The feeling of walking on thin ice knowing that it can break at any moment is the type of feeling that Ellie had all of the time. It’s not because of something bad and it’s not necessarily about something good. It’s just average and it’s just life for her. In reality, she’s not herself. The lives that she lives at home and at school are two completely separate entities. She doesn’t change into a disguise, she doesn’t dye her hair, and she doesn’t change her name. No, she doesn’t do any of that. It’s her personality that’s different.

            Ellie lives in a world where everything is fake and money is the only thing that matters, but she doesn’t care about that. She could care less about what school she goes to and she could care about who has the most money or best clothes, in a school that has uniforms. If it were up to her, she would’ve transferred herself out of that school a very long time ago, but her parents made it so she couldn’t do such a thing. Her parents only cared about the money and the reputation that came with it. They cared so much about their appearance that they made their daughter’s life miserable.

            Then again, they were never even there to even know that Ellie’s life was miserable. They were never home, but what difference would it make anyway? To Ellie they were just people. She didn’t see them as her parents, she didn’t see them as anyone, just people who happened to dictate everything that she did no matter what.

            Years ago, Ellie would’ve runaway if it weren’t for Kris. Kris was Ellie’s dearest friend and slight bodyguard. Although they didn’t use the bodyguard title so much anymore since Kris was two years older than Ellie and wasn’t able to protect her every moment when she was in school.

            More so than a bodyguard, Kris is a friend and one of the best friends that Ellie could have. Her friends at school are fake and only care about material things and in the end, Ellie has to pretend to be someone she’s not. At home, however, in front of the people that work for her family and in front of Kris, she can be herself. Kris knows how much Ellie hates the people around her in her world, and even if he may not completely understand the feelings that she’s going through, he at least does his best to stand by her no matter what.

            The reason for Kris’s and Ellie’s close relationship is because they grew up together. Kris’s family had worked for Ellie’s family and had lived with them for quite a number of years, Kris even still residing there, so there was no reason for them not to become friends and form a brother/sister relationship with one another.

            “I don’t want to go,” Ellie complained as Kris ushered her into his car. Ellie wasn’t for the fancy cars that the rest of the school showed up in. She would rather have Kris drive her in his slightly outdated car. It was good all the same.

            “You have to,” Kris sternly told her. “It’s your senior year; you don’t want to mess this year up.” Ellie groaned. Senior year or not, she didn’t want to go. “Look at it this way,” Kris said before he closed the passenger’s door and got into the driver’s seat. “You have one more year. Survive this year and you’ll be able to go wherever you want.”

            “Yeah, yeah,” Ellie grumbled as she buckled her seatbelt and waited for Kris to drive her to the most dreaded place in the world, school.

            The school for the rich and famous to practically flaunt their wealth because if they weren’t flaunting, then they weren’t rich. It was practically the school motto that everyone attending the school represented their parents by how rich and smart they were. Only the best of the best could get in with no questions asked. The school even had a very long waiting list with very strict requirements for entry.

            “Well…we’re here,” Kris said slowing down to a stop.

            Ellie rolled her eyes, she hated being at school. It wasn’t like she was a nobody, no, she just happened to be friends with the most popular girl in the school since they were younger, but still, she hated it. Without saying anything, Ellie made her way out of the car and was about to close the door when Kris’s hand stopped her. “What are you doing?” she whined.

            “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Kris asked looking at her.

            “What could I possibly be forgetting?” Ellie asked as she looked around until Kris held the lunchbox up to her face. “Oh, that, sorry.”

            “Yeah, you better be,” Kris said poking her in the forehead. “Now go, you’re going to be late. You have to check out which room you’re in and find your seat.”

            “Yeah,” Ellie grumbled. “Thanks for the lunch.”

            “You better eat it well,” he joked as Ellie closed the door. Kris waved to her until she went into the iron gates and disappeared from his view.

            It was Kris’s tradition to make Ellie’s lunchbox every day. He had started making her lunchboxes when she started high school and never failed to miss a day since then. Kris would even include little messages in the lunchbox to keep Ellie’s spirits up throughout the day. Sometimes Kris would offer to not make Ellie lunchboxes anymore and then she could buy from the school, but Ellie hated that idea. She liked the idea of homemade lunches even more than the school bought ones, even if she was the only student that thought that way.

            Ellie made her way through the school grounds with her backpack slung over her shoulder, her lunchbox in hand, and her uniform intact. She just hoped that she had made it to school before Jiyeon, her best friend and the most popular girl in school. Best friend was a very loose term used by Ellie to describe Jiyeon. Sure, they knew each other since they were children, but Ellie pictured herself having no best friends. Jiyeon didn’t even know about how Ellie really acted when she wasn’t in school. On the other hand, Jiyeon saw Ellie as a very close friend, one that she knew she could confide all of her deepest darkest secrets in. Never once did Jiyeon wonder why Ellie never shared her secrets with her.

            “Ellie!” a very familiar voice yelled. Ellie turned around and saw Jiyeon running towards her. Maybe not running per se, more like strutting down a runway would be more likely. Image was everything to Jiyeon. If she didn’t look her best, she spent hours in order to get that needed perfection, even if it meant waking up hours earlier before school but ending up coming in late anyway.

            “Oh, hi Jiyeon,” Ellie said slapping a fake smile onto her face before Jiyeon could get too close. Ellie hated this part of the day, which basically was all of school. She hated pretending she was someone she wasn’t. It wasn’t like she even did it on purpose, sometimes it just happened.

            Originally, Ellie was a cheerful child. She enjoyed playing with her friends, especially Jiyeon, going out shopping, and being pretty for school. Once she was old enough o understand the way that the world worked, she hated it and she changed, but she didn’t let people know that she changed. To everyone else she was the same old Ellie from years ago. To herself, she knew she would never be able to go back.

