Nine

My eyes squinted as I look down at him, he, who on the other hand was looking up at me, while he sits on the vacant seat besides my chair. I could feel my whole body being shaken up just right after meeting him and the feeling of knowing the fact that he's my seat mate makes me scared.

I could really feel the death on my doorstep.

Hoo~

Right. Let's calm down.

It's not like I haven't died before and it's not like he's the one who will kill me. Well, he'll only be the reason of my death. And stop thinking about it, Ayla. I mean, yeah, I'm Ayla but no, I'm Penelope now. So, calm down.

"You're right. I'm you're seat mate." I said in a while after calming myself down. Because I know what's his problem.

Calix doesn't like having a seat mate.

My smile froze as I watched him, then I added. "From the look in your eyes, it seems like you don't like it. I mean, you don't want to have a seat mate, right?"

"If you knew then why are you still here?" He said nonchalantly tilting his head to one side and clicked his tongue. His arms were crossed above his proud chest, bearing an aloof aura that no one could ignore. Aside from that, his black hair that was hang into sa messy style, shook as he moved his head. And every move he make, his muscled biceps underneath his sleeves contracts and shows its veins, handsomely.

Repeatedly speaking sense, he's not the first male lead for a naught. I mean, with every single thing he do, from lifting his eyelids where his eyelashes flutters perfectly, to his pointed nose that was another plus point and complimented his manly yet small kissable lips, everything was pleasing to the eye.

I thought the author of the original novel was only exaggerating but aside from the beauty that the third and second male leads have, deeply contrasting with each other, the first male lead's appearance brought justice to the author's exaggerated words.

But for real?

It's a package that every girl would want but there's one thing that I don't really get.

How can a skinny senior high school student like him, looked so sexy and muscled at the same time? And that red eyes of his that looks cold and scary but still brought justice to his handsome appearance. Is this the so-called a main character buff?

Their appearance were so unusual and very novel-like. Fictitious and unique. I know that this world was inside the novel but facing them in reality still leave me dumbfounded.

I swallowed a sigh upon coming up my to own conclusion. And I almost forgot that I also have an unusual eye colors.

I, Penelope, also have an unusual eye color. Purple.

And it's all possible because this world is inside the novel, and their appearance were as what they were described in the novel.

Coming back to reality, I could here murmurs behind me and seems like some of our classmates are currently watching the two of us, as we talk. Well, it's expected to be like this, because they also knew it. The fact that Calix wanted to have no seat mate at all. And now that I think about it, the novel also described him as an arrogant and cold male lead.

In other novels, those type of male leads were a plus points in attracting every readers. And this kid in front of me was one example of those kind. Proven and tested by yours truly.

His eyes were staring back at me, coldly as though he looks so much like a black panther with bloodied eyes, watching and waiting for its prey to be teared into pieces. Although it's only a description that I often read in the original novel, suddenly remembering it in this situation made the tiny hairs all over my body to be alerted, erected on my skin, just because of the risks of being his seat mate. But nonetheless, at the same, I thought that it really doesn't matter at all.

Looking back to what his voice sounds like, it's much more enticing yet cold enough to freeze my whole body. It was manly enough to mistake him as just an ordinary high school kid. Though, he's not really an ordinary guy because of his background.

The halo of being the first male lead shone brighter and dazzling to ones eye, making me twitched my lips, fading the smile I forcibly drew earlier.

Raising the upper corner of my lips, once again, I threw a stare at him.

"There's no other seats available for me to take. So, please excuse my rudeness." I said as I moved my legs into a stride, placing my bag on my designated chair as though, completely ignoring him.

His frown went deeply engraved on his forehead as he followed me with his eyes. The least expectations that I could gain from this arrangement would be the fact that my death flag would be on a red notice from the moment I force myself to sit beside him. But because of my stubborn personality, there's no use avoiding it now. All I could do is to face it head on, and ignore it in the end.

Hah~there's no use running away from this situation, so I might as well just focused in living my life as Penelope.

I grabbed the chair and slipped myself to sit of the chair when I didn't heard him talk against me. He only watched me from the sidelines even after I finally sat beside him. And with that, the whole classroom that was silent earlier, as if a strong and cold wind passes by without a notice, returned to it's usual atmosphere.

Placing my head on the window sill, a sigh once again escaped from my lips, completely unaware of the red eyes watching me silently.

***

"Rumi, let's go." Jake whispered as he moves his head towards my direction, trying to ignore my seat mate's deadly stares.

Nobody knows why does he kept on glaring on our direction like that, but it seems like it's because we were disturbing him. Maybe that's one of the reason why he doesn't like having to share his desk with someone else. But as far as I could remember, he never say anything to Shayliyah when they became seat mates in the original novel.

So, why was he being rude to me like this?

Tsk. Mentally clicking my tongue in sudden annoyance, I barely held a curse from escaping out of my mouth.

What will I expect to a cannon fodder like me, right?

My role is to die even before the story ends. The heroine and the male lead's encounter will be a fateful one and being seat mates was one of the plot device for their romance to bloom. And sad to say this but, even the death of Penelope in the original was one of the plot device to help the main character's relationship bloom.

That's the reason why Penelope was the cannon fodder.

But it's weird.

The memorization ability that I adapted after becoming Penelope seemed to still missed something. But what was it again?

"Rumi?"

Turning my eyes once again, I met Jake's eyes, staring back at me with full of curiosities. He must have thought that I'm spacing out because there was something inside my head that's bothering me, making him curiously looked back at me. I beamed a smile before answering. "Okay. Let's go."

Standing and getting out of Calix's side, I heard the latter clicked his tongue. I didn't turn around to look at him but Jake did as he moved his eyes from Calix to mine. As if nothing happened, he grinned before fishing out something from his pocket that turns out to be the same strawberry candy that he gave me last time.

