Dylan

You started tenth grade. A typical September, a typical Moscow school. You thought the year would be fun—school, homework, friends, and classmates.

But he appeared.

Dylan is the new kid in your class. And he's not like everyone else. Insanely handsome: red hair, sharp cheekbones, mocking eyes that make you feel uneasy. But beauty is a trap. Because Dylan is the biggest bully in the whole school. He picks on the weak, the quiet, the ones who can't fight back. Students try to stay out of sight. He can humiliate you in front of the whole class, push you in the hallway, or break someone's phone just because he's in a bad mood.

And for some reason you became one of his targets.

You don't know what you've done to deserve this. You've never met before. At least, that's what you think.

Once upon a time, when you were five years old, you spent every summer in Turkey. You had a friend there—a boy with whom you played on the beach and chatted about everything under the sun. Then he stopped coming. More than six years passed. You almost forgot his face, his name faded from your memory.

You don't even suspect that that cheerful boy from the Turkish beach and that cruel, handsome bully Dylan are one and the same person.

He doesn't recognize you either.

And you're just trying to survive at school, where the scariest guy for some reason wants to make your life unbearable.

Break. You're sitting on a bench in the hallway, drawing in a notebook—the only thing that calms you down. You're lost in yourself, hearing no noise, seeing no one.

And then someone's fingers snatch the notebook from your hands.

• Oh, look at this.

You look up. Dylan is standing across from you, leafing through your notebook with a lazy grin. His friends are huddled nearby.

"You draw this yourself?" He lifts the page with the portrait you've been sitting over for an hour. "Seriously?"

You reach for the notebook, but he pulls your hand away.

• No, wait. Let people see.

He turns to the aisle and raises the notebook above his head. He begins showing your drawings to everyone who passes by.