People often tell me I'm rude. Well...Life's cruel and I've learned that the hard way.

One would usually feel good coming back to their hometown. All the childhood memories and moments they cherish would make them happy to be back, however, I don't have any.

The memories that led us to leave this town are still freshly engraved in my heart and soul.. Although I didn't had much choice than to not return here.

My mother's health was worsening day after day and she was reluctant on getting any help. It would have stayed the same if she hadn't collapsed last week.

When this news reached Uncle Hiroto, he was furious. He pulled mom out of her miserable lifestyle and told her that she had me and the world isn't over. He somehow managed to convince her that she should take care of herself and move back to Shinpi. He insisted that we should live with him but we did not want to be a burden on him.

A week later mom informed him that we have decided to come back but we'll stay at our old house. He was really happy to hear that and told us he'd get everything running and ready till we reach there.

Now here I am standing at the entrance of the famous St. Louis Academy. I hope this one is better than the one I used to attend a few years back. It is said to be one of the most renowned schools in Shinpi, situated in the middle of the town, as though it craves the attention. Its' concrete paths snake through enormous trees that provide shade from the hot sun. The squirrels who have made their home here dance around my feet, clearly accustomed to their human neighbours.

Today, I will start my new life here.

As I was entering the building I saw many girls shooting daggers my way. I expected a few stares because I was the new kid but this seemed weird. This was high school however, and if I had learned anything from my past experience, it's that being nice gets you nowhere.

Lucky for me, as I made my way several guys also joined the parade which would have made the old me feel uncomfortable. I hope the first day goes by without any drama. God, please just let this high school life be peaceful, I thought, placing my hands together.

Inside, before I could even admire the architecture or find my way, I could hear a group of 3 boys talking about me as they walked towards me.

"Yo! check that out."

"Oh! She looks pretty. Hey! Come here, girl!"

I was beginning to feel a little heat rise up to my head. Frustration started boiling in me. I didn't come here to take shit from anybody, let alone immature boys.

Calm down Bo. It's okay. I whispered to myself taking deep breaths and kept on walking. Just a few more minutes, hang in there. It looks like all that anger made me thirsty so I took out my water bottle from the bag to take a sip and just as I lifted it to my lips, I felt someone pull my skirt and I lost it. School or not, I have zero tolerance for perverts.

"Hey new kid, are you lost?" a guy smirked as I whirled around to face him. There was nothing much special about his appearance though from the look of his uniform I guessed he was a senior.

"Why, yes? Will you help me please?" I purred, keeping a hold on my anger.

"Let me give you a tour 'round the building. It'll be fun I promise," he said cocking his eyebrow.

I could see he was amused. "I think so too," I replied, placing a hand on my chest, and giving him a once over from his shoes to his eyes and back down to his lips. I parted my own and I could see him feeling shifty. He wasn't used to this.

The students passing by stopped to watch us. I don't know why people have trouble minding their own business. Directing my attention towards him I slowly pulled him closer by his belt and poured the water from my bottle into his pants. Perfect.

"You B*%ch! What's wrong with you?" the guy yelled, covering his pants with his school bag.

I guess all his amusement was washed away with the water. "Why? You didn't like it? Well, I thought it was really funny. Oh and..." I paused to take in his expression and to really make sure he was listening. "Stay Away from me," I said and made my way to the class.

As soon as the bell rang signifying the start of the twenty-minute recess period, all hell broke loose and all the students perked up. Schoolwork burden is forgotten within the recess time. There's a stampede towards the canteen. The school comes alive. The benches in the canteen during recess are never unoccupied. The counter is always crowded with students, here it seems, there is no such thing as a 'queue'.

As I made my way to the cafeteria I saw girls forming a crowd and it was not hard for me to guess that they were fangirling over some boy because they were embarrassingly loud about it. Two girls walked in behind me, they looked like they were in the same grade as me.

"I heard that the new girl caused trouble," said a girl with golden locks to a brunette who was standing beside her.

"Yeah. I think her name is Mo or something like that. My friend mentioned that she caused quite a scene." Are they talking about me? I thought with a roll of my eyes. I wasn't intending on listening since I'm not a big fan of eavesdropping and started to make my way forward but to my very fortunate self they did too.

"I heard that she approached a senior and when he rejected her she got mad and poured water into his pants," the brunette said.

"Really? That's something. I can't believe anyone can stoop this low and that too on her first day," the blonde snorted, giving her friend a look of shock.

They were talking about me, before I could turn around to give them a piece of my mind I was surrounded by a bunch of girls all screaming.

