**CHAPTER ONE.**
Just like most girls my age, *Pinterest* was my favorite app to use. As an ardent devotee of the Harry Potter oeuvre, my penchant lay in collating captivating depictions of Edinburgh's picturesque locales onto my curated board. Just like most girls my age, I had a diary. A diary which made me feel like the main character of the world. Just like most girls my age, I dreamt of my charming prince, my own Shrek, my knight in shining armour who would be willing to sweep me off my feet.
However, unlike most girls my age, I was a werecat.
The sound of my alarm snapped me out of my woolgathering. I sighed loudly, closing my diary as I dropped my pen back into my drawer. I stopped the clock from ringing any further, peering at the time on it. It was seven in the morning and my class was by nine.
I stood up begrudgingly and headed towards my window. I drew apart the curtains and stared out at the busy streets of New York City. A frown made its way to my face as I realized that I hadn't magically made it to Edinburgh. I wish I had. I did. There was just something magical about that place that I really couldn't put my hand on.
"Done writing your diary and fantasizing?"
I turned around, watching Karina, my roommate of more than a year, enter the room with a towel wrapped around her chest and another around her head. She looked like a tiny chihuahua wrapped in a heavy white towel. "I was ruminating on your role in my narrative—the villain would be an uninspired choice, a love interest appears doubtful, leaving you as a peripheral figure, a role to which your familiarity attests."
"Here we go again," Karina breathed a laugh, tossing her towel to her bed which was by the end of the room, next to the door. "Eline, I'm your roommate. I implore you to emancipate yourself from your escapist fantasies. This is the tangible realm, not a realm redolent of RPGs or *anime.*"
"Indeed it is, but girls are allowed to dream, right?" I countered, crossing my arms against my chest.
"Then dream about hot men," she moved to the bed naked, picking up the skirt she already had lying on her bed before going to the bathroom. She wore it on, using a belt to hold it by the waist. "Dream about a billionaire heir or some rich mafia that would wipe out a country from the map for you. Dream about sexy hot hockey players, like Draken Gallagher."
"Ew, not him," I recoiled, expressing my disdain as I went to pick up my towel.
Karina paused as she was about to wear her top over her head. She looked at me, lips thinned. "One day you have to tell me why you hate Draken Gallagher. He's the sexiest student on campus. Any girl would die just to have him inside of them."
"You included?"
"Baby girl, my pussy is wide open for him."
"Have some shame, Karina. Draken is a man whore. There's nothing to like about him," I contended.
"He's a 6 '7 hockey player who could easily pass as a Greek god. He's an Adonis," Karina commented, finally putting on her white top. She stood up and adjusted her skirt before wearing a pink coat. She looked into the mirror adjacent to her bed and packed her raven hair up in a messy ponytail, and I also watched her apply pink eyeliner. If it wasn't obvious already, pink was Karina's favourite colour. She called it the colour of adaptation. Pink, she professed, symbolized resilience, positing vulnerability as a source of strength. Pink, I had noticed, perfectly suited her baby blue eyes. "I'm running late for class already. Also, don't forget about the party tonight. I heard Draken and his gang are going to be there."
"I'm not coming. It's the first day of resumption," I asserted flatly.
"Yes, you are coming. Besides, the first day of resumption also happens to fall on a friday," Karina persisted, her lips adorned with a coat of pink lipstick. Swinging around, she seized a pink handbag, discarding her lipstick within its confines, her visage etched with a smirk. "Both Yuri and Tennessee shall be in attendance. An exception cannot be made for you."
Yuri and Tennessee were my and Karina's mutual friends. Yuri had the lifestyle of a social media influencer, and Tennessee was more like me, except that she was less socially awkward than I was. With a grim smile, I turned away from Karina and headed towards the bathroom. I opened the door and looked back at her. Her gaze was still locked on me, and I knew she wasn't going to leave the room unless I gave her a response that was either a ‘Yes’ or ‘I'll go with you’. "Fine. I'll go. However, I won't be drinking."
"In a world that often lacks compassion, my pink would remind everyone who comes across me today to be kind. I'm sure seeing the brightness of my colour made you change your mind about whether or not you want to attend the party."
"Oh, Karina. Leave before I change my mind."
She laughed and said, "It's the start of our sophomore year, Eline. Don't be late."
*I'm never late,* I wanted to retort back but she had gone, leaving me all to myself.
