...Chapter 1...

Living on this planet is exhausting, let alone being poor and working a part-time job after school.  I’m not even sure where to go from here. My loving mother already died three years ago, and my father went missing. He went to Thailand to get away from the police authority. He stole a big amount of money from his former employer and disappeared along with it. I don't even like him from the very first place, so him being gone was much more a relief to me and to my older sister.

If only our mother was still alive, we could have lived a happy life even though we were poorer than the rat in our apartment.

"How is your day?" asked my older sister who was already heating up a food she bought from 7-11.

"Just as usual," I simply answered.

She placed the food on the table  for both of us while asking, "What will you do today?".

"I have assignments," I told her while eating my food.

My sister got a long dark shiny hair, she was beautiful just like my mother. She always reminds me of my mother. She works as an accountant in a local bank. My sister is my everything to me. She was always there for me all the time. Her and my mother were my world, but now I only have my sister.

"I want to be transferred into another school," I said it. My sister didn't expect me to say that.

"Why?" she asked in confusion. "Central Falls Academy is one of the best in the country. Why would you want to transfer?"

The only answer I have in my mind was that I don't belong on that Academy. It's not like I am an idiot who can not pass all the subjects. In fact, I was given a full scholarship because of my high grades, which is why I studied there in the first place. However, all the students there were all damn rich, and I don't belong in that kind of environment.

"Never mind," I said and finished my food.

Every day, it gets harder and harder to find a place in Central Falls Academy. It seems the students there never accept poor people like me. But I don't care.

"Hannah," a friend of mind called me.

I smiled at her while entering the entrance gate  of the campus. Luna was also a scholar student like me, which is why we only have each others back.

"Have you heard the news?" she asked me.

"About what?"

"The return of the come back. Ava Kim, the hotel heiress is back in town, and she will study here in our academy," she said in excitement.

Yeah, good, another spoiled brat added in this place.

"Regine would be so pissed off of this news," said Luna.

Regine Lee was the queen bee of this campus. She was the only daughter of the Lee Groups, the richest company in the country. And she hates it when someone would stole her spotlight.

The Lee Group owned almost the entire world with their own companies and factories. They owned over 40 cities, including the U.S., Canada, and Japan, which means they owned over 3.7 billion dollars worth of property in the world.  They had more than 1.5 million employees and hundreds of millions of assets. Sometimes, I wondered what does it feels to be Regine.

She was known as the 'Ice Queen', and no one can get close to her except her close friends who also come from a wealthy family. People like me need to stay away from her sight.

That way, she won't notice any of our flaws. She is a beauty, to be sure, but she doesn't know how to appreciate it because she never cared about other people.  The whole class knew that Regine hated poor people, but no one dared say anything since she owned the power in this.

The class has begun, and here I am sitting in a far corner near the back door. I am not a main character, I will never be a main character who will sit near the window day, dreaming of all the possibilities in this world. Not even Regine sitting near the window. In fact, we were seat mates. But she does not know me. We were classmates since freshman year, and now we are already seniors. Regine still does not know my full name. She never acknowledged my presence, and I want it to be that way until I graduate.

I want to hate Regine, but I cannot, she was always one of the smartest students on this campus, and she was also beautiful and not to mention super rich.

Before the first subject started, our math teacher introduced someone. "Class, I want you to greet your new classmate, Ava Kim."

The whole campus has been talking about her since this morning, and now I get to see who this is, Ava Kim. She looks ordinary, but her aura was captivating.  Even if everyone talked behind their backs or whispered something about how beautiful she was, none of them ever made me feel jealous of her.

Miss Choi told her to sit near the window, but Ava Kim didn't want to sit near the window.

What was wrong with her? She really had the guts to disobey our teacher. Well, if you are a hotel heiress, then maybe you have the right to disobey your teacher.

"I wanted to sit at the back near at the back door," said Ava Kim.

Our teacher obeyed her as if she owed her something. "Well, miss Hannah, get your things and switch places with Ava."

Deep inside of me wanted to scream in happiness because for the first time, I could be the main character of my own life, but someone stopped it.

"I don't want to sit next to her," said Regine to our math teacher. I thought she was sleeping the whole time? "Hannah will stay in her designated sitting arrangement."

What? Regine knows my name? I thought I didn't exist in her world.  How could she possibly know my name? Did she know everyones name by heart?  This girl is too smart for her own good, I swear.

Even our math teacher, Miss Choi, was afraid to Regine and told Ava to sit at the vacant chair.

All the girls around us started whispering something among themselves while looking at me with disgust.  One of the girls whispered to another. "How comes Regine knows her name?"

I wish this day would be over.

When I thought I would have a peaceful life during lunch time but all the students on the campus were looking at me as if I murdered someone. Why was all the attention on me now and not to the transferee student?

"Hannah. Hannah Jung," a girl called my name from not a far distance. I turned around and saw Regine and her so-called friends. "Come with us."

My knees trembled. I wanted to say no, but that would be a death call for me if I say NO.   If only I could talk, but there was nothing I could say to save myself. All these stares, and the whispers. What do they want from me? What did I do?  All I'm doing is getting a good education.  It’s not my fault that I need to earn money to survive.

"From now on, you will be joining us every lunchtime," said Amanda to me. If I am not wrong, she was the loyal friend of Regine.

The other two girls looked at me with contempt as if I'm a piece of dead meat.

"But -" I tried explaining.

Amanda glared at me to shut me up before continuing. "We know who you are, so you should act grateful and stop bothering us with your constant interruptions. Consider this as a once in a lifetime opportunity."

Once in a lifetime opportunity? For what exactly? I didn't want to bother anybody anymore, especially not these people.

"Everything here is free. You can eat anything you want," interrupted by Regine. Every time she opened her mouth, everyone in the room all eyes on her. She was born regal, she got class and always behaved in an elegant way. She was definitely the definition of old money.

Regine squad had their own special lunch room. Not everyone can access here unless you are friends with Regine.

\*\*\*

The class was over. I had no idea what just happened today. All I know is that I will be joining Regine every lunchtime.

"You are so lucky. Not everyone can be Regine friends," said Luna in excitement.

"Friends? I don't ever consider Regine as friends, and I am sure she feels the same," I said as we walked together to the nearest bus stop.

"What kind of people are they?" asked Luna. She always wondered what the lifestyle of the rich people was.

"You already know, they have this expensive luxurious bags, talking about their next vacation, buying limited edition of some kind of hand bag, they were all using iphone 14 pro max or galaxy z flip 4. In other words, I am an outcast," I said.

Luna stared at me without saying anything. This time, all we went in our separate ways after that, we both had different schedules. I headed to the convenience store and to do my part-time job.