Heartstrings on Fire

Chapter 13
Agnes never fancied high–collar shirts, and Beatrice knew this well. Today she felt weird somehow, and it turned out to be a
bombshell discovery.
Beatrice stepped up and yanked down Agnes‘ collar, “Agnes, I’m gonna tell Dad about you messing around with some dude!
You’ve got a hickey, but you broke up with Elton, so it must have been the guy who dropped you off today!”
Beatrice looked at her with scorn, “Agnes, I never thought you’d be such a floozy. Bet you stabbed Elton in the back, and that’s
why he dumped you, right?”
“Beatrice, zip it.”
“I hit the nail on the head, didn’t I? If you want me to keep mum, hand me the invite and tell Dad yourself that you don’t wanna
go. Or else, Dad will hear it from me, as well as Elton and his folks.”
Agnes handed over the invite, not because she was scared of Beatrice’s threat, but because she was fed up with hearing Elton’s
name.
After Beatrice took the invite and left with a smug grin, Agnes felt like the world was finally quiet.
The next day, Agnes got up early skipped breakfast, and headed back to school with her luggage.
Agnes was a junior journalism major at Lakeside College.
Just as she entered the school gate, she received a distress message from her roommate, Kerri. The 5 Bitches had trapped her
in the medical lab.
Upon seeing the message, Agnes immediately tossed her suitcase and bolted towards the lab building.
Agnes was in a hurry because she knew this was serious. She had done research on bullying at school, and these five mean
girls were the main perps. They had formed a group called the Ice Cream Club and 90% of the bullying incidents at Lakeside
College were related to this group.
All the violence was caused by a guy, Ryder Whitfield, a hotshot and a medical student at Lakeside College. Some said a pretty
woman was a ticking time bomb, but a good–looking guy could stir up just as much trouble.

Ryder was a case in point. He was a straight–A student, attractive, and had a lot of female admirers at school. Because he was
icy and aloof, his fans nicknamed him Prince Frost and formed a group called the Ice Cream Club. The five ringleaders called
themselves Ice Cream Princesses, but everyone else knew them as the 5 Bitches.
They ruled the school with an iron fist, picking on any girl who had contact with Ryder. Any girl who had written him a love letter,
given him a gift, or even talked to him a few times would be targeted.
Agnes remembered when she was working on a news project, a girl had her hair chopped off by the 5 Bitches for giving Ryder a
love letter. They forced her to strip and posted the photos on the school forum. The girl couldn’t take the humiliation and almost
committed suicide.
Although this caused a huge stir, the school only issued severe warnings to the girls involved.
This was mainly because the ringleader, Cecile Higgins, was the mayor’s daughter, and the other girls also came from wealthy
families.
Faced with money and power, the principal chose to turn a blind eye.