Pretty Savage

Chapter 01: The Game Starts Now

Ivy was always looking forward to Monday to come. Of course, people might disagree with her with extreme passion, telling her how it was too tiring to wake up so early in the morning just to see the boring faces of your bosses and teachers, and sit around the whole day while working on projects. But that wasn’t the reason why she wanted Monday to come sooner than later.

Ivy stood before a tall black steel gate with the name of Ashbourne Academy written above it. Students wearing the academy’s special uniform started to walk towards the school with different reactions. Some wore a tiring look in their eyes, some were excited to finally be able to come to the prestigious academy in the country, but most were smiling as they saw some of them approach the people they knew in the academy.

Ashbourne Academy, a prestigious private school located in Country S. The school was attended primarily by children of the rich, famous, and the parents that worked as an official in the government. The facilities and education they offered to the student was unnaturally of high quality.

Just when Ivy was about to enter the gates of the academy, from the corner of her eyes, she saw someone she knew. Or probably knew from the information she gathered about the kids that had stayed around her sister.

Candice Lin looked pretty. She was prettier than the picture Ivy took from her social media posts, but that was it. She was wearing the red checkered skirt of the academy and a black blazer on top of the white shirt underneath it, the trademark of the Ashbourne Academy sat on top of her necktie. 

Several boys seemed to take notice of her and when their eyes landed on her face, they no longer wanted to take it away. If Ivy had to describe Candice, she was like a flower in the middle of a desert with bees swarming around her. But it wasn’t only Candice who had the unique charm to enchant boys. Next to her, Lola and Maddie walked with her. 

Lola was a cheerleader on campus. Taller than the other two, she could pass up as a perfect model. Her short blonde hair was curled at the tips of it and bounced when her heeled boots hit the concrete floor. On the other hand, Maddie was the opposite of the two. She looked like a ‘Goth’ with her piercings and black lipsticks, but denied it when people asked her if she was.

But what made Ivy remember their names was that they were also part of the group of people who made Lily, her sister, suffer under their hands.

When they walked past her, Ivy didn’t lower her head. She never lowered her head to anyone. But she expected them to recognize her, the face she shared with her sister, but no one did. 

Ivy gritted her teeth as the surging hatred she had for them wanted to expose itself. She wanted to grab their hair and tell them it was their fault that her sister had to die. 

But she didn’t. Not because she couldn’t, but because she thought that making her enemies slowly suffer as she watched on the side would be more satisfying.

Ivy walked into the gates and waited for someone to stop her. The guards didn’t stop her since they saw her wearing the same uniform as the other students. If they only knew Ivy wasn’t really a student there but pretending as her twin sister, they would surely drag her by the arm and throw her out of the school.

As she walked with the other students, Ivy didn’t get to evade quickly enough when someone’s arm swung and landed on her shoulders in a friendly hug.

“If it isn’t our lovely Lily! Did you miss me?”

Ivy wanted to punch the person who had his arm around her but when she turned her head to look and saw his face, she stopped. Ivy smiled at him and said, “Good morning to you too, Jade Mc’Artney…”

Jade chuckled and rubbed his head on her shoulder, “Come on, now, girl. What’s with the cold eyes? Are you on your period?”

She blinked. “Nn… yeah! The hellish week has come.”

Jade Mc’Artney was Lily’s best friend and childhood friend after they were separated from the orphanage. A head full of brown hair and blue eyes, Jade could be your boy next door and have an unrequited crush on him for years. But despite his good looks, her sister decided to stay friends with him. 

He stayed outside of the country last year because his father made him do so. He had been with Lily for the longest time before the bullying started, but Ivy had to make sure he didn’t know anything and wasn’t lying to her sister. ‘After all, he was the only one my sister met a week before her death.’

Jade nodded his head at her understandingly, and dragged her with him inside the classroom. 

Several heads turned when we got inside the class and Ivy saw the three mean girls again, standing in the corner of the room, beside each other. They were inseparable like an ogre with three heads on top of its shoulders, chattering about when they will go on their shopping spree again.

Jade and Ivy took their seats. He was seated at the front while Ivy’s chair was in the back where all bad kids were seated. It didn’t really matter to her if the people beside her were all bad at studying, but Ivy never thought that Lily was the same. What had she been up to all these years? Wasn’t she taken by a wealthy couple who should be checking on her studies? What about her grades? And why does she have to die without telling her anything. 

She had a bucket full of questions she wanted to dump at her sister, but Lily was no longer beside her to answer her questions. Ivy walked to where her sister’s chair was situated. The wooden chair and table was smooth, as if it was new. She let her hand run the smooth surface of it before sitting on the chair.

When the chitchats subtly diminished as the teacher got inside the room, Ivy had the image of a normal classroom. No bullying, no cheating during exams and quizzes, and no messing around. The classroom looked like how it was advertised in the newspapers and magazines. The Ashbourne Academy definitely lived up to its name as the country’s number one school.

But Ivy knew it wasn’t the truth. The reality behind what the beautiful school offered was much more bleak and darker. 

“Alright, everyone… Take your history books under your desks and open it on page 15.” Mrs. Alexis said to the class.

Soon after her voice ended, everyone followed her and reached under their desks. Just like everyone else in the classroom, Ivy also reached under her table.  

But then… she flinched and took her hand back. 

She saw her two fingers bleeding just after touching the book underneath her table. Looking up to see everyone’s head lowered to read their books, Ivy fought the smirk that was about to reveal itself.

“So, the game starts now.” She whispered under her breath.