Chapter 6 The First Day Of School

Three days later, the drugs arrived just in time for the start of the semester at NY University.

Juliet had never attended school, but she technically had a diploma from some shady foreign high school. Besides being Ghost Leopard of the Death God Training Base, she needed an identity-one that was real enough to withstand scrutiny.

Juliet stuffed a few boxes of drugs into her bag and dragged her suitcase out the door. Whether she was going to school or not didn't matter; anything was better than facing the weirdos at home every day. Once she got the lost files, studying abroad as an exchange student wouldn't be difficult.

When she got downstairs, the living room was empty except for a housekeeper mopping the floor.

"Where is everyone?" Juliet squinted her eyes.

The housekeeper straightened up and glanced at her, saying, "Mr. and Mrs. Black took Miss Eileen to school."

Juliet didn't care much and nodded, "Okay."

The three of them seemed happy together, and she didn't want to intrude on their little family moment. Juliet leisurely dragged her suitcase outside, called a taxi online, and headed straight for NY University.

It was the first day of school, and the campus was packed with people; private cars lined up for hundreds of meters, stuck in traffic.

"Miss, this is as far as I can take you. The traffic's too bad up ahead." The taxi driver turned around, unable to help but comment on how pretty she was. "It's the first day of school-don't your parents want to drop you off?"

Juliet glanced at the messages on her phone and casually replied, "Oh, I'm an orphan."

The taxi driver paused, his gaze instantly filled with sympathy.

After getting out, Juliet dragged her suitcase along the sidewalk toward the school, looking down at the admission letter in her hand.

Art College, Fine Arts Department, Animation Major.

Funny enough, back when she was working on game development, she had to study art design for a bit because she kept failing at it.

"Hey, you're in the drama department, right?"

As she reached the school gate, a tall, handsome guy approached her, eager to speak. "Hi, I'm a junior in drama and film performance. You're studying acting too, right? Let me help you with your luggage."

Juliet glanced at the name tag on his chest and replied coolly, "No thanks, I'm studying animation."

"Animation?" The guy's face showed surprise.

He looked at Juliet's face, then at the admission letter in her hand. With a face like that, she was an art student?

"Is there a problem?"

"No... no problem at all," he quickly replied. "The art college is over there... Colin, I found a little junior in the same major as you!"

In front of the gate of NY University, a row of tables and chairs was set up, each with a sign showing the college and major names.

The welcome committee was made up of student council members, all wearing matching white T-shirts with the school logo.

Behind the sign for the animation major, the guy took the book off his face and sat up straight.

"Please register your name and phone number. The fee for the student card is 300 bucks, which includes a 20-buck processing fee, and the rest goes onto the card..."

Before he could finish, Colin caught sight of the girl's face in front of him.

"Holy crap?"

This little junior... how did she end up looking like that?

With a face like that, she could totally get by just on her looks-why bother studying animation?

"Are you still going to register or what?" Juliet lightly tapped the table.

"Y-Yeah..." Colin suddenly perked up and quickly handed her a pen.

"Junior, you really are... studying animation?"

The animation industry in Country A had seen better days, and NY University usually only had one class for animation, mostly filled with transfers. She must be a transfer too, right?

He glanced at the registration form.

Juliet Black...

That was a nice name.

Juliet casually said, "It was arranged by my family."

Seeing she didn't want to say more, Colin didn't pry.

After finishing the registration, he exchanged a couple of words with someone nearby and stood up, saying, "Juliet, let me take you to the dorm."

Juliet nodded and thanked him.

Colin offered to help with her luggage again, but she declined.

At first, he seemed like a decent-looking guy who was a bit aloof, but along the way, he opened up and started chatting her ear off about the school gossip.

"I thought the campus beauty for your class had to be Eileen from the drama department, but now that I see you, I know that title doesn't belong to her anymore."

"Eileen?" Juliet turned to look at him.

Wasn't this the start of freshman year?

It seemed like Eileen was pretty well-known at NY University.

Colin scoffed, "She was the campus beauty at the high school. Her dad's the chairman of Black Family Group, and her brother is Richard Black, a big-time celebrity. But she's not exactly a great person, so if you get to know her, it's best to keep your distance."

