Ayla's POV
After that day by the fountain, nothing was ever the same again.
Sophie didn't come near me for a while, but when she finally did, it wasn't to speak. It was to destroy.
At first, her cruelty came dressed in kindness. She smiled often, spoke sweetly, and offered to help whenever others were watching. She would sit beside me in class, pretending to do me a favor. But every time she helped, something went wrong.
A wrong answer slipped into my notes.
An assignment went missing before submission.
My locker was found open, and suddenly things I had never owned appeared inside, answer sheets, contraband items, even a senior's missing bracelet.
And every time, Sophie had an audience.
Every time, she gasped first.
Every time, she was the one to "defend" me softly and gently so she could look merciful while everyone else saw me as trouble.
I learned quickly that at Solaria, truth didn't survive long unless the powerful allowed it to.
