NORA'S POINT OF VIEW.

If hell had a dress code, it would look exactly like the napkin-like contraption Asher Collins forced me into. The dress was red, short, and sinful enough to make saints look away, seductive enough to get the attention I desired....especially from the one guy I'd spent more time than I could count looking at.

I stood in front of the mirror in the small room my new fake boyfriend took me to for 'touch-ups,' staring at a girl I barely recognized. I was fully glammed up; I knew how to do my makeup myself....but seeing my reflection, I couldn't help but feel like a fraud.

'You're no longer Nora Macie; you're officially Nora Feathers, the daughter of a widowed merchant from Australia.' Asher's words from earlier echo in my mind, reminding me of the façade I'd put on the second I walk through the doors of the currently booming party on the other side of the street.

"Are you done yet?" Asher yelled from where he stood outside; his voice adding another layer of tension in my bones as I tried to inhale clean breaths.

The dress was tight-fitting, clung to the curves I'd spent the entire year hiding from everyone at school on the orders of Asher's mother. The fabric dipped dangerously low at the back, the front cut just enough to show cleavage I'd spent my entire teenage life hiding beneath oversized sweaters and uniforms.

I looked... visible.

And for some reason, that scared me more than the thought of being caught by Asher's father, or the unreal student body at Riverbroke High.

"Yes...I'm done." I whispered, more to myself, making do with the fact that I was no longer Nora Macie, but now Nora Feathers.

The second I stepped out, Asher didn't waste a second; he grabbed me by the arm and walked us over to the mansion glistening with party lights and booming with the sound of loud music.

"Remember, when we walk in there, the whole school will know I am no longer with Lydia, and now with the mysterious new girl at school. You must keep your head high, walk straight, and accept the jealousy, or the hatred, or the acceptance from different crowds in there."

I gave him a nod in response, but he wasn't satisfied. "Words, bunny." He held my chin up so we maintained eye contact.

"Yes, I understand." His eyes darkened instantly, reminding me of the way he looked that night, six months ago, as he rammed his....no.....focus, Nora.

I shook my head; the feel of the cool air against my skin caused goosebumps, but I wasn't going to let it stop me.

"I'm ready, Asher." He smirked and led me through the doors, simultaneously killing off Macie and bringing in Feathers.

"Relax," he said softly, eyes flicking over me with slow, deliberate appreciation as we approached the doors. "You look exactly how you're supposed to."

Like prey.....

I swallowed, bracing myself for their cat-like eyes. "People are going to stare."

"That's the point, bunny." He stared at me for a second, making me gulp at the intensity of his gaze.

"Don't," I whispered. "Please don't do that thing where you pretend this is normal."

His jaw tightened just a fraction. "This is normal tonight. Smile, take my hand, and let the world choke on it."

I hesitated for half a second too long, so Asher stepped closer, lowering his voice so only I could hear; the guards at the door already regarded us with curious stares. They knew who Asher was....but they had no idea about me. "James Porter is already inside."

My breath caught in my throat immediately, and before I knew it, I slid my hand into his.

That did it... the moment our skin touched, I felt a spark.

"Good evening, Master Collins." The guards bowed their heads, and just before we entered, Asher regarded them with a stern expression. "This is Nora Feathers; she is my girlfriend. I expect you to treat her with the respect you'd treat me with."

"But sir....what about Lydia?"

"We broke up, end of story. Tell no one at home about this." He commanded, walking us ahead before they could process his instructions.

The second we stepped into the rave, heads turned, as everyone's eyes turned to us instantly. I was no longer in my blonde hair, but Asher had made me put on a blonde wig, contacts that turned my blue eyes black, and gave me a whole new look.

I could practically hear their thoughts, because they didn't bother hiding them.

Asher Collins. With her?

My heart slammed against my ribs as we descended the long flight of steps. The music throbbed louder, and the flashing red and violet lights almost blurred my vision, as bodies moved in synchronized chaos and rhythm, hips thrusting against groins as everyone danced the night away as if no one watched. Yet, Asher didn't slow; he didn't hesitate or even pause for a moment. He was used to this life; this buzz....it was his kingdom for fucks sake.

He walked straight through the crowd like a king returning to his throne, dragging me into the center of it all, not bothering to spare anyone a glance as he led me to the center, where everyone had formed a circle already.

"Holy shit..."

"Is that...who the hell is that?"

"No fucking way....Asher Collins with a new girl....this is crazy!"

"Ouuu, Lydia's gonna be pissed. Someone tell her now!"

I couldn't fucking breathe.

