Chapter 1
Her soft lips touched his, and slowly began to explore each and every corner of his mouth. Sometimes going up, and other times going down.
He smiled, and stood with his attention focused fully on her, allowing her to take full control of the situation.
“I’m going to surprise you,” she claimed, looking right into his hazel eyes.
“How?” He replied, raising his thick lush eyebrows.
But suddenly before he could even get the chance to receive his answer, she followed through with her words... Raising her elegant arms, and pushing his muscular body against the wall.
“Kinda like that,” she stated, smiling at him.
“Ohh, wow,” he remarked, slowly wrapping his strong arms around her, and carrying her off the ground. “That was--”
“Surprising?” She said, finishing his sentence off, and kissing his lips once more.
“Yeah, a little bit,” he replied, turning them both around, and putting her against the wall instead.
“Just a little?” She asked, tilting her head to the side, and putting her arms around his neck.
“Yeah, just a little,” he said teasingly.
But just as she was about to speak, something else came to his mind. “You know,” he uttered, “I can surprise you too.”
Her eyes immediately widened at his sudden claim. “Really?” She asked, her voice low and secretive.
“Yeah,” he replied, staring her down.
She grinned, and let out a toned laugh, “Prove it then,” she countered. “Show me what you can do.”
He smirked, and raised his eyebrow ready to accept the challenge. “Ohh,” he voiced, grinning from ear to ear. “I definitely can’t say no to that.”
But before he could continue on to surprise her, what sounded like a man’s voice began to erupt around his ears, stopping him midway.
“Hunter!” the voice called, almost stabbing the world around him.
“Hunter,” it continued.
“Shit,” Hunter whispered, noticing that the brilliant picture he had painted in his mind had instantly begun to fade.
“Hunter, did you hear what I said?” The voice continued, this time dealing the final blow on his imaginary picture.
“Sorry what?” Hunter asked, looking up at what seemed to be his maths teacher, Mr. Douglas, frowning angrily at him.
Mr. Douglas wore a dark brown suit, and his grey hair was cut quite short. His face was full of wrinkles, and his tall frame added to his frightening features. He wore a small pair of round reading glasses, and had them just above the tip of his long nose. You could tell by the creases on his forehead, and the twitching on his eyelids that his patience had fully run out.
“I asked you what the cosine of the equation on the board is,” he grunted, glaring directly at him.
Hunter’s eyes widened in reaction to the question, and darted towards the equation written on the whiteboard.
“Umm?” He voiced, realizing he had put himself in one of the many social situations he always hoped to never find himself in.
Even though he knew exactly how to answer the question, he felt excruciatingly tongue tied, and Mr. Douglas’s strong glare wasn’t helping him either.
“I- uhhhh?” He continued, subsequently looking left and right at his fellow classmates, beginning to feel a slight sense of stage fright.
“Answer the question,” Mr. Douglas demanded, impatiently looking at his watch.
“I uhhh?”
“Let me just——”
Luckily for Hunter, before he could embarrass himself even more, a low familiar ringing began to erupt around the whole classroom. It was the familiar sound of the school bell, and like a knight in shining armor, it had given him the golden opportunity to escape the situation he had found himself in.
He looked at everyone else in the classroom, and saw them all slowly packing their things and continuing on to leave. Then he looked at Mr. Douglas, and shrugged. “That’s the bell,” he stuttered, pulling a flimsy smile.
Mr. Douglas scowled, and shook his head. “I’m sure it is,” he grunted sarcastically. “You’re free to go.”
Hunter nodded his head, and began to pick up his belongings, but just as he was about to leave, he began to feel as though he had to prove his worth to his teacher. It wasn’t in him to let down a challenge.
“I can do it, you know?” he stated, watching the last person in the classroom leave. “Do what?” Mr. Douglas asked, squinting his eyes.
“I can do the equation on board,” Hunter replied, quite sure he needed to prove himself to his teacher.
A rather small smile pulled on Mr. Douglas’s face.
“Go ahead, but how about we make it slightly harder since you seem to like a challenge,” he said, walking over to the board and adding a whole new equation.....And unlike the one before, this one was considerably harder.
Hunter picked up his bag, and walked towards the equation and a smiling Mr. Douglas. “It’s simple, first we have to find the cosine...which is adjacent over the hypotenuse. Then we find the missing angle like this,” Hunter stated, taking the equation head on. He went on to write a vast array of symbols on the whiteboard, and then slowly revised what he had written to check for mistakes.
“Done,” he said, feeling confident in what he had done.
