The Charade: A Billionaire/Fake Relationship Romance (Eden Falls Academy)
The Charade: Chapter 5

THE FIRST DAY of classes began the next morning. I wore uniform number two since it was Tuesday—a cream-colored blazer, white button-down shirt, pink-and-burgundy plaid skirt, a necktie, and burgundy socks. It was my favorite of the uniforms we’d had to buy for the school year since the lighter colors went well with my skin tone.

But with the colors being more feminine, I wondered if the boys would be wearing the same color palette. My question was answered when I went to breakfast in the great hall and saw that while the boys’ ties were made from the same pink-and-burgundy plaid material, their blazer and slacks were navy blue—which actually went together nicely. My mom would be proud of whoever chose the school uniforms because they clearly had an eye for fashion.

I ate breakfast with Scarlett, Hunter, and Elyse. Mack and the Hastings crew were all day students, so Scarlett told us that they rarely ever had breakfast at the school.

My first class of the day was AP English. Unlike math, I actually did quite well with the subject. When the teacher, Mr. Brown, went over the syllabus for this year, thankfully it wasn’t too overwhelming. We were to read a few classics on our own and as a class, do some reports and group projects, and when it came time to take the AP test at the end of the year, we’d hopefully have learned enough to pass the test and have some college credit before graduation.

Elyse and Scarlett were in my class, along with Mack and Nash, so it was nice to see some friendly faces among the new ones.

‘Which class do you have next?’ Elyse asked me as we walked down the student-crowded hall after English.

I glanced at the schedule that I’d printed out and slipped into the front cover of my floral binder.

‘I have Statistics.’ I groaned. ‘Talk about ruining the day before it really got started.’

Elyse chuckled, knowing well how much I loathed math. ‘At least you’ll get it over with, right?’

‘For the morning portion, anyway.’

‘Do you start your tutoring right after school then?’

I nodded. ‘As per my agreement with the headmistress.’

‘Who knows, maybe your tutor will be really cute,’ Elyse offered, like working with a cute guy would make the tutoring sessions less torturous.

‘If only I could be so lucky.’ I sighed, hugging my books to my chest. ‘Pretty sure Mom knows all about my study sessions with Jameson last year and knows better than to let me be set up with someone like that again.’

Elyse laughed. ‘For your grade’s sake, I suppose I should hope that your tutor is a middle-aged woman so you’re not caught making out in the library stacks instead of studying.’

‘Yep,’ I said.

We came to the end of the hall where Elyse would go one way to her next class, and I would go the other.

‘Good luck with math,’ Elyse said, turning to look at me before separating. ‘Who knows, maybe it’ll be your favorite class this year.’

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Elyse had been on this positive psychology kick recently and seemed determined to make it rub off on me.

‘I’ll see you at lunch,’ I said.

‘See you then.’

I watched Elyse disappear into the crowd of students wearing cream and blue blazers. And then, deciding not to put off the inevitable, I headed toward the A hall where Mrs. Simmons’s class was.

I walked into the room, which had large east-facing windows and posters with various inspirational quotes. There was a handful of students already seated at the tables, chatting among themselves.

There was a middle-aged woman with red, shoulder-length curly hair standing at a whiteboard writing notes for today’s class. When she noticed me out of the corner of her eye, she stopped writing.

‘Oh hello,’ she said, placing the cap on the black dry erase marker she’d been using. ‘You must be Ava.’

‘Um, yeah, that’s me,’ I said, surprised she knew my name even though we’d never met before. But in a school with less than five hundred students, it shouldn’t really surprise me. They probably didn’t get much turnaround at a place like this.

‘It’s so great to have you at our school,’ she said, her smile wide on her burgundy-colored lips. ‘I’m Mrs. Simmons.’

I just nodded, not sure what I should say since saying I was excited to meet my new math teacher would be a lie. Math was a torture device invented by disturbed humans, and math teachers who chose to immerse themselves in the subject had to be possessed by a math demon to willingly spend multiple hours of their day surrounded by the subject.

So I went with a simple, ‘I love your shoes.’

My mom had taught me that the best way to get on someone’s good side was to give them an honest compliment. And since I needed to get in Mrs. Simmons’s good graces more than anyone else’s at this school, I planned to give her a compliment each day I had her class.

Because surely she wouldn’t fail someone who was always looking for the best in her…right?

It was the best plan I’d come up with so far, at least.

She looked down at her black peep-toe wedges briefly, a smile slipping onto her face. ‘Thank you. They were a birthday present from my husband.’

‘He has good taste.’ I smiled earnestly because I truly did like her shoes. In fact, for a teacher in her early forties, she actually had a great sense of style.

A few more students walked into the classroom, which brought Mrs. Simmons back to whatever she’d meant to tell me. ‘I’ve already spoken with Headmistress Sutton about your situation.’ She cleared her throat before ducking her head closer and continuing in a hushed tone. ‘And we thought the best way for you to excel in my class this year would be for us to do something we’ve had success with in the past years.’

Great.

Apparently, my case was special enough that the teachers had already been warned about me.

A deep feeling of shame seeped into my chest, spreading throughout my whole body and making me feel hot in my blazer.

I tugged on my necktie and quickly glanced behind me to make sure the students already seated weren’t eavesdropping on this possibly humiliating conversation.

Thankfully, they were all either busy chatting with each other like long-lost friends or staring into their phones.

Mrs. Simmons continued, ‘I always try my best to cater to the needs of each of my students, but since it can sometimes be helpful to have things explained in different ways, we have arranged for your peer tutor to attend during this same hour so you can sit together. This way he can help answer any questions you may have during my lectures.’

