Sera

*~The first day she walked into Crescent High, silence followed.

It wasn’t the kind of silence that comes from fear — it was fascination. Every step Sera Vale took seemed to echo. Her black boots clicked against the linoleum like a metronome, marking the rhythm of every heartbeat around her.

New girl. Beautiful. Mysterious. That’s all they saw.

By lunch, she’d already heard her name in three different conversations and caught people pretending not to stare. Some smiled too long; others whispered behind their hands. She didn’t care. She’d moved schools five times before — she knew this routine like a song stuck on repeat.

But this time, it irritated her more than usual.

She wasn’t stupid — she knew what they wanted. Not to know her. Not to hear about the nights she stayed awake drawing strange sketches in her journal or how she hated loud parties. They didn’t want her. They wanted the fantasy.

She caught one of the football guys leaning against her locker, flashing a grin that might’ve worked on someone else.

“You’re new here, right? We should hang out sometime.”

Sera raised a brow.

“We shouldn’t.”

He blinked, confused.

“What—why not?”

“Because you’re boring,” she said flatly, grabbing her book and walking off.

By the end of the week, the rumors had started. “She’s cold.” “She’s rude.” “She thinks she’s better than everyone.”

Maybe she did. Or maybe she was just tired of being treated like a prize instead of a person.

The only place she found peace was behind the school, where the smell of asphalt and pine trees mixed in the afternoon heat. She’d light a cigarette — not because she needed it, but because it made people keep their distance.~*