4: Behind the Innocence Is a Devil

Plenty of people could be seen walking around near the school as the blonde felt her excitement coming back when she saw the huge building of her school again after months. Some of the students that were walking on their way to the school were familiar to her as she could feel that it was real—it was indeed the first day of school.

“What time do I pick you up, Olivia?” the driver asked as he looked at her through the rearview mirror.

“I’ll just call you,” Olivia replied as she took her small backpack and opened the door.

“All right. Good luck!”

The blonde smiled in response as she waved at the driver before walking toward the entrance gate of the school along the other students. She could have had the driver drop her off inside the campus since vehicles were allowed to enter but since she did not want to gain that kind of attention, she decided that it was better to be exposed to a lot of people in going to school.

From a distance, it did not take long for Olivia to spot a tall boy with short curly dark brown hair as she immediately recognized him. Wanting to surprise him, she sneaked up on him before jumping on his back.

“Liv,” Theodore said in surprise as he returned the smile that the shorter girl gave and looked at her from head to toe. “You look great.”

The blonde rolled her eyes. “When was I not?”

The first day of school then started as the two best friends turned to step in the campus for a new journey to begin.

The usual scenario that the blonde had missed from vacation greeted her as soon as she stepped in the school. The noises from excited chatters filled the hallway, which was bringing up the energy for the first day of school already. It could be a half lie when some students said that they did not want to go back to school yet; most of the students were literally happy to see each other—there was no way that they completely hated going to school.

The spotlight immediately went to the two best friends as they walked across the hallway like the powerful duo that they had always been. Some of the students were looking at them respectfully in awe while the others were envious of them for being almost perfect. Just by having those two good-looking best friends stand next to each other, expensiveness and power were radiating from them that could light up the whole room.

Olivia raised an eyebrow when she saw a commotion surrounding on the corner of the hallway as she did not hesitate to walk toward that area. The students who were watching the scene immediately moved to the side to make way for the two best friends since their presences were too powerful to not notice. On the corner by the wall, there were three girls standing in front of a girl who was hastily picking up the objects on the floor. Olivia assumed that the girls were Ashleigh, Lana, and Mia—and she was right.

“You’re new here, huh? And you have the nerve to act all high and mighty?” the girl in a high ponytail spoke in an insolent tone as she took one of the books from her grip and tapped her head with it.

“N-No, I’m not acting all high—”

Everyone let out a gasp when the new student got slapped on the face as the sound of skins meeting in a hard impact were loud enough to make almost everyone on the hallway stop whatever they were doing and turn their heads to them.

“Who told you that you can speak?” Ashleigh scoffed as she forcefully grabbed her chin to make her face her.

There were tears forming around the eyes of the new student as she met eyes with the bully. A smirk appeared on latter’s face when she saw fear on her face.

Theodore turned to look at the blonde girl beside him when she suddenly placed her hand over her mouth while yawning before taking a step forward to approach them. The basketball player was about to stop her though he decided to just let her be. Knowing Olivia, she would never let anyone stop her from doing what she pleases.

“What do you think are you doing?”

Everyone’s attention diverted to Olivia as she stood by them with her arms crossed across her chest. They could see the change of mood of the three girls when they saw who was interfering their business as anyone could know who among them had the most power.

“O-oh, Olivia,” Ashleigh spoke as her tone changed to soft one. The blonde easily intimidated the three girls.

Olivia turned to give the new student a blank stare, which gave the latter hope to be saved from the harassment that she was having on her first day of school as a freshman. The audience patiently waited for the next move that the blonde was going to do as they expected her to save the poor freshman from the three merciless seniors.

Her eyes dropped on the floor as she saw a green popsicle melting into a small sticky puddle with a few books and pouches scattered around the floor as well. Seeing how the new student was being bullied, the blonde assumed that she might have accidentally bumped on the three girls which caused to have their stuff fall down the ground.

The eyes of the new student sparkled with hope when she met the gray eyes of Olivia as the latter gave her a small smile on her face.

“Lick it.”

Gasps followed by murmurs could be heard from the students that were watching after hearing what the blonde just said. The hope on the face of the freshman immediately disappeared as she looked at the blonde’s innocent face with a flustered look.

“W-what?”

Olivia turned to face the three girls as she pointed at the melting popsicle on the floor. “Who was eating that?”

“M-me,” Ashleigh answered in nervousness and confusion.

The blonde diverted her attention back to the new student without putting her arm back to her side as she flashed a small innocent smile on her face once again. “Did you hear me? Lick Ashleigh’s popsicle.”

“Wow, Olivia Jean is so cold-hearted.”

“I thought she was going to fight the three girls for the new student.”

“Did you hear that? Olivia Jean told the freshman to lick the popsicle on the floor. That’s nasty.”

Everyone was murmuring among themselves though none of them had the courage to step in and try to save the new students because of fear. Ever since the blonde was a junior, she was known to be one of those popular girls who bully others for satisfaction. In short, Olivia was never nice enough to defend someone; rather, she was always the reason why bully victims existed in that school.

“Are you just gonna stare at me? You’re making me want to poke your eyes.” Olivia scoffed as she crouched down to forcefully grab the new student’s hair. “I said, lick it—”

Before the blonde was about to shove the face of the freshman to the popsicle on the floor, her best friend interfered at the right timing as he placed his hand on her shoulder. “Liv, the teacher is coming.”

Olivia clicked her tongue in frustration as she shut her eyes for a second before letting go of her hair with a heavy push as she stood up and faced the tall boy. She smirked as she gave her broad shoulder a pat before turning to face the new student once again.

“Consider yourself lucky this time, loser.” The blonde then walked away with the basketball player following her from behind.

Everyone immediately dispersed and continued to go on their ways since Theodore was right when he said that one of the teachers was coming. The three girls took their things back as they left the new student, who quickly got up before the teacher could even notice her. Everything went back to normal as if nothing had happened.

“Welcome back, Olivia!” Mia said as the three girls followed Olivia.

“I seriously got nervous. I thought you were going to defend that loser,” Ashleigh said as she let out a sigh of relief.

“You really thought I’d do that?” Olivia raised an eyebrow as she turned to look at her.

“Of course not. You’re cool and smart enough to not do that.” Ashleigh giggled.

“You were so amazing. It was satisfying to see how despair was all over her face when you told her to lick it,” Lana said as she gave the blonde a thumbs up in approval.

“Since when was I not amazing?” Olivia uttered with a cocky smile on her face as she enjoyed every praise and compliment that she was receiving.

Ashleigh, Lana, and Mia were among the popular girls in their school, Tulip High. Since Olivia was the most popular girl in that school, it was expected that they chose to be her minions for their reputation to become better. Everyone assumed that the four of them had always been true friends when the truth was that all of them were just being fake to each other as a secret by themselves; especially the other three girls who basically needed Olivia the most.

“By the way, Theodore.” Mia turned to the tall basketball player whom she just noticed to be walking with them. “Why did you have to stop Olivia at that moment? We were all so excited!”

“Like I said, the teacher was coming. Did you want to end up in detention?” Theodore simply replied.

“Still. She could’ve quickly licked it while the teacher was still far away,” Ashleigh complained.

“Too late.” He shrugged as he tapped the shoulder of his best friend when he saw some of his teammates. “I’m leaving.”

“’Kay. Bye.” Olivia waved as she watched him jog his way toward his fellow tall teammates.

The bell then rang a little later as everyone went to their respective classrooms to start the day.