"Forget her, look who's here. It's Yin," the blonde said, directing her vision towards a guy; a tall handsome teenage boy as both of them shoved past me.

He had skin like vanilla which perfectly contrasted his jet black hair. Girls were swooning all over him but he didn't pay them any attention, he didn't ignore them or talk to them rudely, he held his composure and politely made his way out of the crowd. It was as if he was SLA's Idol.

"He's so handsome" A girl swooned.

"He's mine, you all go away!" Another snapped. Ugh! God, these kinds of girls are on a new kind of level. The kind I definitely don't want to mess around with.

*******

"Mo? I've been hearing this name a lot since this morning, what a weird name. It reminds me of a certain someone. Hmm.. Mo.." I kept repeating that name thinking if this was just a coincidence.

"Mo? Yo! Yin? Hey! quit spacing out man". I was greeted by a smiling Yuto. He is my childhood friend. He has always been with me. Since childhood, I was never the kind of guy to cause trouble. Yuto on the other hand was the opposite, always involved in frequent fights. I still remember that day when I met Yuto, although it's not a pleasant memory but it did give me a great friend.

I was being beaten down by a group of upperclassmen and it caught Yuto's eyes, he ran to save me, without even thinking twice Yuto scared the crap out of those upperclassmen. The proud look on Yuto's face still brings a smile to my face. Since then Yuto and I have been inseparable and I came to realize that Yuto wasn't a bad guy and that events like the one with me were the main reason he was always getting into fights. It's hard to believe that such prestigious school still struggles with bullying.

"So, you've also heard about the new girl, huh? She sounds tough," he continued.

"Tough? Why? what happened?" I did hear students talk about her on my way to the canteen but all I could really make out of it was the name only.

Mostly I stay away from stuff like this especially if it involves a girl because it may cause unnecessary attention towards me which I am somehow the centre of it. I could just imagine the commotion it would cause if my name gets involved with a girl's. I've been attacked by girls claiming to see me talking to other girls, often innocent girls were attacked by those crazy girls assuming there was any sort of contact between us. God knows what really goes around in the crazy minds.

But strangely enough I was really interested in knowing about this one because there's a slight chance that I might know her.

"Well...." Yuto told me all about that incident.

"Wait, how do you know all that?" I realized that what he was saying was completely different from what I heard and it made me angry somehow.

"I was right there when it all took place, I was a bit worried as to how the scene would turn-", Yuto paused and then continued, "-but damn, she took hell of a good care of the matter all by herself"

"It sounds like that guy got what he deserved!" Yuto was surprised by my blunt reply and so was I. There was a sudden urge in me to meet her.

"That's her," he said looking at a girl who was entering the cafeteria.

Long brown tresses which flayed back and forth as she walked. She had a petite build. The loose white shirt complemented her fair complexion. Her facial features weren't extraordinary but she didn't look ordinary either. That girl looked familiar to me and then it hit me...

It was her.

*******

Darkness. It was pitch black, but I could not see a thing.

I could hear faint footsteps, which sounded like they belonged to more than one person, uncertain I decided to run in the same direction, the footsteps got louder, then I heard a loud bang and then it all stopped. Was that a gunshot?!

There was utter silence. After a few moments I heard a groaning voice but I couldn't make out what it said or who it belonged to. It sounded like someone was in immense pain.

The footsteps started again, but this time they felt like they were coming towards me.

"S-Stop... Don't do.. thi-" the voice was interrupted by a loud pang. It sounded like it belonged to a man. Do I know this man?! What should I do? I can't see anything!

"...Don't do this", he bearly spat out the words. I could feel the pain in his voice. "...I ...have ...a family..."

I woke up panting. 'huh where am I?' I didn't know where I was, my vision was clouded and my head was spinning.

"What's wrong dear?" I heard a familiar voice. Soon someone, a woman, entered the room while I was still trying to figure out my surroundings.

"Another nightmare?" the woman asked worriedly, my vision was getting back and it all started to fall in place. I was still in my room and the woman in front of me was my mother.

"No... I think it's because I watched some horror movies last night" I lied. After all, I didn't want her to worry more than she already does.

"Okay sweetie, now go get ready for school, breakfast is almost ready," she said smiling cheerfully showing off her dimples. She was working hard to provide for us. I still remember that awful time when I yearned to see her smile. I would do anything I can to keep her happy.

____________________________________________________________

As I entered, the classroom fell silent, everyone was looking at me, some even started to gossip to their friend, pointing fingers at me, there was nothing new, nothing that I haven't experienced before, though the circumstances might have been different.