Mr. Douglas raised an eyebrow, and looked at the whiteboard. He then observed the equation, as if to make sure everything was spot on. “Impressive,” he finally said. “Well done.”
Hunter smiled, and felt a sense of pride rising within his body.
“But-” Mr. Douglas stated, turning Hunter’s smile upside down.
“What is it, sir?” Hunter asked, quite sure he had nailed the trigonometric equation.
Mr. Douglas took a small breath, and looked at him with a tinge of disappointment in his eyes, “You remind me of myself,” he said. Hunter looked at Mr. Douglas in pure confusion, he couldn’t understand what exactly he was on about. “You’re smart, you’re young, and you have a clearly bright future. But don’t blow it all up by losing focus on what is truly important.”
“Which is why I truly hope to never see you lose focus in my class again, because what you will learn here, is what will inevitably help build your future.”
Hunter looked at Mr. Douglas sincerely, and nodded his head. He was actually quite relieved that it wasn’t his working on the equation that was being ridiculed. “You’re right sir, it won’t happen again,” he assured.
“As it should be,” Mr. Douglas stated, turning around, and walking to his desk. “You may go now.”
Hunter smiled rather wearily, and adjusted his bag, quite pleased at how he had handled the situation. Then he made his way out of the classroom, and found himself in the school hallway surrounded by students walking up and down. The hallway was white, and had a black and grey floor. It was made of brick and concrete, and you could tell that whoever had designed it, had wanted to entail a mediaeval look.
St Aberidge was a private school for both boarders, and day scholars. It was filled with the children of the rich and famous, and because of that, it had made it a priority to show its richness, and elegance.
The school had been built about 60 years ago, but even so, it still looked relatively new. Its property lay over a large landscape of land stretching as far as the eye could see.
At one corner were the hostels for the borders, and at the other corner were buildings for the various activities that took place on the land. But in the very middle was the main building, and a number of other smaller structures. The main building was shaped somewhat like a modern day castle, with a vast array of rooms.
In that building was where most of the things that took place in the school happened, and it was actually where Hunter was standing at this very moment in time.
Hunter wasn’t like all the other students though, he wasn’t rich, and his mom wasn’t some famous business owner either. He had actually made his way into the school through a scholarship which he had landed through his high intellect.
But even though everything he had gotten from the school seemed like a blessing...being a scholarship student wasn’t actually the best position to be in a place like St Aberidge. Not only that, but he also happened to be “the new kid”, which just made things worse.
Soon enough, a few minutes passed, and Hunter made his way to his locker, putting his mind through a series of self reflection.
But suddenly before Hunter could go deeper into his moment of self reflection, a voice erupted from behind him.
“Space!” The voice shouted.
And just like that everyone suddenly began to move to the side, opening a straight, and clear passage through the hallway for the EIRD (Elegance, Intelligence, Respect, and Dominance) Boys to pass through.
“I liked that one,” the voice remarked, coming out from a huge muscular body, with ocean blue eyes....The leader of the EIRD Boys.
The EIRD Boys were a group of the schools’ most respected seniors. The organization had been ruling over the school for generations, and it had become a tradition for them to be in charge of all the students. What made each of them special, was that they all came from old wealth families, meaning they were all filthy rich, and that each of them were full-time boarders at the school. But even though their name had “Boys” in it, they still had a number of female members, who were actually a lot more mean than the boys were.
The EIRD Boys were in charge of making sure the school kept its high standards, and they demanded respect, absolutely nothing could be done without their permission, and say so.
But at the very top of their organization was their main leader Mason MacMiller, and he was by far the worst of them all. He was known for riches, and his extravagant parties. But what made him even more of a tyrant, was how brutal he treated people. Even with the little time Hunter had spent at St Aberidge, he already knew that being on his bad side was somewhere you definitely didn’t wanna be.
“Let’s go,” Mason demanded to the rest of his gang, looking left and right, and making his way through the hallway. But just as he was about to the exit he stopped by Hunter, and glared at him. Hunter immediately looked down, but it didn’t help that he stood at exactly the same height as Mason.
Mason looked at his scholarship uniform, which was actually supposed to be a uniform people were given out of respect, and scowled.
“Fucking scholarship student,” he cursed, pushing Hunter towards the wall. But fortunately for Hunter that was all he did.
At St Aberidge, something about not paying for attending the school seemed to touch everyone the wrong way, and unfortunately for Hunter he was a scholarship student, and because of that, he was forced to walk around with a target on his back.
Soon the EIRD Boys disappeared from the hallway, and everyone went back to focusing on whatever they were originally doing.
