Chapter 1

For the first seventeen years following her birth, Courtney Mann believed she lived a wonderfully extraordinary life.

Be it her talent, her money, her mind—people always seemed to want what she had. Her parents were lawyers, and wealthy, successful ones at that. Her home had never been anything less than luxurious, her stomach never empty, and her free time always filled with activities. Piano and ballet when she was young, then singing and swimming and violin and martial arts later; her parents spared no expense to make her the most remarkable little girl the world had ever seen. Competitions in all sorts of things had been won under her name, and from an early age Courtney learned what it was like to be envied.

In high school, life seemed only to get better. She had always been a straight A student, studious as she was, and her teachers were forever telling her she could be the valedictorian of her year. Since sophomore year she had held the title of captain for both speech and debate and the tennis team; by the start of her last, Courtney had been elected class president twice.

Unfortunately, success often means sacrificing some other part of life, and for Courtney, this was friends. Many people were jealous, and those who were not thought her too bossy, cocky, self-righteous; her patience too thin and her temper too short to want to associate with her. Though she would die before admitting it, Courtney could probably count the number of friends she'd ever had on one hand.

And, for a long time, Courtney was content with that. Her actions earned her rewards; her rewards gained others' resentment. It was a cycle, however lonely it was, that she had long since become accustomed to, and one she had little wish to alter.

Until he arrived.

It all started on a Friday afternoon. Courtney sat in her homeroom, the last class of the day, engaged with one of her classmates in a very interesting "discussion"—otherwise called an argument—about the court system and its prejudice against racial minorities. It was a subject the brunette was well-versed in, and once her rant began, she had no intention of slowing down. The poor boy had barely gotten a word in since the conversation started about five minutes earlier, and there was little doubt that she could have talked forever had there been no interruptions.

Thankfully for the boy, there was.

"Hey, Corrie?"

Courtney broke off mid-sentence, resisting a strong urge to bare her teeth. The words were spoken in a high, childish pitch that grated on her nerves and made the avid expression on her face morph into exasperated irritation. With a wave of the hand, she silently apologized to her opponent, motioned that he wait, and twisted to face the blonde sitting at her left. She failed to notice the boy fleeing, as soon as her back was turned, to another seat across the room.

Courtney was too annoyed to care anyway.

"What, Lindsiot?"

Twirling a piece of golden hair around her finger, Lindsay was entirely oblivious to the callous tone the other girl had adopted, as well as the sneer gracing her normally pretty face. She failed to react to Courtney's name calling. It was likely she hadn't even noticed. Instead, she picked up a perfectly manicured finger and indicated at something across the room, by the windows. "That guy is staring at you."

Courtney gave her a flat, disbelieving look. She didn't bother to check. It was probably some classmate staring at the huge-chested ditz herself, and the girl was just too dull to realize it.

A hand coming to cradle her temple, Courtney sighed, "Lindsay, no one can even see my face from there. It's not me they're looking at."

"No, I swear it's you!" Lindsay insisted. "Whenever boys look at me, they always have this funny look on their face, like they need to use the bathroom—" the brunette bit back a snicker "—but this guy isn't like them. He's just watching." She pointed again, more fervently this time. "Look, he's right there!"

The blonde's obvious agitation gave Courtney a slight feeling of unease. Deciding to humor her for once, she twisted in the direction of the still-extended fingernail to see who was supposedly staring at her, mouth open in preparation to find fault with everything the girl said.

The, she faltered. "But, Lindsay... There's no one there."

And it was true. The group of students in that corner of the room were all too occupied playing whichever geeky card game was all the rage to give either of the two girls the time of day. As far as Courtney could tell, there was no one else Lindsay could have been referring to. Suddenly more embarrassed than annoyed, she whipped back around. "Is this some kind of stupid joke?"

Lindsay seemed even more puzzled than Courtney. "No! I swear there was someone there." Making an incredibly vague outline of a body with her hands, she went on, "He was this big, tall guy with black hair and dark clothes!"

Courtney shook her head in exasperation. "Lindsay, that description is completely ambiguous. Not to mention no one in this homeroom even looks like that." In her mind, she added, It's only the same class we've had since freshman year. She couldn't say she was surprised. Lindsay's capacity for remembering, well, anything, was practically zilch. Courtney moved to dismiss the disruption. She put a hand down into her bag.

"But he wasn't in the room! He was standing outside the window!" Courtney froze as a distinctly disturbed sensation surfaced inside her. "He was there for like, a full minute just staring at you, but after I told you to look, he disappeared! It was like who-doo!"

