Chapter 1

ROSE SHARMAN

"It is so beautiful." I sighed fascinated at Edrien.

Edrien Peck, the magician of mysteries, the bad boy from Institute. And the most handsome and strange boy in the institute who bullied.

"It's so horrendous." Gus, my best friend, mutters reluctantly.

"If you were gay, you wouldn't find it horrible." I narrowed my eyes, glaring at him.

"Why do you like a weirdo like that?" I snort.

"That's exactly why I like it, its rarity. He is unique."

Her black hair, fair complexion, grayish green eyes, bushy eyebrows, thin and luscious lips, a slender and worked body fitted in black clothing, a turned-up nose, a not exaggeratedly marked jaw.

Really, it was.

"You have nothing in your favor, he has caught you countless times spying on him, and no, it is not a seduction tactic, when he sees your laptop wallpaper he will sue you for harassment." funny laugh.

"No, he won't run away from me," I growled, "and shut up, your laugh is horrendous." I crossed my arms.

"Sure, stalker."

"I at least accept it," I shrugged my shoulders, "but I can't say the same about you, you're still behind your ex," I cleared my throat, "humiliating yourself."

I ended the conversation when I saw Edrien leave the field, his class was over and I knew he was heading to the library. How do I know? I've been bullying him since he was six years old, and I'm not exaggerating.

"Don't scare him away, Abby and I will wait for you in the dining room."

"See you."

I rushed to go after him, very subtly and very cautiously.

All the boys in the halls saw him as a freak and the girls as a chocolate with legs.

Ethan's reputation was not bad but unusual, he is the second most popular boy without even crossing monosyllables with his peers, he was famous for his mysterious aura and wrapped in secrets.

Everyone who wondered who is Edrien Peck?, got more questions in response.

But I knew him very well, I have heard him sing in the shower, I also know that he likes criminology, he is the leader of the chess group, he listens to alternative rock or Heaven-metal, he hates rabbits, his favorite colors are fainter scales of gray. And I would even tell you how his first communion was, but I lose focus on my goal: spying on Edrien .

Where are you going, Edrien? You're supposed to get literature in the library, honey, why are you going the other way?

She was very immersed in not making noise and going cautiously after his steps, the distance between the two has not changed, there are fifteen feet in between, the usual fifteen feet.

I sneakily lift my face to the front and I gasped when he looked in my direction.

Fuck, hide gross, keep walking.

I dragged my feet and stiff legs, forcing myself to take a firm step, I don't breathe and I feel like I'm freezing.

He narrowed his eyes and completely paralyzed me, he gave me a scan looking for something unusual from normal, he continued with the sides of the corridor, I did it too and to my misfortune; the corridor was completely empty.

"Stop following me." Rough mused like his voice.

I swallowed forcefully and broke into a cold sweat, because he had caught me.

"I-I wasn't following you," I stammered, scratching the back of my neck, "I was heading to..."

"Get away."

"That?" stunned watched as he resumed his walk.

"I won't repeat it."

It took me a while to react and I ran until I reached her side, of course keeping fifteen feet.

"Because?"

I had to stay as far away from him as possible, but I couldn't silence that curious voice that wants to know about the enigmatic boy, a voice that I hate sometimes.

"Do it.” he said grudgingly, his countenance; not friendly at all; it was accentuated before leaving. And it was clear what you want: Do not follow me!

Well, that was all for today.

He sighed processing what happened in that corridor, it was not the first crossover between the two, since he has already caught me harassing him on several occasions.

"How did it go? Did you discover anything?" Abby ran over the questions, she has always been the same or more curious than me, that's why she was my best friend.

"Edrien hate me." I exclaimed in a pout, dramatically sitting down at our table.

"You have every right to do so."

"You don't know how much your support comforts me , Gus."

"You're welcome, that's what friends are for."

I dropped my head on the table, forgetting the world for a moment.

"Hey, it's not that important." I felt Abby's hand pat my back, I turned my face to see him and smiled.

"Talk later." I confessed discouraged.

"That?" He had two pairs of eyes wide open watching me, they were stunned.

"Yeah, all he said to me was, Get away." I went back to my pout, "They can believe it."

"It's Edrien Peck, what did you expect?"

“Good point, Gus." Abby supported tossing herself a potato chip.

“He has feelings deep down, guys."

Deep down, but he had them.

"Of course." They both muttered, dismissing my statement.

"Here come the royalty ." Gus said greedily.

The royalty: the most popular group at the Institute named after my friend, of course.

In the royalty we can find:

Aly, my Edrien's ex-girlfriend, an attractive girl to look at, super sociable and very charismatic, too bad she's manipulative, captain of the cheerleaders, the envy of many and annoyance of thousands.

