Chapter 1: New Rules, New Game

The early sunlight filtered through the blinds, casting slanted shadows onto the old wooden floor. Shylie Reed blinked awake, the room coming into focus around her. The smell of bacon from the kitchen drifted to her, the air warm around her. This wasn't a hospital room. Not the white, cold walls, smelling of antiseptic and sorrow. This wasn't the world she had left behind, the life she had lived in the year 2020. This was 1993.

She sat up, her mind still sluggish with the last remnants of sleep, remembering the life that she had lived in the past, the sixteen years of loneliness, of being unseen, of being unimportant. A lifetime of pain and mistakes and regrets fading away with each passing day like some bad dream, slipping farther and farther into the abyss of the past with every waking moment.

Sixteen. Shylie blinked, the word echoing in her head. She blinked, feeling her new life solidify around her, the weight of everything settling on her like a mantle. No longer a sickly middle-aged woman who had let her life slip through her fingers. No longer a ghost of her former self. This was Shylie. This was her, back to life, given the chance to make a change, to start anew. No more holding back, no more pretending, this time around, she was going to take charge.

She looked around the room, taking in her surroundings. It was the same room as it had always been, the faded wallpaper of her childhood home still clinging to the walls, a few old pop music posters on the wall, a few books on the shelf left untouched for years, the ambient sound of her family making breakfast. A small house, quiet and cramped, the kitchen always smelling like her mother's cooking. Shylie slid out of bed, walking quietly towards the door, her bare feet touching the hard wooden floor. Walking down the narrow hallway, her mind swimming, Shylie processed everything.

Hearing their voices behind the kitchen door. Her mother, Mrs. Reed, standing and talking about something. She sounded cheerful enough, excited. Mrs. Reed was going to be part of the PTA this year, and she seemed to be getting rather into it, the usually shy woman making it her mission to get involved with her daughter's life in school. The rest of the family was in the kitchen too, her father, Mr. Reed, sitting at the table with a cup of coffee and a newspaper, the crinkle of paper like a pair of papery wings as he flipped through the news, his world as fixed and permanent and inflexible as the ink that covered those pages. Shylie slipped into the room, her father barely looking up as she entered. He was lost in his own little world, deaf to the lives of others.

Except Leah.

Leah, the golden girl. The adopted daughter who had been the star of the show her whole life. The one who could do no wrong. Leah was eighteen, and even at eighteen she was the most popular girl in school, the most sought-after, the best at everything she tried. Straight-A student. Beautiful. Graceful. Sexy as hell. It always seemed like Leah's life was perfect, while Shylie's own existence was just something left to follow in Leah's wake.

"Good morning, Shylie." The older sister spoke up, the blonde's voice as bright and inauthentic as the sun.

Shylie didn't respond, but her eyes met her sister's, her gaze icy and cool. This was it, no more games. No more hiding. No more fading into the background. This time, Shylie was going to be the one in control. She was going to take the stage.

"Morning." Shylie responded, her tone flat, detached. She was no longer the shy girl she had once been. She was no longer the invisible teenager. The unimportant middle child.

Thomas, her younger brother, still at the age of gullible adoration, sat opposite her at the table, the family dynamic obvious in his very presence. He still idolized Leah. He still saw Leah as the bigger sister he would always try and emulate.

"Shylie, did you hear? I'm trying out for the football team this year!" Thomas was grinning, bouncing on the edge of his seat. "You'll come to the games, right?"

Shylie smiled to herself, not showing it, but the sincerity of Thomas's face warming her heart. "Of course, Thomas," she said lazily, still not looking up from the paper.

Leah's eyes flashed, but she didn't say anything. Leah was not worried about Thomas. She was not worried about Shylie. Leah was worried about her own position at the table, Leah, the golden girl, Shylie, the afterthought.

But this time. This time, Shylie was going to change everything. She was going to rise above it all.

Shylie Reed stepped through the doors of Rooseville Academy, a local public school a few towns over from her house. The halls were a cacophony of adolescent chatter, the noises of gossip and laughter and students shuffling to their next classes ringing in her ears. Shylie paused at the doorway, a rush of new beginnings running through her. She was no longer a sullen, nervous teenager. No longer the girl who faded into the background. Today, she was a new force. Calm and collected, composed and intelligent, Shylie was a force of nature to be reckoned with.

The uniform was the same as always, a white blouse, a plaid skirt, the tiny school emblem sewn on her collar, and she looked amazing in it. Her dark hair fell around her shoulders, framing her angular face. There was something about her. An indescribable quality that made her different from everyone else. Not just pretty. Alluring. There was a strength to her, a calm certainty. She was a mystery.

As she strode down the hall, the people around her seemed to take notice. She could feel it in their eyes. She could hear the whispers as people passed her.

"Who's that?"

"She looks like a movie star."

"She's new, right?"

"I've never seen her before."

She didn't care. She wasn't here to be seen, to be noticed in the way they wanted. She was here to dominate.

In homeroom, the teacher began calling out names on the roll sheet. When she got to "Shylie Reed," she paused, a tension in the air. Shylie rose, standing at attention, her posture perfect. "Here," she said simply.

The room quieted for a second. They didn't know what to make of her. They wouldn't. They would get used to her. They would eventually learn where she fit in the social pecking order.

Shylie was a junior. Officially. But that was a formality. She wasn't going to stay in this grade for long. She had a plan. She was going to accelerate. She was going to finish school early and leave this godforsaken town behind before anyone else even considered their future.

At lunch, Shylie sat at a table in the corner, a stack of textbooks on the table in front of her. She didn't need to make friends. She didn't need to be social. She needed knowledge. "Accelerate. Dominate. Don't stop until you own this." She said to herself, flipping between the textbooks in front of her.

Math, science, history. Subjects she had never quite grasped in her previous life were now obsolete. Just stepping stones to her final goal.

She took meticulous notes, pen scribbling furiously over the paper.

Across the cafeteria, Leah sat with her clique, a gaggle of followers hanging on her every word. Laughing at her jokes. Complimenting her clothes. Leah was undeniably beautiful, and undeniably charismatic, but Shylie saw through it. She saw through Leah's ploy. Behind that sweet smile was a coldness. A malice. An evil that Shylie knew would be revealed.