"You mean voodoo." But Courtney was not really focused on that. She was too occupied with the idea that this was a stranger they were talking about. Her forehead creased in concern.

Lindsay, of course, had apparently already forgotten the incident. "Voodoo?" she repeated blankly, eyes empty, before gasping and giving an almost inaudible squeal of excitement. "Is that a new makeup brand?"

Courtney let out a long sigh. She dragged a tanned hand over her eyes, hoping to shield herself from the stupidity. "No, Lindsay. It's not makeup."

"Oh."

Ten minutes later, Courtney was fast approaching the brink of explosion. Her bag contained nothing more than her dead phone, a Calculus textbook and an old novel from the summer which she must have reread at least four times. There was nothing for her to do except resign herself to observation for the rest of the schoolday.

The boredom was killing her. She had never realized how completely uninteresting her classmates were until that moment.

Just moments before she was to start hitting her head on the desk, Courtney felt a sudden tap on her shoulder. With enough force to crack her neck, she jerked her head up, sending the perpetrator a menacing glare. Subconsciously, she had assumed it to be Lindsay.

How wrong she was.

Gazing back at her was the sole person in the entire school who she considered even close to having her intellectual ability, if being also extremely apathetic, wearing his characteristic patterned vest, polo shirt, and cargo shorts. The boy was a genius in every sense of the word—and that, if nothing else, gained him some degree of respect in her book.

However, to respect someone and to like someone are two very different things.

Courtney's lip curled. "What the hell do you want, Noah?"

Noah raised an eyebrow at her tone. "Wow, such a pleasant greeting. I was expecting something more along the lines of: 'Go fuck yourself, Noah', or maybe, 'Go away before I chop your balls off, Noah', but you've surprised me." His words were spoken without the slightest hint of emotion, and for the briefest of moments, the girl felt a smile tugging at her lips. She quickly crushed it and plastered on a fierce scowl in its place. The last thing she wanted was for Noah to think she actually found his sarcasm amusing.

"Whatever. Just answer the question." He smirked.

"Well," Noah drawled, looking at Courtney with his unnervingly sly expression, "there's been a nasty rumor going around here... A rumor about a certain Latin hotshot—" she stiffened "—and a certain Queen Bee—" her hands formed into fists "—'hooking' up at Geoff's party the other night." He observed Courtney's reaction with some amusement for a few seconds before continuing. "As editor of the school newspaper, I was simply wondering if it had any truth to it, or if it was just another gossip scandal."

Jaw clenched, the girl opened and closed her lips several times. It took a good thirty seconds for her to remember how to speak. "That," she said, voice dangerously low, "is absolutely none of your business." She struggled to keep her high-pitched voice from escalating into a screech. Taking a gulp of the stale classroom air, she forced herself to relax, then repeated, "My relationships, or lack thereof, are not of any concern to you or the rest of the student body."

Noah didn't miss a beat. "So, that's a yes?"

Courtney wanted nothing more than to slap the smug look off his face, but she restrained herself. There were too many people nearby to witness it.

"Okay, yes, alright? It's a goddamn yes. But," she paused to pull out a threatening finger, "that jerk and I are over now, and I do not want to dwell on a lost cause any more than I already have to. So, if you wouldn't mind, please just run along to your nerdy little friends and never mention this again. To anyone. Ever. Or else I'll—"

"Chop my balls off. I get it." Noah put his hands up in mock defense. "You know, that threat would be much more intimidating if I didn't know what a sucker for rules you are. No knives allowed on campus." He began to walk away towards his own desk, sending a taunting wave over his shoulder as he closed the conversation. "Thanks for the little chat, Courtney. It really was a pleasure."

Just as she was picking out a few choice words to yell at him, Courtney was interrupted by the sound of the bell resonating throughout the room. Teens and teacher alike rushed to the door, relieved to finally get out of the hellhole that was school. Courtney, still fuming, simply sat and waited for them all to file out. Only once the last of them had disappeared down the hall did she grudgingly get up from her chair, carrying herself and her backpack out of the room.

She would have to exact her revenge on Noah later, she decided, for sticking his nose where it didn't belong. And on her ex-boyfriend for cheating on her, and on Heather for cheating with him. And on Lindsay for being stupid.

A chill ran up her back. Courtney frowned, stopping to look around herself, and then shoved open the main doors to the building.

Yeah, she'd definitely be getting back at them.

A/N: (1/1/18) Another re-edit. Happy New Year!

As always, thanks for reading and please review! Critiques are welcomed. :)

- Scraps