"I allowed myself to suffer how jarringly destructive the present feels and how fragile the past."

- Ann Brashares -

As soon as I took a step through those front doors, I knew I had made a mistake. What the hell was I thinking, coming to a new school on the other side of town? The other side of town where the wealthy, spoiled kids lived. That was evident from what I could see in front of me; blonde, long-legged, and caramel-skinned girls, football jocks twice the size of me, and cheerleaders dancing and twirling around, their shiny, red skirts catching the light as they span.

A few people looked at me, but they didn't look scared, or angry like they usually did. They just looked at me because I was the new girl. Or maybe they were looking at me because I wasn't blonde, long-legged or tanned.

Hitching my bag higher onto my shoulder, I started to slowly walk down the corridor, keeping my eye out for the office, but also trying to avoid rugby balls being thrown about, open lockers, and kids running to their lessons.

Oaksten High School was chaos.

When I finally found the office, I pushed open the door and walked inside, the bell tinkling softly as the door opened. The office was ice-cold from the aircon above the front desk, and there was a faint smell of lavender in the air. The woman at the front desk was past middle-aged, I was guessing; her dark chocolate hair was faintly streaked with gray, and her blue-green eyes were almost concealed by the thick lenses of her glasses.

She looked up when I walked in and stopped shuffling papers on her desk. She gave me a warm smile as I walked up to the desk.

"Hello, sweetie," she smiled. "You're new, I presume?"

I nodded, and she pulled a piece of paper out of a drawer. She handed it to me.

"Here is a map. Oaksten prides itself on its big campus, so make sure to use that map," she said, wiggling her long finger at me. "I'm sure you'll love it here."

I attempted a smile but I think it came out more as a grimace.

"What's your name, dear?"

"Lili," I muttered. "Lili Ayres."

She shuffled through her papers again. "Ah," she grinned. "Here we are." She handed me another piece of paper, which had my lessons on. "Enjoy your first day, Lili."

After attempting another smile, and failing, I left the office. I looked down at my lessons; I had AP Calculus first, Mr. Cuthbert. When I finally found his classroom, ten minutes of the first lesson had already past. I stood outside the door for a few seconds, inhaling and exhaling, and trying to calm my nerves. Then, I finally entered.

Inevitably, everybody looked up when I walked inside. It was quite a large classroom, and all the seats were filled. I looked around at everyone, swallowing nervously.

"You must be Lilith?" Mr. Cuthbert, a short, elderly man, said, walking up to me.

"Lili," I corrected him.

"I'm sure we can find you a seat," he said, looking around at the class. But it didn't look like there was a spare seat anywhere. "Ah, um...Jonathan...go and fetch Lili a spare seat please."

I watched as Jonathan - tall, good-looking, and dark - stood up, as his friends snickered, and left the classroom. There was an awkward silence after the door slammed shut, but it was thankfully interrupted by Mr. Cuthbert's voice, carrying on with his lesson. I stood by the wall, stiffly and awkwardly, waiting for Jonathan to bring me a chair. It was extremely difficult to ignore the many eyes staring at me, and the hushed giggles.

The door opened, and Jonathan walked in, carrying the chair effortlessly with one hand. He dropped it down in front of me and walked back to his desk without even looking at me.

"Thanks," I muttered and sat down, wrapping my arms around my bag. I stared at the whiteboard and didn't look away until the shrill sound of the bell rattled around the classroom.

Lessons were the same all day; stares, giggles, and correcting my name every time the teacher got it wrong. I wished the day would be over, but it seemed to drag. At lunch, I sat at the back of the hall on my own and chewed my apple slowly, keeping my eyes down.

Until someone dropped their tray in front of me.

"Hey there," a female voice said. I looked up at the blonde girl in front of me. Her golden hair cascaded past her shoulders in shiny waves, and her eyes were a bright hazel. Her lips were pulled up into a smile, and her arms were folded. Beside her, stood another blonde girl, slightly shorter than the one that had spoken, but just as beautiful. The other girl was taller than the other two, and her caramel hair was curled perfectly, the curls just reaching past her shoulders.

"Hi," I murmered.

They all sat down in front of me, and my heart started hammering in my chest. What were they doing?

"So, you're the new girl right?" the one in the middle said. She seemed to be the leader. Her beauty intimidated me.

"Yeah," I said. "Lili."

"That's such a pretty name," the brown-haired girl said, resting her chin on her hand and grinning, her pearl-white teeth sparkling.

"Um, thanks," I said, still uncertain at their intentions. Nobody ever spoke to me, let alone probably the most popular girls in the school.

"I'm Brea," the one in the middle said. She gestured to the other blonde on her left. "This is Alexa." Then, she gestured to the brown-haired girl. "And this is Eva."

"Nice to meet you," I said, with a timid nod.

"We're friends now, right?" Brea grinned, her eyes sparkling.

"Um, yeah," I muttered. "Sure."

"Great," she squealed, clapping her hands together. "I can tell we're going to be best friends by the end of the week."

I gave her a small smile.

"It was nice meeting you, Lili. See you later," Brea winked and blew me a kiss. They stood up, picked up their trays, and sauntered away. I watched them go, my eyebrows raised.

It wasn't everyday when people like them sat down and spoke to me, and I couldn't help feeling apprehensive. But I knew I needed to stop feeling so anxious and worried all the time. This was a new school on the other side of town; nobody knew me here. I could become someone else here; a new identity, a changed person. This school was my resurgence.

A/N

I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter! I'm so incredibly excited for this book and I have so many things planned for it. I can't wait to share it with you.

Keep liking and commenting - it honestly makes my day!

- Olivia Clarke - 

GIF: Lili (Lilith) Ayres - Crystal Reed

©  Olivia Clarke 2016

The Devil's Daughter