Participants

As Neil's motorcycle halted in front of a huge run down looking apartment building in the Whispering way street where the girl had directed him to, she climbed down his bike and meekly glanced at him.

Mia was suddenly aware that she'd brought her professor to their run down apartment building, where she'd never brought anybody from school, not even Rayne. She couldn't help but feel embarrassed. However, when she glanced at Mr. Bennett, he showed no emotions, it was like he didn't care where she lived. He only stared at her with his piercing gray eyes.

She was starting to wonder why he wasn't leaving and looking at her with that intense gaze of his when he said, "Helmet."

Mia immediately realized she was still wearing his helmet and quickly took it off and gave it back to him while muttering a thank you. She watched as he casually wore the helmet on his head and kicked his bike. However, before he rode off, he said, "Bring your assignment to my office tommorow." Then sped away leaving her standing in daze.

She stood there until she could no longer hear the loud sound of his motorcycle in the night atmosphere. However, Mia was completely unaware of someone watching her from above the window of the apartment next to theirs. She sneaked quietly back to her room and closed the door. She sighed in relief that her mother had been asleep the whole time she was absent.

The poor woman had worked all day, she must be so exhausted not to hear the sound of the front door opening and closing. Mia dropped her shattered guitar on the floor, she stared at it with a remorseful expression, she regretted going out tonight. She hadn't just ruined the only thing that gave her happiness in this burdensome world but she had almost been rapped by some filthy men whose body hadn't touched water for ages.

Recalling the event now in the comfort of her room, she felt disgusted and the urge to throw up. If it hadn't been for Mr. Bennett, only God knows what would have become of her by now in that deserted road. Mia jerked off her jacket and took off her clothes, she stepped into her bathroom and washed her body like she wanted to change her skin.

By the time she was done taking a shower and wearing her pajamas, it was already 1:40 in the morning. She set an alarm and dropped exhaustedly on her bed and fell into a deep sleep within minutes. However, she was haunted by yet another one of her nightmares.

There was blood covering her entire body as she sat in a corner trembling. She was crying out a name she didn't recognize and was looking at a tall figure looming over her. The figure held a gun pointing at her in the corner.

'Do you know what will happen to your head once I pull the trigger, little girl? Your tiny head will blow off and your brain will come ozzing out of your skull.' laughed the figure. And before Mia could register what was happening, there was a loud gun shot sound that made her gasp awake from her nightmare. She was panting heavily with her pajamas drenched in sweat as she glanced around her room and noticed it was morning.

This wasn't her first time having such nightmare but it always frightened the soul out of her everytime she woke up from it.

"Nightmare?" Asked a familiar voice from the side of her bed. Mia's soul almost jumped out of her body by the sudden voice. She swirled around so suddenly she almost fell off her bed.

"What the hell, Owen!" She exclaimed in displeasure seeing her friend leaning against her room's wall with his hands in his pocket. "Haven't I told you to stop barging into my room like a creep?" She questioned getting out of her bed to start preparing for school.

However, despite Mia's displeasure of him invading her privacy, Owen didn't seem to care, he was already used to it and it was a habit that would remain. Instead of apologizing, he asked, "Where did you go last night?"

Mia was picking up her towel when she heard his question, she stopped for second. Did Owen see her leave last night? She thought to herself and picked up the towel. "Nowhere." She lied and was about to walk into the bathroom, but he stepped in her way.

"I saw you from my room's window being dropped off by a man on a motorcycle, Mia. Don't try to shrug it off like you didn't go out at night." Owen said with a serious expression. He had woken up to have water when he heard a motorcycle halting outside, he had wondered who it was disturbing the neighborhood at that time of the night. He had even thought it was one of the girls in Whispering way street who would go out clubbing at night and to sell their body to earn a living, however he was shocked to find Mia standing there with a stranger late at night.

Owen had known Mia for as long as he could remember, he knew all the people she was associated with even in her school. Though they didn't attend the same university, he knew she only had one friend, and had no boyfriend, which even if she had, he would make sure to server the relationship like he had been doing for the past years. However, seeing the man who had dropped her off last night, had not just shocked him but also surprised him.

Mia glanced up at her friend's serious expression. She hadn't expected anybody to have seen her last night, but it seemed Owen had. However, the way he was taking it as if she was a child who had to tell him all of her movements and actions only irked her.

"Yeah, I went out last night, so what?" She confronted him, perhaps it was because she'd woken up being startled and the fact that she had slept feeling mad for her guitar, but she snapped at him in annoyance without holding back. "You come to my room without my permission and you confronted me for going out last night like I am not an adult old enough to make my own decisions. What's your problem? Being my friend doesn't give you the right to always meddle with my life's affairs!"

"Yeah it does, Mia. I know you are old enough to do anything you like, but I am concerned about you that's why I am here questioning you and If you don't tell me what you were doing out that last night, I swear your mother will hear of this!" He threatened, his blue eyes stern.

Mia knew everytime he threatened to tell her mother about something she'd done, it wasn't an empty threat, he would and if he did, her poor mother would only get worried and would end up raising her blood pressure. Even though she hadn't gone out to do anything wrong like people assumed the girls in Whispering way street go out to do at night, she didn't want her mother to hear of it.

Furthermore, she was aware that Owen was only worried about her well being, but sometimes he could get really demanding and annoying.

"I went out to sing at the bar in the uptown street to earn money to help mother," she admitted, "But I ended up being chased out of the bar without being paid. That man you saw last night is professor Leo, he gave me a ride home when I couldn't find a cab." She said, leaving out the part of her almost being rapped as that would only make him pester her.

"Now that you've heard everything, I have to prepare for school, I am running late." She said, and without giving him the chance to stop her or even speak, she hurried into the bathroom and slammed the door.

Owen stared at the slammed door for awhile. The man he'd seen last night looked nothing like a professor. His blue eyes shifted to the shattered guitar on the floor, and without another word, he left the room.

Mia arrived at school in a rush, she was already few minutes late for her morning class because she hadn't woken up on time and had been confronted by Owen. However, the moment she stepped into Ivy Grove institute, she was surprised to see her picture along with Diane Foster and a few other students being posted in every corner of the university.

"Our participants of this year's queen and king of Ivy Grove," was written below each and every picture poster. Mia was too stunned to move, she stared at a picture of herself taken behind the school library. She hadn't even known her picture was taken nor did she remember ever signing to join the school's event.