KEIFER POV
"Do you seriously think we can trust her?" Yuri asked, his voice low and laced suspicion. He was leaning against the desk, eyes following the door where Jay had just vanished.
I didn't answer right away. I just touched the fading bruise on my jaw. I didn't know if I could trust her, but I knew I needed to know who she really was. The Fernandez name change in the middle of history class had changed the game.
"Rory," I called out.
Rory looked up immediately. "Yes, Keifer?"
"Find out everything," I commanded. "I want her background, her connections"
Whatever Rory wants, Rory gets. He's the bloodhound of Section E—my most loyal friend and the one who handles the dirty work on the ground. If there's a secret buried in a neighborhood or a rumor whispering in a hallway, Rory will sniff it out.
Then I turned to the guy sitting in the corner, his face illuminated by the blue glow of a tablet.
"Edrix," I said.
"Yeah, Keif?" He didn't even look up; his fingers were already fluttering across the screen.
"I want her London records. All of them. Grades, disciplinary files, medical—everything. Don't stop at the surface. Dig into the school's private server."
Edrix is the ghost in the machine. He's a world-class hacker trapped in a high schooler's body. No matter how high the firewall or how encrypted the data, he finds a way through. If Rory is my left hand, then Edrix is my right.
The bell had rung for a break, and the entire class spilled out onto the benches near the edge of the Section E grounds. It was our usual spot—away from the prying eyes of the "perfect" students in the main building.
Yuri was leaning back, tapping his fingers against his knee, while Rory stood guard. Then Edrix, who hadn't taken his eyes off his tablet for the last ten minutes, let out a low whistle.
"Daaaaamn," he muttered, his eyebrows shooting up so high they almost disappeared into his hair.
"What is it?" I asked, leaning forward. "Did you find a boyfriend? A secret record? Or just a very expensive shopping list?"
Edrix shook his head, rotating the screen so I could see the glow of the London server. "Jay-Jay... her school in London is prestigious. Like, top-tier elite. But look at this."
He scrolled through a gallery of scanned documents and digital news clippings.
"She's a powerhouse. Soccer, tennis—she's won almost every tournament her school entered. It's not just a hobby; she's a champion athlete. I'm pretty sure she has a mountain of medals sitting back at her house in London," Edrix said, sounding genuinely impressed.
A sports girl.
I leaned back, crossing my arms as a mental image of her in a soccer jersey flashed through my mind. Suddenly, that right hook made a lot more sense.
"Tss," I scoffed, though my mind was already racing.
"Keep digging, Edrix," I commanded, watching the sway of the trees near the Section E fence.
"Rory, found anything yet?" I asked, my voice low. I was losing my patience, and the bruising on my jaw was a constant, pulsing reminder that I didn't know nearly enough about the girl who gave it to me.
Rory gave a slow, deliberate nod. "A lot, Keifer. But wait until Edrix is done with the digital side. You'll want the full picture."
I leaned back against the bench, exhaling a frustrated breath. Rory was usually the first to talk, so if he was holding back, it meant the info was heavy.
"Found it," Edrix muttered, his fingers tapping a final rhythm on the screen. He turned the tablet toward me, and my eyes widened. "Keifer, this isn't just a rich girl. Jay-Jay... she has over 190 million followers across social media. She's an international influencer. Back in London, she's basically royalty."
190 million? I stared at the numbers. That's not just a hobby; that's a fan base the size of a country. No wonder she carried herself like she owned the sidewalk.
"And her school record?" I pushed.
Edrix scrolled down, his digital brow furrowed. "On the surface? It's spotless. High honors, captain of the teams, perfect attendance. Pure Golden Girl energy. But look at the redacted files in the deep server."
He tapped a hidden folder, and a grainy incident report appeared.
"There's one record from two years ago. She punched a boy so hard he had to be rushed to the hospital for a broken nose. But the file was suppressed and officially wiped from her public transcript. Pretty sure her parents pulled some massive strings to keep her record looking clean"
"That's it? Nothing else on the record?" I asked, looking at Edrix.
"Not in the digital world. The parents did a damn good cleaning job," Edrix replied, shutting his tablet.
I turned my gaze to Rory. The air felt heavy, like the sky right before a storm hits. "Rory, your turn. Say it."
Rory didn't smirk. He didn't look proud. He looked like he was about to drop a bomb that would level the entire campus. "Keifer... Jay-Jay and Jare? I found out the truth. Reycee is not their biological mother. She's their stepmother."
"Reycee? Isn't that Kuya Percy's mother's name?" Felix asked, his voice cracking slightly.
The name hit me like a physical blow. Percy.
I looked at Felix, but my mind raced back four years. Back then, things were different. Me, Aries, