•01•

“Hey, mum! Dad!!” I shouted, running down the stairs with one strap of my school bag hanging on my shoulder without even breathing heavily.

I rushed into the dining room and picked toasted bread from Dad's plate.

“Hey! I was just about to enjoy that,” My dad grumbled with a snap, while I smiled teasingly at him.

“Good morning, Dearie,” My mum greeted, wiping the water off her hands with the blue napkin as she walked over to dad and placed the napkin neatly on the table.

“Ready for school?” She asked, scanning me over with her eyes.

“Yep,” I answered biting a small portion of the toasted bread before chewing then adjusted my rectangular framed silver eyeglasses.

“When will you get to dress like a girl?” Dad asked me while I rolled my eyes.

Honestly, there's nothing wrong with what I'm wearing. Oversized baggie gray trousers and black gray crop hoodie jacket were just okay for me and definitely my style.

“Dad, there's nothing wrong with the way I'm dressing,” I told him, finally finishing the single toast bread I was eating and dusting my right hand on my trouser.

“She will change when she starts going on dates,” Mum joked.

“Mum!” I groaned, rolling my eyes while feeling my cheeks heat up awkwardly as I clutched my right hand on the strap of my black school bag.

“You are Nineteen sweetie, and you haven't even had a date once,” She pouted and my face fell, were they monitoring me all the time.

“That's because she would have beaten their asses up,” Dad laughed while I frowned.

“Dad! Seriously?” I asked him now, feeling annoyed.

“Just joking,” He whispered, shrugging his shoulder at me.

“Okay, I'm leaving for school,” I told them and was about to hop out of the dining room.

“Jade!” My mum called with concerns in her voice, making me turn around to face her as she placed her arms over dad's shoulder while the both of them gave me worried looks.

“Promise to stay out of trouble in your new school,” Mum said while I sighed.

“Jade, we don't want what happened in your previous school to repeat itself,” Dad said firmly in his deep voice while I nodded.

“You both know it wasn't my fault,” I told them as mum nodded, thinning her lips together.

“Promise us,” My mum said while I snapped my gaze to her as she gave me that pleading look of hers, making me sigh.

“I'm not promising, you know how I have anger issues immediately, but I will try,” I answered as every glint of hope in their faces drained off while I walked out of the dining room making my way to the entrance of our house.

I knew quite well in myself that I can't make such a promise to what they just said, I don't look for troubles, but troubles always had their way of coming to me first before I attack back without having a second thought.

Okay! I'm Jade Carson, the only child of my parents and a crazy nerd.

Furthermore, I said crazy, right?

Yeah, I did… most people when they hear someone being a nerd, they have this mentality that the person has to have this fragile and weak personality who just finds hope in books.

Hell, no! I was the opposite and different, except that I also find hope in my books too.

I was fierce, arrogant, and don't give a fucking shit about whom the hell you are. One of the reasons I got transferred to another school by my previous school was after getting myself in a bloody fight with a stupid bitch who doesn't know her place. She was lucky she didn't get to die in my hands.

Occasionally, I think my heart is just hardened to be fearless and cold in person.

I plugged my AirPods in my ears and hummed softly to the song playing as I approached my new school whilst students ran or walk inside through the school's opened black gate.

I fastened the paddle of my bicycle and got into the school before slowing down and pressing gently on the brake handle to avoid crashing into anyone or bumping into any car that sped in the school. Furthermore, I glanced around noticing some students staring at me, but I glanced forward trying to make myself invisible then found a nice spot to park my blue bicycle in my new school which goes by the name Crimson Height high school.

I just needed to scale through my finals and go far away from Canada to study at any university I wanted.

I breathed in deeply and stared at my surrounding, the school had such a lovely and serene environment.

“Jade, you can do this,” I told myself lowly and breathed in deeply then adjusted my eyeglasses as I began walking to the school park, I guess that will lead me to the main school building.

I removed my AirPods securely placing them back in their case when I approached a tree then unzipped my bag glancing around and noticed no students were lurking around the tree, then brought out my file folder and removed a document from it as I checked the number of my locker.

“Six. Three. Five,” I muttered to myself, memorizing it as I placed my left palm on my forehead before glancing through other details of my information in the document.

Thank Goodness, my parents had followed me a week before to the principal's office to sort things out for me and I knew which class to be before resumption, so that will save me the stress of meeting anyone for directions.

I kept the documents back in my file folder and put them carefully in my bag then zipped it which was placed on the black ankle converse sneakers I was wearing before carrying it up and throwing my bag over my back while I fisted my hands around the bag strap.

I tucked the loose strand of my jet black hair behind my ear, and started walking towards the building most students rushed to enter, while some walked like they own the whole world, not giving a damn.

