Monday. We're having another joint practice but unlike before, we aren't practicing the collective routine. Today, we're allowed to practice for the Friday evaluation.

My group consists of Kai, Ryker and Rhea. They're all way better than my first group, and I feel sorry for the group which has Remi as a member. Even personality wise, our group is chill and isn't stressing out about the outcome. Putting it in Kai's words, we'll just get what we deserve and that there's no point in staying for extra hours to practice.

This is the first time I've met them since Saturday, as Sunday was the day we decided that we didn't need to meet. Now, we're all in one corner of the main hall. I'm sitting against the mirrored wall, Kai's standing next to me, Ryker's drinking water while scrolling through his phone while Rhea is literally lying on the floor with her eyes closed.

"Hey," Ryker says, kicking Rhea, "Move it."

Rhea's eyes open and rest on Ryker. Her expression morphs into something like annoyance. "I'm resting my leg, jeez."

He rolls his eyes and kicks her again, making her roll away a bit. "You don't need to rest your leg anymore. It's alright."

"If you kick me again, I'll cut your leg off," she snaps at him. Ryker's lips tug upwards in a grin as he scoots forward and kicks her again and she attempts to get a hold on his foot but she couldn't and ends up pouting while he laughs. "Fuck off."

"You can't even light a fuckin' match and you're scared of knives. You're going to cut my legs off? Yeah, right."

"Shut up." She rolls her eyes.

Kai clears his throat and all of us look at him. "What was our theme again?"

"Skyline of Seoul," Rhea says with a yawn. "What kind of a theme is that?" She huffs, slowly sitting up and shifting backwards so that she can lean against the wall as well. Kai slumps down too, looking at everyone around the hall who's practicing.

"Isn't Seoul like the," Ryker pauses, his face showing that he's thinking about something, "Capital of Japan?"

I snort and so do the others and he looks at us. Looking at his expression makes me realise that he's actually not kidding. "Seoul is in South Korea," Kai laughs. "The Capital of Japan is Tokyo. You really that dumb?"

He rubs the back of his name and smiles sheepishly. "I was just kidding."

"Sure you were," Rhea says to him and he glares at her. I've no idea how long these two have been talking for but it seems like they've known each other for years.

"I think you need geography classes," Kai comments and nudges me. "Hey, first ranker. Tutor this guy right here please."

"Me? Tutor a guy who doesn't know Korea's capital? Yeah, no, I'll pass."

Rhea laughs. "See that? You're unwanted."

"No, I'm not unwanted at all. You're the one who's unwanted. No one likes you. They like me," he snaps and Rhea scoffs.

"Do they, though?" she asks him. Ryker looks to Kai and me, who exchange looks and avoid looking at him, giving him the answer he needs. "See? They don't either. And I've heard if you impress Kai or Harley, then you can impress anyone. You've already made a terrible impression on them by not knowing basic geography."

"Shut up," he mutters. He turns to us again. "Can you guys see that I'm sad? Show me some sympathy, please, or I'll die. I want to be loved too."

Kai and I look at each other and he smiles, shifting his gaze to Ryker and leaning towards him and patting his head. "Good dog, don't worry. I love you."

Hearing this, Rhea and I burst into laughter. She high fives Kai and then puts her hands forward for me. It takes me a moment to catch on but I do respond to that. "God, I love you guys," Rhea mutters, her smile not fading. "To the point now. Who was the choreographer among us?"

I point towards Ryker at the same time as Kai says his name. Ryker blinks back to reality, finally realising that it was him who was supposed to come up with an initial idea.

Rhea gives him an unsure look. "Judging by the expression you just had, I'm going to assume that you're clueless and if you'll end up forgetting that you're supposed to come up with something in the next fifteen minutes so, um, let's work."

Ryker sighs, running a hand through his light hair. "Skyline of Seoul." He picks up his phone and begins to type something in.

"What are you doing?" Kai asks him.

"Booking a flight to Seoul so that I can see its skyline, obviously," he deadpans. Looking at our faces, he lets out a groan in frustration. "Come on, guys. I'm googling what that place looks like. Did you guys actually think that I'm booking a flight to that place? No. I'm not. Why would I even come up with an idea which is as ridiculous as that."

