Chapter One

Life is like a bed of roses. You’d expect it to provide one with comfort and relief, only to let one discover its prickly thorns tearing through your skin.

Unfortunately, life was indeed a bed of roses for Agyness Drew. She thought she had owned the perfect life in her perfect world, with her perfect friends and perfect family. Everything was complete in her life, except the way that she was handling it. It was anywhere near perfect, and she herself knew of its consequences.

But she did not care. And because of her blatant ignorance, she was now banished to a world of imperfectness, with her imperfectly deranged mother who could no longer tolerate the behaviour of her imperfect daughter. As she sat in this near empty room, she finally understood the reason why she was here, besides the fact that her life was beginning to take a turn for the worse.

“My dear Aggy, I am sorry to have to leave you here. This is the only thing I can do right now to salvage our situation, and I need you to understand.” Her mother had explained as she sat down beside her in the living room that fateful day. She placed her hand gently on her daughter’s shoulder, and continued in an assuring voice, “you’re beautiful, Aggy. And you’re smart. You know what is the right thing to do and what is not. And I believe you know how to make things right this time. This is a place for you to start all over again.”

Indeed, Agyness was beautiful. She was pretty, slim, tall, and blessed with god-sent facial features and sexy to-die-for killer legs. If there were any luckier soul, it had to be Agyness Drew, the epitome of perfection.

But this time, the perfect-but-not-so-perfect Agyness had found herself in this completely unfamiliar city, forced to adapt to a whole new environment and a brand new house to live in, all alone in this city with a possibility of sins.

It was a mistake, Aggy thought to herself as she lay on her bed. She looked up at the freshly painted ceiling and sighed to herself. The smell of this room, it did not feel as comforting as the one she had back there. It smelled of depression. She could almost feel herself sinking into despair as she painfully registered the fact that she was no longer home. Even the bed sheets lacked the familiar scent of warmth and security.

“Aggy, you need to know that we’re doing this for your own good. I’m sure you want this for yourself too. We’re only doing what we can to prevent any more mistakes from happening.” Her mother’s voice continued to ring at the back of her head as she recalled the conversation. “I know you enjoy all that fame and luxury. It’s not that I’m taking them away from you, my dear sweetheart. You’ll still get to live in a life of luxury. But fame, I can’t just let you walk around with that status and destroy the name that we have painfully built over the years in pure goodwill. You need to understand this.”

Fame. It was not like Agyness had enjoyed the attention, but it had granted her the chance to meet different kinds of people and witness the best and the worst in human beings. She had seen all kinds of faces that one would ever meet in a cruel society filled with plenty of bloodshed. It was a cold, hard truth when it came to reality. With fame, you gain a deeper insight to the hearts of humans, and it was cruel.

But here, in this city, she would soon forget how it was like to taste the flavour of fame. She would start all over again, just like how any other freshman did, beginning from square one. She would walk past the corridor and nobody would notice her pretty face. She would hear not a whisper of gossip in a corner of her ears as she walked by the students. Neither would her every action be monitored, as if she was an ex-convict waiting to commit a second crime anytime.

And Agyness Drew was actually fond of that idea. The only thing that was stopping her from liking this idea was to be actually thousands of miles away from home.

But it had happened, and she did not know how she was going to deal with it.

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On a Monday morning, Agyness found herself standing at the entrance of her new school, inhaling deeply as a gust of chilly air swept past her. Her stomach gave an unsettling twist upon the sight of students strolling inside. She was not prepared for what was in store for her in this new campus, and the last thing she wanted to face was a class of eighteen foreign faces.

As she entered the premises, she noticed how the interiors were intricately designed – from the shiny marble floors to the colossal pillars and walls that rose almost three feet high. As compared to her previous school, this was far more prestigious, far more luxurious. She finally understood her mother’s reason for sending her here to study.

She intends for me to mix with people of my kind.

“Oops!” Agyness had carelessly walked into a passerby while getting too carried away with the building interiors. “Oh God, I am so sorry,” she murmured and looked up to meet a pair of hostile blue eyes. She almost flinched when she noticed how his breath was nearly on her face. Knocking into a handsome young boy was definitely not part of her plan, especially on her first day of school. But his tousled dark brown hair and broad shoulders were so sexy, she could not help but take note of that mentally.

“It’s all right,” the boy said as his lips curved into the smile. There was a flicker of surprise in his eyes as his facial expression softened upon seeing her.

Agyness knew that look. She returned a smile and walked away, hoping that he would never open his mouth again and initiate a conversation. It was the only right thing to do in order to avoid possible trouble in the near future, and she hoped never to see him ever again.

Fifteen minutes later, Agyness found herself standing in front a class of eighteen students, an object of scrutiny to the eighteen pairs of eyes as the teacher introduced her name to everyone. She felt insulted, not because they were staring at her like she was some animal – but because of the way they were looking at her. Too bad they had nothing to pick about her except for her expensive designer clothes.

“And what’s your last name again?” Mrs. Johannson was clearly not aware of where Agyness came from. She pushed her silver-framed spectacles up the bridge of her nose as she tried to recall. “Oh… yes, yes, it’s Agyness Drew. Do you mind sitting at the back of the class, dear little one?”

Agyness looked across the room and spotted the only empty seat next to a blonde. Not a very good choice to actually allow miss-rebellious-the-ex to sit at the back of the class on her first day of school, Mrs. Johannson.

“Yes, not a problem.” Agyness flashed a sincere smile, and turned to walk down the aisle. She could feel all eyes on her with each step she took. Normally she felt immune to such stares, but today she was a little self-conscious of her behaviour. People usually saw her for who she was, not for what she was. And these people, they were judging her. Agyness had to make sure that she did not make a bad impression of herself on her first day.

As she walked towards her table, she felt the blonde’s eyes fixed on her. The blonde was not very pretty at first glance, but she had a certain sort of aura around her which made her stand out from the rest. The kind of aura that showed that she was either desperate for fame, or was almost popular but would never be. Her clothes, at an instant glance, were distinctively last season. Definitely the latter.

“Hi,” the blonde greeted with a welcoming wave as Agyness sat down next to her. “I’m Vicky, Vicky Penelope.”

Agyness smiled, and nodded at her. “A pleasure to meet you, Vicky.”

“I could bring you on a mini tour if you would like to later on,” Vicky’s friendliness was starting to creep her out a little. “We could have lunch together.” She smiled, expecting Agyness to be overjoyed with the fact that a nobody-pretending-to-be-somebody was actually inviting her, the new student, to join her at her exquisite lunch table.

“Thank you for the offer, but I guess I am better off being alone.” Agyness tried to sound as cheerful as possible, but she guessed she had failed.

“Oh, no. I can’t leave you alone on your first day of school!” Vicky seemed anxious to know her. “Aggy, you have to meet me and my friends. We promise you that you will love it.”

From that look on Vicky’s face, Agyness knew. Vicky was not just unpopular. She was apparently the notorious bitch of the class with the mini sidekicks. And as she looked around the room, she saw that her eyes were met with a few familiar stares. The kind of stare that says we do not like you, but we still want to know you better.

For the first time in her life, Agyness felt a tight knot in her stomach. As much as she needed to settle down, high school life would never be smooth sailing for her. She knew that this was coming, and there was no way she could ever escape unscathed. She was cursed to live a screwed up school life.

It seemed like her mother was wrong to have sent her here, after all.

--

Author's Note:

This story is your regular dose of the commonly read girly dramas that involve lots of catfights, parties and politics. I don't know if this hits off as a good start, but I am looking forward to reviews which could give me helpful feedbacks so as to get me started on the next part of the story. Nevertheless, I hope it was good enough.