i. desolation rules this lonely empire

"I like you. And I know you don't like me back. I know you like Lyra, and have for the longest time. But please date me. Just as a little favor, will you? Ahahaha. It doesn't have to mean anything. (Laugh). I would be a fool to think you would ever like me, wouldn't I? (So won't you play along with me?)"

She slips the note into the locker in front of her, trying to fight a frown from appearing on her lips. Forcing a grin, she smiles across the campus, and, giggling, she makes a mental note to kill herself later for this. This is horribly idiotic and stupid, but it's not like the others will expect anything different from her. But she smiles; she smiles and smiles because she knows that he will never fall in love with her, and somewhere in the back of her head, she knows this is wrong, but she just raises her hand in a one-fingered salute (the glorious middle finger; called the bird only because of how free-flying it is) at a teacher, and when the teacher glares at her, she sticks out her tongue, pulls down her bottom eyelid, and quickly runs away.

She runs around the campus, ignoring the protests she hears from the various professors, and she mocks all of the students who jeer at her.

Kris laughs at them all, and she goes and searches for those two that she hates so much. She searches for Lyra and Ethan, the former who hates her and the latter who is always silent around her. She goes to make fun of them. They were her enemies. It was all so stupid, really, because she knows that humans are just stupid and they're horribly fickle, but Kris just keeps on pretending that she's stupider than the others to make herself superior. Really, the others were the fools, to not notice that she was just pretending.

After all, life is too short; is it not? Especially for her, who just mocks it. Why waste it on people who you don't care about? Why was it so important to make others think better of you? Kris always wanted to be different from those idiots who called themselves humans, so she put on a show to make herself seem as nonredeemable as possible.

(She laughs.)

Wondering if the person she liked has seen her paper, she frowns again and puts on a false mask.

Laugh, and the others can't do anything to you that might make you seem stupid. If you act stupid already, then no one will have the advantage over you.

She laughs crazily at how moronic the world seems, and then settles down for a (not as rare as she would like) moment of seriousness and depression.

This inferiority complex could only be developed by someone as stupid as her.

So, still running around with her Running Shoes and hair flying messily around, she waves at all the classrooms she passes, even the one she's supposed to be in currently, before the hall monitors will come searching for her. Hearing the indignant shouts of Green Oak, who quickly takes out his Running Shoes, (Kris always wears hers; she will never wear those horrible designer shoes because really, girls must be really superficial to wear those uncomfortable things all the time) and hurriedly chases after her, waving a late pass behind her as she taunts him.

Red eyes peer at her from a classroom above. High above, where the eyes are almost unable to be seen. Those eyes that she remembers, but can't for some reason.

Kris notices and waves up at them.

-This is how this story begins.

Life really is stupid, huh? What a stupid empire.

A/N

*edit*

Due to extreme changes, the main focus is no longer a love square, although there are still some aspects of it. Noticeably, the two pairings missing would be Ethan liking Lyra and Kris liking Ethan. Sorry for the abrupt change, but please feel free to comment on whether or not I should write a separate story just trying to write about a love square.