(Unedited)

Just what we all need,
More lies about a world that...
Never was and never will be.
Have you no shame?
Don't you see me?
You know you've got everybody fooled.

"Everybody's Fool" - Evanescence

Vanessa's house was big enough that I had to stop several times and ask for directions from her staff on where her room was. I wasn't sure if weekly get-togethers at Vanessa's house were a tradition or something for the Elite, but it seemed like it.

The rest of the Elite were probably going to arrive in half an hour or so. Well, the rest of the Elite minus Skylar, because she was in the hospital. The doctors had asked her to stay a little longer so they could make sure everything was okay.

I walked into Vanessa's room, and stopped. No one was in the room. "Vanessa?" I called.

"In here," she replied, her voice coming from the bathroom. I crossed her room and pushed open the bathroom door. Vanessa was inside, putting on mascara. She turned to me, grinning. "Hey. Stay here for a sec, okay?" Then, before I could respond, she was gone.

I stared after her. Vanessa had done some pretty weird things in the week and half I had known her, and I had heard that she was strange, but I didn't think the disappearing act was her st- Suddenly, someone crashed into me and I barely managed to keep from falling over. I grabbed the sink and shoved back, pushing them off me. The sound of the door slamming shut echoed through the bathroom as I realized who was in here.

"What the hell Vanessa? I don't want to talk to him!" I yelled, not caring if I offended Jacen. I shoved past him and moved to the door- only to find the handle wouldn't turn. Déjà vu. So déjà vu, but worse, because now I was stuck in here with Jacen Winston. Who had kissed me in a closet and was a complete and utter asshole.

"I think you guys need to forget the past," Vanessa called back, giggling. "I'm not letting you out until you make up."

I knocked on the door. "This isn't funny, Vanessa!"

The only response I got from her was a laugh.

I groaned and turned back around. Jacen, who had been leaning against the counter, pushed off and took a step towards me. I grabbed the first thing I touched from Vanessa's counter and held it in front of me. "Don't come fucking near me."

He held his hands up. "What are you going to do? Eyelash me to death?" he asked, nodding at the mascara wand in my hand.

Don't blame me, okay? It was the first thing I touched.

I sighed and set it down. "I still hate you."

"I know." He snorted. "You're not exactly subtle about it."

I didn't respond, just continued to glare at him.

"I think I'm gonna go make myself a sandwich," Vanessa called from the other side of the door. "I have a feeling this will take a while."

I didn't reply to that either, keeping my eyes on Jacen. He returned my stare, looking annoyingly amused.

I caved after ten minutes of silence. "Why did you tell me to stay away from Jenna Tunclet?" Might as well ask since it looked like we'd be stuck in here for a while. As much as I didn't want to talk to him, I had questions. Ones that probably couldn't be answered by anyone but him.

Jacen raised an eyebrow. "I thought I told you, Elena."

"You told me she was crazy," I said flatly.

"Is that not a good enough reason for you?" he asked.

"She doesn't seem crazy." A bit of a lie, with her cryptic ass message, then her disappearing act, but I wouldn't tell Jacen that. I hadn't been able to talk to Jenna since she gave me her textbook. She hadn't been at school, and since we hadn't spoken before, I didn't know how to contact her.

"Lots of people don't seem crazy." His wide, almost sinister, grin made me think he was one of those people.

"I think," I said, keeping my voice steady. "If she was crazy, she'd be in a mental institution by now."

He snorted. "With money, it's easy to bury anything you want." For a moment, I got the feeling that he wasn't exactly talking about Jenna, but his slight smirk made it seem like a figment of my imagination.

"What did she do to make you pay so much attention to her?"

Jacen grinned. "Now that's an interesting story you'll never hear."

I blinked and narrowed my eyes at Jacen, who had a mock casual expression on his face. Ashton said every one of his friends had some kind of secret. Could Jenna be Jacen's? Or at least something involving her? I narrowed my eyes at him. "Why? Is it something bad?"

"Just be careful," he said with a slight smirk. "Or else you could get hurt."

For a moment we simply stared at each other. Me, trying to read him without showing it, and Jacen, who looked like he knew exactly what I was trying to do, and was amused by it.

