WAYYY OVERDUE BUT IT'S OUT GUYS!

Disclaimer: Don't own it.

Chapter 2

Burn For Burn

"So," smirked Amy, on that fine first day afternoon, as he clambered into the car. "How was school?"

"Shut up."

Amy burst into peals of laughter instantly right after at her brother's misfortune of asking out Miss Kabra, a girl who had clearly shown him that she had no interest whatsoever- and about time to- and was known to be 'too good' for her 'peasant' brother. The only thing Amy could salvage of thoughts after Sinead had come to her bearing this news was laugh for hours. It was about time a girl turned her brother down; he needed it.

"Oh God," Amy shook her head, finally straightening up and giggling, "If only I was there to film the rejection."

"I hate you."

She ruffled his hair. "I know you do."

"You know she'll say yes. One way or another," argued Dan, crossing his arms and pouting like a little boy. "She can't resist me for too long."

"I don't know…Dan. She seems pretty clear about 'no'." Amy backed out of the parking spot, carefully reversing out of the school parking lot before increasing her speed onto the main road, "Maybe you've met your match."

"Whatever."

"I'm telling Nellie about this."

"You can't!" wailed Dan horrifically, sitting upright. "Please, if you don't tell her, I will never bug you about driving your car- I won't even touch the steering wheel!"

"Offer sounds good, but nothing will ever steer me away from bathing in your humiliation," she smiled, cackling evilly. "As your big sister, it's an obligation."

Feeling rather unoriginal, he retorted in the most effective way he could come up with: "Ugh, screw you."

"You'd do the same if it was me, Dan."

"…true that."

Amy's first day, unlike Dan's, was relatively uneventful. There was a new art teacher, unhelpful lectures on how to prepare for college and final tests, a brand new however even less appetizing than before lunch menu for the cafeteria food and some new students of which she had taken no interest in...except maybe there was one...no, Amy shook her head. The boy was cute; okay, no he was gorgeous but Amy wasn't that kind of girl who gawked and obsessed over boys. She was the girl who was level-headed and kept herself grounded to the very core.

Amy was the sort of person who immersed herself in scholarly committees and projects to concoct a perfect college application; so she applied for the extra-curricular activities she thought was most helpful in such. And as she was exiting from her book club, with several thick leather-bound books, she took a sharp turn into the right of the school hallway while distracted with the blurb and accidentally ran into a boy.

"Sorry," she murmured, retracing her steps and was about to sidestepped but stopped when she caught sight of his face and nearly had the books fell out of her hands. "Um, sorry, I'm sorry-I-"

"Do you know where the office is?'

"Um, well, I think it's around the corner," said Amy, putting her hair behind her ears in an helpless endeavour to make herself look cuter, "Why don't I show you? I don't mind."

He looked irresolute on letting her guide him to the administrator; as if he was a bit too prideful to have a peasant American girl told him where to go, but he nodded, giving in. "Okay." She realized his accent was British, specifically originating from Chelsea neighbourhoods, and she didn't know if it was just her (she had an affinity for British men...there was Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Felton, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran…) but she found the way he carried himself quite appealing, very sophisticated and definitely much more mature than any of the boys in this school.

Her cheeks glowed red as she took the front, walking down the corridor while he followed her.

"So," she began excitedly, "What's your name?"

"Ian," he said automatically, then paused hesitantly to say his full name: "Ian...Kabra."

"Oh," she squinted at his last name. Kabra...Kabra...she heard it before, but where? She wanted to ask but the tightened expression made it clear that Ian wasn't comfortable with discussing the notions of his last name so she changed the subject, "So what makes you come over to the US?"

"Family," he replied shortly.

"That's cool," she piped, "Do you have any siblings? I have a brother, but he's an annoying little twerp."

Ian smiled a little bit. "A sister. She can be...difficult."

"Yeah," she nodded, "I get what you mean. Dan is a bit high-strung and he can be an asshole, albeit I still love him."

He offered a tight smile and she awkwardly gestured to the glass doors which were the entrance to administration. "So, um, here it is."

"Thank you," he said graciously.

"I'll, um, see you around."

"I supposed," there was a cold distinction in his voice, rather awkward too. She waved, he didn't return the gesture because he had already went inside. She sighed. Guess he wasn't that interested.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, he was cute," Amy told Sinead that day while they were finishing up their maths report on the dining table. "But he was so cold to me, like he couldn't be bothered talking to me."

"Maybe he's just shy."

"Or maybe he thinks I'm a mutated freak who jumps at any chance for a guy to talk to her."

Sinead laughed, then covered her mouth. "Oh, I'm sorry," she giggled, shaking her head while dipping her cookies into her coffee, "I shouldn't be laughing. He sounds awful, Amy. Unfriendly and cold...what's his name?"