The hallway was crowded with students who pushed past themselves, while I tried to avoid anyone that came closer to me like they were some sort of plague.

I made some turns to my classroom, knowing my locker would be around there, ignoring the people I met on the way as they fixed their gaze on me without a blink.

“Is she new?” I heard some soft whispers and murmurs.

“She looks cool,”

'Of course, I look cool, I bet you wouldn't want to see the crazy part of me,' I thought funnily to myself.

I saw some Lockers ahead of me with a few girls clustering in front of the locker, talking and giggling among themselves.

One of the girls with blonde hair and pale skin seems to notice me first as she whispered something among the girls, they all snapped their gazes toward me when I approached the locker.

They kept mute as they stared at me while I took a quick glance at them, noticing the four girls were wearing the same skimpy red tennis courts skirt, with a black sleeveless crop top that showed off their flat tummy and belly button.

I was certain they were in the same clique for them to dress like that.

Paying no attention to them like they weren't there and probably not focusing on where I was heading to, I bumped into someone, making my glasses fall to the ground.

'Dear Lord! My precious glasses,' I screamed in my head, hoping it wouldn't break as I squatted immediately not bothering to look at the person I bumped into to apologize, I was about to pick my glasses when a large hand covered mine and picked my glasses instead for me as I felt a spark run through my right hand.

I looked up to see the person who was a guy from his features, I couldn't see his face clearly because of how close he was to me, and I was without my glasses.

Yeah! I have a terrible eyesight…

“Here!” He muttered in a low raspy voice and gave me my glasses which I collected from him and I brushed my thumb slightly on the surface of the glasses trying to feel it if it had a crack or anything while he straightened up himself. I put on my glasses, maybe I could see his face properly, but he left before I could mumble a 'sorry' word to him.

I coughed slightly and turned my direction back to the locker to see the girls still there and ogling at me. I got closer to lockers, feeling uncomfortable with their stares. Furthermore, I scanned each locker number with my eyes and saw mine at the top on the extreme right side.

“Hey!” I heard someone say irritatingly as I turned a deaf ear and got closer to the metallic dark yellow locker.

'Were they expecting me to greet them or what?' I thought frankly getting closer to my locker.

I unlocked it and brought out a small kerchief from one of the numerous pockets my baggie trouser had, and started dusting the inside of the locker.

“Hey! We're talking to you,” A girl approached me, leaning her side close to the locker beside me as she folded her arms across her chest while I noticed the other three girls surrounded me at my back.

I didn't reply, instead I just slipped off the straps of my bag hanging on my shoulder as I positioned the bag in front of me and unzipped it.

“Is she deaf or what?” I heard one of the girls behind me say as I kept on with what I was doing.

“I'm sure Crimson Height won't be crazy enough to accept a student like her in the first place,” The girl beside me scoffed as my jaw twitched but still, I decided to ignore them and picked a book and pen, I'll be needing for the morning class, before closing my locker and turned around to face the three girls staring at me from head to toe.

I glanced at the hallway and noticed it was a bit empty with a few students around curiously staring at us.

“Excuse me!” I muttered calmly as the girls gasped at me while I tried to move away, but they blocked my path, giving me a sneering look.

“So. You can talk,” A girl with silvery shimmering hair faked crying as the other two laughed.

“I thought she was both deaf and dumb,” The other girl leaning her right arm on the locker next to me said as the others laughed at what she said.

I balled my left hand in a fist as my temper began to rise, but I released it immediately.

'Be calm, Jade! Just act nice and go your way,' My mind pleaded as I began to fume.

“So. You're new?” The girl leaning finally on the locker moved away as she stood in my front as she smirked at me mischievously, standing a bit taller than I am.

“Have you ever seen me here before?” I questioned her back now staring at her in the face getting irritated at the question she asked when she knew I was and how nice, she had the same cute gray eyes just like mine, but her hair was a mix of dark brown and a light-brown color.

She got taken aback by my question, as the other girls looked at me amusingly.

“Just answer the fucking question, who do you think you are and why are you fooling with Kayden?” She fired at me, stepping closer to me as her eyes burned a hole in my forehead.

'Kayden? Who the hell is Kayden? Jeez! I just got to this school, for Pete's sake, how am I supposed to know who Kayden is?' I thought weirdly staring at her blankly.

' Perhaps, she meant the guy you bumped into earlier,' My mind answered.

'Ohh! I didn't even get to see a glimpse of his face in the first place,' I retorted.

“Answer me, huh!” She demanded with wide evil eyes, making me let out a chuckle before scoffing at her.

I guess I just jumped from frying pan to fire…

“And who the hell do you exactly think you are?” I fired back at her with the same burning rage she used on me even a bit more because I know my voice seemed a bit intimidating as she flapped her long lashes staring at me in an unbelievable shock manner with her mouth agape.