He broke the silence first. "You know," he said, in an annoyingly nonchalant tone. "I think-"

"I don't want to know what you think," I cut in. Jacen had messed with my mind enough. Pretty much every time I talked to him, I ended up with more questions and confusion than I was comfortable with.

He merely grinned and continued as if we hadn't spoken. "-we should talk about you."

"I think your sins and secrets would be a lot more interesting," I said, hoping it wouldn't get to his ego.

It didn't. "I'm not telling you anything about Jenna," he told me.

"I wasn't going to ask about that," I lied. Before he could catch onto that moment of weakness, I asked the one other question that had been bothering me over the past couple of days. "Why'd you kiss me?"

He shrugged. "Maybe, I felt like it."

"That's not a reason," I said.

He smirked. "It'd be enough reason for anyone else."

"Yeah, but I'm not anyone else."

His grin widened. "Your chap stick was mint, right? You should use it more often. Tastes good." What. The. Hell. Now he was just purposely taunting me

"You're a fucking asshole," I hissed, glaring at him.

"I thought we established that already," he said in a bored tone.

I want to punch him.

I didn't, sucking in a deep breath to keep calm. Don't show that he got to you, I told myself.

"You're rich, right?" Jacen asked after a moment of silence.

I raised an eyebrow. "I think everyone who goes to Blaire Academy is."

"But you don't act like it."

What?

"You're not the only one who's observant, Elena," Jacen said, noticing my confused expression.

I couldn't help it- I stared.

Since I had started talking to the Elite, and even before then, I had always thought of Keira and Ashton as the most dangerous, the hardest to read. Except now, I wasn't so sure of what to think. Play it cool, I told myself. He hadn't really said anything. He could be messing with you.

"How are rich people supposed to act?" I asked.

"You've almost got it, but you weren't into this. You're still adjusting," he said.

That was where he was wrong. I had been with Raine and Kaden for five years. I wasn't still 'adjusting'. True, I wasn't relaxed or easy with it, and I would never like it, but it wasn't like I was a stranger to the glamorous and scandalous lifestyle of the Elite, and people like them.

"You're with Kaden Fleming, right? But you're not his daughter."

Where the hell was he going with this? "That's public knowledge."

"Do you know you're real parents?" he asked.

"No, I don't." I did'n't know my biological parents. I barely remembered them. I sighed when he didn't reply. "Any reason you brought all this up?"

He stared at me. I stared back, keeping my expression as blank as possible. Something about Jacen's stare unnerved me. It was like he was trying to figure me out, not just my secrets, or something. But like I was some sort of puzzle or machine, so he could figure out my weaknesses and use them against me. It was creepy.

Then I realized what he was doing was almost like what I did to the other people at Blaire Academy. With using what Devon taught me to read their body language and figure out their secrets when I got bored. Except, it wasn't really the same. At least, I hoped it wasn't. When I did it, it wasn't like I was going to use what I figured out against them or anything. It was just because I was bored, or practicing.

And at least the people whose secrets I guess didn't know I'm guessing.

Then, instead of answering, he reached around me and twisted the knob, pushing the door open.

"What the hell?" When had Vanessa unjammed it? And why had she done so without telling us?

Jacen shrugged. "It's probably been open for a while. We just never checked. Illusion of being trapped and all that."

"Wait," I yelled when he stepped around me and started to walk away. "You never answered my question."

He stopped and turned slightly to look at me. "Where's the fun if there's no mystery?"

I didn't bother chasing after him and demanding an answer when he walked away. Somehow I knew it wouldn't be any use. Now, I was beginning if the youngest member of the Elite was the craziest, and most dangerous of them all. I didn't blame him for keeping secrets, we all had them. It was just why, and how they were related to Jenna, and why he wanted me to stay away from her. What did she know that he didn't want me finding out? And just how bad was it?

I stepped out of the bathroom and looked around. The room was empty. I had no idea where Vanessa and Jacen were. A glance at the clock told me that the rest of Elite were probably arriving, or already here. Jacen and I had been in Vanessa's bathroom for half an hour. A plain white chair sat next to the door, probably what Vanessa had used to lock Jacen and me in her bathroom.

