Chapter 3

When we arrived at the cafeteria, she led me directly to her usual lunch table. Another girl joined us shortly after.

She had long, curly brown hair that perfectly complemented her golden-brown skin. Her eyes were a warm brown, and she radiated a welcoming vibe.

"Hey, I'm Madison," she said in a relaxed tone.

"I'm Carla," I replied, sitting down. Throughout lunch, we talked, and I got to know them both better.

Madison seemed very cool and laid-back, which contrasted with Josie's bubbly and energetic personality. Josie told Madison about my earlier encounter, and Madison was just as surprised as Josie had been.

After lunch, we went our separate ways, but not before exchanging phone numbers. When I reached my fifth-period class, I looked around and noticed one of the boys from the group with Asmodeus was there. When he saw me, his face lit up, and he waved.

I turned around to check if he might be waving at someone else, but there was no one else there. Confused, I walked over to him.

"You're the girl from the hall! That was pretty awesome, by the way," he said, rummaging through his bag for a pen.

"Um, thanks..." I replied, sitting down at a desk a few seats away from him. Then he moved and sat right next to me. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"The name's Kade. And you are?" he asked.

"I'm Carla," I replied.

"How about Carla?" he repeated, looking at me with a questioning expression.

"Carla?" I asked, a bit sharply, and he nodded. "No, Carla," I said, then pulled out my notebook.

"Carla it is," he replied as the teacher entered the room and introduced himself as Mr. Budge.

The rest of the class was spent learning the classroom rules, and at the end, we were given some free time to chat.

"So," Kade began, turning to face me with a big, goofy smile, "how's life?" His demeanor made it hard to see him as part of any troublesome group.

"Why are you being so nice to me? Shouldn't you be hating me or something?" I asked, chuckling.

"Well, I think you're cool. Not everyone in our group thinks the same way. We have three different minds among us," he explained, and I looked puzzled.

"I thought there were four of you?"

"Well, I don’t really have much of a brain," he joked, and we both laughed. I realized I had been wrong to assume they were all like Asmodeus.

When the bell rang, I checked my schedule and saw that I had a free period. I decided to head to the library to use my laptop.

On my way to the library, I stopped by my locker to grab my laptop. As I closed it, someone startled me. I gasped and almost screamed, but then I recognized it was Madison.

"Wow, okay. I didn't realize you got scared that easily," she laughed, and I smiled in relief.

"Well, I do. Do you have a free period right now?" I asked, and she nodded.

"Yeah, I was just heading down to the library."

"Me too," I added, and she smiled at me. We chatted as we walked to the library together.

Once we arrived, we sat at a table and resumed our conversation. We were quickly shushed by the librarian, which made us giggle. Being around Madison and Josie made me want to hold onto that happy feeling in my chest.

"You know, the group isn't completely horrible. At least, I don't think so," Madison said, and I gave her a skeptical look.

"They seem pretty bad to me," I replied.

"Only Asmodeus is truly terrible. The others are just... difficult," she clarified, and I chuckled silently.

"That Kade guy seems fun," I said, hoping to gauge whether he was genuinely nice or not.

"Yeah, Kade's a goofball. But he’s still a player. Jessica throws great parties, but honestly, Kade mostly uses them as an opportunity to hook up with girls," she explained.

"And Milo doesn't really do much. Honestly, I don't think the others like him that much," she added, earning another hush from the librarian, who reminded me of the slug woman from Monsters, Inc.

Madison and I stifled our laughter and continued our conversation.

"Why do you say that?" I whispered.

"You can just tell. They always give him these looks, like he’s done something wrong," she explained, and I nodded in understanding.

"What do you have next?" I asked, knowing full well that we probably wouldn’t share any classes given my luck.

"English. What about you?"

"AP Biology," I said, and she looked disappointed.

We spent the remainder of the free period discussing the school—the seemingly rigid social hierarchy, the teachers, and even the best spots to hide if you wanted to skip class.

When the bell rang, we sighed and got up, parting ways to head to our lockers. As I entered my biology class, I froze. My eyes met those same dusk blue ones from earlier—Asmodeus.

His face was expressionless, as if he couldn't show emotion. But I had a feeling that if I could read his face, it would reveal pure hatred. I tried to swallow the lump in my throat, but it wouldn’t go down. The warmth I had felt while hanging out with Madison had completely disappeared.

While he looked like a model sitting calmly at his desk, I searched for the farthest seat from him. Breaking our gaze, I spotted an empty desk at the back of the room and hurried over to it. I didn’t dare look back at Asmodeus as I sat down and waited for the teacher to arrive, feeling his eyes on me the whole time.

Seconds later, the teacher walked in, saving me from almost looking back.

"Good afternoon, class. I hope you all had a good summer. My name is Mr. Zero, and I’ll be your Biology teacher this year," he said, smiling around the room.

Why did teachers always feel the need to state what subject they were teaching? As if we students couldn’t figure it out from our schedules...

He continued, "And although I know you all probably like sitting next to your friends, I’m going to have to assign seats," he announced, and everyone groaned.

Crap. I started to get nervous as he made us all stand up. "Carla Summers... there," he said, pointing to a desk in the back left corner.

I went and sat down at the two-person desk, anxiously waiting to see who my lab partner would be. He called out a few more names before finally saying, "Asmodeus Stewart." I kept my eyes on my desk, hoping against hope that he wasn’t assigned to sit next to me.

I let out a breath of relief I hadn’t realized I was holding when Mr. Zero moved on to the next name: "Dylan Reed, there." But just as he finished speaking, I heard someone sit down beside me.

Curious, I lifted my head to see what Dylan looked like, only to choke on air. Sitting next to me was a clearly irritated and slightly blue Asmodeus, glaring down at the desk.