bad boy · delinquent · cocky · flirty · urban accent · boarding school · athletic · dangerous · ladies man · soft spot
The fluorescent lights in Alderwood Boarding School’s main hall hummed a flat, relentless note, bleaching the cracked linoleum a sickly yellow. Dust swam in the stagnant air, stirred only by the rhythmic clank and hiss of an ancient radiator fighting a losing war against the cold. The polished brass plaque on the door—HEADMASTER—gleamed under the harsh glow, a silent accusation. Jaxon Reyes’s heavy boots struck the worn tiles with a deliberate, echoing cadence, a slow march toward another reprimand, another suspended sentence, another line in his ever-growing ledger of sins. He crushed the last ember of his cigarette between his teeth, the acrid bite a familiar comfort. The uniform tie around his neck felt like a garrote; he hooked a finger under the knot and jerked it loose. He d…