"We thought of it that way because you're rich and you're dumb. It isn't impossible for you to do it, though I admit it's a little surprising." Kai's voice was flat and believable, making Ryker grumble something under his breath before turning his face towards us. It was the view from the infamous Seoul tower at twilight, the lighting of the city making the skyline look incredibly pretty. "This looks so cool."

Rhea hums in agreement.

"It's romantic, honestly," Kai comments. "Somewhere I'd propose to my girlfriend for marriage."

Ryker's eyes go wide. "Wait? Can that be the theme of our choreography? Because it would be so fucking cool that way."

"You want us to have romance as a theme?" Rhea asks with eyes wide.

"Come on, please. We have two hot guys and two pretty girls. What else do you need?"

"One hot boy," Kai interrupts immediately, "Know your place, fool."

Ryker punches Kai in his arm and he looks at him in annoyance but says nothing. Rhea sighs, leaning back. "What do you think about that, Harley?" she asks me.

I shrug. "I don't care as long as we all agree on something. I'm good with anything."

She gets up from her place, brushing her clothes and looking around at the other groups. Only half of them have started to actually practice, most of them being the seniors. "If you're all fine with romance, I'm good with it too. Besides, I don't have that much in my life so it will be cool to dance on a theme like that."

Kai rolls his eyes. "You sound like a thirty five year old divorced woman living in a one bedroom apartment."

"That's way too accurate," Ryler laughs. "Rhea, are you secretly an old woman who's done her makeup to look younger?"

Rhea smiles in a fake, sweet way and it's almost scary to look at her like that. She looks like a scary human sized doll straight out of a horror movie as she walks to Ryker and kicks him at the side of his stomach, making him groan in pain. "Ouch, I'm telling Val about this. This is violence. This is so unfair. You're taking advantage of me."

A small smile spreads across my lips seeing him like that.

"I'll hit you so hard that you lose your memory," Rhea says to him.

Ryker doesn't reply but avoids any kind of contact with Rhea for the next few minutes. After the idle chat, we begin to search for music. After about half an hour, we end up choosing the song Black Dress by CLC. It's a catchy song I think I've heard once before. I didn't know whether it was the right choice to choose it or not but with the majority agreement and Rhea's agreement of why this song would go well with the theme got to me.

The four of us are all in the top ten. We all somehow have the sense to adapt to each other's style. We're also in a small group this time, which meant that choreographing something for the four of us would probably go way better than how everything went last time.

We spend today's practice time just coming up with a basic concept and once everything's done, we leave the room. Rhea asks me to walk back to the dorms with them and I agree, going into one of the stalls of the changing room and taking a quick shower, after which I wear a white tank top with a plain black shirt and black pants.

When I'm out, I hear Rhea's voice asking me to wait for five more minutes outside. With a small sigh, I walk outside the changing room and lean against the wall while scrolling through my phone when I see a text from Seb.

Seb: She told me what you did with the video clip. What the hell is wrong with you????

I didn't expect her to go about and tell Zack, out of all people, about this when she's aware of the relationship between the two of us.

I leave him on seen, not wanting to reply but he just ends up sending me another text.

Seb: Lee if you don't reply to me right now, I'll come to your academy.

Now that gets to me. I quickly begin to type in a reply for him.

Harley: don't.

Seb: What the hell is wrong with you?

Harley: nothing's wrong with me so please stop worrying about me for now. I'll meet you soon.

Seb: Lee, you know that's not how it works.

Harley: i've to go now. everythings ok dw.

I close my phone but the notifications don't stop coming. With a heavy sigh, I put my phone on airplane mode and dump it in my bag. Just then, Rhea comes out of the changing room.

"You ready to go?" she asks me, tying her hair in a pony.

"Yeah," I say to her.

She smiles and the two of us walk out of the area together to join Ryker and Kai, who immediately begin to talk about how it took us girls way too long to change and that they were wasting their time waiting for us. Ryker earns a punch from Rhea but it wasn't that bad since he knew it was coming. Kai was laughing at them the whole time, supporting Rhea as she attempted to hit him and insulting Ryker as he ran away from her, muttering something under his breath.