His hand slid from mine to my lower back in a soft, yet firm, claiming way, his fingers drumming softly on the spot where my back met my ass. Every step pulled me deeper into the spotlight I'd spent my entire life avoiding, as the throng of sharks circled me, waiting for blood.

"Keep your chin up," he murmured. "You're doing perfectly."

Perfectly exposed, if that's what he means.

We stopped near the bar, and that's when I saw her.

Lydia.

Our eyes met once, and for some reason, I was drawn to look away; to break eye contact with the school's queen whose single word could turn me into a social pariah. I flinched before I could stop myself, and Asher noticed, because he whispered, his palm flat on my lower back now;

"Don't look away," he said quietly. "Let her see." And even though I wanted the very opposite, I obeyed his instruction and kept eye contact with the queen of Riverbroke High.

Her gaze dragged over me slowly in a cruel and assessing way before flicking to Asher. He smirked at her.

And then, because he was a monster, he pulled me closer, until my front pressed against his, a groan spilling from his lips as his arm wrapped around my waist, tugging me flush against him. My breath hitched as his lips dipped close to my ear.

"Time for the performance."

Before I could ask what he meant, he turned, lifted my chin with two fingers, and before I could fucking utter a word, he crashed his lips to mine in a crazy, intense kiss. It wasn't a gentle one. Hell, it wasn't fucking rushed either. He took his time because he wanted everyone to see it, and for some reason, he wanted Lydia to see it most especially. I couldn't hear anything except the buzz in my ears as I kissed him back. Or, I tried to. Because he was too intense for me to catch up.

The crowd erupted around us.

Their gasps, cheers, and shouts filled the room as the music died down, and I heard my name, or speculations of what my name was, on strangers' lips. My knees went weak as Asher kissed me like he wanted to erase the space between us, his hand firm on my waist, as his thumb brushed the bundle of nerves on my wrist.

I couldn't help but moan at the intensity of it all, my legs turning too weak to keep me up, but he held onto me so I wouldn't crumble.

When he pulled away, his forehead rested briefly against mine as we heaved heavy breaths, our eyes locked in on each other.

"There," he breathed as if he'd run a marathon. "Now everyone knows."

I was shaking, yet I turned....and that's when I saw him.

James Porter stood near the edge of the crowd, frozen mid-step, with eyes that locked in on us.

On me.....But his expression wasn't disgusted....It was stunned.

My chest tightened painfully at the sight, hope blooming in my heart at the thought of this actually working. Asher followed my gaze and flashed me his signature vicious smirk, as he whispered;

'Hook. Line. Fucking Sinker, bunny......let the games begin."

NORA'S POINT OF VIEW.

If the kiss was meant to brand me with Asher's essence, it worked. Because by the time we pulled apart, the entire student body had its eyes entirely on us....or rather, on me. I was no longer Nora Macie, daughter of the housekeeper in the home of a wealthy family; I was now one of them......a fraud nonetheless. I gulped as I tried to avoid their stares. Asher didn't make it easier. He held onto me as if he wanted them to see even more that I was his.

I could still feel him, and the force of his kiss... my first kiss. When we'd had sex six months ago, he made sure not to kiss me, but now....he's taken that from me.

My lips tingled, swollen and buzzing like they'd been struck by lightning, and my heart refused to slow down with its frantic beats. I was painfully aware of how tightly his arm remained locked around my waist, how his thumb drew slow, possessive circles into my bare skin as if he owned the right to touch me.

This wasn't part of the plan.

At least... not the way it felt.

"You did great," Asher murmured, leaning close enough that only I could hear him over the pounding bass as the DJ played away from his booth. People still hadn't stopped staring, gawking at us as if we were stars from some famous soap opera... at this point, we probably are. His lips brushed the shell of my ear in that same deliberately intimate way he did six months ago. My skin tingled from his touch. "See? Still breathing... so be a good girl for me, and relax."

"I hate you," I whispered back, my voice shaking despite my effort to steady it, a fake smile on my lips mirroring his.

He laughed softly in a dangerous way, almost as if he enjoyed every second I squirmed under his touch, and their staring. "No, bunny. You don't."

Before I could argue, someone collided with us, jolting me forward. Asher tightened his grip instantly, shielding me with his body, his expression snapping from lazy confidence to lethal warning in half a second. "Watch where you're going," he snapped at the guy, his tone sharp, making the poor boy mutter a shaky apology and disappear into the crowd.

That was when I realized it.

People weren't just staring anymore.

