Jason Yates. The blue eyed, white haired, rich football guy of this entire school's female population's dreams. Well, at least according to Maxine's sarcastic explanation during lunch. For every period before lunch the three had shared a class, much to Maxine's constant displeasure. From what Annabell had observed and the information Maxine had fed her, Jason was the first son of the Yates Family that practically owned the entire country, and he used this power to skip classes and even school entirely without punishment. Whenever he did show up for class, it was to mess around and be an all around nuisance. If Annabell was going to have to seduce him, the least she could do was influence him for the better. Poor Mr.Umbridge had gotten a full on migraine from the few seconds Jason was in class and had to leave early. She had actually began to like the older man. His passion for teaching when his students actually showed interest shone through and ended up touching the girl's heart, and if that ding in her head during class was any indication, she had become his favorite student.

Annabell poked at her lunch with little interest. Her mother had packed it with love and care, it was delicious, but with her having much to think about the school's Snow White didn't have much appetite. She had eaten around half of her lunch and the dessert, one of two chocolate chip cookies, and offered the rest to Maxine.

Maxine had just finished gulping down some water after practically inhaling her fresh salad. At least private schools had more than decent school lunches. "Sure, I'll have some. Are you not hungry or something?"

Annabell nodded and pushed her lunchbox to the redhead. "Mhm. I just don't feel too good."

"Do you need to go to the nurse's office? I can show you how to get there."

"No, it's not that. I just ate a lil too fast."

Maxine looked at Annabell with a worried expression but decided not to push it and reached into the girl's lunchbox. What was left inside were half a turkey sandwich, bbq potato chips, carrot sticks, an orange, and the remaining chocolate chip cookie. She took out the potato chips and started crunching. "Did your mom pack this?"

Annabell blushed and sipped her iced tea that had been packed inside the lunchbox's matching thermos. "Well.... Yeah. Why?"

"This just screams a lunch a mom packed, not a highschool kid."

Annabell pouted and sank into her seat a bit. "S-so what? It's more healthy than what other people packed. Look, that girl over there literally only brought a giant pack of Oreos!"

"Once again, lunch a mom packed."

"W-whatever. I'm changing the subject. What clubs does this school have?" Annabell acted thoroughly embarrassed and pouted a bit.

Maxine laughed and went back searching in the lunchbox for that cookie. "Well, depends on what kind of clubs you're into. No offense, but you don't seem like the sports team type of girl."

Annabell had a proud smile. "I'll have you know that I was the best soccer player at my old high school, thank you very much. But I don't wanna be on the team."

Maxine let out an impressed whistle. "Really? We have to play together sometime then!"

Annabell laughed and Maxine began to explain all the clubs to her. There were the outreach clubs, focused on bettering the school environment and communities, the culture clubs like the language clubs, the mental competition clubs like debate club. The clubs that caught Annabell's attention were the Newspaper Club and Student Advisement. The Multicultural Club sounded fun too, but Maxine had mentioned it was just a fake club for people to smoke weed in the school. There had sadly been no history club.

Newspaper Club spoke for itself, Annabell could try and get a section of the school newspaper for her to have a little strange history corner. Student Advisement, however, was for popularity and recognition in the school. Apparently, Student Advisement was a club dedicated to helping other students with problems. Studying, stress, even matters they simply couldn't find anyone else to talk to about. People took this club seriously, even the students involved. No secrets were ever leaked in the history of the club being created and the advisors quickly became extremely popular. It was honestly the perfect starting block for Annabell. People had already begun to call her 'Snow White', speaking of which what was up with this school and their nicknames? Maxine was called Mad Max for some unknown reason, Jason was called Prince for obvious reasons. Even the future FL, Charlotte, was eventually called Cinderella. How ironic. Two princesses gunning for the same prince. Annabell couldn't help but laugh a bit.

"That reminds me. Max, what's up with all those weird nicknames?" Annabell turned to look at Maxine only to find her with a whole chocolate chip cookie shoved halfway into her mouth and most likely down her throat. She couldn't help but let out a snort and start laughing her ass off. Maxine just looked so... comical. The other girl began to laugh before coughing and chewing up the cookie occupying her mouth.

By the time Maxine had fully chewed down the cookie, Annabell was still practically dying laughing from her little display. She only calmed down when Maxine started pouting.

"It wasn't that funny..."

Annabell wheezed. "You're right. It was hilarious."

Maxine lightly hit her arm and Annabell giggled. "But yeah. This school likes giving other students nicknames that the whole school uses. For example, people call me Mad Max."

"Why?"

"Prolly cuz one time I got so angry I ended up punching someone. Really hard. Like, sent to the hospital for a good couple of surgeries hard."

Annabell blinked in surprise at Maxine's confession while the other avoided her eyes at all costs. Why had she just blurted that out? Annabell was going to be scared shitless of her now! Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid-

"I won't ask since you don't seem to want to talk about it, but you don't seem like the type to do that without an extreme reason."

