Chapter 2

Tiffany watched Sarah' s polite refusals with growing irritation. The twenty dollars Sarah had calmly pocketed still bothered her. It wasn't the reaction she' d wanted. She' d wanted tears, or anger, or at least some visible sign of humiliation.

"She' s tougher than she looks," Tiffany muttered to Ethan Hayes, the school's golden boy – star quarterback, top student, and the reluctant object of Tiffany's affections. "But don't worry, I have a big surprise planned for her. Something she won't be able to just walk away from."

Her threat hung in the air, vague but ominous.

Sarah took a part-time job cleaning the school' s little-used theater after hours. It was quiet, and it paid, helping with groceries and easing the lines of worry on her father' s face.

One evening, while sweeping the dusty stage, she heard voices from the adjoining green room, a private lounge the wealthy students often commandeered.

Tiffany' s sharp tones cut through the silence. "Look, Chad and Brittany are useless. She sees right through them. Ethan, it has to be you."

Sarah froze, her broom still.

"Me?" Ethan' s voice was smoother, more hesitant. "Why me, Tiff?"

"Because you're Ethan Hayes," Tiffany said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Everyone wants you. She' ll fall for you. You' re the only one who can really break her. And if you actually start to like her," Tiffany' s voice hardened with a possessive edge, "I swear, Ethan, I' ll make your life hell too."

"Relax, Tiff," Ethan said, a note of weariness in his voice. "It's just a game. You said it yourself."

"Then play it right," Chad chimed in. "Make the charity case weep."

Sarah' s blood ran cold. The "big surprise." This was it. They weren't just being mean; they were plotting her emotional destruction. She gripped the broom handle, her knuckles white. The casual cruelty of their words, the calculated nature of their plan, settled like ice in her stomach.

She remembered every slight, every whispered insult, every moment she' d felt small and insignificant in Northwood' s gleaming halls. This wasn't just random bullying; it was a concerted effort, a sport for them.

Sarah continued to rebuff the Legacy Crew's lesser members. She knew they were just pawns. Her suspicion, born from years of being the outsider, was now a certainty. She had to know the full extent of their plan before she made a move. She wouldn' t be their victim.

She remembered Tiffany's earlier threat, "I have a big surprise planned for her." The "surprise" was Ethan.

The next day in the library, as Sarah struggled with an advanced calculus problem, a shadow fell over her textbook.

It was Ethan Hayes.

"Need a hand with that?" he asked, his smile easy, his eyes seemingly kind. "That integral can be tricky."

This was the start. The main event.