"Riiingggg."
The alarm Elizabeth had set the night before screamed from her nightstand.
She groaned, peeled off her silk eye mask, and rubbed at her face. Across the room, Amara was already dressed, standing in front of the mirror with a toothbrush in one hand and edge control in the other trying to lay her edges.
"Morning, Sleeping Beauty," Amara said, grinning through the mirror. "Still not used to the early lectures?"
Elizabeth flopped back onto her pillow dramatically. "I wasn't made for this kind of suffering."
"Well, welcome to Bridgerton Academy. We have P.E in the next 30 minutes. Mrs Damali takes the class and she's an absolute tyrant so you don't want to be late"
With that warning and a flick of her edges, Amara grabbed her bag and swept out the door, leaving Elizabeth alone with the quiet hum of early morning and her own thoughts.
She sighed, reached for her phone, and checked for notifications.
Still nothing from her father.
Typical.
He hadn't called since she landed. Not a single text to check in, not even a half-hearted hope you're settling in. Not that she was surprised. It was natural for him not to care.
She scrolled past the empty messages to Brittany's name. A handful of texts from her best friend waited, memes, drama updates, and:
Brittany
U alive? What's this mysterious ethics god like? Need tea. Full report.
Elizabeth cracked a small smile and typed back a quick reply before slipping the phone onto her nightstand. Then she dragged herself out of bed, muttering under her breath.
She started getting ready, tying her hair back and grabbing the stiff, regulation gym clothes from the closet, slipped on the stiff Bridgerton Academy gym uniform, and grabbed her water bottle. She gave herself one last look in the mirror and headed out.
Five minutes later, she was walking into the indoor athletic center, Students were already gathering, stretching half-heartedly as they waited for Mrs. Damali.
Elizabeth spotted Amara near the bleachers and jogged over, but before she could reach her, a familiar, nasal voice cut through the air.
"Well, well, if it isn't Her Royal Britness."
Elizabeth didn't even have to turn to know who it was.
Kacey Van Doren, the blonde from Ethics, stood with a few of her perfectly manicured minions. She was already smirking like she'd rehearsed this in the mirror.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "And how May I help you?."
Kacey scoffed "I did my research on your little uppity ass."
"I'm not sure how that's my business but while we're still at it, there's nothing little about my ass" Elizabeth replied looking uninterested
Kacey's minions giggled before quickly hiding behind coughs and throat clears when Kacey turned and glared them into silence.
"Listen, Whitmore," Kacey snapped, her voice low but laced with venom. "You might've been somebody where you're from, but here? You're just another spoiled daddy's girl"
She stepped in closer and brushed invisible lint from Elizabeth's blazer. "This school has a hierarchy. You're not at the top of it. Understand that, and we won't have a problem."
She smiled then, a wide, practiced, plastic smile that didn't reach her eyes.
"Okay?"
Elizabeth stared at her for a long beat, then slowly smiled back, just as fake. Just as sharp.
"Got it," she said sweetly. "You're insecure and need a power trip to feel better about yourself. Message received."
Kacey's eyes narrowed.
"And next time you try to touch me," Elizabeth added, stepping forward, voice lower now, "I'll break the fingers doing the touching. Cool?"
That smile dropped right off Kacey's face.
And just in time, because Mrs. Damali's voice cracked through the gym like thunder. "Both of you. Detention. After school."
Kacey groaned. Elizabeth didn't flinch.
Of course. Day two and she already had detention. She hated father even more.
That afternoon, Elizabeth dragged her feet down the empty hallway to the detention room. She pushed the door open, expecting some bored assistant or dusty old coach to be sitting at the desk.
Instead, her heart dropped into her stomach.
Professor Stone looked up from a stack of papers.
"Miss Whitmore."
She stood frozen in the doorway. "You've got to be kidding me."
He raised a brow. "I'm afraid not."
Kacey was already seated, filing her nails in the corner with all the charm of a pampered house cat.
Elizabeth walked in and dropped her bag onto the table.
Stone didn't look up right away, just scribbled something in red ink across a page.
"Phones off. Mouths closed. Two hours. Don't test me."
She pulled out a book and sat back with her arms folded. The room was thick with silence, but she could feel him there, every breath, every movement.
Her eyes flicked up once, and caught him watching her over the rim of his glasses.
Only for a second.
The first hour of detention crawled by like molasses. Kacey had spent most of it filing her nails, sighing loudly, and occasionally whispering dramatic nothings to herself that no one cared to hear. Elizabeth kept her eyes on her book, though she wasn't really reading. Not with him sitting just across the room.
Professor Stone didn't speak once.
Didn't look up.
Didn't flinch.
Kacey stood. Apparently her time was up
"Done serving my sentence," she declared, slinging her designer bag over one shoulder. "My father's already waiting in the parking lot. He said I don't need to stay a second longer."
Professor Stone didn't even look up. "Then I'll be sure to let your father know you left early."
Kacey's mouth opened, then closed. She huffed, shot Elizabeth a scathing look, and strutted out of the classroom banging the door behind her.
And just like that Elizabeth was alone with him.
The silence was immediate and dense.
She glanced up from her book. "I didn't think you were the detention-monitoring type."
Professor Stone didn't look at her. "I'm not."
"Lucky me, then."
Silence.
He wrote something on the paper in front of him but she could tell he wasn't focused.
She watched him.
The way his jaw clenched when he wrote. The way his sleeves were rolled up, exposing forearms that looked way too good for a man who lectured about ethics.
God, he was fine.
Too bad he was off-limits.