How long had the door been unlocked before Jacen had opened it? And why hadn't he opened it sooner, if he knew Vanessa would pull something like that? Vanessa had said her and Jacen were close, but that he didn't tell her much. Yet, he seemed to know a lot about her, and the way she thought.

As I was looking around, I noticed something I hadn't realized before. While Vanessa's room was incredibly decorated, it wasn't very personalized. I suited her, and of course there was jewellery and clothes lying here and there, but there was nothing that would tell you exactly how this room belonged to. There was one photo. It was of her and Nathan from a couple years back, I think, since they looked thirteen or fourteen in the photo.

I knew the Sinclairs, the Merricks and the Blaires had apparently all been close friends growing up. Ashton and Skylar were best friends, so I guess it made sense that Nathan and Vanessa had been close. Strangely, they didn't seem to talk much now, though, at least from what I had seen.

I didn't know Vanessa too well, but it didn't seem like her to leave her walls bare.

The intercom in the corner of the room buzzed, pulling me out of my thoughts. "Elena, you still up there?" Vanessa asked.

I walked across the room and tried to figure out how to answer. Thankfully, the buttons had been labeled. "Yeah, should I come down?"

"Yup, everybody's here," she replied cheerfully.

I clicked off the intercom and shot one last look around. Yeah, it definitely wasn't like her to only have a photo from four years ago.

I ended up getting lost again. Vanessa's house was almost two times the size of Raine and Kaden's and their house was big enough that it usually took me half an hour to find them when I wanted to talk to them. Not because I had that bad of a memory, or sense of direction, but because it was so big. I made it downstairs, but I had no idea where to find Vanessa and the rest of the Elite.

I had resorted to opening random doors to try and find them. I stepped into a room halfway down the hall and the slight smell of chlorine hit me. This was the pool room, where we had been last week. Other than the soft sound of waves, the room was silent, dark and empty. Before I could turn around and leave, somebody grabbed me.

On instinct, I struggled, but they were stronger than me. I had just caught the scent of cologne when a plastic bag was pulled over my head. I tried to claw at it, but whoever had grabbed me had restrained my hands. It was a guy. I could make that out as I squirmed and shoved, trying to break free.

What the hell?

I opened my mouth to scream as he started dragging me somewhere, but almost as if he had sensed my intention, he clamped a hand over my mouth. The taste of plastic filled my mouth as some kind of cloth was pressed against the other side. I thrashed harder, trying to spit it out, but I couldn't.

Some sort of tie went around my head, keeping the cloth and the plastic in my mouth. It also made the plastic bag tighter, almost cutting off my air supply.

I choked, kicking out when I felt something around my ankles. I couldn't see anything, it was too dark, and the plastic wasn't thin enough to see through.

He dragged me forward, and pushed me in front of him- then let go. I was falling. I braced myself for the hard bit of concrete, but it never came. Instead, I hit water.

Cold. The water was freezing. I gasped, and water flooded my mouth

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I tried to kick up, then realized I couldn't. The bastard had tied my legs. I thrashed around, trying to get the rope on my ankles to slip off. I tugged at the knot as my lungs burned for air.

Come on, come on, come on. I'm not going to die here. I'm not.

My head spun and the chemical water tasted gross, soaking into the plastic. My limbs felt too heavy, and jelly-like, I could barely move them.

No. No. No. No. No.

I yanked at the knot as much as I could- and it slipped. Giving just a little. Come on. Come on. My lungs were screaming now- I needed air. I bucked, kicking up towards the surface.

My wrist banged into the pool wall, scraping against it, but I barely noticed. Almost there. Almost. I could feel a cold sensation at the top of my head. Wincing in pain as I braced my arm against the wall, I kicked, dragging myself up. My mouth opened in a silent scream as the rough wall dug into skin.

Then I broke through the surface.

I tried gasping for air, but I couldn't, not with the plastic and cloth in my mouth. I clawed at the knot around my head, pulling at the ends. Thankfully, it wasn't a hard knot, not like the one around my ankle and it came apart easily. I yanked off the plastic bag and gasped, sucking in deep lungfuls of air.

After catching my breath, I glanced around, but it was too dark for me to be able to tell if the guy who has grabbed me was still in there. My best bet was to get out of here. I pulled myself out off pool, cringing as the cut on my arm brushed the ground. I shivered, and looked around. I found the door quickly, a slither of light crept in from a crack underneath it.