Maxine looked at Annabell in shock only to be met with a kind smile, not the terror or disgust she was expecting. The kind that would break her heart into pieces. Ever since that incident, people had avoided her, called her a psycho, all the insults in the book without hearing Maxine's side to the story, she had even almost lost her spot on the boxing club. Yet here was Annabell, fully believing in her and that she wouldn't do such a thing without reason. She almost began to cry but instead hugged Annabell tightly.

Annabell could only blink and hug Maxine back, not exactly knowing what was happening. The other students in the lunchroom watched the pair of girls in awe, like they didn't believe what they were seeing. A louder, more celebratory bell sounded in Annabell's head during the tight hug and Jules' voice broke through her thoughts.

[Congrats, Host! You've made Maxine into an eternal ally!]

"Eternal ally? What's that?"

[An eternal ally is the special level of friendship in which the character could never be swayed to believe the FL or anyone against you for that matter. They're exactly as the name suggests, eternal allies.]

Annabell let out a high whistle mentally. So the original 'ding' was just something that showed the character liked her, not enough to not be swayed by the FL or ML. The triumphant bell meant she had made an 'eternal ally'. Well, at least now she knew what she needed to do for any other friends she made.

Maxine finally released her with a giant grin on her face and another quick squeeze. With that said and done, lunch period ended peacefully and the two of them seperated as Maxine had gym and Annabell had geometry. The rest of the classes they had afterwards excluding art would be together.

Annabell found Mrs.Sebile's room easily and slid into a seat near the center of the room like she'd done for every class. Slowly but surely, people began to flow into the room, including Jason. What good luck. What d'ya know, he sat down right next to Annabell too. She pretended not to notice him and got her notebook and pencil out to prepare for the class.

The bell rung just as a final student came in followed by Mrs.Sebile. Mrs.Sebile was a middle-aged woman with black hair and dark skin, and her eyes were super smiley. They were a dark brown that sparkled almost constantly like she knew the best joke in the world and was waiting for someone to set her up for the punchline. Really different from Brooke's own high school math teacher. He was an asshole who hated her even though she had the best grades in his stupid class.

Mrs.Sebile smiled out at the class. "Good afternoon students! We'll be having another exciting day of geometry class today." Her cheerful voice had a thick southern accent. "And if I remember correctly, we have someone new joining us today. Could the new student stand up please?"

Annabell had already done this for all her morning classes so she was a lot less shy than she'd been in those classes and stood up from her seat and smiled at the class. "That'd be me."

"Would you mind introducing yourself?"

"Not at all. My name's Annabell Richards. I transferred here from West Shores High."

"And what would you like to do with your time here?"

That was a question Annabell hadn't been asked yet. She'd been asked why she transferred, why she was taking the class, and even if she was at the wrong place. Not what she wanted to do once. "Well.... I'd like to make a lot of friends."

Mrs.Sebile nodded at that response, looking satisfied as she motioned for Annabell to sit down. She did and the class officially began.

It was around the middle of class while Annabell was taking notes while Mrs.Sebile talked that she somehow lost her grip on her pencil, the plastic writing utensil making a soft sound as it bounced against the classroom's tiled floor and rolled away from its owner. Annabell almost cursed as she reached down from her seat to try and grab it. Before her fingers could even graze the blue plastic of the mechanical pencil, it was picked up by a noticably bigger hand. Annabell blinked and followed up the hand, to the arm, to the torso, and finally to the face. Jason ML Yates had picked up her pencil. Well, isn't that nice. He held the pencil in hand and twirled it around a bit before holding it out to Annabell.

Annabell smiled and reached out for her pencil. Only for it to be pulled away back to the guy who picked it up. She pouted at that and glared at Jason, her lips pursed. She said nothing. Jason observed her expression for a good while. The whole of the day, he'd been hearing everyone saying the living breathing Snow White had stepped onto campus and was hanging out with Mad Max. He couldn't see the resemblance. What Annabell reminded him of was a puppy, admittedly a better than average puppy but a puppy none the less. She reached for her pencil again and he placed it on the end of his desk furthest away from her. Annabell's pout intensified as she screamed at him in her heart. Goddammit you worthless male lead! Give me my pencil! Jason couldn't help but feel his heart squeeze as Annabell made an even cuter pouting expression. What was wrong with him?

Annabell eventually gave up her battle for the pencil and just got another one out, catching up with the notes she had missed while Jason stared at her with an unreadable unexpression on his face.

--------

Annabell was still grumpy about her pencil two periods later, having complained to Maxine about the injustice of it all. She had agreed with her and almost marched into Jason's next class to get him to cough up the pencil, had Annabell not stopped her. Eternal allies were truly a force to be reckoned with.

