: from 'Phoenix' to 'The Whole Fucking Thing' (Pre Hawk phase lasts until 'Ice Cream'.)

from 'The Wonders of the World' to 'Cold Spot'.

ongoing. Starts from 'In My Time of Dying.'

❤️

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The first couple of hours went without major incidents - which was a huge victory by Sky's standards.

Sky managed to find the right classrooms, attended the lessons she was supposed to attend, and realized that even if she hadn't been in school for more than six months, she still was way above average and hadn't magically lost all her knowledge and skills during that time.

She even made one friend - kind of. In the biology class, she was seated next to a girl, who introduced herself as Sam, who seemed nice enough.

Besides, Sky was desperate. She was prepared to befriend anyone, a fucking giant octopus if it came to that.

Anything was better than being alone.

So when lunchtime came, she entered the cafeteria rather nervous - only the total outcasts ended up eating alone, and she sure didn't want her first school lunch in this place, to label her as one. Holding her tray, she scanned her surroundings desperate for a friendly face.

Sam, preferably. Or any other person she'd met during this morning.

There were free seats at a round table nearby, where a small group of people was eating, including a rather good looking Latino boy, a skinny kid with super pale skin and dark hair that made him look like a vampire, and a boy with the ugliest sweater Sky had ever seen in her life.

Sky raised a brow.

Dang, what an ugly sweater!

It reminded her of Ron Weasly's horrible sweaters in Harry Potter books - or maybe Fred and George, because their sweaters had been green too (not that Sky should know that, but she did) - but this was real life, not fiction, and she couldn't help staring. Why, oh why would anyone voluntarily wear something so hideous? It was like an open invitation to bullies.

The boy with the ugly sweater looked up from his food and their eyes met - he had large, blue eyes. Very soulful, very beautiful. A nice bone structure in his face too - high cheekbones, a sharp jawline. Too bad that in addition to the ugly sweater, he had a huge red scar running from his nose to his upper lip - a scar that he instantly covered with his hand, as he noticed that Sky was looking.

Sky flinched and turned her eyes away. She felt for him instantly, the scar on her shoulder suddenly making itself known, the sensation sore and raw against the fabric of her shirt.

But it didn't matter.

No matter how cute, everything about that boy said LOSER, clear and loud. She could not sit at his table, she would not do it. This was her fresh start, and she would rather skip lunch than eat with those kids, no matter how bad she felt for them.

You're a fucking Phoenix. Remember?

And right then she noticed Sam a couple of tables away, and relief washed over her body like a wave. Holding her head up, she walked her high heels around the loser table and placed her tray down, marking the empty spot across the table from Sam.

The people at the table all turned their eyes to her, and there was no doubt about it - they were the rich kids. The cool kids. The kings of this jungle.

If she didn't want to get eaten, she needed to be one of them.

All or nothing.

"Hi," she said, with a smile, and thank God Sam answered that smile.

"Hey - it's Sky, right?" she said. "You can sit with us if you want to."

Trying her best to hide her relief, Sky sat down and took a look at the people at the table as Sam kindly introduced them to her.

The other girls were called Moon and Yasmine - and the latter was clearly the queen bee of this beehive. She was almost ridiculously pretty, with blond locks and large eyes - but Sky recognized a mean girl when she saw one.

Yasmine took a long look at Sky down her pointed nose, but Sky didn't let it get to her. She might be the new girl, but she knew she was hot too. Maybe not as pretty as Yasmine, but with her green eyes, red hair, and slender figure she was used to getting attention from the boys at least. Besides, she knew how to dress, which no doubt would be a crucial point in getting accepted by Yasmine.

The beauty queen stared at Sky with narrowed eyes for a couple of heartbeats, but she held that stare as an equal, and finally, Yasmine's cold stare melted into a smile.

"I like your shirt," she said. "Where did you get it?"

"It's a Gucci." Sky replied as if it wasn't a big deal at all, as if she had a closet full of Guccis and Versacis to pick from. "Got it from Milan last summer."

"Milan?" Yasmine arched her perfect brows.

"You know, Italy. My dad travels there frequently, so." she shrugged and started eating her sandwich.

"Oh, that's cool!" said the girl who'd been introduced as Moon with a wide smile that was easy to reply to. "I've always wanted to visit Italy!"

"It's not that special," Yasmine noted. "France is much more beautiful."

Sky thought it better not to answer, but to concentrate on her sandwich. While munching on her lunch, she took a subtle look at the other kids at the table. There were a couple of guys sitting with them too, one of them a good-looking kid named Kyler.

Sky disliked him instantly. Even if he didn't look the same at all, there was something about him that reminded her of Matt, that predatory look that she now knew to be scared of.

She turned her glance away, as Kyler's dark eyes tried to catch it.

"So, how is your first day going so far?" asked Sam almost making her start.

"Okayish, I guess." Sky replied. "I've managed to get to every class, even if I keep getting lost. This place is confusing."

"You'll get used to it," Sam replied with a smile. "What do you have next?"

"History, I think? You know where that is?"

"I got that too. I'll show you–"

"So, where did you move from?" Yasmine interrupted, and Sam stopped talking mid-sentence.

"East coast." Sky replied shortly and took a bite of her sandwich.

"Why?"

Sky shrugged. "My dad got a job here."

"Oh, what does he do?" Moon asked.

"He's a doctor." Sky replied, determined not to be more specific. There was no need for these kids to know the real reason they had moved here, that had nothing to do with Dad's work. Nor did they need to know, that Dad's Ph.D. was about ancient civilizations - Rome in particular - instead of medicine and that he wasn't actually working anywhere at the moment, but instead spent his days buried in books and piles of paper in their home, writing a book about the fall of the Roman empire.

Sky was pretty sure no one would think that was cool, even if she kind of did.

Without really meaning to, she glanced at the 'loser table', and once again made eye contact with the cute scar-lipped boy. He quickly looked down, and hid his lip with a hand, but not quick enough.

Kyler made a scoff. "Shit lip's looking this way."

Shit lip? Seriously?

Suddenly the food tasted like ashes on Sky's tongue. She glanced at the boy, who had clearly heard Kyler's rude comment, and felt a pang in her heart.

She knew well enough how it felt to be the laughing stock.

"Such a loser'!" Yasmine commented with an eye roll. "I mean, just look at that sweater. Where did he even find it? From the dumpster?"

Her mean-girl laugh was near perfect, and Sam and Moon joined the giggle.

Sky's stomach went tight, but she hid it under a fake smile.

This is what you wanted. A fresh start. Connections. Sitting at the cool kid's table. Are you gonna back down, because they make fun of some dude you don't even know?

"I bet his mom made it," Kyler commented. "Looks handmade, like that lip."

Yasmine laughed, and Sky forced herself to do so too.

She desperately needed friends. Friends with connections. Friends who wouldn't let anything bad happen to her. If she needed to pay for that by losing some of her humanity, she would.

So she shut up, ate her food, and laughed at the right times - which seemed to be all that was required of her to earn a seat at Yasmine's table.

From the corner of her eye, she saw how the scar-faced boy picked up his tray and walked out of the cafeteria, his shoulders hunched as if he could hide from the world. His friends followed, responding to the cruel comments and laughs with nothing but annoyed and silent glances.

Sky was relieved when the lunch was over. But things were not going to get easier in the days to come.

It didn't take long before she began to doubt the choice she had made.