An exasperated sigh escaped my lips as I stepped into the bathroom. I picked up my toothbrush and stared into the mirror. Draken Gallagher. That name was the name of my nemesis. I knew him back in middle school, and I hated him so much. I hated his guts. I hated his brain. I hated the fact that he was truly an adonis. His whole embodiment was literal perfection. Similar to Gilgamesh, Draken seemed like a character out of a fantasy novel. What I hated most was the fact that to Draken Gallagher, I probably didn't exist in his world. Meanwhile, he did in mine. He was my biggest headache in middle school.
He was the reason I could never claim first position, not even once. I was always behind Draken. Grades, sports, culinary arts, and even fucking ballet, that boy was perfect and because of him, I could never stand in the limelight. Certain shades of limelight could wreck a girl's complexion, and the one Draken Gallagher had wrecked mine terribly. After all, limelights were only created to shine on one person at a time.
Moreover, my senses, heightened by my feline nature, discerned an ineffable aroma from Draken—an otherworldly essence that confounded my feline instincts. He smelled…inhumanly. He smelt like an alien.
"Stop thinking about that libertine, Eline," I admonished as I stared at myself through the mirror.
I untangled my curls from the rough bun they were and watched as they bounced down to my shoulders. I picked up the toothpaste and pressed a bit onto my toothbrush, and just as I raised my hands to brush, I noticed the full hair underneath my armpit.
Furious, I groaned. I had just shaved four days ago, yet, I already had a full uneven grass in there. Hair growth was probably one of the disadvantages of being a werecat as a girl. I grew hair on every inch of my body, and because of that, I grew up insecure about my body. I couldn't even show off my skin because I was scared someone would remark how hairy my thighs were, or about how hairy my arms were. Worst of it all was my pubic part, it felt like a whole forest down there.
With a prolonged sigh, I placed my toothbrush into my mouth. I picked up my hair removal and shaving stick, stripped in the bathroom and got to work on my armpit.
It took me almost an hour to bathe and dress up. Adorned in a green turtleneck, lengthy denim, and a sombre blue coat befitting the autumnal ambience, I emerged from my hostel. The distance between my school and my hostel was merely a ten-minute walk. It would have been five minutes if I could ride a bicycle, but I couldn't. The last time I tried riding one, I almost ended up kissing the front of a truck.
The moment I stepped into the school compound, I heard a loud noise from behind followed by the noise of a horn. It was honking at me, but I was walking on the sidewalk, not the road. I looked back and saw a scarlet-hued Ferrari driving behind me. I frowned. Only one person drove a scarlet-hued Ferrari on campus.
"Don't drive on the sidewalk, Mr Gallagher!" I heard Mr Donavon, a porter - I could have sworn I had once seen sniffing glue in the supply closet – shout and some students snickered at his comment.
The car honked again, but this time not at me, but as a response of acknowledgement to the porter. I watched as the car drove past me. The windows were tinted, so I couldn't see his face. My gaze lingered until the vehicle alighted in a designated parking bay, and Draken Gallagher, the epitome of campus allure, emerged. His arrival had students stopping on their walk to spare him a glance. I couldn't blame them. I had also stopped to watch him. Draken was that handsome, one of the many reasons why I hated him.
Amanda, Draken's girlfriend, came out from the passenger seat. She was one of the most beautiful girls on campus, and I also hated her. I hated a lot of people, especially those who were beautiful. I hated them because they reminded me that life was unfair, especially in a world that seemed to bow down to people with good looks.
"Catch, Draken!" Topper, one of his friends, threw him a ball from the second floor of the school building.
Draken was quick to catch the ball, using his pinky finger to do a spin with it. That earned him a cheer from the crowd that was beginning to pool around him. Amanda was by Draken's side, a hand on his shoulder as she grinned widely. I had heard a lot of things about Amanda, most of which spoke about how her character was similar to that of a high school villain. As she stood next to Draken, I couldn't help but think that they looked like the homecoming king and queen. I watched as they were soon surrounded by their squad, one I could never fit in with because of my looks and ineptness.
Topper and Killian, two of Draken's closest friends who were also on the varsity hockey team, were already next to him, along with some others whose names I couldn't be bothered to remember. I watched them laugh, converse, and toss balls amongst themselves. They seemed happy. *They were happy.*
As though he could feel a burning set of eyes on him, Draken looked up, staring at me with the most intense set of forest-green eyes I'd ever seen. He locked his gaze with me. I didn't look away, and for a brief second we held each other's gaze, but he was quick to look away from me and that made my stomach drop. I felt my self-esteem crushed just because he looked away first.
To Draken Gallagher, Eline Kadesh was *insignificant.*
But to Eline Kadesh, Draken Gallagher was her *nemesis.*