Chapter 1

~Zayne Beckett~

Running and draining my energy on the first day of the school year was not ideal at all. I got up late that morning, thinking school hadn't started yet. Like any other high school student, adjusting to the new sleeping schedule at the beginning of the term was not easy.

Of course, my mom woke me up by yelling at me for being late.

Finally, I arrived. With the doors in sight, I let out a heavy sigh and wiped the sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand. I always hated exercising in the mornings. Especially after a wonderful shower.

My plan for that semester was... well, there was no plan. At that point, I didn't care as long as I graduated. Yes, my future would be at stake, but I had not one clue what I wanted to do for a living. When my brain rolled up with that thought, walking towards the school doors, I officially declared that finding my career would be my plan.

Obviously, it would not be that easy. I knew it from the start. But I did have to start from somewhere. What better place to start other than school?

The internet.

I was deeply lost in the thought of how to start when someone charged right into my right arm. Maybe it wasn't intentional by the person, but it did get me on the ground and with a grazed arm.

With the stinging sensation in my forearm, I winced and dreaded looking at the problem. Something told me that I was bleeding, and it may have been the fluid that was running down my arm. I never took the sight of blood so well. Unfortunately, my curiosity got the best of me and I glanced at the source of the pain.

My head began to feel lighter as I saw the red liquid running from my body. I felt like the whole world was shaking as my vision slightly blurred. Even more so, my breakfast stirred in my stomach just waiting to erupt.

Going into the medical sciences is already out of the question.

I blinked rapidly, trying my best to stay conscious. Sweat began forming around my head and I could've heard my heartbeat drumming in my ears. A flash of white light passed in front of my eyes and for a split second, I thought I was dying.

It was just the sun, thankfully.

But with my blurry vision, I thought I had been imagining things. Someone, possibly the person who ran into me, began to wash my wound with water, dried it off with a napkin, and then slapped a bandage on it. My head became heavier the more I tried to focus my vision. It craned back without my command and I took a deep and difficult breath.

Was that pink hair?

I looked back at the person, but they were already on their feet and rushing in the direction of the school. My vision cleared and I trained my eyes on them. Their silky, bright pink hair bounced as they strode with confidence, not ever taking a moment to glance back. They soon disappeared through the doors leaving me with nothing but questions.

In the quick moment it happened, confusion washed over me. I was known to be very rude in school. It was already so weird for someone to even pay attention to me. Even after all that, I didn't get a good look at them, nor did I get their name.

Who was that?

◇◇◇

I hadn't let the incident that morning bother me for the rest of the morning. The best thing to do there was to just ignore it and move on. It was some random person doing their good deed for the day. That's all.

Walking into the cafeteria, I scanned the entire room in search of my friends. I caught a few odd looks my way but disregarded them. There wasn't anyone with pink hair though, so maybe I really was just delusional. The bandage on my arm said otherwise, but maybe I just imagined the hair alone.

I found my small group and made my way over to them. Carter Lowes, my best friend, waved a french fry in front of his girlfriend with a smile. Nadia Ward, the girlfriend, giggled before pushing it back to him.

"What are you doing? The French did nothing to you," I say, as I plop down in the seat across from the couple.

"Zayne, tell Carter that he should have the first fry," Nadia smiles and playfully rolls her eyes.

"No, it's your tray, so it's your food," Carter says casually. He held the fry out in front of Nadia's mouth.

"But Carter, you paid for the food," Nadia turns to face Carter completely.

"Nadia, you take it," he smiled.

"No, you take it."

"I'll take it," I said, as I grabbed the french fry from Carter. They both looked at me as if I've done something to end the world. "Problem solved." A devilish grin crept onto my face.

I love my friends. Of course, you wouldn't normally hear that from a guy. Carter is almost like a brother I never had, and Nadia is fun to hang around, as long as she dresses up Carter and not me when she takes us shopping. Their love is cute, and it doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that they argue about small things, such as a french fry.

I will never understand why they do that.

