The summer was officially over with a new school year about to begin. And yet, it was already stifling hot outside as people all over Manhattan rushed to their morning destinations, the sun shining from a clear blue sky.

On the Upper East Side, seventeen-year-old Ricky Stark von Linden was standing on the sidewalk, smoking a cigarette, and talking with his best friend, Sebastian Whitener. They were both dressed in school uniforms: khaki dress pants and white polo shirts with an emblem on the chest. A bigger version of the emblem, with the abbreviation of the school's name next to a navy-blue salamander, was printed on the large maroon banner hanging over the side entrance to the tall limestone building across the street, housing St. Aquinas School, a private co-ed Catholic school.

Ricky pressed the cigarette between his lips and took the printout of a diagram Sebastian handed him, looking it over through a pair of sunglasses. He nodded in understanding while Sebastian explained the new technique he had found to utilize the leftover from their homegrown when a black town car pulled up in front of the school.

Olivia Casini stepped out, pushing her glasses up her nose; her gaze automatically drawn across the street. An instantaneous warm rush went through her body when she spotted Ricky. He looked the same. Tall, lean, and handsome with his dark hair swept back in a messy quiff.

She smiled to herself at the feeling, even if at times it felt like she was going crazy from it. It was stupid, really. Ricky was seeing Claudia. No matter what Olivia felt, it would remain unrequited. She needed to get over herself. Fortunately, there was only one year left of high school. As soon as she was away at college, she would stop thinking about him. Hopefully... Maybe.

She turned to the steps leading up to the school's side entrance and was promptly hit with a new feeling; dread. It was like going from hot to cold. Olivia quickly turned her back to her three nemeses flanking the door, hoping they hadn't noticed her. She felt certain they were waiting just for her.

She absentmindedly started to twirl her ring around on her finger. A nervous quirk she had developed over the years. It was a small and delicate silver ring with a four-leaf clover, given to her by her brother as a good luck charm because she tended to be somewhat clumsy. Of course, the ring itself didn't bring luck, but she cherished it nevertheless and never took it off.

Pulling out her phone, Olivia sent a text to her friend, hoping Josephine was yet to arrive. It would give Olivia an excuse to postpone the confrontation that was bound to come when she walked up the steps. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad if her friend was with her. Regrettably, Josephine wrote back that she had arrived early with her father, a teacher at the school, and was already inside.

"Shoot," Olivia mumbled quietly. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to brace herself as she turned for the entrance. Doing so, she accidentally knocked into someone on the sidewalk, making her stumble and drop her cell phone.

"Ugh, excuse me," the girl complained in an irritated voice.

"Sorry," Olivia muttered, straightening her glasses, and quickly retrieved her phone from the ground, checking that it was okay. Her cheeks turned pink when she realized it was Claudia Banks she had bumped.

Claudia was considered one of the popular girls who intimidated Olivia with her air of superiority. She was attractive with blonde hair, blue eyes, and always flawless makeup. Despite being dressed identical, both wearing the white St. Aquinas polo shirt and straight navy-blue skirt, which only senior girls were allowed to wear, Olivia felt it somehow looked a lot better on Claudia.

As ever, Claudia was accompanied by her cousin and fellow senior, Rebecca, who was constantly busy with her phone.

Olivia followed the cousins with her gaze as they crossed the street, heading straight for Ricky and Sebastian. Claudia gave Ricky a light hug when she came up to him, igniting a spark of envy in Olivia's chest.

Stupid, she thought of herself.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" The hostile remark coming from the top of the steps brought Olivia back to her present situation. It was Gabriela, a redhead with a broad chin and aquiline nose, who—together with her two friends—had been adamant about making Olivia's life miserable ever since their freshman year.

At St. Aquinas, every school year started with everyone gathering in the auditorium for the Start of Term Quiz. Groups composed of a student from each year competed against each other in trivia mostly based on school subjects. And because no one wanted to seem stupid in front of the rest of the school, everyone studied for it—a rather brilliant way to keep the students on their toes during the summer break.

In their freshman year, Olivia's and Gabriela's teams competed against each other. But, unlike Olivia, Gabriela was unprepared for the quiz. She had continuously answered inaccurately on the freshman questions, humiliating herself. And to make matters worse, Olivia proceeded to answer all the questions correctly. Since then, Gabriela had held a grudge against her, and it hadn't diminished despite how far Olivia tried to sink into the walls.

Olivia sighed visibly at Gabriela's harsh comment but remained quiet, starting up the steps. It was better to get it over with.

"Ew. Get away from me." Nicolette, a black girl with big apple cheeks and straightened black hair flickered the straw of her takeaway ice blend at Olivia when she reached them, causing little brown stains of coffee to spray all over her clothes, face, and glasses. The other girls snickered at the sight.

