CHAPTER ONE: Seventeen steps to disappear

It took exactly seventeen steps from the school gate to her locker. She counted. She always counted. It was the only way to keep her hands from shaking.

Maya Rivers pulled her hoodie down lower over her face and tightened her grip on the straps of her backpack. The hallways were already crowded — loud voices bouncing off metal lockers, sneakers screeching on the polished floors, and someone blasting music from a Bluetooth speaker they weren’t supposed to have.

Welcome to Lincoln High.

The jungle.

New school. New life. New Maya.

That was the plan.

Until someone shoved her shoulder hard enough to knock her off balance.

“Watch it, new girl,” a voice snapped behind her. Feminine. Sharp. Too much perfume. The girl walked away with a group of others who laughed like it was funny.

Maya didn’t even flinch. She just stepped back in line with the lockers, inhaled slowly, and fixed her eyes on her schedule. Locker 142. History, then English. Room 207.

Simple.

Don’t talk. Don’t attract attention. Don’t get involved.

Her fingers were already trembling when she reached the metal handle of her locker. She hated that. She’d told herself she was fine. But her body never listened.

She’d only just started twisting the lock when the hallway went quieter.

Not silent. Just… shifted. Like the room tilted slightly in one direction.

People moved aside, whispers rising like fog.

That’s when she saw him.

Tall. Hoodie up. Black jeans. Heavy boots. Eyes like he didn’t care about the world and the world didn’t care about him.

Zane Carter.

He walked like he owned the building, even though every teacher supposedly hated him. Rumor had it he’d been suspended twice last semester and still walked back in like he never left.

Maya kept her head down, but it was too late.

Their eyes met.

Only for half a second, but it hit like thunder.

He paused. That was weird enough. Most boys like him didn’t pause for girls like her — quiet ones with too much baggage and nothing shiny on the outside.

“You’re the new girl?” he asked, voice low and casual, like he already knew the answer.

Maya blinked, surprised he was even talking to her. “And you’re the hallway police?”

He stared at her for a beat, then did something unexpected — he laughed.

Actually laughed. It was short, but real.

“I like her,” he said to no one in particular, then winked and kept walking.

Maya froze.

A few heads turned. Whispers started again.

Who is she? Why did Zane talk to her?

She wanted to scream. She wanted to rewind five seconds and look away. She wanted to disappear into her locker and stay there until graduation.

Instead, she opened it, stuffed her bag inside, and slammed it shut.

This was not part of the plan.

She found Room 207 easily enough. The classroom smelled like dry markers and old paper. Students were already seated. She headed for the empty desk by the window and took it without a word.

“Hey,” a soft voice said behind her.

She turned slightly. A girl with pink hair, thick glasses, and a stack of bracelets smiled at her.

“You’re new, right? I’m Kennedy.”

“Maya,” she said cautiously.

Kennedy didn’t wait. She slid into the seat next to her. “Don’t worry about Alana. She’s been the queen of this place since sophomore year and acts like she invented lockers and lip gloss. You bumped her?”

“She bumped me.”

“Yeah, that tracks.” Kennedy laughed. “Also, you talked to Zane. Girl, are you trying to start a riot on your first day?”

Maya groaned and dropped her head on the desk. “It wasn’t like that.”

“Mm-hmm. He winked at you.”

“He winked at the air, not me.”

Kennedy grinned. “Same thing when it comes to Zane Carter. The girls here? They keep score.”

Maya closed her eyes.

One morning.

One hallway.

And somehow she’d already gotten the queen bee’s attention and stirred the school’s most dangerous boy.

Perfect.

The rest of the day was a blur of awkward introductions and careful silence. Maya barely spoke in any of her classes. She took notes, sat in corners, and left each room before the bell finished ringing.

But at lunch, she saw him again.

Zane.

Leaning back at a table near the courtyard windows, earbuds in, arms folded behind his head like he had no care in the world.

Two girls sat near him. One leaned in so close, she was practically sitting in his lap. He didn’t move. Didn’t smile. Just stared out the window.

Then, without warning, he turned — and looked straight at her.

Dead in the eyes.

Again.

Maya’s heart jolted. She turned away quickly and focused on the vending machine like it held the secrets of the universe.

“Do you want to sit with us?” Kennedy asked, holding out a tray.

Maya nodded, following her to the back of the cafeteria where a small group of misfits — one boy with blue hair and another in a trench coat — were arguing about anime.

Safe. Peaceful. No drama.

At least for now.

After school, she walked to the parking lot, keys in hand. Her aunt had lent her an old car — a faded blue Corolla that coughed when it started. But it worked.

She didn’t notice Zane leaning against his black motorcycle until she reached her door.

“Hey, Maya.”

Her grip tightened on her keys.

“You remembered my name?” she asked, confused.

“Hard to forget someone who stares like they can see through people.”

She swallowed. “That’s dramatic.”

“Maybe,” he shrugged. “Or maybe I just see through you.”

She blinked. “Do you always say weird things to strangers?”

He smirked. “Only the interesting ones.”

Silence stretched. Maya opened her car door, heart pounding in ways she didn’t like.

“Careful,” he said before she stepped in.

“Of what?”

“Of getting noticed,” he said simply. “It’s harder to go back to being invisible after that.”

She sat inside, shut the door, and stared at her reflection in the rearview mirror.

What just happened?

She had come here to disappear.

But Zane Carter just made her the most visible girl in school.