He? My tutor was a guy?

‘Okay.’ I nodded and then breathed in through my nose, telling myself that if I remained calm, none of the students behind me would guess that Mrs. Simmons was doing anything other than welcoming a new student to her class.

My teacher’s attention caught on something behind me, and then she smiled again. ‘Looks like your tablemate has just arrived.’

I glanced behind me and found a tall guy with dirty-blond hair and piercing blue eyes that only appeared even more blue next to his navy blazer.

Yes, I was looking at Carter Hastings.

Oh no, oh no, oh no. Please don’t let him be my tutor.

Carter nodded in our direction before taking a seat at a table in the center of the second row, leaning back and stretching his long legs. He lazily draped his arm across the back of the chair beside him. And when his gaze lifted to mine, looking at me through eyelashes that were surprisingly dark for his lighter hair, my face burned hot with embarrassment.

Had he known yesterday when we met that he’d be helping me this year?

Was that why he’d barely given me the time of day? Because he already knew I was beneath him?

Ugh!

Of all the people at this school I could have been partnered with to help me with math, why did it have to be him ?

I turned away from Carter and focused back on my teacher. ‘I have to work with Carter?’ I asked, my throat dry.

‘Oh, so you’re already acquainted with Mr. Hastings?’ Mrs. Simmons’s eyes lit up, obviously not sensing how unenthusiastic I was at this pairing. ‘He’s one of my brightest students and has proven to be a great tutor in previous years.’

So he did tutoring on the regular. Was that, like, his charity project? Rich people always liked being seen as charitable, right?

The bell rang.

‘I, um, guess I better take my seat,’ I said, even though the thought of sitting next to Carter and officially outing myself to the whole class as the girl who needed Carter’s benevolent help this year was about the last thing I wanted to do.

But since I didn’t want to draw any more attention to myself by standing next to the teacher after the bell had already rung, I walked the few feet to where Carter was and set my binder on the table. And then, after waiting for Carter to remove his arm from the back of my chair, I sat down and scooted in.

‘Good morning,’ I said to him. I decided that if I didn’t make the first move to break the ice, based on our previous interactions, he might just ignore me altogether.

He took his time to turn in my direction, and before he said anything, he looked me over from head to toe. His gaze seemed to linger on the burgundy-colored socks that hit just below my knee, but then he finally lifted his gaze up to mine and said, ‘Hi.’

I furrowed my brow together, confused at why he’d eyed my socks for so long. Had I worn them wrong or something?

I’d never had to wear a uniform to school before, but I was pretty sure it was customary to have the socks pulled up instead of folded over.

I was just about to glance around and make sure the other girls were wearing their socks the same way when Carter’s deep voice sounded again and he asked, ‘You’re Ava, right?’

‘Yes.’ I cleared my throat, and with a shaky hand, I pointed at the gold letter A that I’d pinned to the end of my necktie. ‘The A is for Ava.’

He nodded. ‘I figured as much. I noticed you and your sister’s pins yesterday at dinner.’

‘You noticed our pins?’

Wow, way to state the obvious, Ava.

A slight smirk lifted his lips. ‘I’m quite observant.’

And because I seemed to be on a quest to make Carter Hastings think I was truly an idiot, I said, ‘You were so enamored with your book during dinner yesterday that I wouldn’t blame you if you forgot we were even at your table.’

A hint of a smile graced his soft pink lips. ‘Looks like I wasn’t the only observant person at the table yesterday.’

And when he winked at me, my heart had the gall to skip a beat.

But I told it to stop because my heart was just being stupid, fluttering over someone like Carter. Just because he may be the world’s most beautiful human being didn’t mean I needed to care about him. I was pretty sure he already cared about himself enough from his all-too arrogant vibe.

Deciding to get down to business, I glanced around me to make sure no one was listening. ‘I assume you know why our teacher had me sit by you?’

He shrugged his broad shoulders. ‘Because you and math aren’t exactly on the best of terms at the moment?’ he said in a low voice so others wouldn’t overhear.

‘I guess that’s one way to put it,’ I said, even though admitting my flaw to this guy who had an air of perfection about him wasn’t exactly doing my pride any favors.

Just then, a girl I’d never seen in person before but knew more about than I’d care to admit walked into the room. The girl who Scarlett had warned me would be coming to this school.

‘Ah, Miss Cardoso,’ Mrs. Simmons said when the supermodel strolled in. ‘So glad you could join us.’

Sofia Cardoso, who somehow made the same exact uniform I was wearing look like it belonged on the runway, tipped her head to our instructor and said, ‘Sorry I’m late. I had my schedule mixed up.’

‘Just take your seat next to Miss McCall.’ Mrs. Simmons nodded to a girl with curly blonde hair on the front row. ‘We were just about to get started, so you haven’t missed anything important yet.’

Sofia moved to take the seat the teacher had indicated, but before sitting, her gaze dropped down to Carter for a long moment.

Carter sat up a little straighter. But as I watched the two, I noticed that he seemed to refuse to look in the Brazilian beauty’s direction. Instead, his blue-eyed gaze was intent on the whiteboard ahead, as if the notes our teacher had written up there were suddenly the most interesting things in the world.

As if she understood that Carter was refusing to give her the time of day, Sofia shrugged as she sat next to the girl our teacher had called Miss McCall.

As Mrs. Simmons welcomed the rest of the class back for the new year, my mind drifted off to wonder what exactly had happened between Carter and Sofia. Because whatever it was, he clearly wasn’t ready to be friends with his ex-girlfriend yet.

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