Soon the teacher entered and he wasn't alone, with him was a girl who had a complexion paler than mine, she had short brown hair about shoulder length, she was shorter than me, she had this innocent aura around her. I could see she was a little overwhelmed by the stares she was getting, it was kinda cute to see her fidgeting with her fingers and waiting for the teacher to introduce her to the class.

"Everyone, we have a new transfer student," he announced.

"Hello everyone! I am Pepper. I hope we can be friends " She said as her face wore a light pink shade of blush. She had the most carefree smile I've ever seen. She reminded me of my mom, how mom used to smile before... never mind.

"Hey! Can I sit here?" she said pointing to the seat next to mine.

"Yeah sure, why not. It's Pepper, right?" I said giving her a hand with her stuff. "Hi! I'm Bo".

"Nice to meet you, Bo," she said giggling like a little girl and her eyes disappeared into crescent lines as she smiled brightly.

"What?" she asked me, I guess she could tell that I was mesmerized by her beautiful innocent smile.

"Um... Nothing" that was all I could say. The rest of the lectures flew by in her company and the bell rang signaling that it was time to hit the cafeteria.

"Is this seat taken?" I was about to dig in just then I was greeted with a familiar voice. It was Pepper's.

"I like to eat alone. Did you think just because I let you sit with me that now you can talk to me whenever you like? Girl, you think too highly of yourself." I spat those words at her.

"Oh... is that so?" Her smile disappeared within a second.

I could see that she was disappointed with what I've said. I didn't mean it, I didn't want to send her away either but I had no other choice at the moment.

A few minutes ago; As I was hungry I ran to the cafeteria hoping there were fewer students because I was not in the mood to deal with it. I was just a couple of stares away from losing my patience. Don't these people have anything better to do?

"I heard the seducer has a new friend"

"Seducer? who?" I was passing by a group of girls, and they went quiet as soon as they saw me. I ignored them and went in.

"It's her, the one who tried to seduce our senior!" all three glimpsed towards me. Does every girl who goes to this school knows only how to gossip?!

"Yeah and you know the new transfer student, I think her name is Pepper, someone told me she and the seducer are friends." she continued "She seems quite ordinary to me, she'll be an easy target" and the trio started laughing.

"Well, this is gonna be interesting. Let's see how the seducer will react when her favorite pet is teased." another girl joined the gossip crew.

"Hey, Ito! Don't tell me you're gonna-" I somehow controlled myself from giving those three raccoons a piece of my mind. oh so her name is Ito. I'll make sure I remember that.

"Why not? Maybe then I will catch his attention" she said smiling and nothing about her smile was cute or sweet.

Those words were still lingering through my ears as I saw Pepper leaving the cafeteria. She didn't eat a bit and it was all because of me. I'm sorry Pepper, but if I don't want to cause you any trouble. I tried to control myself, not to let it affect me.

Eating was out of option, I didn't do anything wrong, it's for the better, I kept telling myself that it was okay, everything was alright. But it was almost unbearable for me I was getting worried about her so I emptied my tray and decided to go and look for her.

I searched through all the places I could think of and there in the infirmary, I found her crying. I made her cry and that broke me.

"Pep-" before I could say anything my words were cut off.

"Why? Why would you say such harsh words to me?" she said between her sobs.

"Pepper, stop crying. I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said earlier" I quickly sat down next to her and wiped her tears.

"Huh? I d-don't understand. Why would you do that?" she said giving me a confused look with moist eyes. Thank God at least she stopped crying.

"Look, Pepper... it's better if you don't get involved with me. If you'll be in my company you'll only end up getting hurt" I tried to warn her but I didn't want to scare her either.

"Isn't that for me to decide?!" she snapped at me.

"You don't understand" I was running out of options. Pepper was far too innocent to be involved in my messy life. I didn't want to see someone like her get hurt because of me.

"I don't care what people say about you. I'm your friend and I believe you" I was overwhelmed by her answer. She chose to believe me over those rumors, for a moment I couldn't believe what I heard.

"Friend?" I was shocked and happy at the same time, but I was worried too.

"Yeah," she said wiping off her tears and giving me her cutest smile that flaunted her perfect dimples.

Then I remembered we both didn't have anything to eat and lunchtime was almost over. I searched my bag to see if I had any last-minute snack in it and thankfully I did as I found a chocolate bar inside it.

"Um... I know you must be hungry and it's not much but I think it'll be enough to get you around the remaining time. Here, eat this" I said offering her the bar of chocolate I had found.

"Thank you. Let's share," she divided the chocolate bar into two pieces and gave half to me and that's how the lunchtime ended. Everything went smoothly afterward.