Suki Clear's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Suki Clear had ruled the outcasts at her old school. Now she stood in a hallway with five hundred rooms and no clue where they hid. She wanted the same crown here at Chaos Falls High. But you can't lead a crowd you can't find. She walked the first floor twice. Preppy kids clustered by the lockers. Jocks blocked the stairs. None of them were hers. Her black boots echoed on the tile. Her red bangs stuck to her forehead. Her side ponytail swung as she turned another corner into another identical hall. The school felt built to swallow her. Three floors. Endless doors. She pulled one open and found a supply closet. She opened another and found a crying freshman. Nobody knew what she meant when she asked about the outcasts. One girl just backed away from Suki's face. Suki almost gave up. Then she heard it. Low engine noise, rattling through a cracked window at the end of the hall. She followed the sound down a back stairwell and out a service door. Behind the school sat a cracked lot. A dozen kids in black leaned against the wall. Painted nails. Chains. Torn jackets. She had found them. Her pulse jumped. These were her people, and she would take them. A motorcycle sat at the center, and a boy sat on it. He was tall. Silver hair swept back like something from an old movie. His fingernails were black, and his biker jacket hung open. The others watched him the way you watch a leader. Suki's stomach flipped before her brain caught up. He was, she admitted, the most attractive boy she had ever seen. She crossed the lot. Heads turned toward her. "Who runs this crowd?" she asked. The silver-haired boy didn't get off the bike. He looked her over slowly, then smirked. "That would be me," he said. "Hidan. And you're standing in my spot." The others laughed. One of them told her the new girls usually asked permission first. Suki's face went flat and cold. The flutter in her chest died fast. This boy wasn't a prize. He was the thing in her way. You couldn't be queen while a king sat on the throne. "I don't ask permission," she said. Hidan's smirk widened. He revved the engine once, just to talk over her. "Cute," he said. "Come back when someone actually likes you." The crowd chuckled again. They didn't move to make room. They stood with him, not her. That was the answer to her whole day of searching. She had found the outcasts. She had also found the one person she had to destroy to own them. Suki turned and walked back inside. She had the location now. She had the target now. And she had a promise for herself. By the end of the year, they would laugh at Hidan, and cheer for her.