Rise Like The Sun

CHAPTER ELEVEN

MADISON

"What's the French Revolution?" Lula is asking, as they go into their next class.

Audrey and Elliot are helping Maria staunch the swift flow of blood from her knuckles, padding at the hard-boned flesh with Madison's best silk handkerchief. The fight had been brief but enough to make a good point. Maria had thrown Diana to the ground easily, amidst the cheering crowd, and though Diana had put up a good fight, her strengths were clearly in favour of writing history essays and being the apple of the history teacher's eye.

It had been over in the blink of an eye and Diana had understood that to challenge Madison again would be akin to risking her own head for the guillotine.

"Lula, you made us watch Marie Antoinette last year," Audrey is saying. "You wanted to know everything about the French Revolution, to impress some guy."

Lula blinks, oblivious. "Huh?"

Maria is hissing in pain, but she lifts her head. "You slept with the history teacher."

"Oh, now I remember!" Lula crows happily. "He had a huge –,"

"Nobody wants to know!" Audrey says quickly.

Lula laughs. "I was going to say, a huge obsession with Marie Antoinette. I knew I had to get out of there, when he started trying to make me dress up as her."

Unfortunately, their maths teacher, Mr Flannery, has heard their chatter. "I didn't know you held such an interest in the French Revolution, Miss Worthington. The history is such a fascinating pursuit, isn't it? What moments best hold your interest?"

Madison watches with amusement, as a distraught, panicked-looking Lula is stuck with Mr Flannery, who is waxing, long and poetic, about the rise and fall of Louis XVI. Classmates filter in as Madison takes her seat and the teacher's voice, loud and booming, drifts.

"... So, Miss Worthington, what do you think the rebels might have told Louis, once they'd found him?"

"Vive la révolution, bitch."

Madison is so surprised that she inadvertently lets out a soft, amused chuckle, in spite of herself. She finds herself lifting her head and when she sees Nick, she stills and the smile drops. There's no denying that the comment was funny but she won't let the Hawthorne boy have the pleasure of seeing her amused.

Mr Flannery finally lets Lula go, after seeing that there's no use in trying to engage in conversation with a girl who thinks Louis Vuitton and Louis XVI are the same person. Lula skips to them happily, her wide smile blooming across her face, and her gaze follows Audrey's gaze, where the girl is staring absently outside of the window.

"You ever think about jumping?" Lula teases jokingly.

All the time.

The thought comes to Madison, unbidden, and she inhales sharply, straightening her back quickly. Her heart hammers away within her chest but nobody has noticed her, for Audrey is spluttering, her cheeks flushed a bright red.

"No!" she says, looking horrified. "Lula, that's a terrible thing to joke about."

Lula looks properly admonished. Maria is continuing to speak. "And so I told Yvonne my rule. If he puts his hands on you and you don't like it, break them."

Madison's lips quirk. "Did she?"

Maria smirks. "You know it, bitch."

"Did you see what that bitch, Jane Andrews, was wearing, today?" Audrey interrupts them quickly, looking slightly uncomfortable, as she eyes her phone. "A beanie. An actual, honest-to-God beanie. What kind of hippy Hell did they kick her out of?"