            “Let’s go see where we are,” Jiyeon said in a sing-song voice as she interlocked her arms with Ellie. Ellie wasn’t very into skinship, even linking arms was a huge no on her list, but because it was school and because it was Jiyeon, she just had to it up and deal with it.

            Both girls walked into the hallway and walked to the rightmost bulletin board that was stapled with many papers regarding the new classes and seating arrangements. In the beginning of every school year, the teachers were given their students and then proceeded to make up a seating chart that would be placed on four separate bulletin boards representing each grade. That way students would know where they were sitting, making life a whole lot easier for taking attendance and assigning partners. Basically, the person you were assigned next to was with you for the whole year.

            “In the top class again, yay!” Jiyeon squealed as she took little hops up and down. “You’re with me this time, bestie.” This time, Jiyeon hugged her, but Ellie didn’t hug back. She would’ve thought that Jiyeon would’ve gotten the hint that she didn’t like to be hugged or touched, but it never got through her head. Not once…ever.

            “Woo,” Ellie said showing fake excitement. She actually hoped for once she wouldn’t be in the same class as Jiyeon, but they were always placed in the same one. Sometimes she wondered if the classes were actually separated by the amount of income that the parents had or how well-known the student’s parents were. Ellie always doubted how the classes were actually divided up due to the very contrasting scores of her and Jiyeon.

            “Let’s grab and paper and start walking.” Jiyeon grabbed two of the seating charts out of the folder next to the class list and handed one to Ellie.

            Ellie was intently studying the seating chart. She wondered who she would be sitting next to this year. Last year her seating partner actually moved to Europe within the first week of school so she was thankfully left alone for most of the year. This year she wondered if she would be so lucky.

            “Who are you sitting next to?” Jiyeon asked as they made their way into their classroom.

            “Chen?” Ellie asked staring at the paper. She had never heard of that name before, which was rare since everyone in the student body knew each other because of one thing or another. At least they knew each other’s name and could point the other person out if need be.

            “Good for you, I have Olivia,” Jiyeon said making a face of disgust. Olivia and Jiyeon had never gotten alone, never. Ellie was actually excited to see what fun things would happen with Jiyeon sitting next to her worst enemy and being assigned partners with her. Maybe the year wouldn’t be so bad that way.

            “Good for me?” Ellie asked pointing to herself. “I’ve never heard of this Chen guy, but thankfully I sit in the back near the window.”

            “Okay. I guess we should sit down now, I have to prepare my space and draw the line,” Jiyeon said as she started making her way to the opposite side of the room away from Ellie. “Meet up for lunch?”

            “Of course,” Ellie said giving off the fakest and biggest smile she could muster before turning her back to go to her seat. As soon as she turned, her smile disappeared along with it.

            As Ellie sat in her seat, she began wondering about the mysterious Chen person. It wasn’t often that the school would get new students, especially in the senior year, that was just unheard of. Ellie figured that if Chen were coming in his senior year as a new student, he must be really smart and he must be from a very wealthy family. From the way that things looked, it seemed like things were going well for Chen before he even stepped into the school. Ellie even found herself starting to wonder where he came from. Could have moved from some place in Europe? In America? Was he used to traveling around such foreign places to other people, but those places just seemed like everyone’s backyard in the school. Actually, if you didn’t travel out of the country, you were slightly looked down upon by the student body as a whole.

            Ellie had lost herself so deep into her thoughts that she didn’t notice when a bag was placed on the table next to her. It was when the teacher began teaching that she had noticed the strange presence. Ellie and Chen had said nothing to each other and right before their eyes, the teacher was already assigning a semester long project near the end of the class.

            “You all know this is photography class, right?” the teacher asked the students. It was a requirement in the school that the students be taught things like photography, drama, art, and music besides the usual required classes and it was required that each would have a semester long project.

            “Yes,” the students responded in harmony. Ellie kept shut. She thought that it was stupid for the teacher to be asking such a question, especially on the first day and she felt annoyed by it. She also noticed that Chen didn’t say anything either and Ellie figured that he must not like those types of questions or he didn’t feel like he was fitting in with the new classmates.

            “For your semester long project,” the teacher continued, “you will obviously be working with your seating partners. For this assignment, I want you to capture the most beautiful thing you possibly can. It can be anywhere in the world and it can be anything. I want you guys to think long and hard about this project. I’ll leave the remaining ten minutes for you to discuss with your partners.”

            As the teacher left, Ellie sighed and internally pumped herself up to speak to Chen. She wasn’t nervous; she just didn’t want to damage the image that the school had of her. Plus, it wasn’t even like she necessarily cared about the image, she just didn’t want to give her partner the wrong impression on the first time that they’re meeting. It could set the whole project and the remainder of them all, off on the wrong foot.

            “Hello, you must be Chen,” Ellie said sticking her hand out for him to shake. Chen stared at Ellie’s hand and looked back at her. “I’m Ellie. I hope we work well together in the future.”

            “Yeah, I hope so,” Chen muttered, but he didn’t say anything else. He didn’t even talk to her about the project.

            Defeated, Ellie turned around and faced front, leaning her head on her hand. It looked like Chen wasn’t going to be that easy to open up, which seemed strange since every guy that attended the school liked bragging about one thing or another no matter what. Even if they were new students they would begin talking about something to impress all of the girls, but not Chen. Chen sat quietly and didn’t say a word to anyone. Somewhere inside of her, Ellie knew that Chen was different than the rest, but just how different she didn’t know.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When will Ellie and Chen form their friendship? How is the rest of the school day going to go?

Here is the Chapter 1. Hope you enjoyed :D

I actually liked this chapter. It was one of the better ones, at least it's better than the original one I had.