School was finally out and the summer of bliss had arrived, a fresh start to reinvent yourself. And that was certainly what I did. That summer, I had a bucketful of first times. The good ones: first love, first drink, first smoke; and the bad ones: first breakup, first time joining a satanic cult, first kill...

For the last four years, we attended an elite boarding school. It was hard work so seeing the end to it was euphoric. But what most of us forgot about was that a week into the summer, we would have summer school, it was compulsory. Being the leaders of the next generation wouldn't come easy. Luckily, summer school was only for three days a week with two to four lessons a day. That was enough for a head-start at the top universities. To get into the boarding school in the first place, you had to get an extremely competitive scholarship, although some rich parents paid the full fee for their child. You could easily tell who those kids were.

In the first week of the holiday when there was no summer school, I just chilled with my best friend Isaac. We relaxed and talked about our hopes and dreams for the future; you know the normal teenage stuff, having false hope of becoming this whole new person. Some students went home for a week with their families but for Isaac and I, we had been each other's family since the day we arrived.

The week flew by as Isaac and I skipped in corridors and burned revision notes at our midnight bonfire. There had been a bonfire tradition in our large 'friend group' for years now. The group was a clique called the 'grounds'. But we were never invited to the gathering as we weren't part of the inner circle. So Isaac and I had our own bonfire instead of it, no other fire could beat this one; just two best friends.

When summer school began, it was like a big slap in the face, the worst part being waking up early. The lucky students who'd been with their families were dragged back to the good ol' books.

When the first thing to note happened, it was the Monday of the second week of summer school. Four weeks until prom which came at the end of the summer.

Monday

I woke up unhappily and vigorously rubbed my eyes. I sat up in bed and looked around. My dorm was reasonably small but we still fit four people in it. I looked over at Evelyn and she smiled; that smile was the light of my life every day. "Hey beautiful," I said cheesily; I loved to make her cringe. In return, she gave me a shy smile. Evelyn was a morning lark and I, a night owl so in the mornings she came to sit on my bed and stroke my hair, but today she just sat there on her own bed.  I was exhausted but I groggily got up and on her bed instead and put my hand on top of hers. "Are you okay?" I asked. It was unusual not waking up to her smile looking over me. She gave me slinky dog vibes. I gently squeezed her hand. 

She then said three words, "student of honour." My brain ages to register the phrase but when it did, my heart panged. I completely forgot. This was the only thing that Evelyn had asked of me in so long, and I'd failed her.

"Oh," I said pathetically. I needed to change the subject, she couldn't know. "Uh, where's Alba?" I asked. I really couldn't care less. Alba had already left our dorm, or she stayed over in another dorm. She was always the outcast of our dorm because she was the only one who fit in with the rest of the girls. We were the strange kids in this school. 

"I don't know, sorry," I could hear the bitterness in Evelyn's voice, she was mad at me. I had to fix this today.

I glanced over to Ivy, the fourth girl in our room, who was still asleep.  Ivy and I hadn't spoken since our fight in the last week of regular school. We'd sorted it out but it didn't feel the same anymore: we were still distant and awkward.

I continued to avoid eye contact with Evelyn as I looked around, pretending to be immersed in the number of socks on my bedside table. One, two, three socks. Fascinating. 

I then glanced at my watch. When the face looked different to what I usually see at seven in the morning, I looked again. That's because it wasn't seven. It was eight. Fuck, another thing gone wrong, I was late. Why didn't she tell me? I slipped into my itchy uniform and dashed to the dining hall, collected my food and then left for the smaller lounge.

The grounds were here. We always hung out in the smaller lounge, it belonged to us, away from the others. The grounds: the infamous clique that I was a loose part of, but I had no time to think about them and recall the endless gossip. Late, late, late!

I caught Isaac's eye and power sprinted over to where he was sitting. He had almost finished his food and I gulped mine down as fast as I could. Isaac was my official best friend, everyone knew that, and he was the best part of the grounds gang. He laughed at me rushing and made fun of me for being a night owl; that skanky lark. 

At the end of school, when Ivy and I were fighting, Isaac was the only one who openly stood with me and Ivy had the whole of the grounds group on her side. It was purely because Ivy was richer than the rest of us; Isaac and I were in agreement. Evelyn couldn't openly stand by me, she said that it was better if we weren't friends so no one would suspect that we could be more. To everyone else, I didn't even know who she was apart from the shy kid in my dorm. Along with Ivy, the grounds and being late, Evelyn swirled in my head too. I had to fix her student of honour without anyone knowing that I was doing it, I tried to concentrate on my plan but Isaac was shouting at me: "Go faster, you can do it!" and many more chants that you would say to the last person in a race.

Isaac waited with me until I'd finished breakfast, around five people were still in the lounge. We got up from our table as a boy came running in. He shouted "Harriet!" and looked around frantically. I gave Isaac a strange look as the boy continued to shout my name. I had never seen him before in my life. He caught my eye and came over to me. He was only an inch taller than me and slightly more chubby although not overweight. His eyes were a deep brown and his nose was too wide for his face, he was brown and had black hair. "I've been trying to find you, and someone finally told me who you are."

I was perplexed, and who told him about me? Isaac muttered "stalker," and I smirked, the boy gave Isaac a short irritated glance and then focused back on me. "We must talk," he said. "I'll come to the grounds next break, okay?" I just nodded out of habit. The guy then brushed past us to talk to the other grounds members, since when was he part of the grounds? If they didn't know him, they wouldn't be talking to him.

We walked away and when we were at a safe distance (out of earshot), we let our contained laughter burst. "What the heck?" I said to Isaac, after that, I had nothing else to say and nor did Isaac. So we continued to tear up about the kid, no words, just laughter. And then another realisation that I had to worry again. Snapping out of it, I looked at my watch but didn't even read the numbers, however late I was now didn't matter; I was just late.

I started to run to chemistry class and Isaac ran with me. It reminded me of the first week of summer, when we skipped down the same corridor with no worries whatsoever. Isaac wished me good luck with the groggy chemistry teacher and diverted to business class. Before I walked in, my thoughts caught up with me. About the boy again. So when Mrs. Robbs asked me about my lateness it took some time to comprehend it, I was too involved in thinking about the strange boy. He looked the same age as the rest of us but I'd never seen him in my life, so what did we need to talk about? Why would I even talk to him in the first place... he did sound like a stalker? Mrs. Robbs stared at me unblinkingly and yelled some muffled words. I just blurted "Sorry," and sat down in the nearest empty seat. Behind me, I could hear whispers and as I discreetly turned around, I saw the boy... but we left before he did; how did he get here before me?

Once chemistry was over, maths flew by. How could I let a random guy ruin my studying? I tried to shake him out of my head and was able to integrate for the last fifteen minutes of maths.

Then it was time to talk to 'mystery boy'. I collected a snack in the hall and then strode into the small lounge. Isaac was already there, and another one of our friends, also part of the grounds, called Felix was sitting in the seat next to him. Felix  joined Isaac and I from time to time when he was bored of the rest of the grounds or just felt like chilling. The grounds could be intense with so many people, gossip and scandals. 

The guy then walked into the lounge and we glared at him. He nodded to some other grounds members before locking eye contact which I immediately broke.  He had an almost unnoticeable smirk on his face, a schemer. He pulled the chair out opposite Isaac and sat. No one broke the silence yet. After a minute of him looking from me to Isaac to Felix, Felix got the point and left. Then the boy began to speak with a posher accent than I would've expected him to have.

"Hello, my name is James..."