"Ian," Amy said mournfully, "Ian Kabra."

"Kabra….as in Natalie Kabra's brother?!"

"I...don't know."

Sinead's eyes widened marginally, "I know his sister. She's new too and in like five of my classes," she licked the sugar off her finger and Amy handed her a tissue. "Kinda tall, carrying a Gucci purse and teetering in five inches high heels during school hours. She was the girl your brother tried to charm over but it didn't work."

"She's that girl?" choked Amy through her afternoon coffee, "What a coincidence."

"Or not," said Sinead mysteriously, but their conversation ended abruptly as Dan hopped into the kitchen, doing various karate chops with his hands while rocking out to some blasphemous rock music on his iPhone.

"Hey ladies," greeted Dan, grabbing a cold Red Bull from the fridge. "Doing a bit of homework, huh?"

"And you're avoiding yours?" asked Amy pointedly, with her arms crossed.

"I've taken care of them, Ames."

Amy rolled her eyes. "You mean you've paid off some Asian kid to do them."

"...shut up."

"You know; some of those Asian kids are my friends!"

"And they're being handled, frankly, quite well in economic terms," grinned Dan. He took a swig from his can while Amy sighed, shaking her head at her brother's mischievous antics; mischievous though strangely diligent. If he had ever tried to apply his strangely strategically, however brilliant mind to his studies, he would've excelled. But even without studying too much, Dan still swept past his studies with a B average.

"Anyway," Sinead said, "We heard about the fail in the cafeteria. Nice one, by the way."

Dan wagged a finger at her, "That was just a minor setback. Don't you worry, I'll probably get her within the week and Ham will owe me a new car. Soon, Amy, I'll be driving myself to school."

"A new car?" asked Amy, confused.

"It's just a bet Ham and I made," said Dan, relaxed, "If I can get that pretty little thing to go out with me within the month, the car is mine. If I don't, well...but let's face it, I probably will."

Amy narrowed her eyes. "You betted on a girl?"

"Yeah. So?"

"That's not funny, Dan! You're betting on a girl's feelings, toying with her heart-"

"Oh, shut your feminism crap," Dan rolled his eyes blithely, emptying the can and tossing it in the bin with one perfect motion. "Young love is all about breaking hearts. And besides, the girls seemed to eat it all up…"

"That's because we're holding on for something better!"

"Well, whatever," shrugged Dan. Amy placed her hands on her hips, but before she could open her mouth to lecture him, "Bye, Amy," he exited out of the kitchen, leaving Amy furious and Sinead watching in amusement.

"You know, as much as he's an asshole," concluded Sinead, folding her fingers under her chin with a slight grin, "He's funny."

"Yeah, that's Dan in a nutshell. A funny asshole."

Once the day was over, Ian flopped onto the bed of his brand new room, exhaustion and events taking toll on his mind as he groaned into his pillow.

"I told you America was a bloody waste of time."

His sister had invaded his room.

He lifted his head from the pillow to see his sister's heels clicking their ways to the chair by the study table. She occupied the seat of the chaise lounge, her hand resting like a kitten on the handle, inspecting her filed nails.

At the sight of her, Ian very much felt like asking her to bugger off. He was so not in the mood to deal with his little sister and her lists of complaints on why they shouldn't have moved, or stay home in their twenty one million pound penthouse in London, supporting their parents who were facing an embezzling trial and twenty five years in jail. But instead, he sighed exasperatedly, lifted his head of where he previously buried it and said:

"What is it, Natalie?"

"What is it?" she prodded dangerously, her golden eyes cold and calculating. "It's everything, Ian! We're stuck in the middle of bollocking nowhere! You promised it would be fine. The malls around here doesn't even have a Chanel outlet- that's ghastly."

"Natalie," he said, laboured with irritation. "You're just going to have to deal with it."

"Deal with it?" she shrieked, losing the levelheaded cool a Kabra was famous for. "If you weren't my brother, I would've sued! We could've gone to anywhere in the States; New York, Los Angeles...but no, we're here! Some godforsaken American town where the only decent food is the cheap Chinese takeout."

"Natalie, shut up!" He shouted over her, rising to her feet. She was taken aback, the puzzlement evident on her face. "Look," he seized hold of clarity from the moment of anger, and spoke calmly, but sternly, "things are different now. Because of the trial, the accusation, all of our assets have been frozen. We cannot afford the luxury we're used to. For better or worse, we're stuck here now, in the care of Irina. At least, we're not on the streets of London, scrounging for food. Consider yourself lucky and stop whining."

She looked resentful, the lucidity of her hatred for being confined was beaming but he could see she was slightly guilty for what she had said- it wasn't as if he had control of what was happening to them.