It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the lights in the hallway. I felt bad for leaving a trail of water on the hardwood floors, but I wanted to get away from that room as soon as possible.

Who could that have been? It was a guy, I was pretty sure of that. He had been a lot stronger than me, and bigger, though that wasn't hard since I wasn't very tall. It had been too dark for me to see him. The only thing I had was the scent of his cologne.

How did he get into Vanessa's house anyway? I think, being one of the richest families in the world, the Merricks would have enough security... Unless he was already in the house. Maybe whoever had grabbed me worked for the Merricks. Except, that didn't make sense. Why would he do it to me? I doubt that I had been unlucky enough to walk into the room where someone was poised to attack the first person that came in.

If they had been purposely targeting me, though, how did they find me? I hadn't noticed anyone following me, but then again, I hadn't really been checking either. That still left who. The only people I knew in this house were the Elite. And if I were to play along with that idea, then the only people who could've attacked me were Jacen, Ashton, and Nathan.

And I couldn't think of any reason for them to do it.

Jacen and I more or less hated each other, but I don't think he wants to kill me.
I had no idea what went through Ashton's head, but I don't think he's a killer.
And Nathan? He's way too nice.

I turned the corner and immediately crashed into someone. I fell backwards, reaching out to grab something, anything, to steady myself. I only ended up making whoever I had crashed into fall with me.

"Why the hell are you wet?" Ashton demanded.

I resisted the urge to groan. Of course. Of all people I could crash into, it had to be him. I think I would even prefer crashing int- No, never mind, Jacen or Keira would be worse. "Can you get off? You're kind of heavy," I said, instead of answering.

He sat up. "And you're bleeding too?"

As he was distracted, I took the moment to -somewhat creepily- sniff him. No, that definitely hadn't been the cologne I had smelled in the pool room. But did I really believe someone in the Elite was out to get me? "It's nothing. Where's Vanessa?" I asked, avoiding his question again.

"In the kitchen, but-" he started.

"Okay, thanks," I shot up from the ground and raced down the hall, despite the fact that I had absolutely no idea where the kitchen was. It took a couple moments and a bit of wandering to find Vanessa.

Her reaction was identical to Ashton's. "Why are you wet?" she asked, when I walked in.

"I..." I debated telling her, then chose not to. Oh, one of your friends just tried to drown me. Or, oh there's some random sicko in your house who wants to kill me. Yeah, that'd go great. "I got lost, and fell in the pool."

"Do you want something to change into? You can borrow some of my stuff," she said, stepping away from the cupboards.

"I think I'm actually going to head hom-" I needed to figure out what to do about what had happened. I still had no idea if someone in the Elite had wanted to hurt me, or if it had been a complete stranger.

Vanessa pouted. "Aw, please stay, Elena!" she exclaimed, cutting me off. "Everyone's here and we're going to watch a movie!" She grabbed my hand and started dragging me back the way I had came. "I have a lot of stuff you can change into, don't worry."

I protested, but she didn't back down. For someone shorter than me, she has a lot of strength. On our way up the stairs, we passed Keira and Nathan. I caught a bit of Nathan's cologne as they walked by us. No, it hadn't been him either. Besides, he and Keira were always together, and there had been one person in the room, not two.

And I was pretty sure it wasn't Jacen either, the cologne I had smelled in the pool room hadn't been the same one on him when we had been in the bathroom.

"Hey, Vanessa?" I asked. She turned to me. "Are we the only ones here?" Maybe one of her staff had done it, for some crazy, unknown reason?

That theory was killed in an instant. "Yeah, I sent everyone home. And Dad's working late." She giggled. "It's just us, no chaperones."

As she pulled me into her room, another thought crossed my mind. It was possible that whoever had grabbed me had put on something with cologne to disguise themselves. The smell had been pretty strong, after all. But if that was true, then that meant it could be any of the guys. And if what Vanessa had said about us being the only ones in the house was true, then that meant... That meant someone in the Elite wanted to­ hurt me.

Badly.

-- ♡ --
Keira ---->
Teaser: "Hey Raine?" She turned to look at me. "How well did you know my birth parents?"

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