The embarrassment burnt through Olivia, her face turning red as she removed her glasses, unable to see through the coffee drops. She dried a hand across her face and proceeded up to the final step, remaining silent.

The last of Olivia's tormentors, Porceline, a round-faced girl with light-brown waist-long hair, saw Olivia's momentarily impaired vision as an opportunity. She calculatedly stuck out a leg, acting innocent when Olivia tripped over it.

Her glasses skidded across the checkered floor as Olivia tried to break the fall with her hands, stunned when the sudden impact with the cool marble knocked the air out of her. Sprawled out on the ground, she could hear the snicker and laughter of other students inside the school. Her face was burning with embarrassment while pain slowly formed in her hands and knees.

Her three bullies gloated with satisfaction, merely stepping over her and entering the school.

"You should look where you're going," Porceline advised, faking innocence by mocking a little girl's voice. It made Gabriela laugh, and Nicolette carelessly dropped the straw from her coffee into Olivia's brown hair.

"What the hell is your problem?" a fourth girl called after the three, coming to Olivia's aid. "And stop laughing," she scolded everyone else. No one bothered with a reply, but all eyes were on her as she held out a slim hand for Olivia, her fingers decorated with several gothic rings.

Outside, Claudia and Rebecca snickered at the scene that had unfolded across the street.

"What are you laughing at?" Sebastian wondered. He pushed his narrow-brimmed fedora hat higher with a finger, looking at the girls through a strand of his blond ringlet curls falling into his eyes. He hadn't paid attention to what had happened by the school's entrance.

"Clumsy Casini," Claudia laughed. "She's such a loser. Classes haven't even started, and she's already kissing the floor."

"You could see her granny-panties," Rebecca added with a smirk, and she and Claudia laughed louder.

Sebastian cast Ricky an irritated look, silently asking why they had to have the Banks cousins hanging around. He didn't care for either. And even though Sebastian hadn't talked much with Olivia Casini outside of class, she seemed like a nice girl who never bothered anyone. She did appear to have some issues with gravity though. She was known around school for her tendency to tumble over seemingly nothing and walking into doorframes rather than through them.

Ricky responded by casually resting his arm around Claudia's shoulders, making her smile up at him in delight. Ignoring Sebastian's gaze from behind his sunglasses, Ricky touched his cigarette to his lips and inhaled, accentuating the hollowness of his cheeks.

"Are you okay?" the girl asked as she helped Olivia up off the floor.

"Yeah. Thank you." She was mortified, hurt, and so incredibly over her bullies humiliating and harming her like it was a game. But Olivia wasn't about to disclose all this. She brushed the front of her clothes to remove any dirt, avoiding all eye contact while the girl stretched to her toes, picking the straw out of Olivia's ponytail.

The new girl was slight, flat-chested, and several inches shorter than Olivia's five foot four. She was quite pretty with a kind young face framed by dark-brown hair in a stylish asymmetrical pixie cut with chin-long bangs swept to one side. Her wide upturned ebony eyes added a delicate beauty to her face.

The girl handed Olivia her glasses back, which she took with a 'thanks.'

A bit befuddled by the situation, Olivia tried to wipe the coffee stains off with her fingers—only managing to smudge the glasses even further—before placing them back on her freckled nose. She glanced outside to where Ricky stood, tilting her head at an odd angle to see through the dirt. She couldn't tell if he had seen anything or not as he stood with an arm around Claudia's shoulders, making Olivia feel even more pathetic at the fact that she concerned herself with whether or not he had seen.

"You're bleeding."

Olivia looked confused at the new girl, momentarily distracted by her thoughts, but then followed the girl's gaze to a small bleeding wound on her knee. The blood instantly made her feel lightheaded, and she quickly leaned back against the wall by the open entrance.

"Are you sure you're okay?" The girl looked at Olivia with apprehension, handing her a tissue from her messenger school bag.

"Yeah. It's just... the blood." Olivia swallowed and smiled apologetically, taking the tissue with another 'thanks' and holding it to her knee. "You're new to St. Aquinas?" She tried to change the subject to distract herself, struggling to see through her smeared glasses.

"Yes. I'm Roxie Magnussen." The girl smiled kindly. "Well, Rose actually, but everyone calls me Roxie. My mom just moved us to the city, so my brother and I are taking our senior year here."

"Oh, you're a senior?" Olivia was mildly surprised; she would have guessed Roxie to be a sophomore. "I suppose we'll be taking some of the same classes then. I'm Olivia Casini. But please, call me Liv." She smiled gently and stretched out a hand, not knowing that this was going to be a changing moment in her life.