CHAPTER 1: Gabrielle

It was her first day at the new school.

Gabe walked through the corridors with her chin in the air, her bodyguards following closely behind. With her cold, dark, almond-shaped eyes, she glanced at the other students, staring at her curiously and whispering among themselves. Gabe sighed. It was only natural that the other students would look at her like that, considering the fact that she was new here, had six bodyguards tailing her, and had unnaturally good looks. Gabe stopped in her tracks and turned around. The six bodyguards stumbled to a stop abruptly and the closest one, Keith, crashed into her. "Sorry, Gabe," Keith said reaching out to steady her.

"Oh, please, you guys don't have to follow so closely. Just leave me alone and go home," Gabe groaned, clearly in a bad mood.

"We can't, we have orders from your father to keep you safe," Henry, another bodyguard replied, with a sympathetic expression.

"Furthermore, this is an unfamiliar place. We have no idea what sort of danger might be lurking around the corner," Keith added.

Gabe ignored them and looked around again. Now, all the students at the corridor were staring at her with wide eyes. Gabe wondered which of them would be her new "friends".

Throughout her life, Gabe never had a real friend whom she could trust. All the people around her who acted as her friends were only trying to get close to her for their own gains, but vanished when she was in need of help. Gabe was unaware that her unfriendly personality was one of the factors that led to this problem.

Gabe entered the classroom.

The classroom looked like any other ordinary classroom, with desks and chairs and a whiteboard. At the back of the classroom, there was a noticeboard decorated sloppily, with a few pieces of paper pinned on, flapping in the wind. This time, it wasn't a posh, high-end school that she was attending, but only an average neighborhood school. Gabe frowned disapprovingly.

"Who on earth are you?" A girl in the front row stood up at her seat and leaned forward, resting her palms on her desk.

"Hey, everyone, I'm Gabrielle," Gabe introduced herself.

The girl narrowed her eyes pointed over Gabe's shoulder. "And who are those?"

"We are Gabrielle's bodyguards. We are responsible for her safety," Keith answered automatically, as he had always done.

"I wasn't talking to you," the girl stared hard at Keith with steely eyes.

Keith was usually unfeeling, but this girl's stony stare and disrespectful attitude made him feel slightly irked. Even Gabe's attitude could not compare with hers. Gabe was only cold and irritated at worst, but this girl was just plain annoying.

Smirking, the girl eyed Gabe maliciously. "Nice watch you have," she suddenly said randomly, attempting to prod at Gabe's watch with her sharp fingernails.

Gabe felt suspicious of her intentions, and instinctively swatted her hand away.

"Why do you even need bodyguards with reflexes like that?" she snickered and looked around at her classmates. "Did you see that? This girl wants to get on my bad side. She smacked my hand and ruined my nails! Poor nails," she blew on her fingernails dramatically. The class laughed at Gabe's stunned expression.

Gabe could not stand this girl. She had never encountered someone as snobbish as her. She would soon deal with her. She would have to teach her a lesson she will never forget so that she would not dare to mess with her again. Shutting her eyes, she clenched her fist and bided her time.

"Hey, look! New girl's angry," Gabe heard the girl turning around and announcing to the class.

Now.

Gabe opened her eyes slowly and peered at the girl. She was still facing the class and was about to turn back to face her. Suddenly, Gabe swung a hard kick at the girl's leg. The girl's leg flew out from under her and she landed on her bottom on the floor, shrieking. Gabe smirked.

Footsteps sounded from outside. A tall and lean woman with horn-rimmed glasses entered the classroom. "What's going on here?" she asked, her eyes resting on Gabe.

Gabe suddenly realized that she and her bodyguards were standing at the front of the classroom, towering over the girl on the ground, looking like bullies. She wiped the smile off her face and unfolded her arms. This did not look good.

"Hello, you must be Gabrielle. I'm your form teacher, Ms. Lee," she said.

"I usually won't tolerate any form of violence, but seeing that you are a new student, I'll let you off this time," she said, fixing Gabe with her steely glare, "Class, you will have to clear some seats to make way for her and her bodyguards."

Gabe fidgeted while her classmates stood up and shifted their seats and belongings. "Why must we move seats just for her bodyguards?" one of them complained.

"Why does she even need so many bodyguards?"

"She must be some rich kid, acting so proud and snobbish."

"Even Ms. Lee's showing favoritism, treating her differently from us. I got a huge scolding for just flicking my pen at Vic last week."

Ms. Lee ignored them and turned to Gabe, "Why don't you tell them more about yourself? They seem to have many questions about you."

What was she supposed to say? Hi, I'm Gabe, this is my sixteenth time transferring to a new school and I have bodyguards because people have attempted to murder me more than a dozen times? If she said that, her classmates would think was a freak.

In the end, she decided to settle with a short and precise sentence, "I'm Gabrielle. I'm the daughter of a conglomerate."

"Care to elaborate?" Ms. Lee said.

"My family started a holding company Chen Corporation... and Riell Hotel and Lay J fast food joint are just one of the many subsidiaries under our holding company. Also... I live in a mansion somewhere near the school."

Gabe looked around at her classmates. They stared back at her. They were looking at her with the same expression of envy and awe that the students from all her previous schools did. The arrogant girl who thinks that the world revolves around her was still sitting on the ground, waiting for someone to pick her up. Gabe decided that she would try to avoid that girl as much as possible.