Ryland Academy Rules: A High School Bully Romance Box Set

woods. I had heard of the rumours, and seen the symbol before, but never realized how many times I’ve seen it but didn’t care. It’s everywhere. I saw it in the girl’s locker room even. I thought of it just as graffiti before. You saw that light grey leather book, that had no title on its spine or front.” She runs her fingers across the books on the shelf until she finds one. She pulls it out and shows me it with a smile. “Same symbol. Same book. Different owner. I was supposed to interview the guidance counsellor for some fluff piece about him, and spotted the book. He left me in his office for a few minutes, and confirmed it was the same book you told us about.”

I wave my head. “You told me the Beasts are real but likely just a silly boy’s club now.”

“I think I was wrong.” She says. “I think it’s time we do some reading. I’m taking this with us.”

“He’s going to notice a large gap in his shelf where his book was. If it’s such an important book, which for some reason is in plain sight, won’t he notice?”

Danna nods her head at me. She looks at the shelf and moves her head down. She takes a book from the bottom of the shelf and puts it between the gap. She seems happy with herself that it seems like a perfect fit.

“You’re a shitty Lois Lane.” I say, half joking.

She opens the book and looks at its dark pages. Danna takes her phone out and uses the screen to read the first page. She looks at it strangely then back at me. She smiles and waves her head.

“What is it?” I ask.

Danna raises her head, but something catches her attention outside the window. She turns off her cell screen. “Hide!”

I take a deep breath. Instead of hiding, I only manage to slide against the wall. I hold my breath with anticipation of being caught.

Two dark figures pass by the window. They both hold a stick with a bright flame in front of them. The flame illuminates the grey hooded cloaks they are wearing. I can’t make out their faces. It only takes a couple seconds for them to walk by, but I feel like I’ve been holding my breath for minutes.

“Time to go.” Danna whispers.

“We need to get back to Bryce, quick.”

We sneak our way back through the dark halls. The moonlight makes the school much more eerie now. We get closer to the main hall when we see a bright light. The light is getting closer.

We hide behind a large statue. I peek my head around it and see a man holding a torch in the school hallway. He is walking fast and seems to be in a hurry. Is he looking for us? The man continues to walk straight through to another hallway opposite of where we are, thankfully.

When it seems he’s gone, we stand up. I look at the statue and realize it’s a large mock of the famous Thinking Man, only this one is dark and has horns. Opposite it, is a large white one with a halo over its head. I look at Danna and she seems just as taken back.

We sneak up to the front door. Danna opens it slightly and peeks outside. She waves me and we both leave the school.

“Bryce.” I whisper, but hear nothing. Danna tries but all we hear is the slight sound the breeze makes.

In the distance I see three people wearing cloaks, heading toward the watch tower.

Danna is looking at the front gate. “Do you think Bryce left us here?” She whispers.

I tap on her shoulder and point towards the watch tower. We observe the three men open the door at the foot of the tower and walk inside. When they open the door there’s multiple red-lights flickering inside.

“Holy shit.” She says with a smile. “Now this is interesting.” She suddenly doesn’t seem so worried about Bryce anymore.

A loud shriek coming from the school is blinding loud. I cover my ears. It seems like the school’s security system has been triggered. I’m not sure how that could have happened when I saw Danna deactivate it.

I look over at the clock tower. It’s only a matter of time before whoever is in there comes pouring out to see what’s happening.

I turn to Danna. “I hope you run fast.”

∞∞∞

I smile when I spot Danna’s car. My smile grows when I spot Bryce leaned against it, breathing deeply. It seemed like the big ninja got out of there before shit got bad.

I look back and see Danna not too far behind. Thank god, she isn’t a terrible runner. When running here, I thought I heard movement from behind us, but maybe I was just imagining things with the adrenaline rampant through my body.

I breathe deep and look behind Danna for any movement but see nothing.

Bryce spots me and smiles through deep breaths. “Thank god! I was going to try and warn you, but well- did you see? They had fucking torches. One of them even went into the school.”

I nod my head several times, trying to catch my breath. “Yeah. I vote we no longer listen to any of Danna’s bright ideas.”

Danna runs up beside us and puts her arm over Bryce’s shoulder. She looks like she’s trying to defend herself from my comment but is struggling to make any kind of a sentence. She finally manages to say something. “It was worth it.” She takes out the light grey leather book with the monster symbol on its cover.

Bryce looks at her confused. “Danna, what the fuck is that?”

“No time to talk.” She says. “Load up and we are getting the fuck out of here.”

I pat Bryce’s shoulder before getting into the car. “Long story short, she kind of lied to us.”

Danna takes off. Bryce tells her to slow down to not look so conspicuous. She listens. We get to the main street in town,