Outsmarting the Rich Boys

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Caspian Shen dropped the video into the group chat. Me, wrapped in a towel, walking out of the shower.

Every rich boy who'd ever chased me was in that chat. Caspian was the best-looking of them all.

Him: [Gotta hand it to Shen. Seduced the school's untouchable ice queen just to get revenge for his childhood sweetheart.]

Him: [Cold-blooded. Told her he had cancer right before the SATs. I heard her eyes have been red for days.]

Him: [Dumps her the second the tests are over.]

Then Caspian's voice slid into the chat, lazy, drawling. Nothing like the soft, wounded boy he played in front of me.

He knew I was flat broke. I'd spent every cent trying to save his life.

He was waiting for me to give up on him. To cave.

What he didn't know was that I'd already sold my mother's apartment. The only thing she ever left me. And handed over three hundred grand on top of it.

The screen detonated.

Someone: [You piece of trash. Vivi sold her home for you. Did you EVER tell her the truth??]

Someone: [OH GOD wrong chat. SHEN IS IN THIS ONE. DELETE IT DELETE IT]

The messages started vanishing, one by one.

In his hospital bed, Caspian went white.

They sent in their best-looking boy. Poured everything they had into it. And they were so sure they'd finally cracked the untouchable girl none of them could reach.

None of them knew.

From the very first time he faked getting bullied, from the moment he pressed that soaked white shirt against my line of sight on purposethe one being played was never me.

The real hunter in this con was always me.

Chapter 1

In middle school, my mother married a wealthy businessman and left me a bank card.

"Don't contact me after this. I'll wire you money every year."

School came easy to metop rank in my year whenever I wanted it. I got her face, too. Bad family money aside, I had almost no flaws.

She told the world she was single. My existence wasn't going to get in the way of her second marriage.

I didn't blink. I took the card. And I told everyone I was an orphan.

I was born cold. My mother never liked me.

She liked the kind of daughter who could call her "Mom" all sweet and soft. Even a stepdaughter would do.

A girl started showing up all over her Instagram. The daughter the businessman's first wife had left behind.

Her name was Vanessa Zhao. Striking, in a hard way.

My mother had an arm looped around her, fingers smoothing her hair, her smile warm and easy. Vanessa's mouth was pushed into a pout, a reluctant, put-on smile.

And that one text, the one meant only for me, still sat in my phone. Don't contact me.

It was the first time someone else's smile ever stung my eyes.

Life was flat. Dull.

My one amusement was hunting down the people who thought they could play meand watching them fall, one by one, into holes they'd dug themselves.

So I moved. Bought a cramped six-hundred-square-foot place in a good school district, and transferred into Vanessa Zhao's high school.

The second I laid eyes on Vanessa, I knew how it would go.

She hated me on sight. Two months of ither and her little posse, never letting up.

That day she planted herself in front of my desk, her clique fanned out behind her, looking down at me.

"Where'd this broke nobody come from? You really think you belong in the same class as us?"

A few of them snickered. Quiet. Just loud enough for me to catch.

I looked up at them once. Said nothing. Went back to my work.

They had no idea.

I was just waiting for something to use.

I didn't argue with her. I just didn't show up to school the week before the district-wide academic championship.

Crestview High had been crushed by Northgate for years. My rank sat locked at number one in the school. There was no way the administration would let me sit out that test.

Skipping was only step one.

I was going to make the girl who'd tormented me for two months stand up in front of the entire school and hand her own face over to be laughed at.

Chapter 2

When the homeroom teacher called, I made my voice small and brave.

"Ms. Chencould I transfer to another class?"

"Transfer?" She caught the wrong note in my voice fast.

Her tone softened. "Is someone in class bothering you? Don't be scared. I'll handle it for you."

I stammered. "Nono. It's just. I don't really fit in with the class."

The call ended. I folded the nerves and the timidity back up and put them away.

I've never been a good person. I know that.

You come for me, I come back for you.

Two days later, one call from the homeroom teacher pulled me into school.

The whole building was wired with cameras. She spent an entire day pulling footage.

Once she saw that Vanessa had been going after me, openly and behind my back, for two straight monthsshe took it straight to the administration.

The school took it very seriously.

Vanessa stood up at the school-wide assembly. The whole student body watching. Eyes red, voice cracking, she read out her apology to the end.

She lost every scrap of face in front of everyone. And from that day, she hated me down to the bone.

"It's all her fault! If she weren't such a brain, the teachers wouldn't guard her like this!"

"Fake. Total two-faced fake."

"Milo! Say something! Are you going to help me or not?"

Outside a coffee shop on the corner, Vanessa clung to a boy, sobbing.

He murmured to her, low. "Don't cry. Shen and I will help you. I swear."

"Really?" She looked up, nose red from crying.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Get someone to take her. Then post the photos in the group. Let's see this bitch act untouchable after that."

Her voice went venomous.

The boy was tall, broad. He pulled her into his chest and laughed, careless, ugly.

"Some clueless broke nobody, and she's got the princess crying like this? Give me time. I'll break her in. Have her on the floor, licking your feet."

