Chapter 1- Not the best start

Florence's sleep was disturbed by the soft glow of the sun through the tiniest crack in my closed curtains. She opened the curtains to see it was a pretty nice morning. Too bad her mood wasn't matching the day. Insomnia can be a pain in the butt sometimes am I right or am I right.

She got up from her comfy bed just to trip over the book she had been reading the night before. "Ugh, what a great fall first thing in the morning", she whispered annoyed.

Immediately the door swung open it was her brother, Bentley. He looked around and saw her on the floor.

With a disappointed look, he asks, "what are you doing?".

She was quite embarrassed, "umm I was looking for something I dropped. Anyway..", she got up in a hurry. "What are you doing here and why can't you knock before entering?".

He just shrugged, "I just came to tell you that Ms. Rune can't drive you to school".

"Wait then who will take me to school?", She called out as her brother was leaving the room.

He turned back and looked at her in a monotonous manner," I don't know".

Saying that he tried to leave the room once again, but she stopped him and asked quite anxiously, "Can you drive me? please".

He burst out laughing, "nope" and he left the room.

She expected no better. She and Bentley don't really have the best relationship. In actuality, Florence garden doesn't really have the best relationship with her family either.

She is quite the black sheep in the Garden family. The Garden family is quite popular here in the town of Dalry. Her father is a famous businessman and her mother his assistant.

They run some company in Belgium that she doesn't really know of, because of this they are pretty busy and go on business trips here and there.

But they like keeping their so-called "reputation" so they are often at home not to spend time with their family but to show that they spend time with their family. Her parents are so obsessed with looking good in front of others that they act like they only have a son.

Unlike Bentley who is considered a genius and a god blessed kid with no flaws, Flo is the third in school, an ok kid who has little to no talents(that is, in their eyes).

So you can understand she is not the pride and joy of the family. But does she care? Not really because if she has the option to escape those boring parties or events just to be considered nonexistent it's worth it.

She looks at the clock on her bedside table it's 6:57 AM. She woke up before her alarm rang that's unfortunate. She regretted not taking those extra minutes of sweet sleep.

Regrets aside she decided it's best to get ready earlier if she wanted to catch a bus. Too bad her ride was gone.

Ms. Rune or Tina (she lets Flo call her that saying Ms rune makes her feel old) is an employee of her parents' company and she gets paid to drive Flo to school and pick her up. She is a sweet person being the only person who acknowledges Flo's existence. She sometimes will stop by at a cafe on their way back home calling it their secret tea time. She is 24yrs old so she and Flo got along pretty well.

So her not coming to drive Flo sucks a lot. After having breakfast Flo heads towards the bus stop. She checked her phone and she sees a message from Tina saying-

"Sorry bud can't drop you at school today 😭. Your parents called me in early 🙄. But I'll make it up to you tomorrow."

She smiled. "Tina is such a sweetheart", Flo thought. Flo replied with a message reassuring her that she'll be fine. She also notices that her best friend Rai sent a message too. Not shocking

Rai: morning

Me: morning

Rai: Wow you are up quite early?!

Me: I'm quite impressed myself. Sad news Tina can't drive me to school. so bus it is

Rai: aww too bad... See you at school then. Stay safe ❤️

Me: Yup... Cya

As Flo gets to the bus stop, she feels a little sleepy. Makes sense knowing that she only got four hours of sleep. She tried to keep herself awake by reading the bus schedule it's a good tip to keep in mind.

When the bus comes she decided that the best way to stay awake is to stand. And lucky for Flo the bus seats were almost full so she didn't look stupid for standing. "Hah! I almost turned atheist because of how terrible my day was going on. God is on my side", she thought happily.

It's a thirty-minute bus ride to school. This was gonna hurt her legs. Why didn't her parents just enroll her in the public school close to home or one of the closer private schools? The pain she has to endure to make her parents happy.

Five minutes pass and she can already feel her muscles getting numb the sudden stops don't help in the slightest. She should work out more she contemplated.

A girl who looked a little older than Flo was sitting on one of the seats in front of Flo, seeing Flo's looks at her pitifully she asks other people occupying the seat to move and make space for Flo.

Flo looked straight at her and shook her head with a smile mouthing "no problem". But she wouldn't listen.

She looked at Flo patted the tiny bit of the seat next to her and mouthed "come, come". Flo once again shook her head a little more aggressively still trying to hold her smile. The girl moves back to sit properly but still looks concerned about Flo.

After two minutes, She tapped the guy sitting next to her who was at the end of the seat. Flo had just noticed that he was wearing the same uniform of her school.

His head is bent down buried in a book. "Who reads books nowadays just take your phone", Flo wondered. The guy lifts his eyes up he has black hair and round glasses.

Flo looked away immediately she knew who that was. It was her classmate Hugo. He's quite popular in school for his looks and brains being the second-best in school.

He is also very quiet so girls love his mysterious aura. She also knew him because he liked her friend Rai.

But he doesn't like Flo. For some reason he sees Flo as a rival because she ranks closely with him (and also considers her a love rival).

He looks at the girl who tapped him. At first, they both looked annoyed at one another. But slowly the annoyance turns to anger.

They both start whispering quite angrily. She then whispers something that stops him from talking. He puts his book a little aggressively in his bag and gets up.

He makes his way towards Flo and tells her, "sit there".

Flo was confused and a little intimidated, "umm you don't have to do that".

To which he gave her a look that said sit there or else. And frankly, Flo didn't want to find out the 'or else' so she thanked him and sat in his seat.

The girl who ordered him to give up his seat looked at Flo and said, "what a brat. I hope you don't know him if you do I'm sorry".

Flo smiled and said, "I'm his classmate".

The girl looked at Hugo in disgust and turned to Flo with pitiful eyes, "I'm sorry to hear that, I'm Helena Hart- Hugo's sister and ex-student from Dalry Vale" she said pointing at the school emblem on my vest.

Flo introduced herself too," oh, I'm Florence Garden".

Her eyes widened with joy, "wait, so you are the water that has been hurting my brother's fire".

Flo looked confused, "I'm sorry what?".

"Oh sorry, I really like making metaphors most people don't get it. But what I meant was that are you the Florence Garden who rivals my brother's intelligence?", she asked with great interest.

Flo laughed, "you are correct but it's more of a one-sided rivalry".

"That's even better", she said, "give me your number we need to be friends".

Weirdly Flo could feel an evil aura from her but it didn't stop her from giving the girl her number.

Flo looked at Hugo who had taken out a small book and was reading it. "What a weird guy", Flo thought but she felt bad for being the reason for him to lose his seat.

"Will he be fine standing there?", Flo asked. Helena smiled, "oh don't worry he'll be fine and I'll be getting off at the next stop anyway".

Flo nodded feeling a little less guilty but not completely ok.

Flo set her head on a pole that was on her side and before she knew it she was sleeping.