It was Monday, and Nicolas, 17, was getting ready to go to school, missing the friends he hadn't seen in a while. That day marked the beginning of his senior year of high school. In his room, he was closing his backpack when he heard his father's voice echo through the hallway.

"Nicolas, you need to understand something... you have to be the best. Always! And that starts with being punctual," said his father, with his usual firm and dry tone. "You can't let anyone pass you, especially a girl."

Nicolas stopped for a moment, his hands still holding the backpack zipper. He knew that his father had high expectations regarding his academic performance, but his father's prejudiced remarks always bothered him, although he had never admitted it.

"Don't worry, Dad. I am the best!"

Nicolas' gaze shifted to the old camera that was on the desk, a valuable gift from his grandmother, the only person who seemed to see Nicolas beyond the expectations imposed by his father.

The camera given by his grandmother was in the center of the many cameras Nicolas had. He picked up the object, running his fingers over the cold texture of the metal and feeling a comfort that few things brought.

Before he could get lost in thought, his father's voice echoed again, as he entered the room without knocking.

"Leave that aside, Nicolas. Art, photography... these things won't give you a future. A position in a big company is worth much more than that."

Nicolas pursed his lips, taking a deep breath. He put the camera back in place, but something in his gaze showed that that silent passion was still alive inside him.

"I know, Dad. It's just a hobby," he replied, as if he were convincing himself more than his father.

As he went down the stairs to leave, Nicolas carried with him his father's words and the pressure they brought. Being the best came at a high price, and he was willing to pay the price, or at least he thought he was.

On the other end, there was Rafaela, about to turn 17, starting her senior year of high school at the new school.

She arrived at school with her worn backpack on her back. Rafaela lost her mother early and was raised by her father, Carlos, who never managed to choose clothes or take care of her hair, but he was a loving and dedicated father, who liked to ensure quality time with his daughter, and who made her way of dressing resemble his.

Rafaela grew up accustomed to simplicity and loved being with her father. The baggy shirts and loose pants were her daily uniform, and she didn't seem to care about the others' looks at her short haircut that she had always worn since childhood, remembering how she made a fuss when her father tried to comb her hair, so they opted for a cut that didn't require work, as they had no support network in the city that could help him in that regard.

In the hallway, Nicolas, or just Nick, as everyone called him, soon noticed the new student at the school. Nick was the best student in the class, and also the most popular boy, smiling, mocking, and always surrounded by a group of noisy friends, something his father didn't know. He had that air of superiority typical of someone who had never known rejection in life.

"Look, guys!" Nick called, loud enough for everyone to hear. "I didn't know we had a new colleague..." He laughed, looking directly at Rafaela. "Are you John Doe?" he joked.

Rafaela stopped, staring at Nick with a raised eyebrow. She was used to comments like that, but they never affected her.

"Idiot!" she replied, staring at Nick, before moving on.

The group let out muffled giggles, while Nick, surprised, raised his hands.

"Whoa, the 'bully' is fierce!" he provoked, following her with his gaze.

In the first few days, Rafaela felt a bit isolated, since everyone in the class knew each other, but soon she became friends with Ava.

Rafaela was a bit shy, and her presence went unnoticed most of the time, which didn't seem to bother her. During recess, while most of the students gathered in groups scattered around the yard, Rafaela preferred to sit in the most remote corner, with a book open in her hands.

It was on a day like that that Ava approached her for the first time. Ava, with her extroverted manner and easy smile, always had a word for everyone, but she also had a unique ability to see beyond appearances. Curious, she approached and sat next to Rafaela without asking permission.

"What are you reading?" Ava asked, leaning in to see the book cover.

Rafaela looked up, surprised by the unexpected presence. She hesitated for a moment, but replied softly:

"The Hour of the Star, by Clarice Lispector."

"Really? That book is awesome," Ava exclaimed enthusiastically, making Rafaela raise her eyebrows.

"Have you read it?" Rafaela asked, still suspicious.

"Of course!" Ava replied, smiling. "Macabea's story is so sad and beautiful at the same time. It's like she's screaming, but nobody hears her, you know?"

Something in that unexpected approach made Rafaela smile for the first time in days. It was rare for someone to really be interested in the same things as her.

In the following days, Ava continued to approach, striking up conversations, inviting Rafaela to have lunch together or even to study. Little by little, Rafaela opened up, and the friendship between the two grew stronger. Ava never cared about the way Rafaela dressed or what others thought of her, on the contrary, she admired her friend's authenticity and made a point of reminding her of that whenever she could.

"You're much cooler than you seem," Ava joked once, making Rafaela laugh.

