Chapter 4
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The air in Wren High buzzed with something unspoken.
A new chill had settled in the halls ,not from the cold, but from the presence of her. Ryn moved differently now, and people noticed. Her steps were measured, her smile polite yet distant. She no longer filled rooms with loud laughter, but with an unsettling calm that made people uneasy. The girl they once bullied was suddenly… unreadable.
And unreadable was dangerous.
Ryn kept her head down during morning classes, quietly taking notes while her ears listened to everything ,every whisper, every shift in the air, every glance.
Samantha laughed loudly from the front row, flipping her hair, chewing gum. "Did you hear about Selene's party?" she told Alina, who sat beside her,with the rest of her designer-pack friends.All carefully handpicked by Alina. They used to torment Ryn with veiled insults and humiliating pranks, pretending it was all in good fun. Back then, Ryn had believed it. Now? She saw the rot under the gold.
Alina,perfectly poised in her designer skirt.
"Obviously," she replied with a smirk, eyes flicking toward Ryn. "Everyone who matters is going."
Ryn smiled. She waited. Because what they didn't know was that she had already been invited.
Two Hours Earlier – Morning Break
Ryn leaned against the window outside the science lab, flipping through her phone when Selene appeared ,alone.
"Ryn," she said, her tone neutral but her expression sharp. "You're coming to my party this Friday."
Not a question. A challenge.
Ryn turned her head slowly, eyes meeting Selene's without fear. "You're inviting me?"
Ryn blinked once. Selene had never spoken to her directly before, not even in her past life. And something in her tone felt... loaded. A test? A trap? Or something else?
Selene smiled tightly. "I figured it would be… interesting, and uhh nice.She said pretentiously with a knowing smile on her face."
A pause.
"I'll be there," Ryn replied simply, her expression unreadable."
Ryn watched her disappear down the hall like a queen with poisoned perfume trailing behind her.
Interesting...
Lunchtime
Ryn sat alone by the windows as always ,but she wasn't bored.
Her phone buzzed silently. Encrypted files. Photos. Screenshots. Recordings.
Dirt. All on Samantha.
She'd been working quietly over the past few weeks ,digging through forgotten blog posts, archived messages. The kind of things people didn't bother deleting because they never expected anyone to look that deep.
Some of it was petty , Samantha shoplifting lip gloss. Bragging about cheating on school tests. But the rest…
Samantha's mother's fraud allegations. Her father's discreet settlement with a girl he'd harassed. A fake scholarship Samantha claimed to win. A secret abortion covered up with hush money.
Ryn stared at the files. Her thumb hovered over the "upload" button.
Not yet.
She wanted to see Samantha smile a little longer before she took it all away.
It had started the second week after her return. She began quietly, watching. Listening. She followed Samantha's footsteps,not physically, but digitally. She bribed a hacker student from the tech club, Reed, the awkward, under-the-radar genius who always kept to himself. He owed her now.
She had access to Samantha's old private messages, deleted emails, even banking slips from a shared family account. Her father had been embezzling too. Her mother had ties to a shell company under investigation. And Samantha herself? She had used a fake identity to cheat on last year's national exam.
There were pictures, voice notes, and messages... enough to destroy her entire bloodline's fragile legacy.
And then there were the surface-level scandals: petty bullying, paid-for followers, hookups with seniors behind closed dorm doors. The type of secrets that got girls exiled from elite circles.
Ryn had compiled it all into a neatly encrypted file. She didn't plan on using it yet. No,Samantha would slip, and when she did, Ryn would make sure the fall was hard and very, very public.
Across the Cafeteria
Jace sat with his usual crew , tall, sharp-eyed boys with too much money and too much power. He barely touched his food. His attention was elsewhere.
His jaw tensed every time a boy walked past Ryn's table. His fingers curled slightly when one leaned too close to her while asking for a pen. She didn't notice.
Or maybe she did.
But she never looked at him.
It drove him insane.
Zayne nudged him. "You've been staring at her for ten minutes."
Jace didn't respond.
He couldn't stop watching. She was quieter now, more dangerous. He didn't understand how someone could look so untouched after all. Or maybe that's what pulled him in ,her mystery, her silence, her aura.
She felt different .
She looked like,she was above them.
And he would do anything to make sure no one else saw it before he did.
Friday Night – Selene's Mansion
The party was already crowded by the time Ryn stepped in.
Her dress was black silk , elegant, minimal, haunting. Heads turned. Whispers spread.
"Is that Ryn?"
"She actually came…"
"Damn, she looks,....
She didn't acknowledge anyone. Just walked through like a shadow in moonlight. Selene greeted her at the door with a tight-lipped smirk.
"Glad you came," she said, eyeing her up and down.
"You said I should," Ryn replied.
Selene's smile faltered for a second, enjoy! she said,then returned.
The music thumped. Crystal glasses clinked. Students danced and drank like they were invincible.
Samantha walked in fifteen minutes later , bold, loud, in red. The party circled around her like she was the center.
She didn't see Ryn watching from the balcony.
Not yet.
Later That Night
Selene's party began to fracture.
Alina caught Selene glaring at Jace after he ignored her completely. Jace, who had arrived quietly and ,for the first time ,wasn't surrounded by a crowd.
Instead, he stood alone, eyes locked on one person across the room.
Ryn.
She felt it, even before she turned.
Their eyes met.
She didn't smile. Neither did he.
But the tension between them wrapped around the room like a silent wire.
Then someone's laughter cracked through the air.
Jace? He watched Ryn.
And Ryn?
She turned and walked toward the stairs, her expression calm. Controlled.
As she disappeared into the hallway upstairs, Jace followed , silent, predatory, and fully hooked.
And somewhere behind them, Selene's eyes narrowed.
This game had just begun.
And no one was playing safe anymore.
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What do y'all think will happen at the party , will there be drama ? And what will happen between Ryn and Jace.