Chapter 1: Cadara (Venus's POV)

I sat in the passenger seat while my dad drove the car. We're going to school. Yes, we have school. 

Let me take a moment to explain education here in Cadara. We start school at the age kids do everywhere else, but we're students until we're twenty. I'm currently eighteen years old. In Cadara, the education system entails this strategy which is as follows: 

Once we turn nineteen, we get two years of training in our school itself for our future career. Because there aren't too many career options in Cadara, it's split into the basics and each student chooses which field they would like to focus on, then we're trained for all jobs within that field. 

But for now, I'm just learning. It's my final year of that though. 

Cadara is still a kingdom. We follow the old-fashioned method of dictatorship of the royal family but at the same time, we're a modern kingdom. We have everything here and slowly but surely, at least I hope, things are changing. 

"Venus, are you listening to me?" 

I snapped out of my thoughts and turned to my father. "Sorry, what?" 

"I asked you what Caden has been doing," he huffed. 

Ah, Caden Locke. He's not the problem. His last name is. 

I am Venus Jade Princeton and he is Caden Locke. 

The problem is, our families despise each other. It's a very long, boring, daunting story, but to sum it up, our great grandfathers were the best of friends, both secretly betraying each other in business, and then both of them tried to kill each other when they found out about the other's betrayal. Ultimately, they both died at each other's hands. Unfortunately for us, before that even happened, they taught their sons to hate the opposing family. Then my grandfather taught the same thing to my father and now he teaches it to me and my sister Clarissa. 

She's too young to understand it all though. She's only ten. 

"Caden has been doing what Caden does, dad," I sighed. 

"Which is?" 

I chuckled, turning to him. "Get on my last nerve. Like he always does." 

"How do your teachers allow his pathetic pranks?" my dad grumbled. 

"They're just pranks, dad. They don't harm anybody, that's how." He pulled up in front of my school and I unbuckled my seatbelt, stepping out of the white convertible Cadillac. "Bye," I smiled. 

He drove off and I headed inside the small building. It's not too big, unfortunately. Education is a privilege here in Cadara. And you're lucky to receive it. Our subjects are simple. Math, English, Science, History, and loads of Arts. Arts includes a lot of different branches. Dance, painting, woodsmanship, singing, theatre, etc, etc. I take English, Writing as my art, and Dance because we do nothing in it. 

I walked into the building, spotting Remy. Remy is my best friend. Our mothers are too, actually. That's how we met. She waved me over and I picked up my pace. 

I'm a little late. "What have we got?" I asked. 

"English. Come on," she smiled.

I walked with her to class, both of us settling in at our individual tables. I sat behind her. 

The best thing about education in Cadara is that the lunch breaks are two hours long and in a huge field. We all basically have a picnic every single day outside. 

Most of the class was already here, the only people missing were, of course, our teacher and then... let's see. Roman isn't here, neither is Gianna and of course, neither is Caden. He's a little bit of a delinquent if you will. I personally have nothing against him. But I've always been told to either stay away from him or make his life miserable. I prefer the former. 

His family has taught him the same and clearly, he prefers the latter because he doesn't spare one day. Not one day goes by without him tormenting me. He walked in class with his best friend and... I don't even know what Gianna is to him, he always denies it when people say they're dating. He had a pencil behind his ear. 

Roman settled into his seat which was beside Remy and Gianna sat on the other side of the room. Caden, much to my dismay, sits right next to me. The seats are assigned. 

"Jade," he sang. 

"Caden," I replied mockingly. 

"You have some paper I can borrow for my notes?" he asked. 

"You don't come to school with paper?" I asked. "What am I asking, of course, you don't. And no, I have no paper for you," I shrugged, ignoring my notebook sitting open right in front of me. 

"Venus, I can see your notebook." 

"Congratulations then, you're not blind," I scoffed. 

People around Cadara know of the feud between our families, and everyone is surprisingly invested in it. Some people clearly prefer my family, some prefer his. The same applies to the student body of our school. Some students very clearly favor Caden over me, others like me more. But we entertain everybody. As I said that, everyone chuckled, shamelessly eavesdropping and staring at us. 

Caden glared at me and then snatched my notebook off my desk. 

"Caden!" I stood up, trying to grab it but he put one hand on my stomach and kept me away while holding the book out of my reach. "Give it back!" I huffed. 

Some of the boys sitting near the wall and under the windows opened the window to let some air into the humid room and Caden smirked at me. 

"No!" I exclaimed. 

But he threw my notebook out like a frisbee. 

"Caden!" I shoved him before rushing over, sticking my head out of the window. I could see my notebook on the ground with some unstuck pages fallen around it. 

Everybody that favors him laughed, people who favored me rolled their eyes. I have a surprising number of people on my team considering that Caden Locke is the prince of Cadara. Yes, he is the prince. And even the prince comes to high school here. 

I groaned, going and sitting in my seat. "Remy." 

She turned to me with a sheet of paper, stifling a laugh. 

"Thank you," I sang, shooting a smug look at Caden. 

He rolled his eyes and we all turned to the front as our teacher walked in. "Morning class," Mr. Whittemore nodded. "Mr. Locke, Ms. Princeton. Please try not causing a scene in my class today." 

I looked down at the table sheepishly while Caden sat there nonchalantly. Yesterday during class we sort of made an issue out of the fact that we were put together in a group for a discussion. It was more him than me though, trust me. 

"Here is your work for today. It's a poem. Everybody will analyze it and write a thousand-word essay answering the question at the end. Ms. Princeton, give these out for me." 

I stood up, dodging the leg that Caden stuck out for me to trip over. I distributed the sheets, purposely throwing Caden's at his face. 

He flinched and then glared up at me. I walked past him but he grabbed my wrist, yanking me back. 

"Ow!" I winced, pulling my wrist out of his grasp. 

"It's not exactly a good day to be getting on my nerves, Venus. Let's do this later, hmm?" 

"You always start these things, when will you stop expecting me to bow down to you like others do?" I walked past him, giving out the rest of the sheets. 

Everyone is listening. I don't care. The teachers don't say much to Caden because he's the prince. In fact, they all kind of listen to him because he could snatch their jobs in a heartbeat. So Mr. Whittemore kept quiet. 

"Others do that for a reason, darling," he smirked as I sat in my seat. 

"I'm not your darling," I smiled before turning to Mr. Whittemore. "No class today, sir?" I lifted a sharp brow. 

"Very well, Ms. Princeton," he sighed, grabbing the chalk. "Let's discuss the poem as a class and then everybody will get on with their work. Let's begin." 

I made short notes and annotated the poem as he talked, answering the few questions he asked me. After the discussion ended, I started writing my essay while referring to my notes. Until my note sheet was snatched away too. I sighed, glaring up at Caden. 

He smirked at me, using my notes and writing his essay. 

As the bell rang, I snatched his essay. He sat up straighter, glaring at me. 

"You took my notes, I took your essay. When will you understand, Caden?" I laughed while standing up, tearing his essay to shreds in the process. 

Everybody humming, "Ooh!" 

"I won't bow to you like others." I put my palm on the table and leaned down, my face inches from his. "And I'm not your darling, stop calling me that," I said and then I turned around, walking out of the room.

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Chapter 1

lemme know what you think but also don't judge too much rn, it's just the first chapter, it's always the hardest to write

IT'LL GET BETTER

next chapter: war