“You ok?” A voice said, startling Hunter’s already shocked body. It had come out of a boy with curly hair, and large brown eyes. The boy, just like everybody else, wore a black and white uniform, and a dark red blazer. He was quite short, but his body was absolutely ripped.
“Ohh, it’s just you Damien,” Hunter said, feeling rather relieved to see a familiar face. “I’m ok.”
Damien had been friends with Hunter since he had joined the school, in fact he was one of Hunter’s only friends. He was kinder than the rest, but it was probably because he was somewhat of an outsider himself. His father owned a small tech company which did put him onto the rich scale of social ladder, but compared to everyone else he was as good as poor.
“Bro what was that in there?” He asked, trying to shift the conversation away from what had just taken place. He was referring to what had happened in the classroom.
Hunter smiled, knowing exactly what his friend was trying to do. “I just got a little stuck in my head, that’s all.”
Damien moved closer to him, and squinted his eyes at Hunter rather wearily. “Just a little?” He questioned.
“Yeah,” Hunter assured, trying not to look too suspicious.
Damien took a step back, and held his hand against his chin, trying to contemplate on what he had just heard. Then like a light switch, a question popped into his head.
“Wait, who were you actually thinking about?” He asked, smirking, and raising an eyebrow.
Hunter sighed, and shook his head, “it doesn’t matter,” he replied, happy to see that Damien hadn’t focused too much on what Mason MacMiller had just done to him.
Damien’s expression then changed to that of suspicion. “Don’t tell me you were thinking about her!” He exclaimed, staring Hunter down with his piercing glare.
“Shhhhh,” Hunter sounded, putting his hands on Damien’s lips.
“Ohh my god, you were!” Damien whispered, pushing Hunter’s hands off his mouth.
Hunter glared at Damien, then looked left and right, as if to make sure no one had heard what had been talked about.
“Yes I was thinking about her, so what?” He finally replied.
“So what?” Damien repeated, “you’ve literally got your stupid ass eyes on the biggest red flag in the school!”
“And speak of the devil, there she is!” He continued, this time pointing at her.
Hunter quickly faced where Damien had pointed, and soon landed his eyes on a group of 3 girls. They all laughed, and stood side by side. It was quite clear that they were all gossiping about something, the question is “What?”
Each of them had a similar sense of style, and they all wore their uniforms in a different way than the rest of the girls in the school (They wore their uniforms in a glamarous manner).
But out of all those girls, one of them in particular caught Hunter’s eye, and her name was Amber. Stone.
She looked beautiful and stunning, and her hair was long and dazzling. Her eyes were round and green, and her face almost shined. She also had what Hunter could argue was the most amazing body in the whole school. Her chest had just the right amount of curves, and her waist was something straight out of the movies.
“Stop staring, you’re being too obvious,” Damien demanded, trying to shift Hunter’s attention
“I’m in love, I can’t help it,” Hunter replied, continuing to stare at her.
Damien sighed, and looked at Hunter, in an almost disappointed manner. “I always tell you this, and I’ll tell you again,” he voiced. “Forget about Amber. Stone, she’s bad news.”
“And maybe you don’t know it,” Damien continued, “but she has the bitchiest character in this whole school. She’s a certified heartbreaker!”
“And let’s not talk about her current boyfriend Mason, who almost just beat the shit out of you.”
Hunter frowned, and faced Damien. “I’m not afraid of Mason,” he insisted. “I can handle him.”
“Sure you can,” Damien sarcastically agreed.
“Plus, I’m genuinely in love here,” Hunter continued.
“Really,” Damien scoffed, “you know it would work if your lover actually knew you existed.”
Hunter closed his eyes, and felt Damien’s words pierce deep into his heart. “You don’t have to be harsh about it,” he complained.
Then just as he was complaining, something came to Amber’s attention, and she immediately led her whole group of friends out of the hallway, giggling and laughing about something.
Meanwhile, Hunter smiled, and watched her walk away. “And there she goes...
the love of my life,” he stated, sounding almost poetic.
Damien shook his head at Hunter, and sighed, quite sure he was being delusional. “I think if you really liked her that much, you’d just tell her, and see what happens.” He stated, still being sarcastic.
“I do love her, but I’m not risking getting heart broken,” Hunter countered, not picking up on the sarcasm. “Or getting your bones broken,” Damien continued.
“Exactly,” Hunter agreed, “which is why I’ll kindly pass.”
Damien laughed at Hunter’s response, and leaned against the wall. “Then like I told you,” he stated, “forget about Amber. Stone. She’ll only break your heart in the end.”