"And you're much more annoying than you seem," Rafaela replied, teasing her friend, but with affection. The friendship between them was born in a simple way, but it became one of the most important things in both of their lives.

But besides Ava, another person was paying attention to Rafaela, Nick. In the following days, the provocations continued. Nick always found an opportunity to poke Rafaela, especially when he realized how intelligent she was and that she threatened his reign as the best student in the class, and he started to see her as a rival who couldn't take that position from him.

And whenever he found her on the court playing soccer, a sport in which Rafaela stood out, Nick shouted:

"I'm not sure if I should call you to my team, but one thing I know, you shouldn't play with the girls!"

Rafaela rolled her eyes, but each of Nick's comments irritated her deeply. As much as she tried to ignore it, she felt like he did it on purpose, as if he loved to provoke some reaction from her. The worst thing is that, as inconvenient as he was, Nick knew how to be funny and had a natural ability to make people laugh, including her, in moments when she preferred not to admit it.

"It's easier for you to admit that I play better than you, and that I'm also smarter," she provoked, seeing him wanting to smile, and Nick also started to feel different near her despite the teasing.

"Better than me?" Nick laughed, returning to his provocative tone. "Let's see that when you play against me, bully, or will you chicken out?"

And, once again, he left, leaving Rafaela with a mixture of anger and a hint of satisfaction.

As much as Nick irritated her, she began to notice something curious, he seemed to have more fun teasing her than talking to the others, and she wondered why.

What Rafaela didn't know was that Nick, as the weeks passed, began to notice details that he had previously ignored.

Rafaela seemed to like studying, and not because someone forced her to be the best. He watched her from afar, sitting with an open book during breaks, really focused. It wasn't like him, who studied to be the best because of his father's pressure. There was something genuine in the way Rafaela approached her studies, as if she really wanted to learn.

This bothered him in a way he didn't understand. Why was she like that? She didn't have the best appearance, she didn't try to impress anyone, and even so, she seemed satisfied with herself.

"But she's not ugly..." He said, looking at Rafaela

Nick started paying more attention to the answers Rafaela gave in class. She always had something interesting to say, something that made the teachers smile with approval. He, on the other hand, responded strategically, always focused on impressing.

She was someone different from everything he knew, someone who didn't seem to carry the weight of others' expectations, only her own choices.

And that, somehow, made him question his own.

In the following weeks, the routine of teasing between Nick and Rafaela continued as usual. To everyone around, they were just two teenagers picking on each other, but for Rafaela, something was different. She began to notice Nick in a way that made her uncomfortable. When he laughed loudly with his friends or made his infamous jokes, even if they were annoying, it was hard to ignore the sparkle in his eyes.

And what bothered her most were the other girls. Nick was always surrounded by popular girls, especially Vitoria, the preppy girl in the class. Vitoria was beautiful, her long, shiny hair was always loose, her designer clothes and the perfume she used left a trail wherever she went. She seemed perfect, and Rafaela considered herself the opposite.

During break time, since Ava was absent that day, Rafaela sat in a corner of the patio with her lunch. From afar, she watched Nick leaning against the wall with two friends and three girls around him. Vitoria, as always, was glued to him, laughing exaggeratedly at anything he said.

A pang gripped Rafaela's chest. It was a feeling she couldn't name, but it made her restless. She lowered her eyes to her lunch, trying to focus on something else, until she heard a voice that made her freeze.

"Hey, Rafaela!" Vitoria's voice sounded loud and clear, drawing the attention of everyone nearby.

Rafaela looked up, suspicious, as Vitoria approached with her venomous smile.

"I'm going to give you some advice, okay?" Vitoria began, her voice sweet but laden with sarcasm. "You better take your eyes off Nick, because he would never look at someone... like you," she said, looking Rafaela up and down.

Rafaela frowned, trying to figure out why Vitoria was there.

"I don't..."

"Oh, please!" Vitoria interrupted, laughing. "As if I haven't noticed the way you look at him. But seriously, save your time. Nick has nothing to do with girls who look..." Vitoria stared at her from head to toe with disdain. "Like a boy."

An uncomfortable silence fell. Rafaela felt her face heat up and the words catch in her throat. She wanted to react, but deep down, part of her agreed with her classmate. Who was she to compete with girls like Vitoria?

"What about me?" Nick asked, approaching.

"Looks like she has a crush on you," Vitoria said, making Rafaela even more embarrassed.

"But she's not my type, I would never be with someone like her," Nick said, staring at Rafaela without revealing that his heart was racing. "We're more like enemies..."

