DARKLING

7

Unedited.

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'I take it back'

Hazel thought as she mindlessly played around with the food on her table.

'I can't do this'

Who knew normal was so boring.

She wasn't a fan of sleep, but it took everything in her not to drop asleep during classes yesterday.

Not to talk of the stares...the whispers, did nobody ever tell them staring was rude? But she had it even worse today, they weren't just staring...some even smiled and said hi to her on her way from the dorm.

It'd be rude to just ignore them wouldn't it? Well she still did.

She could feel more eyes on her as more people filed into the cafeteria.

Hazel subtly looked around, she was here yesterday but she still couldn't get over it. Waterfall academy really was extravagant. Even the cafeteria wasn't left out. And she noticed how the menu changes every meal time, makes her wonder how they got the time to prepare all those foods. The kitchen must be big, and there has to be alot of cooks to be able to prepare more than 20 varieties of dishes every meal time.

Hazel heaved a sigh as she picked at her fries. Not exactly the ideal type of breakfast but that was what she felt like eating. One good thing that came out of this was she wouldn't have Tony breathing down her neck on what to eat and what not to, he was suffocatingly strict on eating healthy foods but right now she couldn't even find the appetite to enjoy her breakfast. Not with all the stares.

"Hi."

Hazel looked up at the source of the voice whom was now making herself comfortable on the seat across hers, then the two other girls who stood behind Hazel's chair with their arms folded.

The girl was looking at her with a smile that looked too fake to be passed as genuine.

"It's okay if I sit here right?"

The girl wasn't asking though, not with the way she was looking at her. Her attitude was literally implying;

'I could sit here and there's nothing you could do about it'

"You're sitting already, why bother ask?"

Answers Hazel as she casually brought a fry to her mouth.

"What?"

Asked the girl, her smile frozen as if daring Hazel to repeat herself.

"Would you stand up if I said it wasn't okay?"

Hazel met her gaze head on with slight c**k of her right brow.

Her voice was low further accentuating her accent.

The girl chuckled slightly as if amused by the situation.

"I'm Mathilda Harding."

She introduced herself while watching Hazel carefully.

Hazel didn't miss the way she had emphasized on her last name with a boastful smirk.

Hazels's expression though remained blank which greatly displeased Mathilda seeing as she didn't get the reaction she was looking for.

After all who didn't know of the Harding Enterprise? It is a well known and influential billion dollar international airline company in America. They have enough money to rival if not surpass the Ivanov corporation.

"Was nice talking to you Mathilda but I was just leaving...I have a class to attend."

That was a lie.

It wasn't nice talking to her and she didn't have any classes until 10:00.

Hazel felt a hand press down on her shoulders as she tried to stand up.

"Oh but I wasn't done talking to you."

Said Mathilda in a sickly sweet tone as she smiled at her.

Oh wow...what is this?

Do they think they're in a highschool drama?

Hazel gritted her teeth in annoyance.

She really didn't have time for this.

"I dislike being touched,"

Slowly she turned to look at the hand on her shoulders before directing her icy gaze to the owner.

Her tone dropped a pitch lower,

"Get your hands off me..."

Her brow raised threateningly.

"...before I break it."

The girl quickly jerked her hand from Hazel's shoulder. A shiver ran through her entire frame.

So cold...

Maya Hart.

That was her name.

She is an only child making her the heiress to the entire Hart fortune. The Harts were old money. They oversee an empire of more than 70 brands 18 of which are the most famous and expensive in the fashion world.

Beside her stood Madeline Silverado.

Her parents own the popular Silverado inc. which was famous world wide for their electronics productions.

The whole of waterfall academy was made up of people like them.

They weren't the nouveau type of rich.

They were the richest among the rich.

They literally own the word wealthy.

But they still like to divide themselves in groups. Doesn't matter how much money you've got there would always be the top dog and they let their families net worth do the grouping.

They, 'The Elites' as they like to call themselves are on top of the food chain.

They've done their research, Hazel met the requirements to be a member of The Elites but it didn't look like she was ready to be a part of them. Judging from her attitude it didn't look like she was ready to even be grouped anywhere...or she simply didn't know the rules.

'You don't have a group then you don't belong, and if you don't belong...

Hazel stood up and reached for her back pack. She had planned to laze here for a while until her class starts...who knew a group of clowns would ruin her peaceful time.

"You know..."

Mathilda began

"Your family might be a big deal in Russia but it seems like you're forgetting this is waterfall academy, there are people here who have the power to squash you...like a bug."

She sneered.

Hazel paused in the middle of her steps.

