x
The bathroom smelled like lavender and smoke—one from the school’s cheap air freshener, the other from Karoline’s vape pen.
Rose leaned against the marble sink, arms crossed, watching herself in the mirror like she was trying to see past her own reflection. Pearl stood by the window, half-listening, half-spying on the courtyard below.
Karoline exhaled a cloud of mango-scented vapor. “So what’s the deal with the new girl? You know her?”
Rose didn’t answer right away. She was thinking. Calculating. Her silence made Karoline shift nervously, even though nothing ever rattled her—not parties, not breakups, not even the night she overdosed behind the gym and swore the stars whispered her name.
“She looked at me like I was… nothing,” Rose finally said.
Pearl laughed softly. “Maybe she just has good taste.”
Rose shot her a sharp look, but Pearl didn’t flinch. That was her power—she could kill you softly and smile while doing it.
“Where is she now?” Rose asked.
“Library,” Pearl said, checking her phone. “Samantha’s in there too. Probably hovering.”
Meanwhile, in the library, Isabel sat in the farthest corner, one boot propped on the edge of the table, reading The Picture of Dorian Gray. She wasn’t reading it, though. She was studying her reflection in the dark window—watching the way Adam stared at her from across the room.
He was pretending to be reading, but his eyes kept drifting back to her.
Their gazes locked.
She smirked, just a little. Not flirtation. A dare.
Adam didn’t look away. He closed his book, stood up, and walked straight to her table.
Samantha, sitting one shelf over, slid her headphones down and tilted her head, listening.
“Not many people read Wilde anymore,” Adam said.
Isabel looked up. “Most people bore me. Wilde doesn’t.”
He studied her face. “Where are you from?”
She turned the page. “Someplace quieter than here. And less fake.”
Adam leaned in, close enough that she could smell his cologne—clean, sharp, expensive.
“Moonlight High is just masks on top of masks,” he said.
“And you?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “Which mask do you wear, Adam?”
He didn’t answer.
Later that day, Mark found her on the rooftop.
“You know this school eats people like you alive, right?”
Isabel didn’t turn. She was watching the fog roll in over the trees. “Good thing I’m not easy to chew.”
Mark let out a short laugh. “You’re interesting.”
“You’re broken.”
Silence.
She turned to face him. “I don’t mind broken. I just hate liars.”
Mark looked at her like he wanted to say something—but instead, he walked away.
Back downstairs, Ryan punched his locker hard enough to draw blood.
“What the hell is so special about her?” he growled.
Andrew raised an eyebrow. “Maybe the fact she doesn’t fall at your feet like every other girl.”
Ryan’s jaw clenched. “I don’t like being ignored.”
Pearl, who had been listening from around the corner, whispered under her breath:
“She’s not ignoring you, Ryan. She’s watching you.”
And by the end of that day, every single one of them had felt the shift.
Like the school had inhaled and was waiting to exhale something dangerous.
Something with Isabel’s name on it.
29Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSgZe2wmWf8
Stay Tuned for chapter 3
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