Vitoria gave one last triumphant look and returned to Nick's side, moving away from Rafaela, who was upset by the whole situation.

"I wouldn't be with someone like you either... Idiot!" she said angrily.

In math class, Rafaela couldn't concentrate. As she tried to solve an exercise, she felt a note slide onto her desk. She looked to the side and saw Nick sitting in Ava's place, his face propped up on his hand, watching her with a mischievous smile.

Rafaela unfolded the paper, which read:

"Why are you angry? Did Vitoria slap you down?"

She glared at Nick, who pretended to be very interested in the board.

"It's none of your business."

Rafaela took her pencil and wrote underneath. She folded the note and returned it. Nick read it, laughing softly, and scribbled another message, handing the paper back.

"I'll tell her to stop, only I can pick on you, okay? Only I can do that. You're mine!"

Upon reading the response, Rafaela felt a shiver in her stomach. She pursed her lips, annoyed, but she couldn't help feeling a spark of something like relief. At least, with Nick, she never felt invisible.

Despite this, Rafaela remembered Vitoria's words, which echoed in her mind like an open wound: "He would never look at someone like you."

She looked at Nick once more, who was now drawing something random in the corner of his notebook. Maybe Vitoria was right. After all, to him, she was just an easy target for teasing.

"I can't like him," Rafaela thought.

That night, Rafaela locked herself in her room and stared at her reflection in the mirror. Even though she had never cared about her appearance, Vitoria's words had remained in her mind like a shadow.

"Maybe I should change..." she said, thinking about her seventeenth birthday that would be on Saturday. "I'm not that ugly..."

Rafaela pulled a strand of hair, imagining what it would be like to let it grow. At school, they always made fun of her for looking "like a boy," but now it hurt more than usual. And Nick... Well, he didn't help. He noticed her, but not in the way she would like.

"If I bought some new clothes... Maybe some more feminine ones..." she thought, biting her lip, hearing the living room door open as her father arrived.

With these ideas in mind, Rafaela ran to the living room, where she found her father sitting on the sofa, grinning from ear to ear.

"Dad, can I talk to you?" she began hesitantly, hugging Carlos.

"Of course, daughter!" he replied, more animated than usual. "But first, I have some news to tell you." Before Rafaela could say anything, her father interrupted her. "Daughter, I have incredible news!"

"What news?" Rafaela was curious.

"I got a promotion at work! They finally recognized my effort! I'm going to be the manager of the new branch."

"New branch?" Rafaela repeated, her heart starting to race.

"Yes, yes! But there's a catch..." Her father hesitated, adjusting the cap on his head. "The branch is in another city. We're going to have to move."

Rafaela froze, happy for her father but not expecting that news.

"What?!"

"Calm down, daughter, it will be a great opportunity for both of us, and I'm going to earn a much bigger salary. We're going to start a new life!" Carlos smiled, as if that solved everything.

But for Rafaela, the world seemed to be falling apart.

"What about school, Dad? My classmates? We just moved to this neighborhood..." She tried to argue, feeling her voice already faltering.

"You're going to make new friends, Rafa!" Carlos replied as if it were the simplest thing in the world. "And between you and me, it's not like you like it here that much, right? You've only been in this school for two months and you've already complained several times about some Nick."

Rafaela opened her mouth to respond but held back, remembering the times she had complained about the school. Maybe she had said that a few times, but now everything seemed different. The school was where Nick was. Where she, even with all the teasing, was beginning to understand what she felt.

She ran to her room and slammed the door.

"Daughter... Rafa..." She didn't respond, she needed to be alone.

"Why now?" she whispered, feeling the tears streaming down her face.

Lying on the bed, Rafaela hugged the pillow and thought about how ironic it was: just when she was starting to worry about her appearance, when she was willing to change, everything was going to end.

"Will Nick even miss me?" she asked, her heart heavy.

The next day, Rafaela arrived at school crestfallen, unsure how to tell Ava that she would be leaving the school next week. Upon meeting Ava, she noticed that her friend was very excited and invited her to a party on Saturday.

"Come on, Rafa! It'll be fun!" Ava insisted, practically pulling Rafaela by the arm as they walked towards the classroom. "You need to go out, get distracted a little, don't think I didn't notice your sad face today? I miss one day and you're already like this?"

Rafaela tried to refuse. She wasn't in the mood for parties, especially with the move looming over her like a storm cloud. But with Saturday being her birthday and Ava's insistence, she gave in.

"Okay, I'll go..." Rafaela agreed, rolling her eyes.

"That's the spirit!" Ava smiled, satisfied. "You'll see how a party can change everything."