My dull little life suddenly filled up with interesting things.

Like the crowd of people who suddenly wanted to be my friend. Every one of them rich, or connected.

"Vivi, that Michelin place is incredible. Let me take you."

Milo Li was in Class 11. Six-foot-one. He'd flirted enough to be good at it.

He was one of the people Vanessa had gone to for helpher cousingood-looking, decent family, the type who put his hands on anything that moved.

He made chasing me a public thing.

He was the only guy I'd ever bother answering, so the class started saying we were together.

The homeroom teacher called us both into the office. The Class 11 teacher sat there too.

Milo's homeroom teacher was a stern man. He stared Milo down, cold.

"Keep your head in your books. Bad gradesdon't go dragging other people down. Thousand-word apology on my desk tomorrow. And art's no shortcut. Your teacher told me himselfyou're not fit for it."

Milo's fist clenched white.

The man went on, loud and grating, and just as he opened his mouth to say one more time that Milo shouldn't be a distraction from my studies

I cut in. Nothing in my eyes at all.

"He won't affect me one way or the other, sir. I'll take first place."

Milo's teacher choked on his next words, ready to blowand my homeroom teacher stepped in front of him like a hen over a chick.

"All right, all right. Everyone out."

Chapter 3

After that, Milo came harder. Always a bag, always cash, always some dull thread of conversation.

If he'd been chasing my mother, it might've worked.

Pity. My mother had run through a long line of men, and every one of these moves, I'd seen worn out years ago.

I looked at him, tired of it, and turned him down. "Your grades are terrible."

Milo pulled a wounded face. "Vivi. Not everyone gets to breeze through school like you."

"You've got a real gift for painting, though."

His face changed. The lazy slouch dropped off him. He sat up straight.

"You actually think I'm good? Teachers all say I scribble. That it doesn't follow the rules."

"Mm."

I gave him that.

"You don't think it's a waste of time?"

He asked it again.

Then he started in on ithow his family wouldn't let him touch a brush, how they wanted to ship him overseas.

I cut him off. "Okay. I'm going home."

If he'd been a real seasoned player, he'd have known better than to show a weakness in front of a woman who didn't love him yet.

It's how you get handled.

"Vivi. Want me to teach you to paint?"

His eyes were the best thing on his face. A soft, flirt's slant to them.

I like beautiful things. I looked at him, smiling. "Your eyes are pretty. Teach me to paint your eyes."

His ears went red. The hand holding the brush trembled, just once.

However much of a player, he was still eighteen. The pure moments slipped out sometimes.

I looked at his ears and let out a soft laugh.

This was the boy who'd said he'd have me on the floor licking feet?

Nothing to him, really.

I set my sketch next to his, held up the wreck I'd just made, and sighed. "Guess I've got no talent for it."

Milo laughed. "Vivi, you're really cute."

I put the brush down. Looked at him. Said it slow.

"Got the brush dirty. I don't like dirty things. Men included."

His face shifted. He looked into my eyes.

I looked at what his hand had just drawn.

The eyes in the sketch were mine.

Flat. Still. No love in them. No ripple at all.

He forced a smile and left in a hurry.

I felt it then. A stare full of malice.

Vanessa, glaring at the brush on the floor.

Milo treated that brush like treasure. And today, somehow, he'd dropped it.

I picked it up and dropped it in the trash.

Maybe there'd be a new one soon.

I hoped it'd be more interesting.

The district championship results came out.

First in the school.

First across all eight schools, by a mile.

Almost forty points clear of second place.

When my photo and score sheet leaked, Crestview's name buried every school under it.

The class got commended. Named in front of everyone.

For Vanessa, the girl who'd tormented me, I kept a soft, forgiving smile. "It's all in the past. She knows she was wrong. That's enough."

The more forgiving I was, the worse people talked about her.

Vanessa watched me every day now, venom in her eyes, the hate in them plain as day.

All around me, nothing but praise.

"Bow to the genius, oh great one. We're not worthy."

And I thought this game had stopped being able to hold my interest.

Until the transfer student walked in, with a face made to lead people astray.

Chapter 4

"Let me bow to your photo. Think it'll get my chemistry up ten points? Just to eighty-five, please, I'm begging. How did she pull off a perfect score?"

"Perfect in math too. I give up."

"Essay score's not low either. She's a hexagonmaxed out on every axis."

"She's a straight-up genius. I sit next to herwatched her the whole day yesterday. No makeup. No under-eye circles!!! Vanessa's just jealous and spreading lies that Vivi puts on an act. Unreal."

I got back to my seat. My seatmate leaned over, curious.

"With all these people chasing you, Vivithere's really no one you like?"

I shook my head again.

The people Vanessa sent were dull. So was everyone else who came near. Their acting was just too cheap.

My seatmate whispered, "Figures. Untouchable ice queen. Out of everybody's league."

Milo aside, the boys chasing me ran to five, sixmore than one hand could count.

I liked something new. Best if it could pull real curiosity out of me. They all fell a little short.

Until the transfer student showed up, with a face made to lead people astray.

He was beautiful.

The abs were well kept, too.

