Masquerades

Chapter 04

Being acknowledged by the Masquerades was desired by most – if not all – of Xian High's populace. Such privilege comes with benefits that will surely help you until the day you die. Yes, not only throughout your high school years, but for the rest of your life.

The current Masquerades don't easily give this favor to anyone, unlike the past ones.

The group before left quite an impression for turning a poor student into a millionaire overnight. Also, there was this well-known story of a former Masquerade marrying a middle-class girl because of being acknowledged.

So far, only one person in the campus won the acknowledgement of the six. It was the enigmatic jock named Maddox Yao. He is part of William's crew but he is either missing most of the time or he prefers staying quiet, just watching his friends' stupid antics.

The guy was acknowledged for beating Arcane once in a game of chess. After that, he became the Masquerade's only 'student.'

When the Wong heir was deemed by the Board of Directors as overqualified to compete in competitions, it was Maddox who took his place – with his permission, of course.

Now, Yao is considered as an unofficial member of the Masquerades. He is well-respected by everyone and is almost as untouchable as the six.

So it was expected that the announcement left the student body quite shaken up. One, there is actually someone named Calista Song in the campus and two, Arcane Wong apparently hates her.

That particular lunch break, the students are solely focused on two things; figuring out the reason of Wong's hatred to the girl who has the same name as his late fiancée, and coming up with ways on how to make the said girl leave Xian High.

"This is quite expected," Skylar, their class representative, commented. She sat on the vacant chair across Cali. "Here we thought you're going to graduate without getting caught," she smirked.

Snow Kong,  another classmate who chose to skip lunch and stay with her in their room, sighed while looking at her. "We knew something bad is surely going to happen once the Populars find out about your name but... we never anticipated what the Masquerades – especially Arcane – would do."

Cali stayed silent and chose to just listen to them. Their entire class is quite close and like Warren and Shannon, her other classmates were also surprised the first time they heard her name.

Eventually, they got used to it. It was never a big deal in the first place, just a mere coincidence – at least that's what they believe in.

Until this happened.

The third girl, Kinsley, leaned towards her. "I think Wong still hasn't gotten over her death, that's why he's so bitter about your name," she then whispered.

"Come on, it's pretty obvious. Why would he be so affected just by knowing Cali's name? But this is too much don't you think?," Snow frowned.

"I heard he never met the Song heiress," Kinsley added in an intriguing tone. "How can he love her so much? I think there's more to it than what we know."

Calista immediately looked up the two, brows furrowed. Of course there's definitely more to it! Maybe the Wongs are really the ones behind her parents' death and Arcane doesn't want someone reminding him of his family's evil deeds.

She refused to believe that that monster actually loved her. Kinsley is right, how can you love someone who you never met? Who you barely know? That's impossible.

"Maybe it was love at first sight? 'Cause the Song heiress was pretty?," Snow continued guessing.

She almost rolled her eyes, she was just like Shannon. Speaking of Shan...

"Where's Shannon?," she turned to Warren who had been quiet all this time.

"Having lunch with the guy, where else?," her best friend shrugged.

"Did Shan talk to you about this?," Skylar asked.

She only remembered the girl worriedly looking at her when she came back from the Chess Institute, after the announcement.

Cali shook her head, "no need. It's better for her to stay away from me, I don't want her to get involved." She looked up the three, "you guys as well."

Skylar snickered, "that girl... is she really being blinded by that so-called 'love' of hers? She's really going to forget about her friends for a guy?"

"Come on, she really liked the guy," she just replied. Her best friend has been waiting for this, her most-awaited high school romance, she can't ruin it.

Snow giggled, "how long has she known that guy? Five days? I really need to talk to Shannon."

"Just let her be." The four of them turned to Warren, who didn't even look back at them and just continued playing some game on his phone. "She seems happy with her new friends... and that Connor. Let her."

"I smell jealoㅡ"

Snow suddenly faked coughed, cutting Kinsley off. As if they didn't already know what she's about to say.

"Uhh..." Skylar awkwardly started. "Well, they only have two days left, anyway. Thursday and Friday, then there's the weekends – they won't be able to do anything to you. Until Penta and the command is finally ineffective."

"Yup, two days. Just stay here during breaks, you'll be safe inside our room," Kinsley added.

