Jess was late to Ms Enfield’s class. Chloe was finding it hard to concentrate, because she knew exactly what that meant. Jess, her best friend for years, had recently caught the attention of Nathan Oldcastle. Nathan was the only boy: not only in the school, but also the county and most of the surrounding area. Chloe had been surprised that Jess had even registered on his radar – she was certainly pretty enough, but he was a year older than she was and was still (by all accounts) working through the girls in his own year. But sure enough, earlier in the week Jess had rocked up to class wearing a bracelet with a silver eagle as its buckle: Nathan’s symbol, the wearing of which marked his claim to her. While not as binding as the collars that Nathan’s chosen women would wear upon his and their reaching full adulthood, the giving (and receiving) of a bracelet carried with it various assumptions and, indeed obligations: but also privilege. Jess’ reputation in the year had sky-rocketed – going from a slightly awkward outsider to something of a queen bee.

Teachers also were a lot more lenient with claimed girls when it came to dress codes and class attendance – as long as they weren’t baring their goods for the whole world to see or missing entire lessons then they could get away with a lot.

Which was lucky for Jess, Chloe thought, as she breezed into the room – perhaps walking a little stiffly on her heels, clearly sweaty, and with the top three buttons of her blouse undone. Seeing the space Chloe had saved, she smiled and sat down, with a quick “Hi!” Ms Enfield didn’t even stop to acknowledge Jess’ presence, and instead continued on about the sides of a triangle and exactly what one is supposed to do with them. After a short amount of time, she finished and then came over to Chloe and Jess.

Looking at Chloe, she said “Why don’t you go through the exercises with Jess. You can explain what she missed. Just ask if you have any problems.” The look in the teacher’s eyes told Chloe that she doubted they’d get any work done.

With that, she moved around to another group to answer a question.

“So…” Chloe began a little awkwardly “How was it?”.

“Wonderful!” Jess replied, leaning forward slightly. Chloe gasped – Jess wasn’t wearing a bra!

“Uh, Jess,” she said “When you lean forward like that people can see your – you know”.

“I know they can.” Jess giggled. “It’s why Nathan asked me to dress like this. I can hardly pull off Josie’s look, can I?” Josie was one of Nathan’s favourites – she had very large breasts to her name and when in school typically wore blouses several sizes too small to make them even more obvious. Out of school, she was even worse.

“Nathan says that girls with smaller tits, like me, shouldn’t feel embarrassed about it.”

Chloe was shocked silent – Jess’ chest had attracted some bullying in the past and everyone knew that she hated it. Or rather, had done. Chloe couldn’t quite believe the change in her friend.

“Want to hear what he did to me today?” Chloe couldn’t seem to stop herself from nodding – despite everything, she really did want to know.

“Well Emily found me when I was coming out of the toilets halfway through lunch.” Chloe had guessed as much – she’d waited for Jess to come back for fifteen minutes before giving up.

“She took me to Nathan – in that classroom on the second floor of the geography building, you know?