They were fully watching with their phones out. I noticed Serena, the queen of the school's gossip blog, typing away at her phone while her minions filmed Asher, and I... fuck, I'm about to be on the blog again. The last time I was there, it was because they were laughing at my, or rather, Nora Macie's shoes. I'd spent a butt load of my savings on mom's hearing aid, so I couldn't afford to get shoes. I'd decided to use my old shoes, only to see pictures of them blasted across the school's gossip column less than five minutes after I got off the school bus. The phrase, not so Cinderella, accompanied the image, and from then on, I was called that, no matter how hard I tried to hide from everyone, and I hated it.

This time around, I wonder what she's going to say about Nora Feathers.

Girls whispered while they focused on each other as if i wouldnt hear them gathering in their cliques to gossip while the guys openly gawked, their eyes sliding over me like I was something new, something shiny....I was no longer the unfuckable Cinderella shoes girl. It was almost funny what Asher managed to do in less than ten minutes with one kiss. I was now something worth wanting.

"Look at her shoes..."

"I heard her dad owns half of Sydney..."

"What about Lydia? Is she just going to let this happen?" Someone whispered from the far right corner of me.

"I just searched her. I've never seen her at school at all. Is she a new student?"

"I smell drama. We both know Asher belongs to Lydia, and she doesn't share....ever.....not even this new girl named Nora Feathers is going to change that. We just have to watch as Lydia obliterates her in front of all of us." They snickered, and for a moment, it got to me as my straight posture cracked, but before I could fall even lower, Asher grabbed me even tighter, but not to hurt, just to keep a firm hold as he pulled me to stand straighter.

"Stop trembling," Asher snapped, his hand rubbing slowly on my exposed lower back due to the backless dress he'd forced me into. His palm was heavy, hot, and sent a jolt of electricity straight to my gut that I hated myself for feeling. "You're the daughter of a wealthy merchant from Australia. You've attended private galas since you were in diapers, dealt with even meaner people than these from your very elite former school overseas. Wealth is something you have lived with all your life, so stop acting as if this fazes you. You're rich enough to feed a third-world country ten times. Act like it."

"I've attended galas as a waitress, Asher, under my mother's arm because I had to help her serve tables, and the so-called wealthy people you say I am a part of. I cannot act like who I'm not....especially when I have never lived the life you have forced me to lie into," I hissed, trying to shove his hand away. He didn't budge. His fingers dug deeper into my skin, a silent reminder of who was in charge. "The second I open my mouth, they'll know I'm a fraud."

NORA'S POINT OF VIEW

"Then don't talk. Let me do the talking. You just look pretty and look at me like you want to devour me." He commanded, a smug smile on his face. Everyone still stared at us, not sensing the tension as we maintained the same dreamy smiles to keep face. "Head up, bunny," Asher murmured, his voice dropping into that low, silky tone that made me drop my panties for him once before. "The lions are hungry." I gulped.

I'd wanted attention from James... but now, I have that of the whole school; I hadn't known it would feel like being hunted.

Before I could utter a word, I heard the voice of the one person I hadn't wanted to speak with. She clapped slowly, her minions of five girls who looked almost exactly like her gathering around with sharp eyes glaring at me while the guys made taunting noises.

"Well....if it isn't Asher Collins," Lydia said, her voice buttery as she walked over to the center where Asher and I stood. "So this is her," Lydia said calmly. "The mystery girl you left me for." They broke up?....when....I thought Asher said she knows about the fake dating plan...when the hell did they break up? I pinched his arm slightly at the news, only for the idiot to pull me much closer to him as if he didn't have a damn explanation to give me later.

Asher's arm stayed firm around me. "Lydia. Didn't think you were coming." He flashed her a smug smile, but she didn't appear amused. She glared at him with a different kind of look I'd never seen from her. Her voice was loud enough for everyone to hear, and the DJ no longer played the music, so she might as well have had a speaker to her mouth from the way her voice echoed off the walls.

"I wasn't," she replied sweetly. "But then I heard you'd replaced me in record time." And all of a sudden, her gaze snapped back to mine, and with a hateful expression as if she'd wished the floors would swallow me up, she hissed out a question, flashing me a condescending glare as if I were beneath her feet. "What's your name?"

I swallowed, trying to keep the tremble and fear out of my voice. "Nora." She didn't say anything, so there was a long pause, yet just when I thought she wouldn't say anything else, she added.

"Nora, what?" There was a sick, joyful glint in her eyes as she smirked at me, almost as if she knew something I didn't.

Every instinct screamed at me to freeze. To fold. To disappear. To run far away from the crazy rich kids of Washington, D.C.

Asher answered for me before I could utter a word. "Feathers."