Well, she can never be too sure about that. Even though their class is tight-knit, she's certain there will always be someone who wants that Masquerade acknowledgement, especially from that asshole, Arcane Wong.

*

She decided to tie her waist-long hair in a bun today and once she stared at her reflection through the mirror, she can't help but laugh incredulously. She's treating this like some competition she must win in exchange for her life. In some way, what's about to happen to her today can be considered as that.

It's better to expect the worst anyway. Besides, she only got a few hours of sleep just to ready her mentality, she believes she can overcome everything with a stable mind. She swore she's never going to appear weak in front of anyone who's about to attack her, and she's not going to relent without a fight.

It's only two days, she's going to make it worthwhile.

Nothing much has changed when she entered the school, though the tensed atmosphere is more obvious and there's this hushed silence whenever she walks by. It was like a surveillance camera attentively follows her every move, too – the eyes of the students waiting for something to happen.

Just like yesterday, Warren was already waiting near her locker. When the boy saw her nearing, he stood straighter while she halted a few feet away, earning a confused look from him.

She shook her head and the gesture was enough for her friend to understand.

Don't help me. Stay away from me.

She watched as his expression turned into disbelief before an offended look masked his face. But she stood her ground and looked straight into his eyes.

When Ren finally slumped his shoulders in defeat and stepped aside, not looking at her anymore, she finally continued walking.

Calista gazed at her locker with her heart pounding. Whatever happens the next minute will be the trigger. Whatever greets her inside will be some kind of a hint of how bad the next two days is going to be.

She gradually turned the knob, entering her code. A satisfying click resounded through the entire hallway as everyone waited with her with bated breath.

The moment she opened her locker, a scream was instantly caught in her throat. Though others did it for her;

"AAAHHHHHH!"

"f**k! Is that real?!"

"Oh my God!"

She took hurried steps backwards but her legs gave out in the end, causing her to fall down her butt on the cold tiled floor. Her face paled and her lips stayed parted as she tried to catch her breath.

The huge, almost five-feet-long reptile slithered out of the metal box, causing more students to scream in fear and back away.

"Don't you think this is too much? It's only the first day and there's already a real, living python inside Song's locker! A f*****g python!"

"Don't you understand? This just means that the worst has yet to come. She's against not only the Populars, but the Masquerades, of course her torture will be next level, andㅡ"

"My, my... what a sight," a familiar voice laughingly exclaimed, causing the crowd to go silent once again. William smirked down at her, his cronies standing behind. "Huds," he suddenly called out, nodding towards the snake.

Hudson Xia – yet another jock – walked towards her locker, before fearlessly carrying the python, putting it atop his shoulders and facing her with a smirk.

What a weirdo.

Cali hurriedly stood up and glared at the bastards. "Are you the one who did this?," she asked William.

The latter snickered, "I'm just starting your day with a mighty bang, who else should do it but me, right?"

"Of course you'd want to be acknowledged," she snickered. "You're acting all high and mighty in front of everyone but the moment you stood against the Masquerades, you become nothing. You're just a prey like us. There's someone higher than you and that hurts your ego."

She watched with utter satisfaction as the guy's face turn red in anger. He walked towards her with his eyes ablazed and jaw clenched, but she stayed rooted on her spot.

"Still acting brave, huh? I don't even have to do anything to you after this. You know why? Because there are others more desperate for the prize. Others who would do anything to escape me and be saved by the Masquerades. Others who have been waiting for this opportunity to get even."

The Underdogs, her mind whispered.

He's right. It wasn't the Populars that she should be most afraid of, but the bullied ones. Those who have been aching to escape this hell. Those who wants nothing but a peaceful day in school.

Because even though there's Penta where they are given an opportunity to retaliate against their bullies, they would still end up on the same place once the five-day tradition ends. But this chance is different. Once they've done this successfully, they're free... for the rest of their lives.

Penta is just a momentary freedom, this one is permanent. Who wouldn't want that?

"I will be waiting then," she announced with a hard voice, shocking everyone including the jock in front of her. "However this ends, it doesn't change the fact that you turned innocent individuals who just came here to get good education, into monsters like you. That makes you the worst of them all. You're one insecure coward who will be a good-for-nothing manipulator all your life. And you better remember this well..."

Cali took a step closer to the guy and with a sharp glint in her eyes, she promised;

"I will be the one who will put an end to your reign and you will regret this