Juliet slowly narrowed her eyes and smiled.

"Juliet, speaking of which, you all have the surname Black..."

"Yeah, " Juliet nodded casually.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the girls' dormitory.

Colin awkwardly ran a hand through his messy blonde hair.

"Um... Juliet, can I get your contact info? I'm a sophomore, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask me."

"Sure," Juliet didn't hesitate and pulled out her phone to add Colin on WhatsApp.

"Alright, Juliet, you go on in first. I've got stuff to take care of."

The freshman animation dorm was on the sixth floor. Juliet went upstairs, following the room numbers until she found hers.

The four-person dorm was already filled up except for her bed. Two girls were sitting face-to-face in chairs, chatting and looking pretty familiar with each other. Another girl was sitting at the desk, touching up her makeup in front of a mirror.

When the two girls saw Juliet walk in, they turned around, and their eyes went wide for a moment at her looks before they quickly stood up to greet her.

"Hi, I'm Bess, and this is Dora. You must be Juliet, right? You're really pretty."

The girl speaking had a doll-like face, and when she smiled, her big eyes looked like crescent moons.

She pointed to the only empty bed in the room. "You're in bed number four; your name is taped on the cabinet."

The girl next to her was tall and thin, and she smiled too. "Nice to meet you."

Juliet had never really hung out with normal girls her age before, so she felt a bit out of place. After a moment, she managed to say, "Nice to meet you guys."

The girl who had been putting on makeup glanced back, frowned slightly, but didn't say anything, just went back to perfecting her eyeliner.

Bess lowered her voice. "That's Lillian. She doesn't talk much, but she doesn't mean any harm."

Juliet didn't reply, just smiled.

They were just a few girls; whether they had bad intentions or not didn't matter much to her. She wasn't concerned about that. After all, she had trained top mercenaries and soldiers from around the world, making them cry for their mothers. Dealing with school stuff was a walk in the park for her.

Bess and Dora were locals and had gone to the affiliated high school of NY University, so they were full of school gossip.

They chatted with Juliet for half an hour, and by the end, she knew everything about the school, including which cafeteria served the best food.

As they got more comfortable, the conversation inevitably turned to why Juliet had chosen animation.

Bess asked curiously, "Juliet, you're so pretty-why didn't you go for acting? With your looks, you could totally outshine Eileen from the drama department. What a shame!"

This was the second time she heard Eileen's name since starting school.

Juliet didn't answer the question directly; instead, she casually asked, "I heard from a senior in the student council that Eileen is the campus beauty from the affiliated high school."

"Yeah, she's a top-tier rich girl. Of course, she's the campus beauty."

When Bess mentioned Eileen, her expression turned a bit weird, as if she remembered something funny, and she laughed out loud.

"Juliet, when you see Eileen, you better keep your distance."

There it was again...

Earlier, Colin had only hinted that Eileen wasn't a great person, but hearing Bess say this piqued Juliet's interest.

"Why's that?"

Bess blinked and spoke in a mock-serious tone. "She has depression. If you end up knowing her and somehow make her mad, she'll twist it so it looks like you bullied her, and then all her followers and yes-men will drown you in spit!"

Juliet was at a loss for words.

So that's how it was.

Eileen had depression but was still so combative. That made her kind of a breath of fresh air among depression patients.

Dora pulled on Bess's shirt. "Maybe tone it down a little."

"I'm not scared of her! Anyone with eyes in this school knows that Eileen is the embodiment of Schrödinger's depression! Only a bunch of brainless followers would be all over her!"

At lunchtime, Bess and Dora wanted to drag Juliet to the cafeteria.

Juliet checked her phone for messages and politely declined. She still had important things to take care of.

Just as Juliet was about to head out, Lillian finished her makeup, stood up, and looked at Juliet with an awkward expression.

Juliet could tell that Lillian didn't mean any harm, so she asked, "Is something up?"

Lillian forced a smile and extended her hand stiffly. "Hi, I'm Lillian, from City W. Nice to meet you."

Juliet's eyes lit up as she shook the hand adorned with delicate nail art, smiling back. "Nice to meet you too."

Her roommate seemed pretty cute. Much more interesting than those soldiers on the island.