A Bully For A StepBrother.

(KAIRA'S POV)

"Mr. Horton, your project partner is… Miss Jin." Our English teacher, Mrs. Reed, announced.

My stomach sank, and a heavy weight transferred to my chest.

Of all the people in PineCrest High, it had to be Slade Horton.

Star quarterback and football captain.

Sole hair of Horton Empire.

Most popular and feared teenager in PineCrest.

And the boy who hadn’t spoken directly to me without making me cry.

"Is that alright with you?" Mrs. Reed was directing the question to both of us.

I tapped my pen repeatedly against the edge of the table.

It's okay, Kaira. The worst he can do is say no.

"I don't want a charity case as a partner." His voice—cold, smooth, and rarely heard—sliced the silence.

My blood ran cold as the classroom burst into loud laughter. My grip tightened around my pen and my heart pounded loudly in my ears. My eyes burned as I stared at the whiteboard.

"No one wants a freeloader as a partner!!" I heard someone call out loudly.

"That's enough, everyone. Enough!" Mrs. Reed snapped. The laughter reduced to sniggers and whispers. "Miss Randall, can you take Miss Jin as your partner?"

“I-I can work alone, Mrs Reed.” My voice sounded weak. I really didn’t mind working alone. I had a brain of two anyway.

“You need a partner, Miss Jin.” Mrs Reed insisted softly.

My stomach clenched.

Here goes another humiliating moment of watching a teacher bargain and plead with the other kids in class to make me their partner.

If my classmates had their way, they would boot me out of their elite school to begin with.

Without my mum’s boos, Mr. Horton of Horton Empire I wouldn’t dream of going to a school like this. (And yes you got that right, Horton as in Slade Horton but we’ll get to that later)

"Miss Jin." Mrs. Reed turned to me. "Can you please come sit beside Miss Randall?"

I quickly grabbed my things, and hurried to my new seat to stop being the center of attention. But I guess today was just not my lucky day.

One second—I was on my feet. The next, I found myself flying to the ground. I landed with a loud thud.

There was a moment of silence.

And then—

"Slade Horton had his foot out for the geek," someone announced in a sing-song voice. The class erupted into roaring laughter.

I tried to get up, but I tripped over my books and found myself on the ground again, this time with my back to the class. The laughter grew louder.

My palms stung from catching myself and I think my knee was grazed. But none of that mattered because I could feel the cold air against my thighs. My skirt was up.

"Ewww! Such ugly inners!! Is that a pad?!!" I heard a girl call out.

My heart raced harder and my vision became blurry.

"Everyone, stop it this instant," Mrs. Reed commanded. I heard her hurried footsteps before I saw her chic ankle boots in front of me.

She reached out and smoothed my skirt, then helped pull me up to my feet. I turned to face the class, and my gaze met Slade's.

His sharp green eyes stared at me through the strands of his dark hair that fell across his forehead. His face was blank then—his lips curved into a smirk.

The deafening laughter grew louder in my ears. An overwhelming wave of nausea hit me, and I fled out of the room.

I didn't stop until I was in the bathroom with the door locked behind me. I hugged myself and squeezed my eyes tight to stop the tears. It didn't matter how many times I got bullied or humiliated—I never got used to it.

Especially when it was Slade Horton.

Despite being the most popular and the most feared kid, he hardly ever reacted to things around him. He moved like a piece of dark marble—expensive, flawless, and completely cold to the touch.

But when it comes to me, he's the worst. The most cruel.

Slade Horton hasn’t always been my bully. Once upon a time, he was the boy of my dreams and he had no idea I existed. Until I ruined everything. (Another story for later)

Anyway, I have grown a tough skin, and it's for that reason that I stopped crying .I remained in the bathroom until the end of the day. An hour after the day bell rang, when I was sure that the large school grounds would be empty, I started the fifteen-minute walk to my home.

