The President's Daughter by David Dower (if you liked this book txt) 📕

as the person at the door open there mouth to apologize. “Sor-“ The person began, but stopped as Holly stared at Ben in shock.

Holly’s face then turned white, as if she was seeing a ghost, "What are you doing here?" They said, simultaneously.

Wow is Ben in sync with everyone.

They then turned to me, anger evident in their expressions, ”What is that doing here?" They said, once again, simultaneously pointing to one another.

I smirked, crossing my arms over my chest. "So... Do you want to tell me how you two know each other?"

"No," Grumbled Holly. "I would like to know why he is in my presence instead."

"Holly, meet my new bodyguard Ben." At first, I was against this whole bodyguard thing, but considering the pissed off looks they were both giving me, it somewhat amused me.

"And Ben, this is Holly my best friend and cousin.” I said to Ben, who didn’t even glance at Holly. “So get use to each other because you'll be seeing each other a lot."

"Whatever," Holly said. "Can we just go to your room, I am allergic to idiots."

"So you’re allergic to yourself?" Ben retorted.

Ben’s reply caused Holly to leap on him, but I grabbed her before she could have the chance to claw his eyes out.  "You’re just as crazy as I remember." I heard Ben mutter, Holly must have heard because she huffed, stomping her foot and marching down the hall, most probably heading to my room.

I glared at Ben, "Don't think I am done with you. Now thanks to you, Holly is in a bad mood and no one likes when she is in a bad mood." I said, pointing my finger in his face. I then ran down the hall and back upstairs to search for Holly.

When I got to my room Holly's head was buried in my pillow, I heard her quietly sobbing. I closed the door walking towards her. "Hey, what happened back there?" I asked, her softly.

"I don't want to about it," She croaked out.

"Okay," I said, rubbing her back trying to comfort her, I knew it had something to do with Ben, and I intended to find out.

*

"I look like a rainbow threw up on me," I said, looking in the mirror of the store we were currently in.

"I think you look fine, stop complaining,” My mother said.

Stop complaining? I looked ridiculous.

"Who even wears this much pink anyways?” I grumbled to my mother, who was too busy grabbing a bunch of clothes of the racks. I was literally in pink shorts, top and shoes.

"Hey, I don't remember you being named America’s number one fashion designer." She pointed out, "Plus, this is what all the kids are wearing."

I let out a groan of annoyance. If only I had a normal mother… or a normal family in my case.

"She's not wrong," Holly said, appearing out of nowhere. She was holding a bunch of clothes in her arms. "A lot of stuck up girls wear that much pink, except with way more cleavage showing." She said shuddering, "Anyways, here you go." She said, dumping all the clothes she had in her hands to me.

"What the heck am I supposed to do with all of these?" I asked.

"Try them on? Duh." She stated, shooing me off to the changing room, I inspected the clothes that Holly chose for me. They were a lot better than the ones my mother chose.

I grabbed a pair of white skinny jeans and a grey muscle tee out of the pile of clothes. I also grabbed a black leather jacket and pulled it over my grey top. I scanned myself in the mirror. I liked the clothes that Holly chose, and I had to say they made me look pretty darn good. I then came out of the changing room to show Holly and my mom, who were sitting on the chairs talking amongst each other.

When I walked out of the changing room, both of their heads snapped to me. They both squealed. "I take it that this looks good?" They both nodded their heads, with big smiles etched on their faces. After trying on and modeling a few more outfits, we paid for them and left.

"Um... Thanks... For um shopping, Miss First Lady." The employee said, stuttering. I looked over at her name tag, it read Jesse. She looked awfully young. She was most probably fifteen or sixteen.

"No problem. Thanks for closing down the store for us, Jesse." Said my mom, smiling politely.

Jesse looked surprised. "Um no problem... Come again." She said, managing to give us a small smile. 

We then left the store to make it to my 5:30 hair appointment. After endless battling with my mom, Holly and the lady who was doing my hair. I finally agreed to get it cut, to at least shoulder length and dye it a darker shade than it already was.

They weren't kidding when they said they were giving me a makeover.

"Okay we’re done sweetheart," She said, turning me around on my chair. "What do you think?"

I let out a gasp. My dull brown hair was now a darker shade, looking to be almost black. It was cut above my shoulders, thankfully not looking like a bob cut. The salon lady also gave me side bangs, which I absolutely adored because it framed my face perfectly.

