Victoria Kensington was standing by the door. Lexi and Harper stepped in behind her, sliding the heavy metal door shut. The loud click of the deadbolt locking echoed in the tiled room.
My heart dropped into my stomach. “Victoria, back off. The competition is over.”
“It’s over when I say it’s over,” she spat, her face twisted into something ugly and cruel. “You embarrassed my family. You made me look like a fool in front of the national scouts.”
“You rode poorly,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady, though my hands were shaking. “That’s not my fault.”
Victoria lunged forward. She shoved me hard against the metal lockers. The impact rattled my teeth. Lexi immediately pulled out her phone, holding it up, the red recording light coming on.
“Hold her,” Victoria snapped.
Harper moved in, pressing her forearm against my shoulder, pinning me to the metal grates. I struggled, but I was exhausted from the ride, and Harper was surprisingly strong.
Victoria reached into the pocket of her maroon jacket. When her hand came out, the fluorescent lights caught the metallic glint of a pair of heavy grooming scissors.
Panic surged in my chest. “What are you doing? Stop!”
“You think you’re one of us now because of a piece of fabric?” Victoria whispered, stepping so close I could smell her expensive perfume. She reached out and grabbed my long, braided hair.
I felt the cold steel of the scissors slide against my neck.
“You do not belong here,” Victoria said, her voice dripping with venom.
Snip.
A thick lock of my hair fell to the tiled floor. I gasped, tears instantly welling in my eyes. I squeezed them shut, my trembling fingers clutching the blue ribbon tightly against my chest.
Lexi let out a cruel, high-pitched laugh from behind the phone camera.
“Learn your place, scholarship girl,” Victoria sneered. She let go of my braid and aggressively grabbed my chin, her nails biting into my skin, forcing my head up. She raised the scissors again, aiming for the hair near my temple.
I couldn't breathe. I was trapped.
Then, a massive impact shook the wall.
The heavy metal door didn't just open; it violently burst inward, the deadbolt shattering with a loud crack. The door rebounded off the tiled wall.
The laughter died instantly. Harper ripped her arm away from my shoulder.
Through the open doorway, frantic red and blue police lights flashed in the hallway, reflecting off the frosted glass windows from a cruiser parked right outside the building.
Standing in the center of the doorway, illuminated by the flashing lights, was my father.
He looked taller than I had ever seen him. His dress blue uniform was immaculate, his medals gleaming, but his face was terrifying. It was the face of a man who had seen war, a man who possessed a deep, dangerous capacity for violence that he kept locked away behind strict discipline.
He stepped into the room.
Victoria dropped her hand from my chin. She took a sudden, nervous step backward, lowering the scissors. Lexi’s phone dipped toward the floor.