Speaking of Maxine, she was still salty about not sharing her 9th period class with Annabell. She had wanted to see the girl at least one more time before school ended even if they had exchanged phone numbers and all. She'd be pouting about the entire situation through boxing club.

Speaking of phone numbers, Annabell had checked the previous Annabell's contact list to find it pretty bare. There were her parents, a number labeled 😊Hazel😊, and Maxine's newly added number. Annabell searched the memories the previous host had and found out Hazel was a cousin of Annabell's that went to school overseas. She was young, about 12, and wanted to keep in contact with her favorite older cousin. Cute.

9th period was art class, which pretty much gave everyone free range as long as they were doing art. The teacher, Mr.Tijal, was loose with his rules as he didn't want to ruin anyone's creative process. Surprisingly enough, it worked. As of current, Annabell was painting a flower garden. It wasn't very good looking, but she could claim it was abstract and make it seem intentional. Sitting right next to her was someone's section in the plot she'd ignored, the villainess Candice Han. Yeah, she'd admit she didn't care much about the villainess until she was confronted with her. Candice's nickname given by the student body was 'Queen'. It was extremely fitting as the very aura she radiated screamed importance and demanded respect. She was childhood friends with Jason as she came from the Han Family, the number two family in the country. The beautiful girl didn't realize she was in love with Jason until the FL came along and tried to sweep him off his feet. Candice ended up bullying the FL which only led to the romance between the FL and ML getting stronger and the destruction of the Han Family. Wow.

Candice had long dark brown hair and deep chocolate brown eyes. Those genes were from her English mother while her pale skin and slanted eyes came from her Chinese father. Annabell quite liked how mature she looked. She kind of wished she had been reborn as Candice instead, but Annabell would do just fine. The two had become somewhat acquainted during class and she could tell Candice had taken a liking to her, along with all her followers taking the class. Annabell had even heard the ding in her head for all of them.

"Try using this brush instead. It'll make your bushes look more natural."

"Oh. Thank you, Candice." Annabell smiled at the girl and took the paintbrush offered to her, using it to paint instead. Candice was right, her bushes looked more lifelike. If a villainess is even going to stand up the protagonist, they have to have some talents in everything after all. The class ended with her and Candice exchanging numbers, along with the three followers she had. Kylie, April, and Hannah, all being noticeably pretty. Technically speaking, Annabell had already become popular. Now she had to make ten friends. That was going to be quick.

Instead of heading home, Annabell headed to the office to get a form to sign up for Student Advisors and got everything in order quickly with Miss Greene before being led to the library. Luckily, she'd sent her mother a text about her staying at school later. Student Advisors met in the library as it had private rooms to use for studying that the club could repurpose for the advising rooms. It was a very convenient thing, like many things in fictional worlds.

The Student Advisors were managed by Miss Greene ironically enough, who had actually ended up becoming an eternal ally too, as she was so serious about student conduct. Annabell seemed to be the only one she was a bit lenient on.

"Annabell, since you're new you'll be an assistant in Room 5. You'll only be there for in case someone asks for you by name." Miss Greene explained, pointing to the door of said room. It was a wooden door with the number 5 painted on it in black. Very basic. Annabell nodded in understanding.

"I understand, Miss Greene."

The older woman smiled and gave Annabell a pat on the back before reverting to her natural frown as she marched off somewhere.

"Hey, you! What are you doing with that table?! Get back here!"

Annabell let out a quiet laugh and walked into Room 5, placing herself down on the chair facing the door with her bookbag on the floor next to her. She wasn't expecting anyone to come to her today, so she fished out her history homework and began to work on it. What she wasn't expecting as she worked was tge seat across from her to be sat in so casually.

"Here."

With a clatter, a familiar mechanical pencil rolled over to Annabell and she stared in surprise for a second before picking up the pencil and inspecting it. The pencil was indeed hers. It was completely in tact, the graphite inside not taken out or anything. She looked up at the only person who could've had it with clear surprise on her face. Just like she'd thought, Jason Yates was sitting across from her with his arms draped over the back of the chair and slouching. He looked comfortable. Annabell didn't feel like picking a fight right now so she only smiled and let out a soft, barely audible. "Thank you."

Jason nodded at her and the room fell into silence. The puppy-like girl across from him said nothing and the cold prince across from her said nothing. There was nothing else that needed to be said. Annabell turned back to her homework, working on it with more vigour due to having her favorite pencil back and Jason scrolled through his phone. This comfortable environment continued for a full two hours, neither of the two saying anything and the scribbling of pencil on paper was the only audible sound other than the school's vents blowing.

Under her slightly smiling face, Annabell was smirking. Unknown to anyone but herself, a soft ding had resounded in her head. This first day had been more successful than she'd thought it could be. Not to mention after this day, Jason continued to come back to Room 5 after school for a full week.