Elise Park had perfected the art of being invisible.She walked the halls of Northridge High with her head slightly down, arms full of textbooks, oversized hoodies swallowing her frame. Baggy jeans. Sneakers that had seen better days. Thick-rimmed glasses she didn’t always need but wore anyway. Teachers liked her. Most students barely registered her. That was the point.Rhys Carter registered her.He just made sure everyone knew it was for the wrong reasons.Rhys was the school captain, the golden boy, the one the cheerleaders fought over. Tall, sharp-jawed, with the kind of easy confidence that came from never having to try too hard. He dated the prettiest girls, threw the best parties, and treated people like Elise as background noise — or worse, as entertainment.“Watch it, four-eyes,” he said that morning when she accidentally brushed his shoulder near the lockers. His friends laughed on cue. “Wouldn’t want you to drop all those books and have a personality crisis.”Elise didn’t a
Last Updated : 2026-09-12 Read more