Monica, the principal's daughter, the voluptuous girl with no brains but who knows how to get what she wants, and Aly's best friend, good at making scandals and can't stand being ignored. How bad the hell was for me.

Frederick, the life of the party, the first boy in the ranking of the most popular, relaxed, distracted, his name is synonymous with fun and problems; and a shambles in numbers, her grades stinking worse than cat poop.

Eliécer, a handsome boy who knows how handsome he is and doesn't hesitate to flaunt it, is the second best average in algebra, an economics intern, has excellent grades, is responsible and educated. A defect? He is narcissistic with an ego with larger dimensions than the mysteries of the universe. Oh, and he's Edrien's older brother.

The same Edrien who was staring at me from his spot at the VIP table. His dark eyes scrutinized me carefully looking for a flaw.

Did you miss something on my face, honey?

"Did you see his new tattoo?" I heard the surprised tone in Abby's voice.

"Yes, on his neck," I looked at the z; if that's what it could be called; on her skin, "it suits her."

"It looks sexier."

"Umm." I nodded agreeing with her, but lost in her tattoo.

"Control yourselves, it's not like it was Chris Evans, for God's." Gus snapped, fed up with our mini-chat, "Rose, you're going to accompany me to the lab, right?"

I turned my attention to him, he had a pout that matched his wavy hair. How cute.

"Okay, but make it quick, I have to help mom with the sweets later and I don't have the wild card of being late."

"Perfect, I won't be long," he promised with a wink, "They saw the new entrants... according to and that they are causing hormonal fever."

I denied disinterestedly, "I haven't seen them, and you abby?"

His eyes were drawn to, let me spin m… My God, let's praise that creation!

Brown eyes located symmetrically in her rectangular fair-skinned face were divine, her two piercings on her left eyebrow and another on her; pink and wet; lower lip gave him the image of someone insufferable, strong and rude.

His enigmatic aura dressed in dark outfits drove any girl crazy. Leather jacket, pants and black diver. A mysterious boy straight out of a Play Boy magazine.

I sighed captivated by his charms in plain sight, "Who is he?"

"Grean, a boy whose intellect is amazing and his courage is to be admired. Of few words, he hates everyone and loves loneliness." my friend replied, smiling at me mischievously.

I lowered my slug smile, "Um…Interesting."

"It's cute." Abby said, elbowing me under the table. I glared at her.

After a long time, silence settled in the dining room, giving the signal to what all Westside Institute students already know.

"The odyssey has already begun." Abby declared.

The Odyssey: better known as the torture of fools. In it, the popular or better-class kids take advantage of trampling or bothering the poor scholarship holders.

Every day it was the same group of nerds who mercilessly attacked, taking away their trays, kicking their bags, ripping their notebooks, breaking their glasses and even stealing their homework.

Just now I saw how the weakling of the group of nerds, I think his name is Richard, hunched over in the presence of Frederick who intimidatingly grabbed his backpack, pushing the boy leaving him on the floor.

That was the reality that the scholarship holders had to face, it is unfair that just for that reason they take advantage of them in such a cruel way. For the good of the nerds there was a guardian who made an appearance.

Grean.

"Give him back his backpack, Freck, you weren't taught not to take what doesn't belong to you." He spoke sternly, contracting his marked jaw.

His bravery was the best joke for Frederick, who still hadn't let go of the boy's backpack.

"It's none of your business, Elordi," He laughed, emptying the bag and throwing its contents on the floor and; as if he didn't have an ounce of goodness in his stocky body; She takes her diet soda, takes a sip, and scrunches up her face, "It tastes pathetic." He mutters before pouring the liquid on the boy's things.

It was sad to see the poor man's face, because the soda drenched his work, absorbing all his effort.

"My history report." I call inaudibly looking at the soaked and useless sheets.

"It was pathetic, Richard, like diet soda." Frederick smiled malevolently to go off to celebrate his great feat with his group.

Nobody got up to help Richard, because if we got involved we would become part of the select list of those molested. Despite that, Grean bent down and tried to clean his friend's things, but it was impossible to rescue his assessment.

“Poor boy, they never leave him alone."

"This is wrong, Abby." I said getting up to help, I felt I had to. I would have fed Freck my work in his shoes, so he would have an excuse: my partner ate my work, Professor.

"Do not even think about it." Gus stopped me, but I continued my altruistic impulse.

"Listen to your friend, little girl." Frederick commanded jokingly.

"It's not fair what they do and they know it," I defended, and I don't know where I got the guts from, the same ones that disappeared when I saw him approaching, "he has the same rights as you, even if he's a scholarship holder."

