When Kira arrived at school, she was already late by ten minutes. When she opened the door to her classroom, heads turned. She sighed, walked to her seat, and slumped down without even bothering to remove her backpack. The teacher had let it slide since it was the first day of school. She smiled and waved subtly at her best friend, Mira, who was sat next to her.

The teacher started calling out the names, those who were present raised their hands.

"Max Johnson!" the teacher yelled, eyes fixated on the thick green register.

A sandy blonde-haired boy with a shirt slipped over his trouser raised his right hand and replied, "Present!". He seemed to be oozing with so much confidence since he was the son of the school's director. Kira rolled her eyes at his attitude, her dislike for him wasn't hidden.

"Kira Smith!" yelled the teacher. Kira raised her right hand and responded, "Present!".

The teacher nodded and proceeded on to the next name "Leonardo Aguero!" but there was no response.

"Leo.... is he present?" The teacher asked, looking up from the register. A few students turned back to search for him and indeed he wasn't in class.

"He's probably taking a sunbath by the trash!" Max folded his arms and shouted with a smirk. Most of the students in class laughed at his comment.

The teacher sighed and shook her head. Just as she was about to go on to the next name, the classroom door opened. Kira's eyes widened when she spotted the same guy with messy, black hair and torn clothes. The same guy who'd saved her. He smiled at the teacher and started limping to his seat. The whole class seemed to stare at him in disgust like he was trash. Kira on the other hand felt really bad. Leo had gotten the injury from when he'd saved her from the truck. Kira wasn't so sure about that but she still had that thought in mind.

The teacher asked if he was okay, so he smiled and gave her a thumbs-up, signaling that he was. Coincidentally, the only available seat was one adjacent to Kira and her best friend. Kira looked at him guiltily before turning to face the teacher. She searched her bag for her pen but couldn't find it. Either she'd left it at home or it had fallen off when she was pushed away from the truck, she didn't know.

She nudged Mira and whispered, "Do you have a spare pen?" Mira shook her head and jutted her lower lip out. She was about closing her notebook for the day when she noticed Leo offering her a pen. He still was sporting his signature grin and Kira smiled back at him.

Just as she was about to collect the pen, Mira snatched the pen from his grip and brought out a napkin.

Kira raised a confused brow at her friend. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to protect my best friend from diseases." Mira started cleaning the pen, she blew air on it then gave it back to Kira.

Kira felt terrible and knew Leo might have gotten offended by that. Who wouldn't be? She turned to him to apologize before she said a word to him he looked back at the teacher, listening carefully and writing down in his notebook.

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Marcus was about to begin the test, he was nervous and agitated. He drew in an orange glowing substance into a syringe, walked to a glass observation box containing a white lab rat.

Nyxx was watching from the side behind a glass wall with her arms crossed with a serious look on her face.

Marcus began the experiment and made a small cut on the side of the rat then injected the lab rat with the serum. He stepped back a little to observe, and in a few seconds, the rat's wound started producing some steam as the wound was healing up slowly but then, the lab rat blew up to small meat chunks inside the glass box.

"Oh God," Marcus exclaimed in disappointment. Nyxx shook her head and stepped out. Marcus chased after her. "Nyxx please, let me explain," Marcus desperately pleaded.

"No need, Marcus. This project is done.".

"You can't do that. Do you have any idea how important this is to me?" Marcus was starting to get angry and he clenched his fists by his sides.

"I know, your daughter has late-stage cancer and you're trying to make this serum work to cure her, but it's out of my hand. I've been funding this project for months now and it's cost the company millions of dollars. I'm so sorry, uncle Marcus.". Nyxx finished and patted his shoulder sympathetically.

"How could you do this to me? To your cousin?! At least give me a week. I'm positive I'll figure out what's wrong with it and fix it up!"

"And then what? Inject Sarah with that unstable serum and have her blow up like that lab rat? No, no, and no! I'm sorry but it's final, the project is shut down, we'll figure it out together and find another way to save your daughter but not this!" When she was done talking, she walked away.

Marcus felt so desperate and left the building, furious about his failure and how Nyxx shut down his project.

Nyxx walked into her office with an annoyed expression, she took out her phone and dialed a number.

"Jessica, how much have we progressed with the black serum?"

A voice went through the phone's speaker "About ninety-nine percent, Ma'am!"

"Good, I want it done and tested as soon as possible, there's a little girl's life on the line and we can't waste time here!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Also, make sure no one else finds out about this project, if our rival corporations find out especially Penters about it they will try to steal the research and the serums, understood?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Great, I'll be waiting for the good news."

She sighed and collected her bag, heading out.

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At school, class was already over. Kira got up from her seat and walked to Leo's seat, offering him his pen back with a smile "Thanks".

Leo collected the pen from her, gave her his usual grin with a thumbs up. However, when Leo got up and tried to limp out of his seat, Max passed by him and bumped him hard by the shoulder. He tried to keep himself balanced on his good leg but, still fell down on his butt. Max and his two other buds burst into fits of laughter.

Still chuckling, Max crouched by Leo "Stay like that. That's how low you are compared to everyone else." After that, Max walked to the door, mimicking Leo's limping.

"Max!" Kira glared at Max as he went out of the class. Leo did nothing but looked down and grinned. Kira rushed to his side and tried to give him a hand, but Mira pulled her by her arm.

"Are you out of your mind? Trying to catch a disease or something?"

"What?! What are you even–" she got interrupted by Mira again when she yanked her arm, pulling her out of the class. "Stop it!" Kira jerked her arm out of Mira's grip. Mira was shocked, it was the first time she ever saw Kira that upset. She watched as Kira walked away from her, back to the class.

When Kira got back to the class, Leo wasn't there anymore. Since it was lunchtime, she decided to search for him in the cafeteria. She got her lunch and looked around for him. Soon, she found him sitting alone at the corner.

With a smile, she headed to the table, and without asking, she took a seat next to him. Leo noticed her and felt a bit nervous. Kira was one of the most beautiful girls at school and she was also very popular. Being smart wasn't excluded, she usually got high marks.

"I hope you don't mind me sitting here?" asked Kira, with a stunning smile.

Leo just grinned and raised his right hand, giving her a thumbs up. But there was someone who was so displeased by this and that was Max. He was deeply in love with Kira, he couldn't dare to ask to sit with her at the same table in the cafeteria and now she was sitting with Leo. That raised his hatred towards Leo even more.

"I wanted to thank you for what you did this morning. And I'm sorry about your leg. It looks bad, I'll call my dad and after school and we'll take you to a hospital, ok?" Kira told him sympathetically.

Leo shook his head and wrote in his notebook then showed it to her. "Thanks but I'll just tell my parents about it and they will afford the hospital expenses, don't worry." He grinned while holding the notebook.

She didn't want to push it and make him feel discomfort.

"Well, ok. I'm Kira by the way, it's nice to meet you!" She extended her hand to him for a handshake.

Leo held a note with his left hand that he usually introduced himself which said, "Leonardo, nice to meet you". He held Kira's hand firmly and shook it.

Max's rage level reached the danger zone as he saw them smiling at each other, now hatred and grudge were eating his heart out. He mumbled to himself in a low tone "I'm gonna get you for this, Aguero!"

*End of Chapter 2*