"I take it you like it?" She asked, smiling. I nodded my head, unable to speak. "Don't worry sweetheart, you came to the best," She said proudly. "No one will be able to recognize you now." She said, smiling, then leaving the room probably to go call my mother and Holly. I really did look different, but it was a good kind of different.

She came back minutes later with Holly and my mom. They started to squeal once again, complimenting me on my hair.

As soon as I got home, I started to hang all of my clothes in my closet with the help of Holly. School was in a couple of days, so Holly was staying overnight, to help me prepare. "So anything I should know about school?" I asked, sitting next to her on my bed.

She nodded her head. "Our school is very superficial. There are the jocks, cheerleaders, nerds and drama geeks. Don't draw attention to yourself, and whatever you do, stay away from Ashley Rome and Gavin Storm."

I could have sworn when she mentioned this guy Gavin's name, her eyes darkened. "Why?"

"Ashley is the schools head cheerleader, she gets whatever she wants and doesn't care who she steps on." Holly replied, her eyes glued to the magazine in her hand.

I nodded, "Got it."

"Good." She said, looking back at her magazine.

"Um Holls, what about this Gavin guy?" She cringed, at the sound of his name. I looked down and saw her clenching her hand.

I stared at her for a couple of minutes. "Holly, what happened between you and Gavin?"

Her eyes got glassy, she looked to be on the verge of tears, "Ben." She croaked out. "W-we use to go out." She said, stuttering.

I knew that there was something to do with Ben, but it still didn’t make sense why she was telling me this about Gavin.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." I whispered, to her.

She shook her head. "No, I have to tell you. I really need to get this off of my chest," I nodded for her to continue. "We started dating junior year, Ben and I. We really liked each other. We did everything together. I told you about him, remember?” She asked. I nodded my head.

I remember her telling me about her boyfriend, last year. I had just never met him. Holly talked about him a lot. But when they did break up, Holly came to me crying. It took a good month for her to finally get over him, and even then she wasn’t as functional as she used to be.

“I really liked Ben. He meant everything to me, and everyone knew that. But, there was a problem, Gavin.” Holly’s eyes darkened as she said his name. “Gavin was Ben’s best friend, and our schools biggest playboy. He flirted with any girl, including me. But I never gave in, I was one hundred percent committed to Ben. Gavin played girls. He got them to fall in love with him, sleep with him and then he would dump them. The typical player boy that you read about in books and watch in movies.” Holly said, sniffling. "And that's what he did to me, you would think that since I was his best friend’s girlfriend, I would be off limits. But I wasn’t. I was only part of a stupid bet.”

I did not want to hear this anymore. I didn’t want to know what Holly had had to go through. I’ve always wanted to know the story that broke Holly, but I realized that I was wrong. I didn’t want to know, anymore. "Holly, you really don't have to tell me."

"I don't have to, I want to. Anyways, we were at a party and I was drunk to the max. Ben's friends came over and asked him to play some guy game. He didn't want to leave me, but I kept telling him to go. Long story short, the next day I found myself in bed with Gavin and I had no idea how I had gotten there. To this day, I still don’t know. But the news spread like wildfire, and Ben broke up with me. He's hated me ever since and after a bit, I started hating him as well." She said, finishing her story and beginning to cry once more.

I felt my heart shatter, as I finally realized what had happened, and the story behind it. "Holly it wasn't your fault, don't ever blame yourself." I said, wrapping my cousin in a tight hug.

She gave me a small smile, "You are the only one I've ever told." She said, as she wiped the tears of her face. “I am going to clean up,” She said, getting off my bed and wiping her face with her hands as she walked towards my bathroom. She turned around briefly, giving me a small smile. “Thanks, Alice.”

I laid myself on my bed as I stared up at the ceiling. I heard the sound of water running coming from my bathroom. I felt bad for what Holly had went through. No one deserved that, no matter who you are. I closed my eyes trying to digest all the information.

My heart broke for her and what she had went through. Maybe high school is not what I thought it was, maybe it was hell. I just wouldn’t know until I go to school myself.

One thought played itself in my mind over and over again. To stay away from Gavin Storm and I was going to do whatever it takes. Chapter Three: First Day, Bad Impression

"Miss Alice, it is time to get up," I heard someone say, shaking me.

I groaned, "What time is it?" I said, my voice coming out hoarse.

"It's time to get up Miss Alice. You don't want to be late for your first day of school, do you?" I heard Melinda my house cleaner say.

"Do I have to?" I said, my