Chapter1

10 years later...

So here I am standing outside of our house, watching as people pass by infront of it. Now that i am old enough, I completely understand what happened that day with Dad and Nanny Rose.

"Acacia, Halika na, kakain na tayo! (Acacia, come inside, It's time for us to eat!)" I sighed and went inside the house to be greeted by the scent of home cooked meals. Mom's food smells better. I shrug at the thought of Mom and continue to make my way inside of the house.

"Since it'll be a Monday tomorrow, and you will be starting classes again, i thought of cooking us some of the home cooked meals your mom used to cook for us." he smiled sadly and sighed, "I know i'm not as good as your mom in cooking, but atleast I tried?"

I gave him a small smile and shrug, "I know Dad, thank you still, you have put on a lot of effort, but you didn't have to tho." Dad just smiled and we started eating and talking casually. Nanny Rose? she taught dad how to cook before she left 5 years ago, as we no longer can afford to pay her salary. It was kind of her to offer to work here still, without getting paid, but it was too much, we'll just feel guilty for doing that to her.

"I'll do the dishes, you go and prepare for school tomorrow." i nod and helped him place the dishes in the sink and went on my way to my room.

"Hey Jeanne, ready for school tomorrow?" my bestfriend said through the phone, i just shrugged at him and gave him a bored look.

"New school or not, people will still think the same about me and my family." I looked at him through the phone to see his smiling face replaced with a frown. "Don't worry, you still have me." he immediately gave me a cocky smile which made me chuckle.

Brennon is actually my bestfriend, and my only friend. And also the only son of Nanny Rose, me and Brennon practically are childhood bestfriends and i only see him as my older brother. I finally transferred school because of my records, and believe me, you do not want to know what I did in my previous school. Dad was too busy looking for jobs to the point he didn't really much care if I did anything bad at school, as long as I keep my grades are high, then we're good.

"Have you gotten my schedule?" I asked as I was rummaging through my bag looking for my necklace. That mom gave me.

"Yes, It's right here." He showed me a paper through the screen, I gave him a sign to go on.

"School starts at eight" he said, "In the morning?" I unconsciously asked, he looked at me in disbelief "Try going in the night, you'll be studying with the janitor." I shrug boringly, "Better than studying with teenagers who only goes to school to gossip."

"We only have 3 classes together, but 2 of the classes are before and after lunch, so we'll be eating together." he said enthusiastically, i grabbed my phone and went to lay on my bed "Yey" i faked enthusiast which made him fake gasp "What is that fake enthusiast i hear? You? don't want to eat with me? The Irish prince?" i chuckled.

"First of all, You're not a prince, you're only Irish. Second I don't want to eat with a nerd." i said jokingly, "Atleast im not a bad girl who almost burned her principal's house." i scoffed and what he said.

i was starting to doze off as Brennon kept on ranting some comebacks with my absolute worse records, i just chuckled and started to doze off.

I woke up with the sound of my phone ringing, i grunted not pleased with the sound.

"What the--" I was cut off by the other person on the line, "Language lady" he jokingly scolded.

"Bren, I know that you are excited to go to school together, but..." i checked the time "But isn't it rude to wake someone up at 3 in the morning?" he chuckled

"Since we'll be attending the same school, we're going to workout earlier." he explained as i remained silent as a sign for him to continue talking, "Just come down already, i'm here." he ended the call before I could say anything. I grunted and went to my closet and pick out a grey sports bra and a black jersey since I don't want to waste my time putting on leggings.

I lazily made my way down to see Brennan in the living room waiting patiently. "Does it require to wake up at three in the morning? Can't it like be five? Doesn't school starts at 8?"

"Well, good morning to you too grumpy." I rolled my eyes at him and made my way to the basement and he follows chuckling.

Knives, guns, and many more deadly weapons are in sight as I opened our basement. Our workout isn't those ordinary kind of workout.

I grabbed a BC-41 knife and examined it for a few minutes. I stuffed it in my bag and went for another knife for my workout.

I grabbed a F-S fighting knife while Brennan grabbed a Fixation Bowie Knife, I smirked at his choice of weapon.

"Getting cocky right now are we?" I examined the knife he is gripping, while he looked at me and chuckled darkly.

"I'll go easy on you since you're a girl." I rolled my eyes and start to do a fighting position and he did the same.

"3...2..." He smirked "...1" he charged right at me as I dodge his quick stab, he stop right at my side and swing his knife which hit right above my right elbow. I looked at it without even wincing and looked back at Brennan with no sign of pain, he just gave me a peace sign and went back to fighting position again and I charged back at him which he easily dodged it, which gave me an opportunity to stuck my foot out and trip him, as he fell I sat on his chest and gave him a small cut on his cheek which made him wince a little.

"See? you don't like getting hurt right?" I chuckled at his pained expression. "Don't be such a baby, that's such a small cut compared to this." I showed him my right arm, he rolled his eyes "Just get off of me okay?" I shook my head chuckling while getting off of him. We continued working out with another 30 minutes.

