Lynn Mackenzie's mornings were rarely anything profound.
She woke before the day had properly brightened, as was expected of the young Miss of the Mackenzies. There were always people waiting to attend to her, and her morning routine was carried out in absolute silence.
Even the room itself seemed to understand the assignment. Every morning, it kept the noise of the outside world from disturbing her.
Though she was neither the heir nor officially in line to become an heiress, Lynn carried herself like someone whose throne had already been established and was merely waiting for her return.
She wasn't fierce.
She didn't need to be.
The maids simply knew better than to get on her bad side especially when it came to her patience.
Lynn was the sort of person you'd be grateful to have as an ally and cautious of having as an enemy.
That was how her mornings usually went.
Predictable.
Controlled.
Silent.
But today...
Something was different.
Not in a negative way.
In fact, it was so positive that the maids began to worry.
There was an old saying that people sometimes changed dramatically when they were nearing the end of their lives.
And Lynn was smiling.
A lot.
Was their young Miss about to die?
Meanwhile, the cause of all this confusion was completely lost in her own little world.
Lynn couldn't understand the emotions she'd gone to sleep with and somehow woken up carrying.
She was happy.
Not the polite sort of happiness she occasionally displayed when something went according to plan.
This was different.
She was genuinely, almost embarrassingly, happy.
She couldn't seem to sit still.
She smiled through her morning routine.
She smiled through breakfast.
And, most alarmingly, the smile remained on her face throughout the drive to school.
Her parents had eventually asked what had happened.
Lynn had simply answered,
"My friends and I have a study session. I might be a little late today."
The silence that followed had been almost painful.
The expressions on her parents' faces were priceless.
Lynn had stared at them in confusion.
Why did they behave like that?
It's not like I'm a lone wolf or something.
Still, she could hardly wait to see them again.
Kacy and Kim walked out of the library together and headed toward the Student Council Hall.
As members of the Student Council, they had the liberty to move through the halls or leave classes whenever a meeting or important task required their attention provided they had fulfilled their academic quota.
As usual, they weren't the first ones there.
Nor were they the only ones.
Apart from their Vice President, everyone else was already busy with their assigned tasks.
Kacy's eyes swept across the room, taking in the faces around her.
For a moment, she thought she'd locked eyes with Kaiden.
But just as quickly as the thought appeared, it disappeared.
She smiled faintly to herself and made her way toward her seat beside Kim and another council member.
Just then, the door opened.
Lynn stepped inside.
Kacy glanced from Kim to Lynn, a teasing expression already forming on her face.
She could tell from Lynn's hurried steps that she'd been eager to get there.
And, in the blink of an eye, Lynn had crossed the room and taken the seat beside Kim.
She wore an unusually cute smile.
"Hey."
Her voice was soft and almost accommodating.
For the first time since they'd started speaking to each other, there was no trace of Lynn's usual guardedness.
Kacy's smile widened.
"Hi, cutie."
She whispered
Unfortunately, in a room containing only nine people and with nothing but the faint scratching of pens against paper to fill the silence her whisper was neither quiet nor subtle.
Every head turned.
Some stared in shock.
Others looked surprised.
A few simply looked on with varying degrees of indifference.
Lynn giggled.
"You... You should stop talking to me like that. It'll make people misunderstand."
She stuttered slightly, her composure slipping.
Kacy grinned.
Her eyes immediately caught the faint flush spreading across Lynn's ears and down her neck.
Kim looked between the two of them and frowned.
Lynn blinked.
Then, almost instinctively, she shifted closer to Kim.
Across from them, Colton's eyes hardened.
He hadn't even realized he'd been watching.