to secrecy, and you sign all this legal shit, but what keeps everyone's mouth shut is the mutually assured destruction. Your face has to be in all of the photos, and so does the face of the other person," she sat back in her chair and shook her head, "If anybody squeals, all of our lives get blown up."

My shoulders dropped. "Zeke won last year then?"

Rapunzel sighed, "He's been the King for two years now. He thinks he's unstoppable because he won his first year after only being here for like three months."

"How?" I asked.

"How what?"

"How did he win?"

Katie shrugged, "He's charming. We didn't know he was even playing until it was too late."

"How did he keep that a secret?"

"He had help," Rapunzel said, " The guys made sure we didn't know about it until the points were tallied for round one."

"And you're okay with that?"

"No, we're not, but by that point, they had proof of everything we'd done with him."

"It's like the ultimate guy's game," Katie said under her breath.

How fucking archaic.

"So girls can't play?"

"We couldn't for years, but we complained so they finally gave in. The point system still works against us though." Rapunzel seemed tired of answering questions, none of which would change the outcome.

I nodded, already hearing enough for one day.

A glanced across the room, catching a glimpse of Zeke eating his-is that a steak?

I stared at my own soggy food in disgust, wondering how he managed to get something not pre-packaged and edible.

Oh, right, because he was king.

The thought alone was enough to make me sick. I pushed my tray away, horrified by what I had stumbled into.

***

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