I was only three years old when Mum and I relocated from Saitama, Japan to the United States after the death of my father, thirteen years ago. Mum got a job as a nanny for the Horton household and has been working there since then. Tom Horton is the ceo of Horton Empire, the wealthiest man in PineCrest and also the single father of Slade Horton.

My mum used to be his nanny when he was younger (he doesn’t know I’m her daughter) plus She got promoted to the housekeeper position four years ago.

My mum, Shanice Rolland Jin, is my best friend and my everything. She works so hard and that’s why this horrible school is worth it and I can’t wait to make her proud when I become the best selling author in the country.

Recently mum and I don’t spend a lot of time together. She’s always busy and so you can imagine my shock to see her folding clothes at home when I got back from school.

"Mum?" I ran into her open arms laughing.

"Hey baby." She hugged me tightly and kissed my cheeks, but her voice sounded weird.

I pulled back abruptly and searched her face.

"What's wrong?" I demanded.

Not only was she home four hours earlier, she looked flustered.

"Nothing is wrong," she said with a nervous laugh.

“Please tell me what's wrong?" I whispered feeling anxiety crawl in. "Did something bad happen?"

"Nothing bad happened, my love.” Mum quickly put an arm around me. “Just… please come sit."

She led me to the only sofa we had in our small-spaced living room, where we sat side by side.

"You're fiddling with your hair," I pointed out. "That’s our big nervous trait, Mum.”

Mum paused, glanced at her hands which were in fact grabbing locs of her hair. Not only did we have similar habits, we share the same traits as well. We both have long strawberry blonde hair—mine longer—we have large, round blue eyes, and a deep dimple on one of our cheeks. The only clear difference is height. Mum is 5'6" and I'm 5'2”

"No one knows me better than you do, Kaira," Mum laughed, brushing my hair gently.

"No one," I promised her with a slight tap on her nose. "Now please tell me what's going on so we can figure it out together."

Her smile faltered.

"Is it that bad?" My eyebrows raised.

She sighed. Then her tear-filled eyes met mine, and my limbs felt heavy.

"It's bad and it's good… I just don't know how to break it to you because I feel I have betrayed you." Her voice was shaking now.

I moved closer to her. "You can never betray me," I assured her. "Just tell me, okay? Please."

She sighed and cleaned her face. That was when I saw it. A huge diamond rock on her finger.

I shut my eyes briefly and reopened them. The rock was still there. Staring at me like reality.

"Is that? Is that an engagement ring?" I pushed the words out.

Mum followed my gaze and then nodded at me. My jaw dropped to the ground.

"Is—is this a joke?" I laughed, but with her face, I knew it wasn't. She shook her head slowly at me.

"You're getting married?!" I stood up.

"Yes," she whispered, standing up too.

"B-but you don't even have a boyfriend."

She never dated. She has always been too busy to date.

"I know. This was… it was unexpected. I've been seeing someone for the past five months and I kept saying I would tell you, but I felt so ashamed. And now I've made everything worse." The tears streamed down her face.

I wanted to hug her. To tell her not to be ashamed because she deserves to be happy.

But deep down, I felt unhappy.

"You had a boyfriend for five months and you didn't tell me?" My voice gave all the pain away.

"I'm sorry." Mum sobbed lightly.

"Who's he? Do I know him?" I swallowed a lump before asking.

She nodded. “You know him.”

My stomach dropped.

“Very well.”

My hands turned cold. “Is it Roger?"

Roger is the head chef who always professes his undying love for my mum.

"No. It's not," she said, and a wave of relief hit me. Yeah, Roger as a stepdad would be weird.

"It's Tom," she announced, her fingers entangled with one another.

I stared back blankly.

No. It simply can't be.

"Tom?" I repeated.

Mum nodded. "Tom Horton. My boss. He proposed to me. He wants to marry me.”

My heart slammed rapidly in my chest, and my vision swayed.

Mum's getting married to Tom Horton.

Tom Horton as in her boss.

As in father of Slade Horton.

Which meant that—

My bully.

My nightmare.

Was about to become my stepbrother.