Shade the Baddie

Shade's POV The milk hits my physics textbook first. Cold. Loud. Final. It splashes across Newton’s Laws of Motion, soaking into chapter three like the universe has a sick sense of humor. Chocolate milk, because Damian Virelli is nothing if not extra. Everyone laughs. Again. It’s been three weeks since I transferred to Westridge Academy. Three weeks of lockers slammed in my face. Three weeks of “accidental” shoulder checks in the hall. Three weeks of Damian Virelli and his pack of designer-clad hyenas deciding I’m their new favorite entertainment. Because I’m the quiet girl with glasses. Because I sit in the front row. Because I don’t talk unless a teacher calls on me. *They think I’m a nerd.* *They think I’m easy to handle.* *They’re wrong on both counts.* I don’t flinch. I don’t wipe the milk. I just look up from my ruined textbook, slow, deliberate, and let my eyes find his across the cafeteria. Damian Virelli. Senior. Captain of the lacrosse team. Son of the mayor. Crown prince of Westridge Academy. He’s leaning against the lunch table like he owns the air in this room. Maybe he does. His daddy bought half the buildings. He’s smirking. Waiting for me to cry. Or run. Or beg. That’s what girls do when he targets them. I don’t do any of those things. I smile. It’s the smile my therapist called “concerning” in eighth grade. The one that makes my foster mom avoid eye contact. The one that made my last school press charges before they “encouraged” me to transfer. *Creepy and pretty at the same time.* That’s what my ex-best friend said before she became enemy #3 on my list. The cafeteria goes quiet. Not all at once. It ripples out from Damian’s table like someone cut the music. Because when Shade smiles, people stop laughing. They don’t know why. They just feel it. Like the temperature dropped ten degrees. His smirk falters. Just for a second. “You’ll pay for that,” I whisper. The room is dead silent now. Everyone heard it. Three hundred students holding their breath, waiting for the explosion. Damian recovers fast. He has to. His reputation lives on moments like this. He pushes off the table, saunters over, and stops right in front of me. Close enough that I can smell his cologne. Something expensive and predatory. “What was that, nerd?” He’s loud on purpose. Performing. “Didn’t catch it over the sound of you drowning in milk.” His friends howl. The hyenas are back. I tilt my head. My glasses slide down my nose a little. I don’t push them up. *Heartless Scorpio, remember?* We watch. We wait. We strike when it hurts most. “I said,” I repeat, softer this time, so he has to lean in, “you’ll pay for that.” His eyes narrow. He doesn’t like not being in control. He doesn’t like that I’m not shaking. He really doesn’t like that smile. “You threatening me?” He laughs, but it’s too sharp. “That’s cute. What are you gonna do, give me a bad grade? Tutor me to death?” More laughs. But they’re nervous now. Uncertain. I close my milk-soaked textbook. Carefully. Like it’s not destroyed. Like I don’t care that it cost my foster mom two days’ pay. “No,” I say, standing up. I’m shorter than him. Most people are. Doesn’t matter. *Dangerous doesn’t need height.* “I’m not gonna do anything, Damian.” He blinks. That wasn’t the answer he expected. I step around him. My sneakers squeak on the linoleum, wet with chocolate milk. The whole cafeteria tracks me with their eyes as I walk to the trash can. “Because,” I say over my shoulder, dropping the ruined textbook in with a wet _thud_, “you’re going to do it to yourself.” I turn back to him. That smile is still there. I can feel it stretching my face in ways that aren’t natural. In ways that made my last school call me “disturbed.” “See, that’s the thing about kings, Damian.” I adjust my backpack strap. “They always think the throne is permanent.” I walk out of the cafeteria. Nobody stops me. Nobody says a word. Not even the lunch monitor. *My name is Isadora Vale.* My mom named me Shade *And my enemies also call me that* *And if I don’t burn Westridge Academy to the ground before senior prom, then my name is not Shade.* --- *Scorpio facts:* We never forget. We never forgive. We wait. Damian Virelli put my brother in the hospital freshman year. Told everyone it was a “lacrosse accident.” My brother hasn’t walked right since. The cops called it “boys being boys.” The school called it “unfortunate.” I call it *Entry #1 on my list.* He thought I transferred here by chance. He thought I was just another scholarship kid they could break. He doesn’t know I chose Westridge. He doesn’t know I’ve been planning this since the day I visited my brother in the ICU and he whispered, “Don’t, Izzy. He’ll ruin you too.” *Too late.* "I will make him pay In pain".. I said under my breath he's going to seriously regret ever crossing my path. I had to adjust my glasses a little so they won't fall off and then suddenly the bell rang twice. I just kept humming till I'll get back to my classroom Getting there someone spilled glue on my chair I noticed it but didn't complain I just smiled that creepy smile and laughed...........