"Whatever," she held her nose in the air and marched out of his room.

Finally. Some bloody peace. Falling back into the sea of pillows, Ian lie there for several minutes with his eyes closed, relishing the silence until he realized he had homework. Urgh.

It was not fair!

He was right, but it still wasn't sodding fair!

Making a sound of frustration at the back of her throat, she had a growing impulse to punch the wall but she couldn't do that. She would ruined her manicure.

Suddenly, her phone rang and she took it out, reading the display name: Sophie Watson

What does she wants? thought Natalie irritably, but she answered it anyway, snapping:

"What?"

"Hey, Natalie," greeted the familiarity of the smug American accent from her blonde friend, "Kris, Em and I are at the mall. Wanna hang?"

Natalie considered it. Stuck doing her American maths Trigonometry homework in her aunt's distastefully horrendous interior-designed mansion or squander the rest of her afternoon with three American blonde bimbos, sipping fattening Starbucks while shopping in non-designer stores?

"Sure," sighed Natalie, tired of trying to fight everything. "Why not?"

The mall wasn't too bad. Emma and Kristen, however, checked every single mile-marker of a typical white girl, constantly snapping selfies of every 'oh my god totes adorbs' outfit they've seen at Bloomingdales, Macy's, and the plethora of department stores Natalie wanted to escape while clutching their pumpkin spice lattes as they shrieked about Instagram.

Sophie was surprisingly not too bad of company, staying by her as she picked out several Marc Jacob dresses. The impulse to buy everything in the store was scratching her at the neck- she needed some retail therapy, desperately, especially after her and Ian's fight. She just wanted some things to take off her mind.

"Wow," grinned Sophie at the large collection in Natalie's arms when she dumped it at the cashier and handed her credit card. "Someone's eager to start this year off with a fashion bang."

"My brother," sighed Natalie irately, "He was a pain."

Sophie simpered, "Ooh, that sucks. Big brothers can be such a pain in the ass."

Natalie didn't laugh, but she smirked.

"Come on," said Sophie to her friends when Natalie grabbed her shopping bags, heading towards the exit, "Let's go to Java's for some coffee."

Together, the four girls walked themselves over to the most overcrowded coffee lounge in the entire was a popular hotspot within the grapevine of the school's gossip centre; famous for it's wonderful cinnamon lattes during the fall, hot chocolates in the winter, lavender tea at spring and iced frappes on a scorching summer day, everybody loved Java. The atmosphere exuded a warm and friendly aura; friendship cliques inhabiting Java's plush purple couches, or tall, sturdy tables, while chatting, gossiping, studying. It was the homelife of the student's world.

Unfortunately, much to Natalie's chagrin, the annoying boy from the cafeteria was there too.

Great, thought Natalie, brushing her hair from her face as Sophie and her settled down onto a free table- a rarity in Java's- he's going to try to ask me out. Again. Seriously? I have no times for peasant boys. "Ugh," Sophie wrinkled her nose, voicing Natalie's thoughts at the sight of Dan Cahill and his friends occupying the table right opposite them. "That spoils the view."

"He tried to ask me out today," said Natalie.

"Did you say yes?"

"I didn't."

Sophie looked relieved, "Thank God, you didn't. Or not you'll just be another X on the list of girls he's screwed over."

"But he's so cute," Emma giggled to Kristen, stirring her coffee, watching as Dan high-fived Hamilton over something as trivial as a football touchdown. Natalie resisted scoffing at Emma's behaviour- have you no self-respect or proprietary? But Natalie secretly agreed on the terms of Dan Cahill's appearance...he was rather...Natalie hated to admit, dashing, with that All-American rugged bad-boy charm he gave.

Suddenly, as if Dan had heard Natalie's thoughts, he smirked at her and started approaching her, sauntering towards their table.

"Here he comes," Sophie muttered.

"Hey girls," he winked at Kristen, who blushed and nearly dropped her coffee. His eyes flitted towards Natalie, "Hey...new girl."

"It's Natalie," she told him coldly.

"Sure, Nat."

"It's Natalie!"

He grinned, "I'll stick with Nat. It's cooler," he laughed, a wonderful, deep sound enriched in honey, but she fumed, offended. How dare that peasant boy defied her order? "Anyway, about that date….what do you say?"

"It's still no."

He was crestfallen, but his face quickly recovered into an expression of easy suaveness, "You sure?"

Natalie shot him a glare. "Crystal. Now can you please go away?" she asked, her tone full of authority. "You're bothering me and my friends."

Dan shrugged, not truly caring and smiling arrogantly at Emma and Kristen, who both seemed to be having a cardiac arrest in their velvet seats. "See you around," he smirked once again, "Nat."