Rafaela preferred not to tell Ava that she was leaving at that moment; it would be the first and last party she would attend with her friend, so she thought about delivering the news on Monday.

And the week flew by. On Saturday, she had tried something different. She wore a more fitted blouse, put on new jeans, and even put a little gloss on her lips. She styled her hair to make it look more stylish.

"Maybe I'm not so bad..." She thought, taking a deep breath. Before leaving, she met with her father.

"You look beautiful, daughter."

"Thank you, Dad..."

"I know you didn't want to move..."

"Don't worry, Dad, I understand..." She said, giving her father a kiss.

Ava arrived to pick her up shortly after. The two got into a car with an acquaintance, where loud music already heralded the tone of the night.

"Where is this party, anyway?" Rafaela asked, looking out the window.

"At a classmate's house. Relax, you'll like it. And before I forget, happy birthday!" Ava gave Rafaela a hug. "I'll give you your gift on Monday at school."

"Thank you." Rafaela was happy that she had remembered her birthday. "I think tonight will be incredible..." Rafaela sensed that something was going to happen.

It wasn't until the car stopped in front of a large house, with colored lights and many people coming and going, that Rafaela froze upon seeing her schoolmates and discovering that they were at Nick's house.

"Wait, this is Nick's house?!" Rafaela almost shouted in surprise.

Ava laughed, pulling her out of the car.

"Surprise!" She joked. "Don't make that face, Rafa, if I told you, you wouldn't come. It'll be fun, I promise!"

Rafaela wanted to turn around and leave. She wasn't prepared to see Nick, especially with the move so close. But Ava was already pulling her into the house, where loud music and laughter drowned out any protest.

The room was crowded. Groups of teenagers danced, talked, and took selfies. Rafaela felt like a fish out of water in the middle of all that commotion. Ava, on the other hand, seemed to be at home, greeting everyone who passed by.

"I'm going to get us a drink, wait here!" Ava said, disappearing into the crowd.

Rafaela crossed her arms, feeling out of place. Then, as if the universe had a cruel sense of humor, she saw him.

Nick was leaning against the kitchen counter, laughing with his friends. He was wearing a black t-shirt and ripped jeans, and seemed to be the center of attention, as always. Beside him, Vitoria was more attached than ever, and said something in his ear with a smile.

Rafaela quickly looked away, but it was too late.

"Hey! Look who showed up!" Nick's voice sounded louder than she would have liked.

Some eyes turned to her. Rafaela felt her face heat up, but she maintained her posture.

"What are you doing here, Rafa?" Nick asked, approaching with an annoying smile that he loved to use with her.

"I was invited, obviously," she retorted, crossing her arms.

Nick chuckled, observing her from head to toe.

"But I don't remember inviting you. You look... different."

"I can leave if you want..." Rafaela said, looking away.

"Nick!" Vitoria appeared out of nowhere, holding his arm. "Let's go! You promised you'd show me something in your room," she said without greeting Rafaela.

Nick hesitated for a second, still looking at Rafaela, but ended up going with Vitoria. Rafaela let out the air she didn't even realize she was holding.

"What am I doing here?" She thought, regretfully. "It's my birthday, I deserved something better than seeing him with someone else..." Rafaela imagined what Nick and Vitoria were about to do in his room.

Rafaela was turning to leave when Ava returned, holding two glasses.

"What's wrong? Don't tell me you're leaving!" Ava complained.

Rafaela looked at Ava, then to the corner where Nick was with Vitoria. She thought for a moment, and gave up on leaving because of her friend.

"I'm not going..." She replied, firmly. "You can give me one of those glasses."

Ava smiled, satisfied, handing over the drink.

Rafaela decided to enjoy the party, without worrying about Nick or the impending move.

The party continued lively, and Rafaela no longer paid attention to the noise around her. Nick's constant presence made her restless, even when he wasn't around, and she still wondered what she was doing there, but now she didn't want to run away.

After some time, while Ava was dancing with other friends, Rafaela went to the table to get something to drink. That's when she felt a presence behind her.

"Alone again?"

She turned around and came face to face with Nick, who was inches away from her. His smile was the confident, provocative one. But his look, there was something different in his eyes that night.

"It's none of your business, Nick..."

"Nervous as always..." he laughed. "But you don't look like the same Rafaela as before... What happened?"

"Nothing. Maybe you just paid attention to me now..."

Nick raised an eyebrow, intrigued by her response.

"Come with me..." Nick said suddenly, holding her hand without giving her time to protest.

"Hey, wait!" Rafaela tried to break free, but he kept pulling her away from the crowd.