8. Cut

The next day, when she got up with messy hair and made herself an instant coffee, Lance was already showered and reading the school-leaflet on the couch.

He looked up, stunned by her disheveled appearance. 

"Did you cut your hair?" He asked. 

Yesterday, it had been down to her lower back; now, it barely reached her shoulders, and after sleeping, it was all over the place. With the weight she had lost so far, she looked curvier than average girls, but surprisingly good, as long as she wasn't wearing her pajamas or jogging suit. 

She spotted the black school uniform, her full breasts filling her white blouse beautifully.

Only her expression looked neither alive nor dead, moving like a zombie. 

"Yeah, it's more convenient like this." 

Having had her hair short since she was a child in her original world, she would never admit that she was also scared some teenage girl might randomly go crazy pulling her long hair out.

Naturally, this could happen now too, but the range of attacks would be shorter. 

He heard her muttering under her breath. 

"Do you have some misgivings about teenagers? What happened in your generation?" 

She looked up, confused; so she spoke aloud what she thought. It was embarrassing, but it couldn't be helped; if you live alone for so long and do not communicate with anybody, your thoughts become your voice and your voice becomes your thoughts. 

"I'm freaking out about having to go to school again. Back in my time, they were all monsters, I tell you." 

It was hilarious that she just accepted the role of an elder; he had just joked with her. He didn't really think 34 was that old to speak from different generations. Then add the crazy hairstyle and this sentence coming from a tender fifteen-year-old with a big black cup full of coffee. 

She pulled a headband out of nowhere and gathered her hair into a messy, short ponytail. 

"Don't be nervous; you can get rid of one of them today." He grinned mischievously.

"Don't speak like that about your future wife, young man," she said casually, continuing to drink her coffee. 

"Do you have everything? Go ahead, and I'll follow a little after you. If someone sees you coming out of the same building as I do in the future, just say you live with your cousin and have never seen me."

He got goosebumps from being reprimanded about an imaginary wife. Lance shook himself in irritation and followed with a "Yeah, yeah," in response to her reminder. Finally, he left as if he were running away.

Even though he believed her entire story and reasoning, there were moments like just now when a little voice in his head reminded him: 'That woman is crazy, run away.'

Believing oneself to be a character in a book was not something to do this fast. Still, he obediently walked to school and waited a bit before the gate.

Paige waited ten minutes before following. The school was only a twenty-minute walk away or three bus stops for rich kids in this area. She was already tense, so she didn't take the bus, trying to procrastinate meeting the other kids.

Arriving at the tall gate of the high-end school, a mix of modern and old architecture, she was still a bit surprised by its small size.

It wasn't as large as she had expected, making it more convenient for spreading rumors or bullying. If there were as many people as in a university, then everyone would have too much to do in their own group to care about what X said about Y at the other end of the campus.

She spotted Lance, who languidly leaned against the gate, catching flirty looks from the girls walking past him.

Nodding at each other secretly like special agents, she led the way, with him following a few meters behind her. She walked through the small open green compound, going through the wide entrance door of the school building.

Looking at the big staircase before her, she narrowed her eyes at it, this was the culprit of the first scene.