Lydia raised a perfectly shaped brow on her very smooth, shiny skin. "Feathers," she repeated. "Funny. My family deals with PR, and we're acquainted with every wealthy family in Washington, but for some reason, I've never heard of your family."

"They travel," Asher said smoothly, answering for me again, and I didn't know whether to feel grateful or angry. "A lot." With that answer, she studied him for a long second, then smiled even wider. "Of course they do."

Her attention returned to me, sharp as a blade. "You're very brave, you know, for wearing red while having a body like that." The jab came just as I expected....this was why I didn't like vein visible. The rich kids of Riverbrooke High were spoiled, and they never failed to place someone beneath them.

"I..."

"She's with me," Asher interrupted me, his tone dropping as though it was a warning. "That's all that matters, Lydia, so watch your tone."

The air between them crackled to the point where everyone could feel the tension in the air pressing down on us. Lydia laughed lightly, and it made all of them breathe easier....except me....she unsettled me still. "Relax. I'm not upset, Asher....it was just an observation, darling."

I didn't believe her for a second.

"In fact," she continued, lifting her glass, "I think it's... refreshing. Seeing you try something new. We should toast to that." She downed the entire glass of champagne in one go, and with a harsh swallow, her eyes flicked to me again. "Enjoy the spotlight while it lasts, Nora Feathers...."

Then she turned and disappeared into the crowd leaving me shivering with an unsettling cold and nausea bubbling in my throat.

NORA'S POINT OF VIEW.

I thought the rave was the most chaotic thing I would ever experience...little did I know, the rich kids were built different. By the time Monday morning came, Riverbrooke High had already devoured me alive with everything they'd got.

Before I went to bed that Sunday night, I'd decided to check the school blog, curiosity gnawing at me over what I saw Serena tying away at. And just as I'd suspected, my name was everywhere across her blog, as was the video of Asher practically eating my lips at the party, while screens lit up with people filming all around us. Nora Feathers was trending on Serena's blog, plastered across with crazy headlines that brought about ridiculous polls, and insane comments from the student body. The one that caught my attention most was;

ASHER COLLINS DUMPS QUEEN BEE, LYDIA FOR NEW GIRL, NORA FEATHERS. A SUPPOSED BILLIONAIRE HEIRESS FROM AUSTRALIA, DAUGHTER OF WEALTHY MERCHANT FRANK FEATHERS......WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE GIRL WHO DETHRONED LYDIA? STAY TUNED...

I didn't dethrone anyone! I hissed internally, but there was no point. beside me, my mother slept soundly, her hands sore from having scrubbed the floors all day.

My eyes moved over to the polls below, my heart pounding both with excitement and fear as I read through the lines;

Real or fake?

Billionaire royalty or pauper? I'd certainly like to find out.

How long untill queen Bee, Lydia, destroys her....we all know who truly owns Asher in this school, and it's not the new girl.

A part of me wondered how the hell they even knew about me at the party, or on the blog, before we could have given them anything, so I pulled up Asher's contact. 'CRAZY ASSHOLE.' The name I'd given him the moment he acted like that night hadn't happened flashed across my screen, plaguing me with memories I'd rather keep buried.....memories I keep fighting to stay buried every day.

"How on earth did they know who I was, or all about Nora feathers... even Elmo couldn't have given them that information in the short time we had to work with." I never expected him to respond, thinking he'd be with his friends, or father, or whatever weird nocturnal activity Asher buries himself with. However, he surprised me because, almost as if he'd been stalking me, his reply was immediate as the text bubbled over the screen;

"Because I'm a ninja." Cue the eye roll, because I rolled my eyes so hard, I could see my damn brain....Asher was insufferable!

"Not funny, you shrimp-faced human." I texted back.

"Oh, please, you love my very handsome face." I could taste the damn cockiness from each letter in the stupid text.

'Just answer the damn question."

"I had a tech guy publish an article about you five minutes before we entered the rave, so voila, ninja man strikes!" Could he be any cockier?

"Isn't that a crime?" I asked, apprehensive at the thought of getting sent to jail because I know his father would rather dye his hair pink than let his son and sole heir go to jail. Me on the other hand, had no father who would care about me enough to fight back, or be rich enough to make a difference.

"Who's stupid enough to arrest a Collin?" Of course, as I said.....his father would rather dye his hair pink; not that he would have to. The man was powerful enough to make night turn to day if he wanted.

"Goodnight, shrimp face."

"dream of me, bunny."

"Sure, I'll make sure to keep it real juicy... your beat up body would be perfect. So of course, I'll dream of you, darling, sure."

"At least you'd be dreaming about me, baby." I groaned into my pillow, frustrated....I could never win with the idiot!