Zhen stood in front of the mirror in her room, tugging on the long sleeves of her uniform shirt. She sighed. The first day jitters was an understatement. She didn’t have jitters. She was having a panic attack. Anyways, why did she care? None of these people mattered to her. She was just at this school until she could talk the Shins into putting her in an online school. 

“Zhen Ai! Mallory’s here!” Cho Hee shouted up the stairs. Zhen sighed and grabbed her black bag off the floor. She slung it over her shoulder and hurried out into the hall. She could already hear Kirakira’s soft barks. Cho Hee was laughing. “She’s so precious.”

Zhen hurried down the stairs and immediately knelt down so Kirakira could leap into her arms. The dog wasted no time leaping at her, and then nuzzled herself against Zhen. “Sorry, I know she’s a bit of a handful.”

“No! No, not at all!” Cho Hee said, reaching out and Kirakira. “She’s precious.”

Mallory, who was standing not too far off, scoffed. “She is when she’s not digging up your rose beds.”

“Oh no,” Zhen frowned. “I’m so sorry. How bad did she get into them?”

Mallory shrugged. “It was fixable.” When Zhen’s eyes landed on Mallory’s outfit, she almost laughed. Mallory, who couldn’t be restrained to wearing the school’s uniform if she was being forced to attend, had one of her clothes designing friends fix the uniform to her standards. She wore the summer uniform, if it could be called that.

Where Zhen wore the normal length skirt for the uniform, lower thigh, just above knee length, Mallory was wearing a skirt short enough to be considered an undergarment. To save herself from flashing anyone when she bent over, there was a small section of ruffled tool. The skirt was also fitted to her legs until it neared the bottom. Her short sleeve white shirt looked more like a casual button up shirt. It pointed at the seams, were the uniform shirt was cut clean and flat. And instead of the neck bow, Mallory was wearing a thin black tie that wasn’t tied tight to her neck. Her hair was curled and fell around her shoulders in thick layers. She wore sunglasses that resembled bug eyes, and a pair of leather ankle booties.

By her standard, it was a day to day outfit, but anyone else would have guessed she was a model, and it was some kind of mock uniform runway design. “What?” Mallory asked, when she noticed Zhen staring for an extended length of time. “Are you ready to go or what?”

Zhen placed Kirakira on the ground and nodded. “Yes, I’m ready.” She said, adjusting her bag on her back.

“Wait! Wait!” Dae Hyun shouted, coming out of the back room with a polaroid in his hand. “We need to take pictures!”

Cho Hee looked shocked. “Of course! How could I forget?”

“Maybe we should take them outside.” Dae Hyun said, running for the door and sliding on his shoes. “Hurry girls! Meet me outside!”

Cho Hee hurried after her husband, and the two girls exchanged looks. “We’d better follow.” Mallory said, smiling a little. Zhen nodded and the two started towards the door, sliding out onto the front porch.

A beam of light shone down perfectly, and Dae Hyun directed them to stand there. “Mallory, take off your glasses for the picture.”

Mallory nodded and, casually, moved to the right side of Zhen. She took of the glasses and immediately posed, angeling the left side of her face towards Dae Hyun and wrapping her arms around Zhen, who played into the pose as well.

Any others would have thought Mallory knew her angles, that she thought her left side was her better side, but Zhen knew better. Something had happened. Zhen smiled and posed for the pictures, and after Dae Hyun announced that he was done, Mallory slid the glasses back on.

“Okay girls!” Cho Hee beamed. “Have a fun day! Please, call me if anything goes wrong and make sure that you don’t get lost! I put some money in your lunch pack, just in case you need to buy something.”

Zhen smiled. “Thanks Cho Hee. I think I’m good. I’ll see you when I get home.” With that, the two girls turned and started towards Mallory’s car. Neither said a word until they were both in the car, buckled in, and Mallory was driving. At the first red light, Zhen reached over and tore off the sunglasses.

There, underneath her right eye and curling up the sides, was a purple blotch of skin. Mallory had covered it well, concealer and cover up perfectly coating it, but Zhen spotted the small purple bit peaking out near her nose, and the elevated skin elsewhere. “What happened?” Zhen asked. Mallory opened to protest and Zhen stopped her. “No excuses, no lies. Tell me what happened.”

Mallory sighed. “Cale was drunk again, and I had my back to him for two seconds too long.”

Zhen gasped and punched her friends arm. “Did you kill him?”

Mallory slammed on the breaks and rolled down the window. “Son of a-” She muttered under her breath. She stuck her head out of the window, and Zhen turned just in time to see wha