The Stepbrother's Sin

Chapter 7 — First Day

I took a deep breath while staring at the building in front of me.

It was finally the day of my first lecture and I couldn't have been more excited.

I had spent the past few days adjusting to my new surroundings, which included finding my way around the city on my own and adjusting to my new living space. It was truly getting easier, just like Natalie told me. I couldn't believe that I was here, attending the college I had chosen, and the course that I wanted.

A couple of students walked past me, some of them were alone and some were with their friends. It was such an interesting sight to see, everyone here looked so cool. The outfits they wore, the hairstyles they rocked, everything was on another level. My town was pretty cool too, but nothing compared to this.

The lecture hall was filled with a buzz of excited conversation and it was so hard for me not to jump with excitement as well.

"Is anyone sitting here?" A female voice grabbed my attention.

I looked to the side to see a girl standing near me.

"Nope." I moved a little to give her a bit of space as she sat next to me.

She smiled and dropped her bag beside her. "I'm Stephanie. It's your first day?"

I nodded, "Yeah. I'm Ivy," I smiled and reached out my hand for a handshake. She gave me one in return and I pulled my hand back. "It's nice to meet you."

"Not my first day as I changed majors," Stephanie shook her head and sighed while opening up her laptop, "It was a good change though. I'm not complaining."

I nodded and looked ahead. The hall went into silence when Professor Blaire walked in. She was an old woman, her hair completely gray and she had glasses.

"So, everyone is here?" She looked around for a second before picking up the stack of papers from her table, "I'm Professor Blaire. Welcome to 'A Study in Journalism'. My job here is to make you write something interesting and you to become interesting to your audience."

That's when everyone began writing and taking notes, so I did too.

She gave us a little brief introduction about her career and her past works and achievements before explaining about what she expected from us this year. Professor Blaire spoke in a calm and composed tone while teaching. The way she explained each and everything with examples was so inspiring and motivational.

She talked about the syllabus, the topics we'll cover, the assignments that are going to be given to us. I wrote all of the important details in my notebook and took some pictures as well.

Once we were over the introduction session, she assigned us a small assignment, which was due after lunch. It was about ourselves, so I already had some things I could write about. It wasn't hard, so I took it as a small exercise. She wanted us to introduce ourselves to the entire class. I could just write a short story about how I was so excited to join the college, or even about moving to a new place.

After lunch, we were back in the hall, with our small assignment complete. She suggested we swapped it, which was the way we got to know the rest of our batchmates. I received a paper with a lot of details about someone named Alex. He was twenty years old, studying Journalism, and his birthday was the eighth of August and that his favorite book was 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'.

It was an interesting book. And now I was curious to know who this Alex was.

It was a random swap so I had no clue who had my introduction. The Professor asked us to start going one by one and introducing whoever it was on the paper that we had.

"Okay. We'll start from the front, and you go first."

One girl got up from her seat, with a paper in her hands. She read the name and the Professor asked for the girl who's name was read out loud to raise her hand so everyone would know who she was. Another girl from the top of the row raised her hand.

The process went on for a couple of minutes, with most people giving each other a small smile. It was just a short introduction, nothing serious.

Once I was up, I stepped forward, feeling the eyes on me.

"Ivy Collins," A girl took my name and I raised my hand. "I'm from the town of Westville and my favorite color is black, just like my soul, as you'll find out in this semester. And oh, I really don't care about you guys. I'm just a b***h so watch—" The girl stopped reading as it went on and on.

Color drained from my face and I froze. It fell completely silent in the lecture hall. The entire class was staring at me with their mouths wide open, and the Professor was looking at me with a frown.

Oh, god.

"Ivy Collins," The professor glared at me.

"I—I didn't write that. I wrote something else." I quickly rose up from my seat and hurried to the girl who was reading my introduction.

I grabbed the piece of paper from her and stared at it.

'I'm from the town of Westville and my favorite color is black, just like my soul, as you'll find out in this semester. And oh, I really don't care about you guys. I'm just a b***h so watch out for me or I'm going to f*****g beat the crap out of you all. f**k, I'm a psycho. You see it all written down, it's right here. My favorite book is 'Psychology for Dummies.'

The paper had my introduction, but not what I wrote. I could feel a knot forming in my stomach, the dread running up my spine, and my face burning up as all the eyes were still on me.

It was written in my handwriting.

"Ivy, do you have something to say?" Professor Blaire asked, her tone calm but still stern.

I turned to her and swallowed the knot in my throat, "No—No. I wrote something different, it wasn't this," I kept the paper in my hand as I couldn't even explain. "I didn't write this."

"Why don't you step out for now and see me after?" The Professor suggested, as the lecture hall remained completely silent.

"Yeah," I said in a small voice and hurried up the aisle to the back of the room.

The eyes on me burned holes into my face and I was so close to breaking down. It was the first day of class. My first lecture. My heart pounded hard as I reached out for the door handle and swung the door open, not wanting to look back at anyone. My head was hung low as I made my way down the stairs to the first floor and then outside. I barely could breathe and a panic attack was just seconds away from happening.

Once I was outside the building, I ran my fingers through my hair and took deep breaths.

How could someone write that in my handwriting?

A loud engine revved somewhere near me and I looked up, watching as a guy came to a halt right in front of the hall. He was in a sleek black sports car that I knew nothing about. The tinted window rolled down, revealing the guy inside.

Cain.

My breath got stuck in my throat when he took one glance at me, a smirk tugging his lips. He was wearing his shades, and then he pulled them off.

"Enjoying your day, crybaby?" He mouthed, taunting me.

My brows furrowed in confusion. "What?" It took me a moment till it clicked in my mind and then, I stepped forward. "You did this?" I looked down at him, my lips trembling.

Cain simply smirked and said, "I told you, you're going to be miserable. Go cry to your Mom about this." He revved the engine before I could even react and sped down the campus, leaving behind a trail of dust.

My body burned with fury and I didn't even know what to say. It wasn't just the assignment, the fact that it was a prank made me feel terrible. I was humiliated and that wasn't a good feeling to have on my first day of class.

But how could he have even done this?