His voice went sweet when he wanted something.

And most of all, he was interesting. Everyone else chased. He used his looks and seduced, right out in the open.

Someone had thrown water on him, and the white shirt clung to his waist as he stepped, on purpose, right into my path. Caspian Shen. Looking up at me, all wounded eyes.

I looked at him. And I smiled.

This acting was more committed than the last few.

"Getting bullied again?"

I looked at him, tender.

He nodded. Black hair falling soft over his forehead.

I set a fingertip an inch below his throat. "Button's broken."

Poor little creatures are always easy to love. He caught my hand, stammering, luring me in.

"Am I really that hard to like? They say I look like a girl. They all pick on me."

I looked at his clean, careful outfit. Then at the video an anonymous account had just sent to my phone. My smile deepened.

Loud private room. Caspian tipping red wine down the chest of a woman leaning too close, mouth curled in a sneer. "Nice and big. Make a decent vase."

Then he picked up a thorned rose and, while she stared in horror, pressed it in. No mercy at all.

"Get out."

He said it, bored.

His acting was good. Right on cue, a cherry blossom petal drifted down onto his hair. Sweet. Innocent.

But the boy in front of me didn't knowa man's jealousy is a terrible thing.

The same day I called him beautiful out loud, someone hadn't hesitated to strip him bare in that chat.

I pulled out a tissue and wiped his hair. "Want to be my seatmate?"

The two buildings beside the school were funded by the Shens. On campus, nobody dared touch him.

When they heard I wanted to switch seats, the homeroom teacher agreed fast. The school even wired me some financial aid.

After class, I was packing my books when a wet kiss landed on my neck.

"The brain doesn't need to study to ace it, right? Spend more time with me tonight. Please?"

Under the sweet whine sat a faint thread of mockery.

He bit down, mean, on the finger blocking his next move. His lips were full, round, his eyes locked on my mouth.

"We're in a classroom. There are cameras."

I looked at himeverything about him built to lure a person into sinand held him off.

"Home works, then?" He leaned in close.

My eyes curved. "Depends how hard you try."

We'd been dating in secret a month.

One more month, and it was the SATs.

He'd folded chasing me into that same last month's countdown. Tick. Tick.

Chapter 5

Love and grades, I kept both. Caspian lifted my homework and my books on one excuse after another, and I still sat locked at number one.

He wouldn't rest until he'd dragged my grades down. And when he found out no one was home at my place, he walked right in after me like he owned it.

He hated studying. I hauled him through practice sets the second we got in the door.

He looked at the formulas, everything in him refusing. "If I learn it, do I get a reward?"

I nodded.

He tore through the problems like he was venting, and when he finally got one right, he hooked an arm around my shoulder. "Done. Tonight's reward."

Teenage boys run on endless fuel.

I let myself enjoy it a while.

Then Caspian saw how clear my eyes were, and the anger came up. "Song Mian."

"You got one wrong."

I circled the last mistake on the page.

Can't be bothered to thinkit was written all over his face. He figured his family would catch him no matter what, so why bother trying.

He started to sulk, grabbed my hand rough. "Study, study! Song Mian, all you see is schoolwork. You don't like me at all!"

I didn't waste a look on him.

A man throws a tantrum and I'm supposed to coax him?

He'd come to seduce me for Vanessa. Naturally, providing the feelings was his job.

Say what you want about himthe face really was good.

I felt no pull toward a cold war. I let him skip breakfast, let him use his own body as a chip, trying to force me to care.

I touched his arm. His pretty eyes filled with the fury of a boy who hadn't been fussed over. He clutched his stomach and turned his back to me.

But he didn't know. Only the one who falls first gets angry at not being cared for.

Start to finish, I was the calm bystander, watching him rage.

The anonymous account sent me another video.

Familiar faces, all of them. The little circle Vanessa had rounded up to drag me down.

"Gotta hand it to Shen. Shows up and has Vivi wrapped around his finger overnight."

"Shen, what did you even do? She told the teacher herself she wanted to switch seats for you."

Then Caspian's voice came through the screen, clear, a quiet, smug pride under it. "And here I thought she'd be hard. Crooked one finger and she came."

"Caspian, my cousin's liked you for years. Don't do Vanessa dirty. When are you dropping her?"

He raised a brow. "After I've had her. She's a lot prettier than those cheap things out there."

A wine glass shattered in the video.

Milo, knocking over his drink.

Vanessa's spoiled little voice came through. "You didn't fall for her, did you? It's been this long and her grades still haven't dropped. Doesn't look like she cares much about you either!"

The bar music was too loud. All that came through was one careless line from Caspian.

"How could I ever fall for some parentless broke nobody. Like she's worth it."

He paused. You could hear the smile in it.

"The cancer report? Already had it made. One month before the SATswatch me go to work."

The anonymous account asked me: [After all that, you still like Caspian?]

I stared at that line. Already had it made. Tapped a fingertip against the screen.

Interesting.

I didn't answer. Same as always.

Such a fun little gamerich boy after rich boy lining up to play the man who wins me over, working so hard to please me. Why break it