Dangerous »ᴄɵᴍᴘᴌᴇтᴇ«

THREE

THREE [Madisyn "Freak" Simms]

It was the first day back after the Christmas holidays. Which also meant that I had now been seventeen for four days. I hadn't done much for my birthday. I'd sat with mum to watch a movie... that was it. As a present, mum had given me a new sketchbook. My dad, who had died in a motorbike accident when I'd been seven, had got me a new set of pencils – of course, it hadn't actually been my father who got them, but it was a thing my mum did for me. She got me presents and said they were from him as though he was still alive just living elsewhere. My stepfather... I hadn't looked. I hadn't touched the paper. I nearly did. I was just about to touch the wrapping paper as I asked who this present wrapped in blue was from. Mum had only told me the truth because she'd been distracted. The moment she said that it was from my stepfather I'd froze. We hadn't had a good night sleep that night.

I blinked back to the present as someone sat on my desk, making my pencil roll of the desk and making a clattering noise as it hit the floor and bounced.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the girl said. I didn't know her name. There were only a few names I did recognise. Those from my previous school or the "popular ones". Other than that, I had no idea.

As she stepped away, I leant over and picked up my pencil. The girl went over to the other side of the class to where her friends had moved to. As she spoke, I realised that she was completely unaware that I could hear every word she was saying. "What's her problem? I apologized. I mean, she could have said "no problem" or something like that."

"She ignores us, we ignore her. It works."

"What do you mean?"

"She hasn't spoken a word all last term unless it's to a teacher and even then it's only because she's answering a question."

"Weirdo."

"Yeah, she's Freak."

Their conversation continued onto another topic. The name calling didn't hurt. In fact, it got any new students to leave me alone to which I was thankful. It was easier to be alone. You couldn't get hurt so easily.

It was only minutes later that our tutor walked in. He took our register. I didn't even have to respond because the moment he read my name, he moved onto the next person in the list. I tried listening to the list as we'd been moved around for this term but it wasn't until his name was mentioned that I actually took note.

"Blade Kiren?" our tutor looked around the room and sighed when he didn't see Zero in his class. "Of course," I heard him mumble.

Just then, the purr of a car sounded, our tutor looked out the window. It was a black car turning a white-grey-black where the sun hit, making it shine. I wasn't a fan of cars. Not after my father's accident, but even I could admit that it was a beautiful vehicle. I'm not sure if I should have been surprised to see Zero getting out the car. Some were surprised though.

"Since when does Zero own a car?" a guy asked. There was a reason Blade was called Zero. Zero because no one knew his family. He had zero money but enough to survive on – his bike had proved that. He had zero care for the world. He had zero. And so, people had just started calling him Zero without learning anything more about him. Without learning him.

"Go to the headmaster's office, Mr. Kiren!" we heard a man call from outside.

"What for?" Zero shouted back.

"Being late!"

I could see the annoyance cross Zero's face from where I sat. No one was surprised when he ignored the teacher telling him to go to the Headmaster's office, instead, he started walking for the building we were in. He was coming straight here. For a moment, as he went out of sight, I wondered whether he would recognise me from yesterday. Probably not, and I was fooling myself to think different.