McCoy High School was one of the most elite private schools in the country, according to my mom. I was supposed to enrol a few days, but I first had to do an entrance exam. My mom failed to mention this to me when she gushed about this school on the plane. So now here I was, in the principal's office taking an exam and it was only mid August! My mom was waiting outside of the office. When I gazed at the clock, I noticed that I only had thirty minutes left.

"Are you finished, miss Jones?" The principal caught me playing with my pen.

I've been done for the past twenty minutes, but I always get anxious about handing something in before the time limit was over. He caught me now, so I nodded and handed him the paper. Afterwards, he instructed me to wait outside with my mom while he corrected it. I got up from my seat and walked out. My mom was on her phone but looked up when I stepped out.

"How did it go?" She asked.

"Fine." I shrugged.

My mom didn't ask further, because academics truly bored her. She never forced me to get good grades, I'm sure that she didn't care. Despite my procrastination issues, I was quite good at school. I'd feared that the exam would be difficult but it was rather easy. School has always been easy for me, therefore boring which led to me procrastinating a lot.

"I took a look at the uniforms. They're quite cute. They're navy blue, which goes well with your eyes." My mom showed me pictures of the school uniform.

I was used to wearing school uniforms but I really didn't care much for them. My mom was the one who always made sure my uniforms were ironed and fresh. She always got so mad when I tied my tie wrongly. It really isn't that deep. But appearance is everything for her.

"Miss Jones?" The principal opened the door with wide eyes.

He'd looked very indifferently at me. He went on an entire rant about how he didn't like to welcome latecomers to his school and how serious and prestigious this school was. Basically, he had a thick stick up his ass. But now he looked at me like I was Jesus or the first drops of rain after drought. It made me feel uncomfortable.

"Please, come inside my office!"

He can smile? I glanced at my mom who nodded and pulled me along. We sat down in his office and he clapped his hands together. He gave my mom a set of papers and continued to look at me with a radiant smile. This man is starting to scare me.

"Your daughter is a genius! I've never seen such a high score before in my entire career!"

I leaned closer to my mom and noticed that the papers were my results. I got a lot of my answers correct and I suppressed a smile when I saw my mom's face. She was annoyed with me. She turned to me and rolled her eyes before handing my results back.

"Our school has a very special program for children like your daughter. It's designed to-"

"I'm not interested in that. She'll attend normal classes." She cut him off.

My mom really hated it when teachers or principals approached her with special classes or gifted courses. They all saw potential in me but my mom always refused. She didn't want me to take an IQ test nor did she allow me to compete in contests. She's been like that my entire life and it made me turn into a procrastinator partially. If my mother didn't find education important, why should I? That's how I used to think about it, but I've changed my mind.

I'll get to do whatever I please when I get to college, but that's in three years. By then I'll have met my father and I felt like he would support my education.

"But-"

My mom shook her head firmly. I looked at the principal. This man looked like a disappointed puppy. He slowly took the results back and stared at them for a long while before speaking again. It was as if someone crushed his dreams right in front of him.

"I'll make up a schedule and you can come and pick it up on Monday, Charlotte."

Throughout the rest of the conversation, I felt my mind float away. Was I excited to start in a new school? No. School is only fun because of friends and crazy people. I was always a normal kid in school. I wasn't popular, but I wasn't a loner either. I had my closest friends and a few others who I regularly talked to. It was much more fun to sit back and watch the drama play out in front of you. Especially, when you did not have a role in it.

Sadly my life as a bystander was about to be over.

/////////////////

Monday morning came sooner than I wanted. I've spent the passing week unpacking and exploring the city. New York City was loud, busy, but entertaining. I loved taking the subway and watching weird people have breakdowns. It's a toxic personality trait of mine to laugh at someone's suffering.

I'm working on it...I promise...kinda?

My mom dropped me off and wished me luck on my first day of school. I went inside the building and walked to the office. The office lady recognised me immediately since new students were a rare occurrence here. The darling handed me my schedule and locker code. She was absolutely adorable and I smiled brightly when she wished me a good day.

Old people are cute. Well, some of them. My old neighbour was a seventy-year-old Karen. I hope you know what I mean when I refer to her as a Karen. If you don't, then where the hell have you been the past years on the internet?

I walked down the hallways holding the map that she had given me. Contrary to my best friend Morgan, I was good at orientation. One time she had to go to a new dentist and ended up in a whole different city. She called me up crying because she didn't know where she was. Her sense of orientation was so bad, she even struggled to tell left apart from right.

But I won't judge her for that, because me too sometimes.

My locker was not far from the office so I got there in no time. I reached for it and noticed that my neighbour was there as well. She looked up when she noticed me. I believe in first impressions and hers was just amazing.

First of all, she had blue hair. Most importantly, she could pull it off. I loved the way it looked on her and I couldn't help myself from complimenting her.

"I really love your hair!"

Her beautiful big brown eyes gazed at me. She was smaller than me by a few inches.

"Oh, thank you! I like your nails!" She pointed at them with a matching smile.

I like acrylic nails but they can't be too long. My mom and I had a girls' day yesterday and I got them done. They were a pastel lilac colour because it's my favourite colour.

"So you're new here?" The girl asked me as she closed her locker.

"Yes, I'm Charlotte!"

"My name is Eunha!"

"It's nice to meet you, Eunha!" I smiled while opening my locker.

She paused for a second before her smile grew.

"You're one of the few who pronounced my name correctly!"

She hugged me. I hugged back. I was quite a cuddly person so I liked hugs, but only by those who I liked. I don't like stupid people or strangers touching me. But I guess that goes for everyone.

"Let me see your schedule!" She asked excitedly.

