Amber Frost Read Online Free

forced out a smile.
    “Hi, Tanya,” I answered, sitting down beside her. Tanya was one of my new, popular friends. It was painfully obvious that she didn’t really like me but we still duly sat together and called one another ‘friend’. After all, we were both beautiful, rich and came from well-known families – our kind always stuck together and kept up appearances at all costs.
    All the members of our group came from high-society families. Our parents were all doctors, lawyers, politicians and CEO’s. We were all wealthy, well-dressed and attractive and we ruled the school. Clarke would probably be considered the leader of our group; he was the reason why I’d been brought into the fold so easily. Newcomers weren’t typically accepted so easily or quickly. There were seven of us, including me; the numbers had been even until I’d arrived.
    The three boys were Clarke and his two best friends, Graham, a tall, blonde beefcake with dimples and few brains, and Adam, short and wiry with dark curly hair and striking green eyes. Then there were the three girls. Tanya was blonde, blue-eyed, and wickedly curvaceous. Rebecca was a drop-dead gorgeous Hawaiian girl with shoulder length, silky black hair and warm, bronze skin. And Cadence was brown-haired, brown-eyed, pretty but surprisingly plain in contrast to the rest. Cadence’s father was a judge and her mother a famous surgeon. She’d been brought into the group because of her family’s immense wealth and powerful reputation. Apparently her family’s prestige made up for her lack of beauty.
    And then there was me.
    I greeted my friends with quick smiles and nods as I sat down, hoping I didn’t look as uncomfortable as I felt. I wondered if I would ever truly be comfortable with my new friends but then again, it didn’t really matter.
    Clarke sat down beside me and took my hand in his. Other than that one small gesture, he barely acknowledged my presence. He was much more interested in discussing Thursday’s upcoming rugby game with the other boys. I turned my attention to the girls’ conversation.
    “Look at what Carmen did to her uniform. Ugh, the whole punk rock, loose-tie thing is so two years ago,” Tanya sneered. The other two girls turned to stare. They giggled and sneered mercilessly as Carmen’s face went red. I didn’t look; I didn’t care. I began idly tracing a line in the grain of the wood table top as I waited for lunch to be served.
    “Did any of you see Charlotte Hill this morning?” Rebecca asked. “She got a tattoo on the weekend on the back of her neck and tried to cover it up with a big band-aid but Mr. Pearson noticed and sent her home,” she informed us in scandalized tones. I looked up, their conversation suddenly attracting my interest.
    “Ew, she got a tattoo?” Tanya asked, wrinkling her nose in distaste.
    “What’s it of?” Cadence inquired, her soft voice curious. Tanya frowned at her disapprovingly.
    “Does it matter?” Tanya challenged. Cadence blushed, squirming uncomfortably under Tanya’s piercing, blue-eyed glare.
    “I saw Sebastian Caldwood’s tattoo in art this morning,” I volunteered cautiously. “It was really strange – a weird, black design that wrapped up and around his forearm.” I directed my words to Cadence who disliked me the least of the three. She gave me a hesitant smile.
    “Who’s Sebastian Caldwood?” Rebecca demanded impatiently. Even Tanya, who usually ignored me when I spoke, looked at me with a mixture of irritation and confusion in her expression.
    “Are you talking about Sebastian again?” I hadn’t realized Clarke had been listening.
    “We were talking about tattoos,” I said by way of explanation.
    “Yeah, Sebastian’s got a bunch,” Adam chimed in. “He tries to keep them hidden but I saw his tats in the locker room once. They’re all really dark and weird looking – can’t really remember what they were of though, just that they creeped me out.”
    “That kid’s a