"Let's see, little girl, who decides..."

“Leave her alone, Freck." Edrien intervened placing his hand on his imbecile friend's shoulder.

Was he defending me?

"Since when are you so condescending, eh?" He hesitated smugly, Eliécer.

"Since never, but she has nothing to do with this." his brother objected.

"I'm sorry to say: he's right."

Freck still wanted to continue having fun, in his mischievous look thousands of ideas passed where I was his jester.

"Good," He shrugged, removing Edrien's hand and nailing me with one last warning as he left, "Take care of yourself, little girl."

Yeah, he wouldn't leave me alone.

I was officially on his list.

"If you're smart you won't make the same mistake, Rose." said the Magician of the mystery passing by my side, bumping my shoulder to stamp his words on me.

I swallowed, glancing at him out of the corner of my eye, realizing that I've never told him my name.

How did he know?

What if Edrien knew more than my name?

Honestly, thirty minutes have passed since the incident in the dining room and it doesn't stop replaying in my mind.

"Gus, have you ever talked to Edrien?"

"Let me review my memories. Hum" he frowned, thinking, "Oh, right, in kindergarten and it was to keep quiet that he had hidden a spider in his backpack."

I stopped walking and didn't see myself, but my face must have been confusion in person.

"A Tarantula?"

"Yes, he said: you shut up or my spider shuts you up. It was very strange for me at five years old."

I snorted kicking a stone from the path.

"Why do you ask?"

"It's just that... He knows my name and... I never introduced myself to him," I sniffed, overwhelmed, "Who could have told him?"

"Don't stress about it, little Rose, maybe she heard us say it and you were turning into a puzzle." he advised arriving at the laboratory, stopping us in front of its doors.

"You're right. Forgotten affair... "

Did that guy walking into the library look a lot like Edrien?

"Wait for me here, the experiment will last a few minutes and we'll leave, believe me; studying the internal anatomy of a puffer fish will be easy."

"Sure, as you say." I said looking better.

Damn, it didn't look like…it was Edrien himself.

"You can wait for me in the library so you don't bore me."

"That's exactly what I'll do." I decided going straight to the library, right behind an attractively mysterious boy.

He went to the gothic narrative shelves, it was his favorite genre in terms of reading. I kept the fifteen feet and went to the next shelf, the drama one. I didn't like the genre at all, but my eyes enjoyed the space between the books to see it on the other side, it just wasn't there.

Where was he?

I went from space, taking care of my sounds or rather the squeaking of my plastic sandals against the ceramic, I cautiously browsed through the books and reached the end surrounded by shelves, where the opaque light did not act in my favor to find its whereabouts, not until that I heard some voices on the shelf behind me.

"You did the work?" I heard clear as water, this voice was unique to me, it was Edrien's rusty voice.

Job? Sure it's the tedious history report or it could be the physics blueprints.

"There was a problem." whispered another deep voice, obviously male, but no face came to mind when I heard it.

Yes, they were the physics blueprints.

"Now what?"

"I think there is a witness, someone saw everything."

Ok, or they didn't talk about that kind of work .

What he said caused a sarcastic chuckle from Edrien, "Impossible."

"I don't like being the one to tell you this, but... Yes, it's possible, because the anonymous witness sent me some photos by mail that were very... compromising and detrimental to both of us." that killed the giggle of the aforementioned.

"For both?" Edrien uttered greedily, "This is your problem, solve it before the authorities get involved."

Authorities? How serious was the matter?

"How supportive" ironic complaint before snorting, "Scare or funeral?"

Funeral? What the fuck...?!

"Delete it." Edrien sentenced, and I held my breath. They would eliminate a witness, a person, knowledge that made me swallow cold saliva.

My Edrien wouldn't be able to eliminate someone… right?

"Whatever you want."

"There's no trace or proof that incriminates you, right?"

"No."

"I'm leaving." His footsteps echoed down the hall, Edrien was leaving.

"Edrien."

"What do you want?" I mumble irritated.

"You put the note on the body."

So there was a body.

"Error #1 in red letters." he replied and sounded bitter.

This is scaring me, if they found out it would be Error #2, I better go and nothing has happened here. I wish my plans went as planned and there were no failures like slipping and falling on your ass, obviously not as pathetic as me.

"Ouch." I groaned, while rubbing my butt, the floor is solid.

"What was that." asked the unknown voice, she had heard me.

SHIT!!!

"It was me, I sneezed, I'm allergic to stalkers."

SHIT TWICE!!!

Help me! Help! SOS! Help! Aid! May day, May day!