"Bastard!" she hissed but he was out of earshot, marching back to his table.

"That was…" trailed off Sophie, covering up her laughter with her hand, "beautiful."

"Which part?" beamed Natalie, "The turn down or asking him to go away?"

"Both."

"You hate him so much," mused Natalie, wondering. Sophie bit her lip, anxiously observing Emma and Kristen as they checked their social media apps, "Why?"

"Look, it's nothing…"

Liar, liar, pants on fire, noticed Natalie immediately, the way how Sophie had left her sentences vaguely unfinished, debating on whether to tell her or not. Natalie could easily see when a person was hiding something, a trait she had inherited from her mother and sharpened for her gains since birth.

"Come on," said Natalie, coaxing slightly, "You can tell me."

Sophie ran a hand through her dirty blonde waves, letting it cascade down her pretty heart-shaped face and leaned closer to Natalie's seat, lowering her volume."Okay," she gave in solemnly and Natalie felt her heart rose in success, "But you can't tell anybody. Not even Emma or Kristen. You promise?"

"Promise."

"When I was fifteen, I was...a Nobody. Like nada, invisible, the Populars owned the halls, Dan Cahill was in charge of the whole operation, and not once did they ever treated me like I existed. Until one day, Dan came up to me," her voice began to tremble, "he was like, 'Hey, you're Sophie, right?' I was stunned. Dan Cahill, captain of the football team, famous of all the pranksters, notorious for dating extremely pretty girls, talking to me. So that one little comment led to a lunchtime talk, texting, flirting, and eventually, he took me out on a date. We went back to his house. His parents were out, so was his nerdy sister. So he started to kiss me and I wasn't thinking, I thought he really liked me, and one thing led to another. He took several...incriminating photos of me, without any clothes, and I thought it was okay- because well, he's my boyfriend, right? Wrong. He had sent those photos to every one of his friends and never called me ever again," she concluded, eyes burning with hate. "I cried for days until I realized how he was just an asshole, looking for anyone desperate enough to put out. I hate him. I hate him."

"That's…" Natalie found her saliva hard to swallow, "Horrible."

No wonder she'd hated him so much. If anyone ever did that to her...there'll be blood. She couldn't comprehend how the temptation of revenge was not tearing Sophie apart right now.

"I promised myself one day I'll get back at him," she growled, gritting her teeth, boring holes into her innocent coffee cup as if imagining Dan Cahill was there and her eyes were lazers. "One day…" she faded, looking at Natalie abruptly when an idea had seized her. "I have an idea."

"...what for?"

A devilish, vengeful smile played at Sophie's lips, a smile Natalie herself knew far too well- she'd seen it on her face too many times. It was a smile of revenge and a plot worthy of a devil was forming in her pretty little blonde head. Natalie could already see a plan so convoluted, mustache-twirling putting the pieces together in her mind. Maybe Natalie had underestimated Sophie, maybe she wasn't just a dumb blonde who didn't know how to utilize her chest players.

"You're going to say yes to Dan Cahill."

Or maybe not.

"What?" scoffed Natalie, "After your sad little tale, no thanks."

Sophie tutted. "Patience, little one," Sophie laughed cruelly, "You haven't heard the rest. You'll make him fall in love with you...then, you'll crush him. We'll be giving him a taste of his own medicine."

Natalie's mouth fell open. Oh, that was good. But insane. She regarded Sophie with new eyes, wondering if Sophie could've been related to the Kabras. "And who says I'll agree to this plan?"

"Please?" Sophie begged, her lips pouting but Natalie didn't fall for it. She had tried that face on her brother before. "Do it for me? I know you barely know me but…" she huffed, blowing a strand on blonde "think about it. He have done this to so many girls, screwing them over for kicks. We need to stop him, one way or another."

Natalie leaned into her chair, her thoughts scattered across her brain as she watched Dan flirted with the barista, making her blush and slip her number onto the counter. He collected the coffee, went back this friends and high-fived every one of them, as they objectify the girl swooning over Dan behind the counter. Rage created a lump inside Natalie's throat- girls were so naive when it comes to boys like Dan, boys who strung them up on strings of their fancy and cut them up once they were bored of the girls they have. It was not at all fair, not to Sophie, not to anyone. A burning passion formed at the pit of her stomach- she did hate Dan Cahill, with a fiery anger; for Sophie, who was fooled to believe him.

"Why not?" Natalie found herself saying, an evil smirk crossing her lips. "Let's do it."

Dan is an asshole, I know, but for the story purposes; he's supposed to be that way.

But oohh Sophie and Natalie's plotting Dan's downfall...meanwhile Dan's betting on Natalie's hearts. OOOH SO EVIL.

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