Chapter 1
The unthinkable happens: Chloe Rivers, our school's reigning queen bee, laid her heart on the line for Lucas Goodwin, the resident bad boy who communicates mainly through glares. He shot her down in front of, like, everyone.
The humiliation is so nuclear that Chloe hatches a scorched-earth plan for revenge. She gathers every girl in our grade and lays out the mission: every single one of us has to confess our "feelings" to Lucas.
Her logic is twisted but pure high school: if everyone gets rejected, then no one person's rejection is special.
I, on the other hand, have a much simpler motivation. I glance at the three grand that has just been deposited with the memo: [Project Humiliate Lucas.] So, I join the sacrificial conga line.
The guys are salty they can't get in on the payday, but Chloe just waves them off. This is a girls-only operation.
And so it begins. Every day, like clockwork, a new girl will approach Lucas after class.
And every day, without fail, he'll coldly deliver his one-word reply. "Scram."
Finally, it is my turn. I am the last one left.
I take a deep breath and start, "Lucas, I..."
He shoots up from his seat so fast that his chair screeches backward, nearly crashing to the floor. The signature mask of cool indifference is gone, replaced by a face that was shockingly flushed.
"Whoa, stop. Don't mess with me!" he whisper-yells. "My brother will literally kill me!"
Chloe is stunned.
The onlooking crowd lets out a collective gasp.
My brain is short-circuited.
*****
I was the long-lost heiress to a powerful family, but trust me, my life had been one giant train wreck.
My adoptive family was obsessed with having a son, so they treated me like their personal servant from the moment I could walk.
When my birth parents finally took me back at eighteen, I thought my life was about to turn into a fairytale.
However, this new family doted on Lila Linwood, the girl who had taken my place.
From my parents all the way down to the house staff, everyone worshipped her.
At her suggestion, they dumped me into this elite prep school without a single thought for what I wanted.
Luckily for me, once Lila realized I had approximately zero interest in fighting her for attention, money, or status, she stopped actively making my life harder.
And my new classmates barely noticed a background character like me.
My lab partner, Chloe Rivers, was the exact opposite of invisible. She was the school's reigning it-girl with top-tier looks, perfect hair, and flawless skin. She was also a total face-chaser. If you were hot, you were her type.
Two days ago, she had been raving about some senior, one of those clean-cut, glasses-wearing "gentleman" types who was, according to hallway gossip, all wolf under the cardigan. Today, she was obsessed with Lucas Goodwin, the brooding campus bad boy.
Give it another month, and she could fill a yearbook page just with the guys she had "fallen for." You would run out of fingers trying to count them all.
And she never repeated a crush. Once she moved on, that was it.
That day at the gym, we had been cut loose for free activity. After jogging the required few laps, most of the girls had already drifted back to our classroom, flopped at their desks, or were scrolling through their phones.
I was about to take a short nap when Chloe and her little posse started squealing by the windows.
"Whoa! Look, isn't that Lucas?" one of them whispered, not even trying to keep it down.
"Move. Let me see. From the back? Yeah, that has to be him," another said.
"He's turning! Oh my God, it really is him. He's so hot."
Against my better judgment, I lifted my head and glanced out the window.
There he was under one of the big trees by the field, leaning against the trunk. Arms folded across his chest, he gazed off at something only he could see.
Technically, the boy was stupidly good-looking.
But still, something about him just didn't quite do it for me.
"Sure, he's the school bully," Chloe said, "but his face is perfect. And his body..."
"Babe, wipe the drool," one of her friends snorted.
They all cracked up.
"You're so annoying! I actually checked my mouth," Chloe whined, but she was already laughing.
"Hey, remember the rules," another friend said. "Girl code. You can't mess with your bestie's man."
"Huh? Since when does Lucas have a girlfriend? Who is it?" Chloe demanded.
"You're the one who said you liked him," the girl reminded her. "Didn't you say you were willing to give up the whole forest for that one tree?"
Both of them turned to look at her, smirking.
She stomped her foot, her cheeks turning pink. "Stop it. I haven't even confessed yet!"
I rubbed the goosebumps on my arms and squeezed my eyes shut, willing myself to become invisible.
"Are you kidding? This is a sign," one of her friends said. "He literally appeared outside our classroom.
"Blue skies. Perfect weather. It's a great day for a confession."
With her friends hyping her up, Chloe marched over to Lucas with a flushed face.
I wasn't sleepy anymore.
Judging by the sudden hush, neither was anyone else.
Silently, as if choreographed, people drifted toward the windows, shoulder to shoulder, peering out like we were watching a live TV special, "The Love Story of the Campus Queen and the Campus Tyrant."
Instead, Chloe, who had gone over blushing, came back with tears.
The entire "confession" took less than thirty seconds.
Lucas only replied, "Fuck off."
"You all saw that, right?" Chloe snapped. Her expression looked fierce, but her voice was choked.
The poor girl suffered her first real heartbreak.
"Starting tomorrow," she commanded, her voice ringing with authority, "every single one of you is going to confess to Lucas!
"One girl a day. Nobody bails. Got it?"
I was wrong. She didn't get heartbroken. Instead, she did the heart-breaking.
"This is for your payment."
I stared at the three grand that was just transferred to my account and mentally slapped myself for underestimating her.
Chloe was my own personal ATM.
The guys nearby perked up at the mention of money.
"Hey, Chloe, maybe Lucas is into guys..." one of them ventured hopefully.
Chloe shot him a glare. "Get lost."