A Billion-dollar Alpha Curse

Chapter One

“Stacy”

It was a bright Wednesday morning and just a few days to the school's male soccer team finals.

I stood by my opened locker in the hallway staring at my history test result sheet wondering how I scored a B minus. I just could not wrap my head around the possibilities of me having such a score. I mean, how could I have scored that high a grade even after writing and composing a series of unrelated answers and jargons to the questions asked during the test. It seemed more like a delusion than reality to me. For a moment I felt like someone was playing a prank on me.

I was still dazzled staring at my test result sheet when I caught a glimpse of Ricky Mc Cullen coming from the far end of the hallway that led to the school's entrance. He seemed like he was walking towards my direction.

Or so I thought because I have had a crush on him for as long as I could remember. One of my greatest wishes was for him to one day walk up to me and ask me even the most useless and silliest of questions.

Sometimes I even wish he would just make fun of me like he did with most of his mates; or probably just bump into me and still insult me afterwards. In all, all I wanted was for him to notice me and say something to me at least.

My focus immediately drifted from my test sheet to Ricky in a splithappened second. It came to my notice that I was not the only one who indulged in this act as a number of other students in the hallway all stared at him while he was walking down the hallway.

This was not an act of surprise as this had become a daily routine for Ricky and his brothers. It was quite obvious that Ricky enjoyed the feeling of being the center of attraction a whole lot.

Ricky is the first son of the renowned billionaire “Mr Mc Cullen” who is the CEO of the multi billion dollar Cullen Enterprises.

Even while the large number of this man's investments stares people in the eye, some still claim that the source of his wealth is more than meets the eye.

While some claim that the source of his wealth is hereditary, a few others claim that he got his wealth from dubious means like defrauding, trafficking and drug trade. Some even claim that he got a measure of his wealth through occult activities and sacrifices. This brought rise to the ideology of him killing his wife for some sort of ritualistic purpose.

Ricky and his brothers (Rodney and Raphael) happen to be almost every girl in the school's dream guy.

The three brothers are the only children of their parents “Mr and Mrs Mc Cullen”. Mrs Mc Cullen was said to have died a few years after giving birth to her triplet. The cause of her death still remains a mystery till this day. Thus the whole concept of Mr Mc Cullen using his wife for ritual.

Rick and his brothers are popularly referred to as the Mc Cullen Trio. Even though they are triplets, these brothers are not in any way alike. Ricky and Rodney happen to have a few things in common in terms of socialization and being party freaks but are still very much different on the long run.

Raphael on the other hand is more conserved and less social. He comes to me like one who is grumpy just like his father.

Although this is only my own theory about them as I have not had the opportunity of having a proper personal relationship with them up until now.

A few things striked me as odd while glaring at Ricky as I stood in front of my locker.

Firstly, it is unusual for Ricky to walk alone without either his company of freeloaders whom he tag friends or his brothers.

So from my own observation; Ricky could not be found strolling alone. It was either he was with his group of friends or he was with his brothers.

Secondly, he didn't have his usual aura. In other words, his vibe and energy felt off. Although this was just my instinct speaking, I was a hundred percent certain that I was right. His facial expressions and gait may not have aligned too well with my thoughts; but my guts told me that something was most definitely fishy. One thing that I am sure about is that whenever I have such a level of certainty on an issue, I always happen to be right.

While still staring at Ricky, I saw his ex-girlfriend Rose standing at a corner in the hallway and an age long memory flashed before my mind. It was about a scenario that occurred some years back where I unconsciously began to drool while staring at Ricky at the cafeteria. For some reason Rose, who was Ricky's girlfriend at that time, happened to be there and had the whole thing filmed.

I automatically became the meme of the season. The stigma of the video going viral made me skip school for almost a week. I just couldn't find it in me to attend classes and face utter humiliation. So I came up with the idea of skipping classes till the volcano Rose and I erupted has cooled down.

I was almost fully into my backup plan when my best friend Bridget gave me the idea of turning my infamous act into a trend and probably becoming famous in the process. At first I didn't like the idea. But seeing as she was ready to pull through with it whether I gave my consent or not, and the fact that she was ready to make each and every one of her fans and members of her book club become public laughing stocks all for my sake made me realize that I didn't have much of a say.

They began the trend two days after the initial disaster. I had to stay home for a few more days to ensure the coast was clear before I embarked on the now highly dreaded journey of high school.

Bridget's plan actually worked beyond my expectation. It didn't take long before filmed drooling became one of the biggest trends in my school. It was actually a very funny sight. All I could do was wonder how such a stupid and baseless thing would become a trend.

It only went to show how much love Bridget had for me and how much influence she had amongst my school folks.

I became a bit popular and this made me feel like I had a shot at being noticed by Ricky. But this only lasted for just a few days as the whole challenge took a new turn when Rose (popularly known as “The Denim Goddess”) participated in the trend. She stole the face of the challenge from me by shooting her short film with all three members of the Mc Cullen Trio. Although I couldn't care less, I still felt she was a bit too much.

Rose and Bridget had been high school rivals for as long as I can remember. They are both equally beautiful and have a level of popularity in school. It always happens that they end up wanting the same position in school and are usually both qualified candidates. Oftentimes, event planners in school purposely nominate both of them as rivals in school events just to invoke students' attention and participation. Till date, the genesis of their rivalry still remains unknown.

After the flash of that age-old scenario, I had to put myself in order. I immediately drifted my attention from Ricky back to my locker trying to act like Ricky's aura was none of my business. I started fumbling with the lock of my locker while trying to avoid being the trailblazer of yet another trend. I attempted minding my business, but this did not last long as I caught a glimpse of Ricky entering the library. That happened to be the weirdest and oddest place to find Ricky as he was not one who was a fan of reading and this was quite a known fact.

My curiosity became heightened after I saw this. I could not help but wonder what business Ricky had with the library. And as usual, my “why" hormones kicked in.

I waited for a few seconds then I stealthily followed Ricky into the library. I carefully moved from section to section in the library curiously looking for Ricky.

While walking through the fiction section, I met Bridget right in the middle of the walkway. As weird as it was to find Ricky in the library, it is even weirder to find Bridget there.

But there she was being kissed and fondled by Matthew, her newly found boyfriend. I honestly didn't know what she saw in him. Firstly, it was hard to believe that the once gay Matthew could suddenly fall in love with a girl. Also the guy was a known drug addict. He had a lot of affiliation with people in the wrong arm of the law. I actually felt like either one of them is playing the other for a greater purpose because the Bridget that I know has never been a fan of Matthew before this whole relationship thing started. We could spend hours gossiping about how ripped, irritating and unkept he was. But well, in as much as I didn't like the guy, I still could not say anything as it was her life and not mine.

I could have sworn that I tried as much as possible not to be noticed by them but I was not too lucky as the clumsy demon in me refused to give me a break.

I tried gradually walking backwards stealthy when I stepped on some kind of a squishy toy or something which in turn made a loud sound that echoed through the entire library.

I looked down to see what I had stepped on and found out that it was some kind of key holder.

By the time I raised my head, I had already gotten the audience of both lovers who both stood looking at me in a weird manner. I could tell that I had just interrupted a journey that had not even been set into motion properly with that single act.