I handed her my schedule while picking out the books that I would need.

"Oh, you have a lot of AP classes! I have some too, so I can take you." She offered.

I felt relieved to have someone by my side. She linked our arms and we were about to head to our first class when she pulled me back hurriedly. It was the weirdest thing that I've ever seen. When Moses parted the Red Sea, it was the same as this. All the students pushed themselves up against the locker to make way for a group of people.

What the actual fuck?

Why are we making way for a group of students? Is this how it's done in America? I thought that just happened in the movies. I looked down at Eunha next to me. She looked a bit scared.

"What's happening?" I asked confused.

"The Cassano siblings. You really don't want to be in their way or they'll hurt you!"

Her grip on my arm tightened and I was concerned about her. She seemed genuinely scared of these siblings. I smiled softly at her.

"It'll be alright. We're out of their way, right?" I assured her.

She nodded slowly and held onto me. She reminded me a bit of Morgan. They were both equally adorable and I always felt so protective of Morgan. I could see the same about to happen with Eunha.

My eyes went to the Cassano siblings. There was one girl surrounded by a group of three guys. It was an obnoxious sight. The girl was wearing the same uniform but hers looked better for some reason. Maybe it was the confidence? She had long blond hair and a cute hair accessory. She was carrying a tiny Prada handbag and I wondered how she would carry her books.

She seemed to enjoy the attention and she grinned as she looked at the cowering students.

Two guys next to her resembled each other. They had dark blond hair and dark brown eyes, so I guessed they must be twins. One of them was trying to pull off a bad boy look but he just looked like a golden retriever to me. The other one could pull off the look. I noticed a few tattoos on his left hand and the piercing on his right eyebrow.

Their school uniforms were not complete. The dude with the tattoos wore a leather jacket instead of a blazer like the rest of us. The puppy was missing his tie and had unbuttoned his shirt. The principal had explained to me that the dress code was very strict and if you were caught breaking it, you'd be expelled for three days. No exceptions, he'd stated. I felt like these kids were the exceptions.

I noticed a boy walking behind them. He was gorgeous. They all were but he was absolutely stunning. He wasn't as 'manly' as the twins but he was boyish pretty. He had soft blond curls and light blue eyes. His skin was unblemished. His features were defined but still soft. He looked like an angel.

He walked as if he hated all the attention. His eyes were focused on the ground and a soft blush played on his cheeks. He didn't seem to fit in with his siblings and that made me like him the best out of all of them.

I was too busy looking at him that I missed what was happening in front of me until I heard a grunt near my feet. A boy was pushed aside by one of the twins and he landed right at my feet. I immediately bowed down to help him up. He was holding his side and I could tell that he was hurt.

I wanted to yell at those stupid twins but once they passed us, the students closed in on them, following them like puppies.

"Oh my god, Augie! Are you alright?", Eunha asked worriedly at the boy.

He had dark brown hair and it hung a bit before his hazel eyes. He was quite lean and small.

"Fell on my side. I don't even know how I ended up here." He muttered.

"Do you want to go to the nurse?" I asked him.

He grabbed his backpack that had fallen to the ground and shook his head.

"I'm used to being pushed around like a rag doll." He shrugged.

I frowned confused but he waved it off.

"Wait! We've never met before, right?"

"Oh, this is Charlotte! She's new here." Eunha introduced me.

"Nice to meet you, Charlotte. I'm August. Eunha and I are besties."

I smiled and shook his outstretched hand.

The first bell rang and Eunha linked our arms again. We walked to our first class together, which was AP English that August also had. We sat down in the middle of the classroom and waited for the teacher to come as well as some other students. I sat down between the two and they turned to me.

"Now that was an interesting welcoming, don't you think?" August noted.

"I thought that only happens in movies and even then I cringe so hard." I shuddered.

"Ha! You should see Cece when that happens, she just goes to stand in their way until they push her aside." August chuckled.

Now that sounded like someone fun!

"Cece is one of our best friends. You'll meet our group during lunch." Eunha explained.

I felt relief. My first day was going great and I would be introduced to a friend group. They may not like me but at least I had Eunha and August, they seemed really nice and great.

"Why is that actually? Why do we have to get out of their way?"

"Their oldest brother is the school's biggest sponsor. So they're basically allowed to do whatever they want such as bullying other students, ignoring dress code, and so much more." Eunha told.

Ah, rich people. My mom and I were privileged as well but I felt like there was a difference. You had well-off people, rich people, and rich rich people. The Cassano's belonged to the rich rich people according to the way they were acting and what August said next.

"I can tell that you're new in the city, so I'll spill the tea. Cassano's own the city. Their oldest brother owns one of the biggest conglomerates in the world and is fucking loaded. My biggest advice is to avoid the Cassano's and anything related to them. Just avoid the Upper Eastside all together. The chance of running into a Cassano is fucking big, there are so many of them."

"But this is the Upper East Side." I reminded him.

"Well, fuck me."

I laughed and Eunha joined. She laid her hand on my arm.

"They're with seven siblings at home. One girl and six boys."

"Six boys?!"

Who could survive six brothers? Maybe that's why that girl turned out to be like that...

"They're really fuckable but I wouldn't even dare to dip my dick into them," August commented.

"Horny much?" I grinned.

"For hot guys, always. But they're fucking insane and too dangerous to risk my dick for. Besides they seem too straight for me."

Just then the teacher walked in and class started. I tried to pay attention but as usual, my attention drifted away when I realised we were covering a subject that I'd already know things about. I wished that I could follow those special classes so that perhaps I wouldn't but so bored. But my mom would never allow me to follow those. At least I got to be with Eunha and August.