Reckless Vengeance

chapter 1

The memories haunt me.

More than anything else. I can't seem to shake them away no matter what I do. 

"What is redemption an act of?" Professor Lang asks, walking down the stairs of the lecture hall. Hands raise around the room to answer the question. Professor Lang ignores them, her heels clicking with each step she takes. "It was a rhetorical question. Redemption is an act of various different things, and it means something different to everyone."

There's an odd quiet in the room, as if the weight of everyone's guilty conscience ways down on the air, suffocating all of us. Today's lecture has been deep. Thought provoking. Especially for me.

Lang stands at the centre of the stage once again. "Find out what it means to you. Then present it to me in whichever way you wish," she says, her strong voice cutting through the silence. She lifts her wrist up and glances at her watch. "Time."

I think that's the fastest the room has ever cleared. No one wants to be in this class suddenly, weighted down by secrets of their own. We all have them. Though some are better at hiding them than others. 

"Miss Beaumont?" Lang calls, seated back at her desk. "Come see me, please."

I stuff my laptop into my bag and head down the lecture hall. She clicks away at her computer, her cat-eye glasses perched at the tip of her nose. 

I clear my throat and she looks up at me. "Yes, Professor Lang?"

She leans back in her chair, pressing her forearms into the arms of her chair. "Our paper photographer quit."

"Oh," I say. "That's a shame."

She clicks her tongue and nods. "A shame indeed. I hear you have a knack for taking pictures. Would you mind doing us a favour? I'm asking on behalf of the campus paper."

"Oh ... um ... what kind of pictures?"

"For the basketball game tonight."

The same basketball team Kade Matthews is on? No. Fuck no. "Oh–"

"I knew you would protest." She cuts me off with a hand. "It's only for one night, Miss Beaumont. In return, I will pay you."

Money? Now we're talking. 

"How much?" I ask. 

She intertwines her fingers together, a smirk spreading over her red, cherry painted lips. "$250 for the night."

Fuck. That's like more than three weeks worth of groceries. 

"I'll do it," I say. I'll be damned if I let Kade Matthews take another thing away from me. 

Lang looks satisfied. "Good girl. I knew you would come around."

---

The cheerleaders do their routine, parading around the court. I take quick pictures of them, catching them at the best times. Smiling, in the air, hands up, hands down, all of it. Normally I'd make a fuck ton of fun out of them. But that's not me anymore. That's the insecure, sad girl who didn't know any better.