Chapter 1

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Gideon's high.

A prestigious private school. A place for the elite and a home for the others.

Known as the first private school of Lara's island, the island was discovered by none other than voyager Lara Wilhonker.

Back then in the 19th century, when a pandemic was slaughtering people all over the world, and ravaging flora and fauna, only a woman, Lara Wilhonker, managed to save the life of innocent children she had carried by her side. Everyone else on the island had died.

After she passed, gratitude and sadness overwhelmed all those she saved, and the Island finally found its name: hers.

Slowly, life and civilization started to be built, leading to the creation of Gideon's high, the first school to see the sunlight on the island. Although other schools eventually opened a business, there were no matches for Gideon's popularity. The school's selectivity secured the name it had made for itself, and also secured its student's future: it was well known that anyone graduating from Gideon's High would only meet greatness.

The school was of two divisions; one is for the rich and the middle class. The other is for the nerds and the scholars. These divisions were named as Rich & Middle class; RM and the Nerd and scholars; NS. Commonly, students from low-income families would be able to get admission as a nerd or scholars. NS doesn't pay the fees, they were sponsored by the school because they are mostly people of great potential.

One of the rules and regulations was the fact that none of the nerds or scholars should enter into the other zone. Unless it was for a specific purpose or the school had decided to take you there for an excursion.

It was a weird rule but it was expected especially when there were daughters of mayors and presidents and even kings.

This shows how influential the school was.

Students were walking around, greeting the friends they haven't seen in a long time.

The holidays were over, it was time for the last term for all seniors.

Every senior had probably written their essay. The principal requires every senior to write up their essay about what they want career-wise and why.

Unfortunately, I, president of the student council had yet to write mine.

How disgraceful! I said to myself. What would the other members think? Well, I had a plausible excuse.

Walking down the hallway with an air of confidence, I ignored the looks of other students.

It was common. I was the council president after all.

"Ruby!" A high-pitched voice was heard behind me.

I groaned.

I felt a huge weight on my back.

Oh, God.

"Hi Lucy," I said. She does this every new semester.

Lucy Montague. A nerd. The most popular in the NS side of the school. Also, she thinks she is a descendant of Romeo.

Lucy finally got off my back. Running a hand through her blonde hair she came forward. She straightened her badge in her left pocket. She was wearing the complete uniform of Gideon's high. The red suit, white inner and red pleated skirt.

While I had just settled with my white inner and red cardigan.

"So, did you miss me?" Lucy asked. She was bouncing happily like a kid waiting for her mother to hand her sweets but unfortunately, I did not fulfill that purpose.

I shrugged my shoulders and kept on walking down the hallway towards my locker.

Lucy was already used to my natural cold attitude.

She walked faster to get in line with my steps.

"No need to tell me a dark peach, I know you missed me because I missed you too"

I frowned. I hated that nickname, Dark peach.

Johnny and Lucy had given me that nickname the second day of when I started attending Gideon's high back in 9th grade.

Flashback.

It was the second day of her first academic year in Gideon's high and two idiots were following me around like puppies. Talking loudly, irritating me even more. Until I heard Johnny say something concerning my name.

"Dark peach?" I asked them confused.

"Yes," Johnny answered.

"Why that?"

"You know there is this story my mom once told me about a plant which had a kind heart but never a genuine smile on her face" Lucy replied.

Present.

I do smile. I murmured to herself, pouting a little.

"Hm? What did you say?" Lucy asked.

"Have you seen Johnny?"

"No. It's almost 8 am and he is yet to arrive. The gates would soon be closed. He can't purposely miss the first day of school. it's the most important day. The day for all gamers to compete. He had been training for so long, is he going to miss that?"

With our lockers positioned in the same place, we would have been able to see Johnny, but there was no sign of him anywhere. Johnny, the other nerd of their clique.

"I am sure he won't miss it. Hopefully, nothing bad had happened to him"

"I will drop a message in the group, hopefully, he answers"

I nodded before turning to my locker. I put in the code and it opened.

There was nothing special in it unlike Lucy's which was filled with designs, pictures, and free coupons into gaming centers.

Leaning against our locker while waiting for the bell to ring, we both decided to talk.

"So, have you finished your essay?" Lucy asked.

"No, I wasn't able to, stopped halfway."

"What?! Why? You know that's our only ticket to see the NM campus. That's like the only reason everyone is so excited to write that stupid essay"

"Well, that's not the only reason. It's also a free ticket to get into an ivy league university on scholarship. Now that's what I want"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "If you know how important this is, why did you not do it?"

"I did, just I wasn't able to finish..."

"We had three months, and you weren't able to finish. That's not much of an excuse" Lucy said. If she wants to be a momma bear. She can be.

"You know, Mina started these summer classes. Mom was severely sick these past few months, and our family supermarket isn't booming. So, I and Mina had to take extra jobs. It just wasn't easy, you know?"

I don't think Lucy would understand. Her family wasn't as poor as mine. After being bankrupt 8 years ago, my family wasn't the same, we were striving. And the problem was caused by her father.

"Why don't you ask your dad?" Lucy suggested.

This made me frown. I hated talking about my father and I had told Lucy a million times to stop mentioning him, but she remains adamant.

"He is a rising star in the medical world. Ooh, you said you wanted to be a gynecologist, right? Is it because your dad is a popular gynecologist so you are having second thoughts so you got confused about what to write?" Lucy kept on asking.

Tears prickled my eyes willing to come out but I paid to mind to it. I took a deep breath and turned to Lucy to answer her question.

"My Dad got nothing to do with my essay, and I still want to be a gynecologist so he got nothing to do with that too. And as for the financial assistance, do you think we would ask him?" I asked her.

It wasn't about pride, the things he did to us were the worst but Lucy doesn't even know that. No one knows what happened 8 years ago.

"True. He left you guys and it just... isn't fair"

The bell rang and I sighed in relief.

No more talking about that tense subject.

Lucy hooked her arm with mine and we both walked to class.

*******

It was already lunchtime and Johnny didn't come. We were both seated on the bleachers eating our lunch when we both heard a ping from our phones which were beside us.

We looked at each other. I picked up the phone after wiping my hands on the napkin.

It was a message from our group. The musketeers. Courtesy to Johnny for the name and Lucy for her fantastic nickname.

Lulu. 7:45 am: Hey. @jon-jon. It's almost 8 and you are not here yet.

Jon-Jon noon: note: this isn't a joke, I am completely serious. I am tired of living, everything is meaningless. Including school and games.

I frowned.

What's this?

How would you feel when a best friend you haven't seen or heard from for three months decided to post this in a friend's group? What would be your first thought?

Mine is he had got his heartbroken.