HIERARCHY
1283 Words
SHANIEL'S POV
The moment I stepped out of the car, two familiar voices called my name almost immediately.
“SHANIEL!”
I barely had time to react before Audrey slammed into me dramatically.
“Oh my God, you wicked human being!” she cried. “You ignored my calls for TWO whole days!”
Brianna walked toward us next, calmer as always, but the look on her face said enough.
“You disappeared,” she said simply.
I sighed.
“I’m alive.”
“That’s not the point,” Audrey snapped quickly, pulling away from me.
“You tell us your boyfriend broke up with you and then vanished? Do you know how insane we were going?”
I looked around to make sure my mom had already left, and yes, she had.
“I just needed space.”
“Space my foot,” Audrey muttered.
Despite myself, I almost smiled.
That was Audrey. Loud. Dramatic. Impossible.
Brianna’s eyes softened slightly as she looked at me.
“How are you holding up?” she asked quietly.
Before I could answer, I suddenly remembered Cecelia standing awkwardly beside us.
And judging from the way she had frozen completely the moment Audrey and Brianna approached us, she clearly knew who they were.
Interesting.
“Oh,” I said, stepping aside slightly. “This is Cecelia.”
Both girls looked at her properly for the first time.
Audrey’s entire face lit up immediately.
“You’re the girl staying with Shaniel, right?” she asked excitedly.
Cecelia blinked slightly. “Uhm… yes.”
“Oh my God, you’re so pretty,” Audrey continued before anyone could breathe.
“Where are you from? How long are you staying? Do you like Everfield already? Wait—have you seen the cafeteria yet because—”
“Audrey,” Brianna interrupted dryly.
“What?” Audrey defended instantly.
“You’re interrogating her.”
“I’m being welcoming.”
Cecelia laughed nervously.
“It’s okay.”
Brianna gave her a small nod, her gaze was a steady, unblinking scale.
Observant.
“Come on,” I said before the awkwardness could grow. “We’re already late.”
The four of us started walking toward the main building.
Almost immediately, I started noticing it.
The whispers.
The stares.
The sudden pauses in conversations whenever I passed.
“She’s the one…”
“That’s Shaniel…”
“I heard Jared dump her…”
“For another girl apparently…”
I kept my face straight and continued walking like I couldn’t hear any of it.
But every whisper felt like tiny needles under my skin.
Beside me, Audrey looked ready to fight someone.
“I swear this school survives on gossip,” she hissed.
Katness. Maddy. Catherine.
The three girls stood by the hallway upstairs like they owned the entire building.
Which, socially, they practically did.
Maddy crossed her arms neatly as her eyes landed on me.
“Well,” she said loudly enough for nearby students to hear, “if it isn’t Everfield’s latest heartbreak victim.”
Katness laughed immediately.
Catherine only smirked.
Audrey stopped walking.
“Oh please,” she scoffed. “Don’t you girls get tired of being obsessed with Shaniel?”
“Obsessed?” Maddy repeated with fake amusement.
“Trust me, nobody’s jealous of getting dumped.”
The air in the hallway curdled into a brittle silence
I felt Cecelia glance at me.
Brianna, however, looked completely unfazed.
“Are we done?” she asked flatly.
Something about Brianna’s tone made Catherine look away first.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
Maddy rolled her eyes eventually.
“Let’s go, girls.”
The three of them walked off dramatically.
“Insufferable human beings,” Audrey muttered.
“What was that about?” Cecelia asked carefully.
“Maddy and her minions think they run Everfield,” Audrey explained immediately.
“They kind of do,” Brianna corrected calmly.
“And that is exactly the problem.”
I stayed quiet the entire time.
My bones felt like cooling ash.
As we continued walking through the corridor, Cecelia slowed down slightly beside me.
Her eyes wandered carefully around the school like she was trying to absorb everything at once.
The students.
The atmosphere.
The attention.
Earlier this morning, i didn't feel like talking to her because yesterday honestly drained me.
Watching my mother treat Cecelia with a softness, she rarely showed me left a bitter feeling in my chest.
But whatever
It was a new day
Everfield Academy really was a different world.
And somewhere deep down…
her eyes tracked the chaos like a hawk on a wire
CECELIA’S POV
I finally understood what Shaniel meant yesterday while we were shopping.
Hierarchy.
You could literally feel it here.
People moved differently around certain students.
Some students were admired. Some feared. Some talked about like celebrities.
And Shaniel?
People definitely knew her.
Maybe not because she was the rich, but because she belonged close enough to power for people to pay attention.
I glanced at Audrey and Brianna again.
Even they carried presence naturally.
Especially Brianna.
Her silence carried the weight of a shout.
It was intimidating.
But exciting too.
As we walked, I pulled my phone out briefly.
A message sat at the top of my notifications.
Him.
The ghost of a smile tugged at the corner of my mouth.
We had been talking for months now, and somehow, every conversation with him felt easy.
Dangerously easy.
Yes, he had a girlfriend.
But relationships ended every day.
And honestly…
if he really liked her that much, why did he spend almost every night talking to me instead?
The corridor suddenly changed before I even understood why.
Whispers started spreading fast.
Not soft ones.
Excited ones.
Phones came out almost immediately, and students began turning toward the same direction like something had just pulled their attention.
“What’s going on?” I asked Shaniel.
She didn’t answer.
That made me look at her again.
She was still.
Too still.
Audrey suddenly stopped walking.
“Wait here,” she said quickly, before literally running off into the crowd.
Brianna sighed under her breath. “Of course.”
Within seconds, the hallway wasn’t calm anymore.
People were moving.
Gathering.
Rushing slightly.
Like something important had just arrived.
Audrey came back just as fast—
her face was a sunburst of manic energy.
“I can’t—!” she started, out of breath but smiling like crazy. “You guys are NOT ready for this!”
Brianna frowned. “What now?”
Audrey didn’t even pause.
“The Ashford heir is here!”
That did it.
The hallway erupted in a jagged chorus of screams.
Whispers. Movement.
“Wait—Jedidiah Ashford??”
“No way, he’s actually coming to Everfield??”
Phones lifted higher. Students rushed forward.
I blinked, trying to process the name.
It didn’t mean much to me yet.
But the reaction meant everything.
I turned to Shaniel instinctively.
She didn’t react.
Not even a flicker of surprise.
Her features settled into a stiff, porcelain mask.
Controlled.
Careful.
Like she was holding something back.
Whispers shifted again.
And this time—
they weren’t just about him.
“They said her mom works for the Ashford family…”
“So she might already know him…”
I looked at Shaniel properly.
She still said nothing.
Audrey was still smiling like she had just delivered the biggest news of the year.
“This is going to be fun,” she said.
Brianna didn’t smile.
She was watching the crowd instead.
Quiet.
Focused.
Like she was waiting for something else entirely.
And for the first time since I got here—
I felt it too.
Everfield wasn’t the same anymore.
- Writer
