“A
lady never starts a fight… but she’ll finish it”
“Looking
back, none of this would have happened if I’d brought lip gloss the night of
the Homecoming Dance.”
Harper Jane Price is the perfect Southern belle. She is
anticipating being crowned Homecoming Queen for Grove Academy. Arriving
fashionable late for the dance, she enters the school with her longtime,
handsome boyfriend, Ryan, her best friend, Bee and Brandon, Bee’s boyfriend.
While waiting on the boys to finish parking the car, Bee remarks that Harper’s
lips are nekkid. Knowing that she must remedy the situation before the Queen is
announced, she tells Ryan that she will be right back. Walking through the quiet
hallways of the school, she bumps into her worse enemy, David Stark. He has
repeatedly slammed her in the school newspaper. Harper is the SGA president and
he thinks she is too cliquey instead of being concerned about social issues.
Having loathed him since daycare, he was the only child she ever bit; she
attempts to be civil since his aunt is in charge of the Cotillion. Sparring
with one another, they notice that the music has stopped. David tells her to
run along and fix her lip gloss for her crowning. They part ways and Harper
heads for the bathroom. She is applying the second coat of gloss when the door
slams open. In stumbles the school custodian, Mr. Hall. He locks the door
behind him.
Harper notices that he is bleeding heavily from his abdomen.
She tries to help him. Mr. Hall opens his shirt and removes a pillow. She then
notices the rest of his appearance. He is wearing an elaborate disguise and
turns out to be quite handsome. None the less, he is still mortally wounded. He
asks her name and comments that she runs the school. He needs her to protect
and make sure that he is okay. The door begins to rattle and Mr. Hall says that
he is there; he apologizes to Harper and presses his mouth onto hers.
Struggling, she feels something icy flow into her mouth and down her throat. Harper
begins to slip into darkness and thinks her parents will be devastated to lose
another daughter. Harper regains her strength and looks at Mr. Hall’s wound.
She thinks it could have been made with a medieval sword. Harper is about to
leave when she remembers that she dropped her lip gloss in the sink and goes
back to get it. Good thing because the door explodes inward.
She looks up to see her World History teacher, Dr.
DuPont, in the doorway, holding a medieval sword. He enters and puts the sword
against her neck. With her newfound strength, she grabs the sword and lowers
it. Then, she head butts him. Dr. DuPont laughs remarking that he passed it
onto her. He says that a worse choice couldn’t be made. After all, she wrote
her paper on the history of shoes. He remarks that she is going to use her new
super powers to become head cheerleader. She already is and kicks him in the
jaw, knocking him down. The fight isn’t over and Dr. DuPont strikes back. He
picks up the sword and Harper thinks that she is going to die. Dr. DuPont is
saying something about a Paladin when she notices one of her stilettos. She
grabs the shoe and uses the heel to stab him in the carotid artery. He dies and
Harper gets cleaned up. With two dead bodies in the bathroom, she hears the
announcement for the Homecoming Queen Nominees. Running, she realizes that she
is going to be sick and heads into the boys’ bathroom. Throwing up in one of
the stalls, a boy cries out. He comes up behind her, holding her hair back. He
gets her some wet towels. She turns around to find that the mysterious boy is
none other than David Stark.
David makes a comment about her being pregnant but she
glares and says no. She thanks him but he is curious about her being sick. He
knows that she hasn’t been drinking but with that gleam in his eye, she knows
that he is looking for something to contribute to her downfall. He turns to go
but Harper stops him. He cannot see what’s left of the girls’ bathroom. She
thanks him again and he is out the door. Hearing him walk away, Harper is
confused. Looking out the door, she sees no sign of the battle she was just a
part of. Harper is shaken and makes a high pitched sound. David comes back to
check on her. He is genuinely concerned by her dishelmed appearance. Before she
can tell him what happened, Bee and some other girls bust in. Harper was
crowned Homecoming Queen and they have brought her the tiara. The girls and
David trade barbs and he leaves. Harper tells them that she was sick. When Ryan
takes her home, she asks him about schizophrenia since he wrote a paper on it
for AP Psychology. He admits that he copied a paper his older brother wrote.
They argue but soon make up. Harper is distracted, especially when Ryan
apologizes her ripping her dress. (She actually tore it in the fight with Dr.
DuPont) Ryan goes home and Harper sets out to prove if the night’s events
really happened or if she is truly crazy. After discovering that she has been
gifted with agility, super strength and impeccable fighting abilities, she
scours the Internet for more information. In one article, she notices the word Paladin.
It is what Dr. DuPont called her in the bathroom. She finds out that Paladins
are warriors and protectors, “charged with safeguarding a specific person or place.”
She begins to wonder what Mr. Hall and now she must protect.
Why did Dr. DuPont kill Mr. Hall? What happens when
Harper finds out that David Stark is the person she must protect at all costs?
Why is he so important to need protection? Who is out to harm him? Will Harper
to able to assume her new role? How will it affect her social life? Can she and
David put aside their differences to work together? And are they really enemies
or is something else brewing beneath the surface?
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