Chapter 1

To make his queen-bee girlfriend, Jessica Lane, jealous, the class president, Alex Grant, volunteered to tutor me. Alone.

He moved his desk beside mine, ignoring her stormy expression.

During our sessions, he would trace his fingers across my palm. Everyone could see it.

I became the so-called manipulative snake, Jessica's target.

She forced my head into a toilet bowl and snapped my fingernails one by one.

She poured superglue between my fingers, sealing them together.

I hid in an alley near home, trembling, too afraid to face my parents.

That was where Jessica found me. No, it was not her, but her delinquent childhood friend, Ryan Blake, blocking the exit with his crew.

"You made Jessica cry," he said softly. "Don't worry. We'll be gentle."

I died in that narrow, dark passage.

They strolled away, laughing.

The rage followed me into death, and something answered.

Now I opened my eyes. Alex was asking the teacher for a private tutoring partner.

*****

"Emily, Alex wants to help you with math. How about you two sit together?" the homeroom teacher called out.

It hit me that I'd been travelled back in time, all the way back to the day Alex volunteered to tutor me one-on-one.

I glanced up and caught Jessica giving me a murderous look.

The hatred in her eyes was almost overflowing, just like it was in my previous life.

I clenched my fists and shot back without a second thought.

"I don't agree," I said, my voice steady.

The whole class went dead silent.

Alex's smile froze on his face. And then he pushed up his glasses and asked, "Is it because you're feeling shy, Emily? Relax, it's just tutoring. We'll help each other improve, and the teacher's got our backs."

In my previous life, I totally fell for that line. I really thought he was just being sincere about tutoring me. And I figured if I kept my distance, I wouldn't get dragged into any trouble.

But whenever we were alone, Alex barely acknowledged me.

He only made a show of helping me out when Jessica was around, getting close just to stir things up.

He kept grabbing my hand, making sure everyone noticed, and shoved me right into the middle of the drama.

That was how I became the girl everyone loved to call a fake.

Coming back to my senses, I ignored Alex.

I pointed right at the empty seat in the back row, the one next to Ryan, the school's resident troublemaker.

"I'm not shy, Miss. I want Ryan to tutor me," I said, keeping my tone cool.

"Plus, he topped the last math exam in the whole grade. He did even better than Alex," I added.

As soon as I finished speaking, everyone in the class sucked in a breath, stunned by my answer.

Jessica's tense shoulders finally relaxed, and there was a flicker of surprise in her eyes as she looked at me.

Alex's face turned grim, his smile vanishing without a trace.

The homeroom teacher paused, clearly taken aback.

She probably never expected someone as quiet and timid as me to actually want to team up with the school's biggest troublemaker.

But she still turned to Ryan and asked, "Ryan, are you okay with this?"

Ryan had been silently watching us the whole time.

His casual gaze drifted over me and then landed back on Jessica.

He let out a low, careless chuckle. "Whatever."

While I was moving my desk, he suddenly placed his hand firmly on the back of my chair.

His voice was low, with a warning in his tone. "Don't try anything funny with me. Jessica's the only one on my mind," he said.

I paused and softened my voice on purpose.

I made my eyes look just timid enough, like I was nervous but not scared.

"I'm honestly just here for tutoring. Trust me. I won't ever catch feelings for you," I said.

He just arched an eyebrow, saying nothing more. And then he gave a casual little "humph" through his nose.

I lowered my head, making sure no one caught the icy look in my eyes.

I knew that if I didn't choose to sit with Ryan today, Alex would just keep coming after me, insisting on tutoring.

The game was just getting started.

Those three, Alex, Jessica, and Ryan, were the ones who cornered me and left me to die in that alley.

I wouldn't let a single one of them get away this time.

For the next few days, neither Ryan nor I exchanged a single word.

In class, I kept my eyes glued to the board, scribbling down notes.

During breaks, I either worked through practice problems or discussed questions with the students in the front row.

I treated Ryan like he was invisible.

At first, Ryan leaned back in his chair, playing on his phone like I didn't even exist.

Eventually, he couldn't stand being ignored anymore.

He started kicking my chair every now and then, trying to get my attention.

When I still didn't react, he flicked his pen cap onto my desk.

But I kept ignoring him, not giving him the time of day.

It wasn't until the third evening study session that I was furrowing my brow over a stubborn geometry question.

I'd covered my notebook with a mess of extra lines, but I still had no clue how to solve it.

Suddenly, Ryan reached over and took my notebook right out of my hands.

"This is wrong," he said, his voice serious.

He circled a spot on my diagram. "You set up the coordinate system backwards. Doesn't matter if you get everything else right after that. It's still wrong."

I pretended to be startled by his sudden move and dropped my pen.

The pen rolled right to his feet, and we both reached down for it at the same time.

Our hands collided as we grabbed for it, and for a second, we were both holding onto the pen.

I snatched my hand back, my cheeks flushed bright red.

Staring down at my workbook, I whispered, "Sorry."