She turned slightly to give Mathilda a once over, her gaze was so intense it wiped the smug look off Mathilda's face, she felt small and insignificant beneath Hazel's gaze, it was almost as if Hazel was belittling her with her eyes.

"And judging from the looks of it,"

Hazel met her eyes.

"you aren't one of those people."

She walked away before Mathilda could think of a response leaving her red faced with anger.

Who on earth does she think she is?

As Hazel walked out the door of the cafeteria, she breathed out heavily from her mouth.

"What a hassle."

She mumbled as she adjusted her bag pack.

The cafeteria had became suffocatingly quite the moment Mathilda had sat at her table. Turned out she had been the center of attention back there.

It didn't look like her plan of laying low would work out, not with the way eyes follows her wherever she goes.

Of all the place you could send me to Tony why, just why did it have to be a school like this?

She groaned.

The hallway was almost empty, most of the students were either in class or at the diner save for the couple ahead of her who were shamelessly displaying an act of PDA.

Gross.

Hazel scrunch her nose.

Is that even allowed here?

The tall boy who had the girl against the wall smirked playfully at the girl whom held a cup of smoothie with a flirty smile of her own. One of his palms was pressed against the wall behind her while the other took the cup the girl was holding to throw it behind him.

It just happened to coincident with the time Hazel came to pass beside them. And it just happened to coincident that the lid of the cup came off before it bounced off her body but not before splashing most of it content on her, mostly her hair.

Hazel froze.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Her thoughts went blank.

For three seconds everything froze.

And the first thoughts that came to her mind after those three seconds were,

'My hair...'

Two hours, she had spent two long hours to braid her hair after watching a tutorial on YouTube that morning.

She had felt pleased because she believed she was able to make it look perfect...even better than yesterday's, only to have a hormonal teenager throw a cup of sticky pink liquid on her hair.

Hazel could feel heat rising to her head, as if there was a bubbling volcano inside of her about to errupt any second from then.

She swallowed. Hard. Her eyes were blank, not a flash of emotion, not even shock.

With the sticky liquid dripping down from her hair onto her black sweater, Hazel slowly turned so she was facing the couple.

Would you look at that...

Hazel thought as she stare at them.

They didn't even take notice of her.

Hazel watched as the couple continued their PDA like nothing was wrong at all. As if the boy hadn't randomly thrown a cup of smoothie in a school hallway.

Hazel blew out a breath, to calm herself she looked up and blinked rapidly while counting to three before looking back at them.

"Hey."

No response.

Not even a slight acknowledgement.

"Hey."

Hazel repeats a bit louder, to have the boy finally turn around.

Good, she got his attention.

"You threw your drink on me."

Hazel said, only to have the boy look her up and down and turned back around to face his female companion completely disregarding her.

What the...

"Hey."

Hazel called out again even louder.

The boy turned with an irritated look.

"I said...you threw. your drink. on me."

The boy raised a brow.

"So?"

So?

Did he just say so?

My hearing didn't go bad he just said 'so?'

Hazels eyes squint dangerously, her tongue darted out to lick the corner of her lips.

Okay.

Calm down.

"Apologize."

He laughed.

He literally...just laughed.

Even the girl beside him giggled as if she had just heard the joke of the century.

"Hey you..."

He turned so he was completely facing her.

"Do you know who I am?"

His tone was dripping with unconcealed arrogance.

Hazel closed her eyes.

Calm down.

Calm down.

Don't hit him.

Remember what Tony said, violence doesn't solve anything.

Don't hit him.

I'll just let it roll off my back...if he apologize.

Her eyes snap open.

"I don't, and honestly I don't care either. You threw your drink on me and I demand an apology."

Not that it'd solve anything either, it wouldn't wash and braid my hair back but who knows...it might make me feel better.

"Who are you?"

He chose to ask instead. He stared at her like he was looking at dirt. Like an insignificant bug he could step on and nothing would happen afterwards.

Hit him.

"Do you know who I am?"

Punch him hard.

"I thought we've already established the fact that I don't care about that, now apologize."

He scoffed. He couldn't believe this.

This was the first time someone ever spoke to him like this.

"Who does this bumpkin think she is?"

He mutters almost to himself, but Hazel had heard...and she wasn't pleased.

He started,

"Hey you..."

She saw his hand move towards her face.

He wasn't going to hit her.

She knew he wasn't.

But out of instincts her hand quickly dart out grabbed his wrist inches away from her face.

She must have gripped too hard though, because what followed next was the distinctive sound of the wrist bone snapping.

And a loud howl from pain.

Oops.

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