Coming to think of it, neither of them mentioned the rumour even once to me. I knew they knew of it - it would be impossible for them to avoid the news. And yet, they chose not to judge me because of it or ask me whether it's true or not. Most people I met since the beginning have already begun to look at me in a different way as if I'm someone they need to be aware of. But these people whom I've never met before choose to put that aside and create a new impression of me and not ask me how much I paid to get into this school.

These may have been the best few hours since I've arrived here at Redville.

I love this feeling so much that I don't want it to end.

***

On Tuesday, things begin to change among the first year students.

The groups were formed. For girls, there were two major groups. One was of Ana, which visibly comprised talkative, calm, peacemaker girls like Jude. The other one was of Hayette, which was more rowdy and snarky girls. I knew that Hayette and Jude wouldn't stay close for long—they have contrasting personalities after all.

All the other girls were scattered around, some hanging out with guys and part of mixed groups, while some minding their own business. There are a select few who have managed to make their way into the seniors' groups, but they're really few.

During Lunch, I watch people I've grown to know about. Reece sits with his group of friends including Sean, Adelyn and Cammy. There's a boy named Jase and another girl named Pari there. They're all quite close, I suppose, since I always see them together during breaks.

Reece and Adelyn are also friends with Lily but I've never seen Cammy or the others interact with her. And while Adelyn is close to Asher's group as well, Reece has something against the whole group. Of course, he's never admitted it out loud, but there was something about his body language that changed whenever they were around. Same was with Sean, but neither of them ever stopped Adelyn to talk to them.

I snap back into reality when I feel a sudden nudge on my arm. I look towards the people I am sitting with today and they look back at me with a curious expression on their face. "What the hell are you thinking?" Rhea asks me with a hint of playfulness in her tone.

"She was staring," Kai replies, looking at me.

"More like daydreaming," Ryker adds.

Kai shrugs. "You could say that too."

"What were you looking at?" Rhea ignores the guys and asks me, holding my arm. "Do you have a crush? Because coming to think of it you are pretty close to many people here already so it wouldn't be surprising if you find someone attractive-"

"Shut up," I say to her. Turning towards her, a smirk forms on my own lips. "You tell me. Who do you like?"

Her cheeks grow red in an instant. Though it was just me teasing her because she teased me, I didn't know that she actually likes someone. It's interesting, though I doubt she'll tell me who she likes this early. We've only talked once after all.

"I don't like anyone," she says while taking a bite of her sandwich.

Ryker scoffs. "You're as red as a tomato. You do like someone."

"I'll kill you," she deadpans while Ryker just leans back.

"Empty threats," he says in a sing-song voice and ends up getting kicked by Rhea from under the table. He scoots away from the table, leaving his tray on there. "I'd rather not eat my food than get kicked like that."

She just scoffs. "You're making me seem like a violent person when you said that my hits don't even hurt you."

"That's a lie."

"Which part of it?"

He sighs, leaning back. "You are a crazy violent person whose hits hurt harder than a horse whip."

I almost spit out the water that was in my mouth. Kai coughs too while Rhea manages to suppress her smile. "You've been hit by fucking horse whip?"

Ryker smiles. "No, of course not. I just couldn't find anything else to compare and a horse whip was the first thing that came to my mind so isn't that fair?"

"No, it's not. Why would a horse whip come to your mind out of all the things that could?" Kai asks him.

He just shrugs and leans forward to grab his sandwich. Right then, my notifications go off. I take out my phone to see who it is and find that it's Nate.

Nate: How's life going with your rumour around?

Harley: you're asking like you care.

Nate: I couldn't care less about you.

Harley: keep your questions to yourself, then.

Nate: tell me, genius, are you going to come to summer's party?

Harley: don't know yet.

The typing label shows up and disappears. I feel impatient but I wait for his text to arrive. And it does—seven minutes later.

Nate: Why do you think you're invited there?

Harley: you tell me.

Nate: i'll give u a little hint, kingsley. damage control.