While I ate my cheeseburger, my mind wandered to the bruise on my arm. I immediately thought about the person with pink hair. Nothing kept me from thinking about it but myself. My eyes tightened as I shook my head and continued to listen in on Carter and Nadia's conversation about free periods.

It didn't make sense that I waste time on it. All it was was just someone doing something nice to make themself feel good about it. But why would it not leave my mind no matter how hard I tried? Was it because of the pink hair? If that was the case, why did it bother me? It was normal to have unnatural hair colours.

From the far corner of my eye, I spotted pink hair. I turned my head slightly and then tried resisting looking at the person. My eyes closed as my heartbeat accelerated. Was I scared? They tightened shut as I turned completely to the table.

"Zayne!"

I looked at Carter. "What?"

"You good?" he asked. "I called you five times."

"Yeah, I'm good. What's up?"

"You free last period? We could hang out in the library if you want."

"Sure, I'll see what's going on."

Carter and Nadia soon left the cafeteria after they ate, as they had some extra work to finish. I shoved my right hand in my pocket and relaxed in my chair while going through my phone. I searched for career choices to know if I should go to college or not. Because frankly, I'd rather not go through more years of hell.

Eventually, I got bored and looked around the cafeteria. My eyes finally landed on the pink-haired person and I found myself staring at them. Their back was turned, but they got up and cleared their table. Anxiously, I waited for them to turn.

I wanted to know what they looked like, now that I knew they were real. Maybe someone dyed their hair pink for some weird reason. Maybe it was someone new. Maybe it was someone who was going through some kind of adult phase and thought that they were still in high school.

A sudden clatter of plastic trays was heard in their direction. My thoughts had distracted me from them because when I looked up, a student was covered in leftover fries with ketchup and mustard.

"Hey! What the hell is wrong with you?"

I let out a sigh and slowly strode over as I recognised the voice. It belonged to a guy named Mason Finn; the guy who's obnoxiously loud and gets into fights easily because of his recklessness. No teacher can control him when he gets into trouble. He can only be controlled by me because of something that happened in the past.

Since the person with pink hair was involved in whatever happened, it seemed relatively fair to help out in return for that morning. That's my good deed for the day, right? I thought maybe that would be another goal for the year. Trying to not be rude.

"I apologize, please let me clean my mess," the person spoke with a calming, soothing, beautiful high voice.

It had to be a girl. Though, some guys in school already had long hair and hadn't hit puberty yet. But their voice was too smooth to be a guy's voice. It just had to be a girl.

"Are you new or something? I haven't seen you around," Mason narrowed his eyes at them. It seemed like he forgot about the leftovers on his shirt.

Without warning, I stepped in front of him. His glare softened. "What's up?" I asked.

"She threw her leftovers on me," he shrugged.

"That doesn't mean you should yell at her," I spat back. Soon after I realized the person really was a girl. It confirmed my theory.

"She ruined my shirt, Zayne."

I rolled my eyes and turned to look at the pink-haired girl. The moment my eyes met her face was the point in time when I was anywhere but down on Earth.

My heart sank to the deepest part of my torso. There were butterflies in my throat and my stomach was in knots. Tears almost pooled in my eyes just as all my limbs went numb. I felt more nervous than I could've comprehended at that very moment.

She was more beautiful than words could've compared. The most heavenly girl I had ever seen. There was no doubt that she was new to the school. She couldn't have been here all this time. I would've noticed her for sure.

After what had felt like minutes, I abruptly turned back, tearing my gaze away from her. "It was an accident. And accidents happen. Don't they, Mason," I asked, which came out more as a statement than a question.

Mason regarded me for a moment. He knew exactly what I was talking about. I could tell from the way he shifted. He huffed before scowling at me. "Sure. It was an accident. Let's go with that." he turned to the girl. "I'll let it go for now."

Mason walked away, and the small crowd that formed slowly broke up. It was obvious they were expecting a fight. Unfortunately for them, I don't get into fights.

