[Music Recommendation: "Sunny Mornings" by Peter B. Helland (instrumental only)-available in Youtube or Spotify] ~ Please listen to it in a loop while you read this part to experience the utmost beauty of this chapter ~

It's Monday again—the first Monday of July. Today was the 5th and looking back, I couldn't believe how fast June passed by. Lots of things happened, both good and bad—but most of them were fun things. While I wasn't sure why I'm going down the memory lane on a Monday morning, I prayed to God for July to be good and merciful to all of us.

After my short morning prayer, I got up and prepared for school. It was the usual weekday routine—me getting up, taking a bath, changing my clothes, preparing my things, going to the dinning area to eat with everyone, then Kaiden drove us to school. Only took me a month but I'm already used to all of those.

Few moments later, we're at the school and I was bidding my goodbyes to Kaiden, Crystal, Hora, Callan and the sly fox Verrill whom I still hadn't interrogated—I mean, peacefully questioned. We met them at the parking lot. Callan ran towards Crystal like a dog the moment he saw her.

As I walked towards my usual seat inside the classroom, a certain black-haired girl with dark eyes and white complexion caught my attention. She was pretty but had a bored expression on her face. Her long and silky hair was neatly placed at the back of her shoulders and she sat straight and proper on her seat.

What's alarming though was not her looks but rather the fact that she was sitting beside me. Ever since the mess on day one, I had the privilege to own five seats in total because no one would dare sit beside me—meaning, two seats on both my sides were always empty. But this time, this black-haired girl was sitting there. She was probably new since it was the first time I'm seeing her. It was just July so new students could still come in and catch up with the lessons.

And so, I sat down beside her, on my usual spot. Seeing that the professor hadn't arrived, I turned to her to see if maybe we could talk and be friends. Hopefully, at least.

"Uhm, hello," I shyly greeted her in a whisper. "I'm Senara—Senara Lee. It's my first time seeing you here."

The pretty girl turned her head towards me, still so proper. If someone told me she's a robot rather than a human, I might believe them.

"Hi Senara. Nice to meet you," she answered me back with a slight smile and her voice was pretty, too, and clear. Yeah, like those you hear from telemarketers over the phone. "I'm Marie Suvanto. You can call me Marie. And yes, I'm new here."

"I see. Hope you enjoy school."

Oh no. What did I just say? That's the lousiest thing to say to someone you just met. Senara, you really suck at making friends. Ugh. At times like these, I hope I had Crystal's conversation skills, or Hora's. Any of them would be much better than me.

Because of that stupidity of mine, an awkward silence surrounded us. I guessed she wasn't much of a talker either. Thankfully, the professor arrived and the lesson started. I busied myself with taking down notes and actively participating. Even if my classmates weren't very fond of me, I still wanted to get good grades.

After the first class, we were given a few minutes break before the next professor came. In that time period, my other classmates were also intrigued by the new girl so they approached her and tried to talk with her. I, who was sitting beside her, had to adjust my seat to give space to them. I'd rather do that than be caught up in another drama that they might be pulling.

Like me on my first day, the girls bombarded her with lots of questions. I'm beginning to think that it was some sort of initiation here. But unlike me, Marie was so cool and brave that she managed to shut them up with just a single sentence from her.

Turning her head towards them, she sighed and said, "I'm not interested in talking."

Everyone gasped in shock the moment they heard that. Then, their dramatic acting followed. They all ranted and complained how rude she was when they were all being nice, trying to befriend her. If I knew better, I'd say they only wanted to recruit her to their "I hate Senara Club" or something like that. Well, it's good that Marie didn't entertain them at all. That should give her a more peaceful college life… I think. But wow. How I wish I could be cool like her and speak bluntly like that. I still needed more courage in order to do that.

A couple of hours passed by afterwards and finally, it was lunch time. As we packed our things, I felt bad leaving Marie alone so I thought of inviting her for lunch. I wondered if I would be brushed off like the others.

"Uhm, Marie. If you don't mind, we can grab lunch together."

She thought for a moment before answering me.

"… If it's free, I will."

'Huh? What did she just say?'

I blinked a couple of times from what she said. Not only that, she said it with a serious face. It was like a robot asking to be treated for food. Somehow, I found it funny. She really was blunt and honest. I liked honest people.

"Pft! Ha-ha-ha-ha! Sure. It's my treat. You can order anything you want."

Surprised by my sudden laughter, she tilted her head, confused by my actions. But either way, she agreed and we both walked together towards the cafeteria.

______________________________

Hello Pumpkins!

Hope you're all doing well.

Some of you might be surprised if I'm using your Webnovel usernames as names of the side characters or supporting characters in this novel. Since all of you have been supportive of me, reading my book, voting, and commenting, I thought of using them as a way to thank you for your support.

So far, I started with those in the Top Fans section like Rae (the screenwriter) and Verdandi or Ynna (the photographer) and now, Marie (the new classmate). The roles are random and I have no idea of your real-life personalities so do forgive me. But if you have any request, let me know in the comments and I'll see if I can put them in the story.

I'll continue with those in the Top Fans list and also, pick those who votes Powerstones and comments all the time. If you have other fun ideas you want, let me know in the comments, too. Hope you enjoy it. XD

Have a great day everyone!

Lots of love,

Macy Bae