Westbridge High*

The morning began like any other.

The streets were already crowded, the sound of vehicles filling the air as people rushed to work and students hurried through the gates before the bell could ring.

Inside the school, the corridors were no quieter.

Shoes dragged across the floors. Classroom doors slammed shut. Someone was laughing way too loudly at the other end of the hallway, while a teacher's voice could be heard telling a group of students to stop running.

Among all that noise, one girl walked through the corridor without paying much attention to any of it.

She wasn't in a hurry.

She didn't need to be.

Nicky had always been the kind of person who walked like she already knew exactly where she was going.

She stopped outside her classroom, checked the time on her phone, and sighed.

“Five minutes early.”

A small victory.

She pushed the door open.

And just like that, another ordinary Monday began.

At least, that's what she thought.

The first thing you should know about Nicky was that she hated losing.

Not in the dramatic, I’ll-destroy-you-if-you-win kind of way.

She simply hated the feeling of someone being better than her.

It was Monday morning, and Nicky was already having the kind of day she didn't want to remember.

She sat at her usual desk, half-listening to her friends talk while absentmindedly scrolling through her phone.

“Are you even listening?”

Nicky looked up. “No.”

Her friend sighed. “At least pretend.”

“I'd rather be honest.”

She slipped her phone into her pocket and glanced around the classroom.

Everything was normal.

Same noisy hallway. Same annoying teachers. Same people she had known for years.

She liked it that way.

Predictable.

Until the teacher walked in with a file tucked beneath her arm.

“Everyone, settle down. We have something new to discuss.”

Nicky barely looked up.

Whatever it was, she was sure it had nothing to do with her.

She was wrong.

And she had no idea that, before the day was over, someone she hadn't even met yet would become the biggest irritation in her life.

Nicky has girls crushing on her left and right, even girls who are already dating someone. Some of their boyfriends are lowkey jealous because their girlfriends keep talking about Nicky. Nicky genuinely doesn’t care she’s completely used to it.

The classroom was loud until the door opened.

The noise slowly faded.

A girl stood at the entrance, one hand resting casually on the door.

Tall. Confident. A sharp wolf cut framing her face, with an effortless kind of presence that made everyone look twice.

She didn't smile.

She didn't need to.

Her eyes swept across the classroom once, calm and unreadable, before she stepped inside like she already belonged there.

Whispers immediately broke out.

“Who is she?”

“She's new, right?”

“Wait… she's actually-

Raine didn't seem to care.

She simply walked toward the teacher's desk, hands in her pockets, completely unfazed by the attention following her.

And somehow, within thirty seconds of entering Westbridge

Raine had already become the center of everyone's attention.

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