The slap cracked through the dorm.
It landed so hard that Fiona's cheek swelled almost instantly.
"You bitch!"
Fiona cursed and shoved Wendy backward onto the bed. Then she climbed on top of her and grabbed a fistful of her hair.
Square-Face rushed in too.
The two of them pressed Wendy down and started swinging. Slaps, scratches, elbows, all the ugly things girls used when nobody was trying to look graceful anymore.
But Wendy was not soft clay.
She might have come from the mountains, but she was tall for a girl, strong, and full of a kind of stubborn anger that did not know how to surrender.
Rip.
Wendy grabbed Fiona by the collar and yanked hard.
The fabric tore open.
Fiona's face changed at once. In the chaos, her top had ripped enough to expose the white underlayer beneath, and several girls around them gasped.
Wendy did not stop there. She twisted and grabbed blindly, and another strap snapped under her fingers.
Fiona looked down, felt the sudden cold, and went completely furious.
That little outsider had made her lose face in front of the entire room.
She screamed and started clawing at Wendy's neck and cheeks like she wanted to carve her anger into skin.
Just then, someone in the hallway hissed urgently, "Stop fighting! The dorm supervisor is coming!"
The girls watching and the girls fighting all scattered at once.
Everyone scrambled to straighten clothes, smooth hair, hide marks, and pretend they had been innocent citizens doing innocent things the whole time.
The next morning, after breakfast, Hannah went to her room to change for school.
When she opened the door and came out, Evan's eyes lit up again despite himself.
Hannah truly knew how to dress.
Today she had changed into a completely different style. A fitted white blouse under a tailored little jacket, slim trousers that followed her long legs, the clean lines of office wear sharpened by the kind of figure that made ordinary clothes look expensive.
The top buttons of her blouse were deliberately undone.
Nothing improper was exposed, but the glimpse of lace at the edge, the pale line of her collarbone, and the confidence in the way she carried herself were enough to make a man look once and then look again.
Clothes mattered.
A woman who knew how to dress could turn the hallway of an apartment building into a runway without saying a word.
At school, Hannah gave Evan a couple of reminders, then the two separated.
Evan took the freshman schedule he had received the day before. His class and classroom were printed clearly on it. Following the signs, he found the room and stepped inside.
He was early.
Only a few girls had arrived, gathered in one corner, whispering mysteriously.
Evan chose a back-row seat, lay forward on the desk, and pulled out a comic magazine from his bag.
On the surface, he was reading.
In reality, his ears were wide awake.
He wanted to hear what those girls were gossiping about so early in the morning.
"Oh my God, Wendy was insane last night."
"One against two and she still didn't lose."
"Exactly! She grabbed Fiona and ripped her clothes right open."
"I almost died laughing."
"Fiona acts so proud, but once the shirt tore, she panicked like a chicken."
"Lower your voice! If she hears you, she'll tear your mouth off."
Only then did Evan understand.
So there had been a fight in the girls' dorm last night.
To Evan, that kind of thing was not surprising. Even back home, girls fought in school bathrooms all the time. There had been one self-proclaimed big sister in his old high school who watched too many gangster movies, cut her hair shorter than half the boys, kept a cigarette in her mouth, and gave herself a dramatic nickname.
Evan had once asked why she chose such a ridiculous name.
She had blown smoke and said it sounded cool.
That answer had made Evan speechless for three days.
As class time approached, students entered one after another.
Evan was reading when the empty seat beside him scraped back hard.
He turned his head.
Well, look at that.
It was Wendy.
She wore tight jeans and a loose T-shirt. Several fresh scratch marks showed clearly on her neck, and there was a faint bruise at the corner of her mouth.
Evan glanced at her and understood immediately.
The main character in the dorm fight gossip was sitting right beside him.
That made sense.
After what he had seen from her yesterday, she never looked like the kind of girl who would be easy to bully.
A moment later, six girls came in together.
The leader was Fiona, whose cheek was still slightly swollen. As she passed Wendy's desk, she knocked on it hard with her knuckles.
"Wait for me after school."
After throwing down that threat, Fiona led her little group to another part of the room.
Not long after, five or six boys wandered in.
One of them had dyed yellow hair. He scanned the classroom, spotted Fiona, and immediately changed into the face of a loyal dog who had seen his owner.
He hurried over.
"Babe, was it that bitch who hit you last night?"
As he spoke, he pointed toward Wendy.
Fiona cared about face, so of course she would not admit she had struggled in a one-on-one fight.
She rolled her eyes.
"Her? What is she? You think she can beat me?"
"If she hadn't sucker-punched me, I would've folded her."
Yellow Hair nodded desperately. "Right, right. She must've sucker-punched you."
Fiona looked pitiful and wronged.
Yellow Hair immediately slapped his chest.
"Don't worry. After school, Mason will bring people and settle it for you."
His name was Mason Wong.
He had been Fiona's number one admirer since high school and had somehow followed her into the same trade college.
Soon the bell rang.
An old teacher wearing reading glasses walked in holding a language textbook.
Yes.
Even this broken trade college still required literature class.
But college classrooms were like that. As long as you did not deliberately disturb order, you could do almost anything below the podium. Some slept, some played games on their phones, some read comics like Evan.
The teacher was extremely calm. He stood at the front and read as if giving a solo performance to the air.
Evan was deep in his comic when someone nudged his arm.
Wendy had pushed over a folded note.
Evan took it with suspicion and opened it.
The handwriting was crooked but clear:
After school they're going to jump me. Help me.
Evan almost laughed out of anger.
Lady, are we close?
Why should I help you?
He took his pen and wrote on the back:
What does that have to do with me? They're not trying to beat me.
He tossed it back.
He thought such a clean refusal would end the matter.
Half a minute later, Wendy pushed the note over again.
Evan looked down.
There was one new line at the bottom.
If you settle them, I'll sleep with you once.
Evan had just opened a bottle of water and taken a drink.
The moment he read that sentence, he sprayed the entire mouthful out.
It landed directly on the back of the head of the quiet boy sitting in front of him, a glasses-wearing student who looked like he had never offended anyone in his life.
The noise was too loud.
The whole class, including the teacher, stopped and turned to look at Evan.
Evan swallowed the remaining water in his mouth with great difficulty.
The teacher frowned. "The student spraying water in the back row."
"Do you have an opinion about what I just said?"
"Come on, stand up. Tell everyone what the problem is."
Evan had no idea what the teacher had been saying.
He quickly stood and waved his hand.
"No, sir. My throat suddenly hurt. I choked by accident."
The teacher waved him down. "Sit. Listen properly. Don't disturb others."
Evan sat, grabbed two tissues, wiped his mouth, then sheepishly helped the poor glasses boy dry the back of his head.
"Sorry, man. Really sorry."
Author's Note:
This story will continue updating here.
If you want to read the full story without waiting or more books, you can unlock it here:
/c/TYMercer
Thank you for reading.