I freeze. It hits me right then. Damage control. It makes sense, of course. On the surface, it seems like a stupid move but thinking about it carefully, it is a bit clever. Summer is the most popular girl of this school, the face of the Redville dance team and an influencer. She shows up on television, advertisements, and she would never hang out with a person like me if I'm how the rumours say I am. It wouldn't do any good for her reputation.

It's Asher's game as well. Of course, he wants control of it. If I'm defamed by a rumour he didn't spread, he doesn't want it to spread.

Harley: hm makes sense

Nate: You spreading the rumour did seem reckless at first but

Harley: but what

Nate: You did it so that the rumours and assumptions about Cammy would fade away. You got Penny during the chess game but all along you knew she was just a pawn, didn't you?

I bite my lip, debating whether to answer him or not. Neither of the options seem good to me and it's not like I can explain things that go on in my mind. If I were to organise my thoughts, it would take days just to understand how it currently works because of how chaotic and jumbled it's become.

Harley: it was a lucky guess.

The typing label comes up on the screen for a few seconds but then disappears. I wait for a few more seconds before closing my phone, realising that he's not interested in replying to me anymore. I drop my phone on the table and lean back, and just then, I see him, sitting with Asher and all the other on one of the tables. He's smiling at me and the moment our eyes meet, he does a mock salute to me before keeping his phone down and resuming whatever conversation he was in with his friends.

I do hear Rhea ask what's up with me when I close my eyes but I just shake my head, telling her that I'm just a little tired. She doesn't question any further, continuing her conversation with Kai and Ryker, who are taking names in hope to take a guess at who she likes. I get lost in my thoughts eventually, events of the past week running over and over in my mind.

I can try to get him to open up to me. I can make it quick, let him get dependent on me right now, make him vulnerable—but I don't need him to do that soon. Everything has a time and Samuel Andrews will break in front of me.

In that moment, no matter how much he'll hate me, he'll need me.

I'll use him, of course I will, but I have a fear.

I just hope that we're not too similar for me to use him.

"You're friends with Cammy, aren't you?" Sam asks me out of nowhere, catching me off guard. "I think I saw you at Rayon once with her. I'm not sure."

"I'm not her friend," I correct. "But yeah, I did go there with her once in the beginning."

He hums in response as we continue to walk. For some reason, him bringing this up bugs me and I want to press this issue even more with him. Previously, when I'd thought this through, when I'd caught Penny and confronted her during the chess game, I had come to a simple conclusion—whatever happened, it wasn't Penny's plan at all. She was put up to it by someone, most likely Asher Hale.

But Asher Hale was someone who played with mind, with competition, with his skills. He did go as far as having things against someone, using rumours to play with someone's mind but he couldn't do it all alone. There was a division in power. Someone else dealt with rumours. Someone who knew the truth, someone who kept it against people, someone who knew just the correct amount to leak, enough to keep people speculating and talking about it.

It didn't feel like Asher was the one doing all of this, though I wouldn't doubt his capabilities if he actually did all of it on his own. He could and he would, but this was Redville. There was a reason he hung out in a group. Every person is useful to him and what's the point of having them around if you can't use them?

"You figured it out, didn't you?" he speaks up again. "On your own. That Penny was the one who posted the rumour. You confronted her. I was there."

I nod. "It was a set up."

"You said that." He slows his speed. "You know more, don't you? Atleast, it feels like you do."

I don't say anything to that.

"I get that you don't trust me with whatever it is you're thinking, Harley, but I'll just tell you one thing. It's up to you if you want to believe it or not." He pauses for a second, hesitating. "I knew that Penny was going to spread the rumour before she did."

That catches me off guard. I stop walking but he doesn't. "How?"

Five paces later, he looks over his shoulder and shrugs. "Because I was there when she was given the rumour to spread. I heard it all happen. I saw it all happen."

And that was all I needed to get my thoughts about the situation in the right direction.

During our first week at Redville, Samuel Andrews was seen with a black eye and a swollen face. Rumour had it that he'd gotten beaten up by Nate and guess who else was present there? Penny Bridgette of course. So, to be completely honest, I've known about it since the night Remi and Sam had that fight.

Asher Hale isn't the one who deals with rumours.

It's Nathan Andrews.