THE PERFECT LIARS

The first thing I saw when the car turned through the tall black gates was the enormous stone building that housed the school.

It looked more like an old university than a place where seventeen-year-olds were supposed to spend their days. Pale stone walls, towering windows, perfectly trimmed trees, and a long driveway where one expensive car after another pulled toward the entrance.

Several students stood outside the main doors in immaculate uniforms. Some were laughing. Others were talking on their phones, while a few simply leaned against their cars as if they had been waiting for someone to notice them.

I straightened in the back seat without even realizing it.

“We’re here,” the driver said.

I looked at myself in the mirror.

My blonde hair fell over my shoulders in perfectly straight strands. I smoothed it down with one hand, ran my finger lightly along the edge of my lips, and looked at my reflection one more time.

Calm down.

It’s just a school.

A very expensive school.

I grabbed my bag and stepped out of the car.

Almost immediately, I felt the eyes on me.

One.

Then another.

Then a third.

I tried not to pay attention, but I knew exactly why they were looking.

The new girl.

In a place like this, the new girl was impossible to miss.

I slowly made my way up the steps, tightening my grip on my bag.

“Scarlett?”

I turned around.

A girl in a school uniform was hurrying toward me across the courtyard. Long chestnut-brown hair, brown eyes, and a wide smile that made her impossible not to recognize.

Brooke Harrison.

We had met a few weeks earlier, after I found out I had received the scholarship. Until today, though, I had only seen her in pictures and over video calls.

“Finally!” Brooke wrapped her arms around me like we hadn’t seen each other in months. “I was starting to think you got lost.”

I laughed.

“I’ve been here for thirty seconds.”

“At this school, thirty seconds is enough to get lost.”

She slipped her arm through mine and pulled me toward the entrance.

“Okay. I’m giving you the full tour. I’ll tell you who to avoid, who not to trust, and who you absolutely cannot flirt with.”

“With who?”

Brooke stopped and looked at me.

“You’re not ready.”

“Now I’m curious.”

“Trust me. You don’t want to be.”

I smiled.

“You’re only saying that because you want me to be more curious.”

“Maybe.”

We stepped inside.

And somehow, the first impression only got stronger.

Marble floors.

A massive staircase.

A crystal chandelier hanging above the entrance.

The walls were lined with portraits of former students. Some of the photographs even featured entire families.

There were names I recognized from the news.

Businessmen. Politicians. Actors.

People whose names appeared on the covers of magazines I had never imagined I would have any connection to.

“Welcome to Westbridge Academy,” Brooke said quietly.

I looked at her.

“That sounded threatening.”

“Because it is.”

We kept walking.

Several girls standing near the lockers looked at me at the same time. One whispered something to another. The second girl glanced in my direction before they both started laughing.

An uncomfortable tension settled in my chest.

“Don’t pay attention to them,” Brooke said.

“Do they already know something about me?”

“At this school, people find out everything before you even get the chance to do anything.”

“Perfect.”

“Relax. I’m here.”

I looked at her and smiled.

And that was when I heard the noise.

Loud laughter.

Several voices mixed together.

I turned around.

A group of guys in athletic uniforms was walking down the hallway. In the middle of them was a tall guy with dark hair, casually carrying a duffel bag over one shoulder as he talked to his friends.

I didn’t understand why at first, but the entire hallway seemed to shift around him.

Girls started turning their heads.

Someone smiled at him.

Another girl quickly fixed her hair.

He didn’t seem to notice any of it.

Or maybe he simply pretended not to.

“Don’t look,” Brooke said quietly.

I turned toward her.

“Why?”

She looked in the same direction.

“Because that’s him.”

I glanced back at the guy.

At that exact moment, he lifted his head.

Our eyes met.

For a few seconds, neither of us looked away.

Blue eyes.

Too calm.

Too confident.

He looked at me as if he were trying to figure out who I was.

Then the corner of his mouth lifted into the faintest smirk.

I was the first one to look away.

“Who is he?” I asked.

Brooke sighed.

“Jackson Carter.”

She paused for a moment.

“Football captain. School favorite. Rich. Gorgeous. Completely full of himself.”

“You forgot unbearable.”

Brooke laughed.

“I figured you’d figure that one out on your own.”

I looked back toward him.

Jackson was already talking to his friends as if I had never existed.

“And what’s so special about him?”

Brooke gave me a look that made one thing very clear.

I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into.

“Scarlett, there’s one rule you need to know at this school.”

“What rule?”

She leaned closer and lowered her voice.

“Never assume you know someone just because you’ve seen them smile.”

I wanted to ask what that was supposed to mean.

But I never got the chance.

The first bell rang, and the entire school suddenly came alive.

I adjusted the strap of my bag and followed Brooke down the hallway.

I had no idea that, a few weeks from then, I would wish I had never walked through those doors.

I didn’t know that the people smiling at me that morning would eventually lie to me.

I didn’t know that one of the most popular guys in school would become the person I both hated and found myself wanting to see every single day.

And I certainly didn’t know that my new school was hiding a secret that would eventually change all of our lives.

But back then, I was just the new girl.

And I thought the worst thing about Westbridge was the way everyone looked at me.