Shortly after Mason left, I forgot the girl was behind me. I hadn't looked back at her once before I walked off without asking if she was okay. Mason was already too much to handle. Just that event hopefully made her know to stay away from him.

With every step I took, I regretted more and more not looking back at her. I wanted to look at her more. I wanted to stare at her for the rest of the day. She seemed too majestic to not look at. But as I walked out, no one seemed to be bothered by her new appearance. For a split second, I wondered if they were crazy enough to not look at her. But that idea quickly vanished.

Was it just me?

◇◇◇

As promised, I met up with Carter and Nadia in the school library last period. I hadn't thought that time would've flown by so fast, had it just been lunch. The couple was searching for a romance novel while I was searching for a book about careers or anything in those fields. The earlier the better.

While I searched, my mind wandered to the pink-haired girl. The image I saw of her at lunch was clearly imprinted in my mind. Her pretty purple eyes were filled with worry, her cute, small pink lips frowning with dread, and her flawlessly fair skin practically glowed in the cafeteria light.

"Hello," her voice suddenly spoke. I thought I was, yet again, imagining things. As it turns out, she was actually standing right next to me. "I'm Aurora."

Ignoring the panic in my mind, I mindlessly leaned on the shelf. "Zayne," I responded flatly.

Aurora flashed a smile. "I wanted to thank you for the incident at lunch. I'm grateful for your actions."

"Yeah, no problem," my voice spoke on its own. "Just stay away from Finn. He causes fights at random."

She shifted awkwardly as I kept my gaze. She spoke to me, I thought.

"Alright," she let out with a smaller smile. "Oh, how's your arm?

I quickly glanced at my arm. I completely forgot I grazed it. "It's... better."

"That's nice to hear." She shifted once more. "I'm sorry for running into you this morning. I have no excuse."

My eyes narrowed as I tilted my head to the side. "Hm?"

"Uh, I-I said, I'm sorry for running into you."

I cracked a smile. "I heard what you said. What do you mean 'no excuse'? Did you need one?"

Aurora seemed hesitant to respond. She just stared at me for a few seconds. "It... would appear not..."

"That's right. The new guys have a get-out-of-jail-free card once. You used yours this morning, so don't let it happen again."

She seemed surprised. "What are you talking about?"

"It's a sort of routine here when it comes to me."

"Why you, specifically?"

I stopped. "Everyone avoids me."

Her eyes narrowed as she became more suspicious. "If everyone avoids you, then how is it a routine?"

"I've met a lot of new guys. I can be intimidating to them, so they avoid me on the whole."

"Have you seen them more than twice?"

I smirked. "More than you think, sweetheart."

She couldn't hold back her cringe, which stabbed me in the heart oddly enough. "Alright then. It won't happen again," she looked away unamused.

My eyes couldn't peel away from her. Her appearance was too eye-catching. I could've sworn anyone else was staring at her, but it was only me. How can they not? I thought to myself.

"Good," I said casually.

Aurora shot a look at me that made me feel guilty. The look seemed as if she was disappointed in me. I got the look a lot, but when it came from her, it worked. Who was she to suddenly make me feel guilty?

"Well, that's all, then." My eyes slightly widened as she said that. "I'll be off now. You take care, Zayne," she forced a smile and walked off.

As I watched her walk away, the soft but noticeable aching guilt in my chest grew larger. Why in the world was I feeling like that? She definitely made the forced smile unmistakable. But the question was why? What was she trying to achieve? Is it the little charade I kept up with the new kids?

She was out of sight when I turned back to the book I was holding. That's right, I was looking for careers. I shook my head and opened it, trying to turn my full attention to the book. She can't just pop out of nowhere and change my goals for the year. Who did she think she was?

She was a nobody. I wouldn't be seeing her again. And she definitely would not be the first new friend I make. She was already too distracting for me. Plus, it didn't seem like she was interested in being my friend anyways.

I smiled to myself. With Aurora out of the way, I would've been able to complete my goals in no time. It would be as easy as tolerating a younger sibling.

How was I so wrong?