John Dandy Boys Club

Chapter Seventeen

After a grueling swim practice (my first one), I was back in my room as Aunt Mona and Uncle Donnie were out picking up Chinese food for dinner as a celebratory dinner. I was on my bedroom, thinking about my decision to join the John Dandy Boys Club, the charismatic and enigmatic all-male clique that seemed to rule the school with a subtle grip.

"They're the rockstars of this school as well as others in town! Every girl wants one of them to be their date while guys are either jealous or amazed by them."

"Everyone wants to be a part of their clique, man! But I heard that the standards are high to get into their circle. It's hard to gain their favor but easy to lose it. You could be on their blacklist if you aren't careful!"

I had been at Trotter's Ridge for a little over six weeks and I managed to catch their eye on the first week of school without doing much of anything. Back then, I didn't pay too much attention to it since I thought that it wasn't going to last and I was going to be part of the background.

But since I started talking to Brian and his clique, even making conversation with Mr. Westley (who could be a modern-day version of Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne the way he carried himself like a billionaire); I was on their radar and even was extended an invitation to join them. Hell, Brian himself saved me from becoming a human pancake by Chelsea Monroe's road rage. And that only elevated my time as the hottest topic in the hallways of Trotter's Ridge.

Man, little dude isn't even trying anything but Westley and his crew are bewitched by him! He better stay in their good graces, though. One slip-up and it's game over.

The more that Copeland does little yet csptivates the crowd, the more and more that the John Dandy Boys are closer to getting him involved. If he had arrived earlier, he might've been with them a long time ago!

But since learning that Kenya is still hell-bent on her plan to end me for leaving her, I've been wondering if this was even worth it.

If I can't have you, Vion, no one can! You're MY friend! You only need me, but I only need you for being my slave. After that, it's what it is!

I knew that Kenya wouldn't allow me to be with someone that stood against everything she loved. And I knew that she'll never stop until I was as miserable as I was before coming to Virginia. But I knew Aunt Mona, Uncle Donnie, my new friends, Fordham, Talbot, and even Westley and those guys believed in me. Taking one deep breath as I heard the car pull up to the driveway, I asked myself the question that I needed to answer.

Could I do this? Could I go through with this invitation and actually become a John Dandy Boy?

"Vion, we're home!" Aunt Mona hollered with the scent of orange chicken lingering in the air.

One final deep breath, and I knew my answer. I burned my bridges with Kenya Halliday the moment I read Mom's letter. And since then, I continued to cut my losses and broke away from the toxic girl who wished me dead. Why stop now?

I was going all-in, no looking back.

************

Kenya's POV

In a prison cell at the Angola State Penitentiary, outside of New Orleans....

This is some bullshit.

My family gave me the boot. De'Andre just up and broke things off because he couldn't see that I was right and everyone else was wrong. And worse than all of that, Vion is signing his soul to the devils incarnate while I'm waiting to be arraigned in court in two days!

Some life I'm living, but no matter. I'm still going to see this through to the goddamned end.

My cellmate, a burly female who's being transferred to death row for murdering her boyfriend, offered me her burner phone so I could make the one phone call that needed to be done. Dialing the number, I heard her pick up in two rings. "Yeah," my contact said.

"Listen, I'm in prison after word of us talking to each other got out," I said. "Not only did my family had me arrested and disowned my ass for wanting Vion back in N'awlins, my now ex-boyfriend is off to Virginia alongside Talia and her family."

"Damn," my contact hissed. "I think we could be in deep shit, girl. I think someone knows what's up with us, hence my folks taking my phone away and I'm using another burner phone."

"Then you know what we gotta do, right?"

A pause, then, "Are you sure? This could get you in deeper shit, Halliday," my contact warned. "And you know that all eyes are on both of us."

I scoffed softly, rolling my eyes. "Of course I'm sure," I retorted, ignoring the impatient stare from my cellmate and and the glare from a passing guard who was walking the tier. "The day that Vion accepts the formal invite, that's when you take him down. Make sure that you don't get taken alive."

"I plan to end my life so they won't get anything out of me, anyway," she said. "Anything else?"

I thought for a moment. "Yeah. Tell Vion that it's from me before he dies," I ordered. "Tell him that he should've stayed in N'awlins with me in the first place."

"Your will be done," was all she said before disconnecting.

Handing my phone back to the now-grateful cellmate before she took off, I sat back on the smelly cot just as another prisoner came in with my dinner of mystery and watery potatoes with a more-appealing brownie for dessert. "Sorry to do this, Vion, but you left me no choice," I said to myself, going straight for the brownie. "But hey, at least you'll be ignorant of the truth that'll come your way and you might thank me in the afterlife for this. Hell, you might ask God Himself to let me into heaven because I saved your life."

I was doing Vion a big favor. And I might be heading for the electric chair for this, but this was for the best. After today, there was no going back.

***************

Third-Person POV

At the transfer/release area...

"You got all of that?" the beefy female undercover agent asked as she and the prison guards watched a willowy-thin woman listen into the phone conversation from the recording on the burner phone (which had a recording tracker inside so Kenya wouldn't notice).

"We got it all," the woman replied. "Good work, Askew. Sorry that we had to ask you to give up your weekend to go undercover. But with Halliday hopped up and after the Master heard from his contact about the arrest, we needed to get things verified."

"It's no problem," Agent Askew replied as another well-dressed female handed her some cleaner clothes to change into. "But something tells me that it'll still go down whether we like it or not."

"Which makes it all the more reason to finally get Mr. Copeland into the brotherhood as soon as possible," an older gentleman intoned as he joined the fray. "The Master and his ward will make the formal offer in two days, so we'll have to get things prepared."

"That kid doesn't deserve Halliday as a god-sister," Askew said before she took her leave. "He's a gifted kid who had to give up his needs to make her happy while she made him miserable."

"The feeling's mutual, but nothing will stop him from claiming his long-awaited birthright," the older man replied. "His late parents promised the Master that Bay'Vion Copeland will be a part of the secret society and become what he is destined to be."

He was sure of it.

Now the plot REALLY thickens, ladies and gentlemen. Something tells me that there's more than what meets the eye and nothing is what they appear to be. And in the next chapter, the mystery group reconvenes and get things arranged for what's in store. Meanwhile, the Trotter's Ridge dance team dares a potential candidate to steal a kiss and take some clothes as Quez decides that the time is now to do his own interview with Vion while quietly launching an investigation of his own in regards to Brian Westley. Ooh, wee! I'm getting this story pumping like fried bologna! You aren't ready for this!

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