Chapter 1

I walked towards the highly equipped gate of my school. The weighty steels and laser security system no longer intimidated me despite being the only one who had to get scanned every day.

Like everyone else, I had a normal school life, except my school wasn't for anyone to attend. In fact, it was the school of geniuses - the Ultara Academy of Gifted Young Women. It was founded by a bunch of female scientists and inventors over two centuries ago.

After the light on the steel door flashed green, the enormous iron gate flung open, revealing the view of a great wilderness that surrounded the medieval buildings from a distance. White summits of towering mountains stood as their backdrop. It made everything seem like you were staring at a life-size postcard.

I attended the Ultara Academy with an exception- I didn't have to live in the mansion provided by the school. When the year started, all students would pack up their stuff to live in the mansions- but not me. I wanted to be with my best friends, but Mom had made a secret agreement with the headmistress that it was best for me to stay at home, and if you ask me, that was a bit odd and kind of unfair.

As I strolled along the gravel pavement across the campus, I heard someone whistle to me from a distance.

"Cam?" I called out, "I know it's you."

"Guess where I am?" she replied in a singsong tone.

I tried to follow the sound, but I couldn't make out where she was because of the echoes. The morning sun rose high above the horizon. I had to shade my eyes to look. When the breeze blew gently, it brought a palpable, sweet, alluring scent up to my nostrils.

I walked toward a dark oak tree, following the familiar scent. And there she was, hiding under the canopy of dark green leaves while swinging her long slim legs over a tree branch. All 5'8 of Camilla Logan, in a short checked skirt, a white cotton blouse, and a black blazer was on the tree. Unlike me, Camilla is a younger version of Miss Universe, so even in a school uniform and a monkey behavior, she still looked like she was fresh out of a runway show.

"It's not fun playing hide-and-seek with you," Camilla said, with a sulky expression. She kicked her feet rhythmically in the air as she glared at me. "How could you know where I am, for Pete's sake?"

"I pick up your scent from across the campus," I smirked at her.

"Not again, Vivienne," she said, rolling her eyes at me, "You've been playing that kind of trick since eighth grade!"

This brought back a memory. When we were in eighth grade, our biology teacher described how animals could trace smell and sound, and even sense things before they happened. And I had asked Ms. Grace whether humans could do the same thing, and she had said, "Yes, we can do that for survival. Everyone is naturally gifted one way or the other."

I was so fascinated by these simple facts that I started noticing things with all my human senses.

"What?" I shrugged at Cammie, "I'm just making better use of my nose, and it's not a trick, it's a natural gift!"

"Yeah, whatever," she said. "But I'm telling you - your smelling ability is as good as a puppy's."

"Well, I will take that as a compliment, then," I said with a smile. "Now tell me what you're doing up there?"

"Waiting for you to show up,"

"Can't you just wait like a human?" I said, "Come on, get down!" I beckoned to her from the ground. My mom would be paranoid if she saw me doing that, but this school is full of freaks. They get used to all kinds of weird behaviors the same way they get used to the explosions in our chemistry labs.

"What took you so long?" Camilla asked, standing up on the tree branch. Without hesitation, she jumped right off in a cartwheel motion and landed athletically onto the ground. Despite the height that could've sprained your ankles, Cammie stood up in full balance like a circus performer. I stared at her in awestruck, as if I hadn't known my best friend better; she could do such stunts even before she was potty-trained!

"I'm perfectly on time, Cam," I said later. Everything was always too slow for this control freak, but that's just one thing about this girl. Camilla spoke more languages than you could count on your fingers and also had the highest IQ among the sixteen-year-old girls in the school. I think it is the beauty of DNA. Camilla's mother was the Headmistress of the Ultara Academy and her father worked in the Ministry of Education. Simply a perfect image of an elite family.

Then my best friend walked forward in her most elegant posture, her blond hair bathed in sun rays and turned completely gold. Her sea-blue eyes flickered against the light. Then she stopped in front of me, her hands resting on her hips like a mighty goddess.

"You look paler," She said, eyeing me from head to toes. I looked down at myself. It's true that I had lost some color over the cause of school break.

"I had been touring inside my house," I told her. "So where have you been this time?"

"Just got on the family yacht to catch some fish,"

"That must be amazing!"

"No, that was boring," Cammie said, making a face. If she defined a trip on the yacht as boring, how would she describe my staying at home?

"Okay, let's not talk about it," she turned to say and walked closer to me. Our chests almost touched. "Now, you owe me a bear hug!" and before I could say anything, she threw her arms around me, pulling me into her bone-crushing embrace.

"Cam, I can't breathe!"

"It's so nice to see you again, Vivienne," Camilla said, inhaling the scent of my hair as she smoothed it with her hand.

"Yes, you too, Cammie," I said, patting her on her shoulder.

Then we pulled away. Camilla leaned forward and pecked me full on the lips. I gasped in shock.

"Perv much?" I shoved her shoulders lightly. Camilla just giggled. She can be so touchy sometimes, but we are best friends and I don't mind. In fact, girls in this school had their share of 'experiment' with her. Camilla is as sexual as she is beautiful. I would feel bad for those crying girls when they got dumped the next morning after.

"If you like it, I can teach you from my version of the Kama Sutra 101, you know," she shrugged.

"Oh shut up," I said. "I think we should go. Don't want to be late for the first day of school."

"Alrighty then," she said and then slapped my butt before running off. "Chase me, dummy!"

"You're a jerk!" I cried as I ran after her toward the school building.