Ever since that day, dad taught me a bit of self defense without telling me what was the reason on why I should. As I turned eight which was 4 months later, I kept asking where my mom was, that's when they told me. That was the day that dad decided that Nanny Rose stopped working for us which, as a kid that time, gave me second thoughts of letting her go after a long hour of whining and crying and hearing the news about what happened to mom made the situation a whole lot worse, I was so used to Nanny Rose's care to the point that I do not know what to do without her help.

The reason why I have to keep training, was because dad doesn't want anything happening to me the same way on what happened to my mom. And as for Brennon, he started training with me the week after Nanny Rose stopped working for us,and dad was sort of starting to get too busy to train me, so Brennan was like a substitute of dad in training, he didn't teach me how to self defense because he said it will just be useless so he decided to teach me how to fight. At first dad was against it, but after a lot of convincing by Brennon he finally agreed. Whenever I had any free time and dad isn't around the house to look after me, I would visit Brennon's house oftenly, which Nanny Rose gladly welcomed me with open arms.

After taking a long shower after working out, I dressed into a white off-shoulder crop top with a pair of silk sky blue baggy pants paired with white rubber shoes. I middle parted my hair after drying and brushing it, I let two pieces of hair to frame my face. I applied a minimal amount of makeup to create a fresh and natural look, and when I'm already satisfied with how I look like, I grabbed my phone and my bag and made my way down to the kitchen to see my dad reading the newspaper while sipping on some of his coffee.

"Morning dad." I greeted while taking out a piece of toasted bread.

"Morning Acacia, you ready for school?" He asked enthusiastically, I just gave a sigh. "Whether I'm ready or not, It would still be the same." I shrugged, which made dad glance at me and smiled sadly while looking back at his news paper, "Just hold on a little bit longer Acacia alright?" I shook my head sadly and head off to the door.

After years of trying hard, looking for jobs and earning enough money, dad finally found a job that he is capable of. He finally saved enough money to open his own restaurant of his own, that serves Filipino dishes, which is close to being successful. But just because we are close to being successful means that we can now spend freely, dad told me that he learned his lesson that whenever you are successful or not, rich or not, we should always learn how to be humble.

I walked through the campus with Brennon by my side which earns me pairs of eyes watching my every move. I shook my head and chuckled.

"Are you that popular?" Brennon looked at me confused. "I am popular, but not as popular as you are." he said with a double meaning. I sighed and made our way to my locker.

"Jeanne I have to go to the bathroom." he scratched the nape of his neck, I nodded "Sure" he grinned and pat my head, "Just turn left and look for locker 313" I nodded as Brennon blended with the students in the hall. Students starts glancing my way which made me roll my eyes and shrug, I turned and made my way to where turn left. I was about to turn left when I bumped into someone which made me drop the things that I was holding. I looked up to see a guy with pretty olive skin and curly hair, as we made eye contact the color on his face drained as he nervously scratch the back of his ear.

"I.. I'm sorry" was the only thing he said before rushing off. I shrug at the scared boy. I admit, he was pretty cute. I was about to pick up my things when I saw someone already picking them. The paper was the last thing left on the floor which consists my name and schedule, he handed my things first before picking up the paper after taking a glance at it. He handed me my schedule and gave me a smile revealing his dimples. His skin is lighter than mine, and his eyes in the shade of ash gray, perfectly paired with his Hazelnut colored wavy hair. From what I'm picking up from this person is that he has a troublemaker vibe, which, I don't think I'll get along with.

"Alalia?" he said and I gave him a questioning look "What?" I asked confused which made him chuckle, "Sorry, I thought your name is Alalia, the secretary has a confusing hand writing." I looked at my schedule and saw that he was right, The letter C she wrote looks like a letter L, and my last name wasn't readable. "Well, I'm sure from what I read your second name right which is Jeanne." I nodded. "I don't think you should call me that.." I said cautiously, "Why not?" just as i was about to answer him, Brennon started shouting for my name.

"Jeanne!!" Brennon skipped going to my direction like a child, The guy smiled at me telling me that I have been caught, "As you were saying?" he grinned. I scratch the back of my ear as I was about to answer, when again, has been disturbed by Brennon putting his arm around my shoulders, which made the air tense.

"Look what we have here, flirting with the new kid are we?" Brennon mocked which made the guy's face hardened. "Don't you know who she is?" he nodded to my direction that made the guy smirk.

"Well Dale." How he said Brennon's surname came out hard while still wearing his smirk, "I do know that this girl is your weakness." he pointed Brennon's arm over my shoulders which i felt it tensed a bit.

"Fuck off Griffin." Brennon spat at the guy which I bet is his last name. The Griffin guy walked closer to me and reached out a card to my direction and I hesitantly took it and I felt the color from face drained when I see what was written there.

"Davien..." I looked up nervously to take a good look of his face. "Davien Adler Griffin." he winked before walking away.