"Thank you." That was what the intruder said after grabbing the candy out of Jake's hand that I was about to get.

His narcissistic smile shoned on his annoyingly handsome face when I catch a glimpse on his face.

Hissing an annoying sound, I threw a glare on the newcomer who on the other hand has already eaten the candy for himself. Acting like he never did it, he pouted his lips with the candy inside his mouth, appearing like a small bump on his right cheek, then again, smiled on my face. A small laugh followed with his eyes turning into a crescent shape, disappearing like it never once existed.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, reaching out for the tip of his nose then pressed it with my index finger.

His crystal-clear eyes wavered at the sight of me before looking away. He whistle a short sound before shaking his head. "Nothing. Just coming here to join you as per as Adrian's invitation to me." He smirked.

Hah~that Adrian.

"Then go looked for your Adrian and don't annoy me, Max." I sneered before passing by him, then walk straight to Ariana.

Jen and Meryl were absent today because of a family occasion that they needed to attend. It was some other time when I found out that the two were cousins, after the night we hang out together. It was when Maxwell suddenly showed up and came along like a puppy on the lose.

"Are you coming along, Ari? Jake and I are on our way to the cafeteria." I smiled at her in which she answered with a nod.

And with that, we went to eat in the cafeteria, where I'm still the center of attention. We ordered the foods we wanted to eat then sit at the corner of the cafeteria where there were vacant seats. Maxwell came along, as well as Adrian.

"Hey, the two of you." I started speaking, pointing out Max and Adrian sitting in front of me. "You're from the same basketball team, right?" I added, glaring at them with a questions in my eyes.

Adrian stop his hand that held the spoon before looking at me, then nodded his head. The same with Maxwell.

Well, I already knew it but I still ask to make sure of my assumptions. And knowing Maxwell as one of the male leads, it's clear that he has he's own circle of friends but theses days, the latter kept coming along our group and the same goes with Adrian. I don't know what the reason but I wished it won't trouble any of us in the future.

"There's only one varsity team in our school and we're both a part of it." Maxwell said as he grabbed his fork with a piece of meat stuck on it. "Why do you ask?"

I hummed, holding a bottle of a flavored water as I sipped for some. The cold and refreshing liquid stream down from my mouth, as I tasted the flavorful taste of the water. It tasted like a lemonade with honey in it.

"Just a bit curious. You have your own circle of friends, and I wonder why were you hanging out with us instead of them. It's not like I don't like it, but no matter how many times I think about it, your actions are weird." Squinting my eyes, anticipating something from their faces, I watched them as I wait for their answer. I saw Maxwell choke from his own water, making me look at his in disbelief.

"I just wanted to be friends with you guys. What's wrong with that?" Adrian shrugged his shoulders then winked at me.

"Same." A short response came from Maxwell's end, sounded hoarse and deep.

I nodded my head and didn't say anything. It's a reasonable answer but on Maxwell's side, I don't really believed his reasoning. Because it never happened in the original.

Maxwell in the original, hated Penelope even at the beginning of the novel. Although the original story hasn't started yet, it will still start next year, on our last year in high school. Thus, it never change the fact that Maxwell's behavior didn't aligned with the original. Aside from that, Penelope's transfer to this school was one year earlier because of me. In the original novel, Penelope transferred to this school at the last semester of the year, which was our current school year.

Thinking about it, aside from transferring earlier than the original, my relationships and interactions with the male leads were quite unusual. Aside from that, I never wanted to interact with them out of my own will. Everything was done by them and I doubt that it'll do me no good. The only coincidental interaction that happened, was between me and Calix. And that coincidence never really made me happy.

Actually, the male lead number one was annoying. Though I found the three male leads I met as the same in one characteristics as rude and annoying, there's one more missing on the list.

The so-called villainous male lead of the orinigal novel.

But well, let's not think about that guy because our chances of meeting was very slim compared to the other male leads. He's the so-called 'shadow guy' in the novel because he never really appear in the novel that often. Despite of being the villain, his role was only fulfilled the moment he has an encounter with the heroine and most of the time, they would meet in some place where people were scarce.

I moved my hands and started digging on my own food, once again. Our group kept talking to each other then laugh when Adrian started telling jokes as he ate his food. Jake would often whisper me something that I sometimes answers quietly.

But in a moment later, a vacant seat besides Maxwell, was suddenly occupied by someone uninvited and unexpected.

My eyes turned into a telescope, looking at the guy who suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"Couz, why are you here? Go look for another seat." Maxwell sneered back at the guy who came but the latter just smiled at him. His sky coloured strands of hair shone brightly, contrasting Maxwell's dark green hair color.

I suddenly felt uneasy when his gazed moved to me before flashing a smile like nothing happned.

"You're here so, why would I look for another seat?" He shrugged as he finally placed his tray of foods above the flat table. He moved and sit beside Maxwell while the latter just clicked his tongue. It was clear in Maxwell's eyes how annoyed he is as if sharing a table with the intruder makes him lose his appetite.

"Tsk. Just get lost Allister." Maxwell scoffed before sipping his own drink beside his tray.

Hearing the name that came out of Max's mouth, I remembered the uninvited guy's name in like a passing breeze inside my head. Realizing that my words earlier suddenly came to me like a tsunami opposite to what I really wanted, I bit my lips to stop myself from shouting how crazy and annoyed I am.

I said our chances of meeting were slim but what should I call this one?

Why am I sitting and eating launch with the villainous and obsessive last male lead of the original novel? Just why? Why am I meeting the male leads like an annoying heavy rain in the middle of a bright day?

Why does it has to be Allister Vin Monroe of all people?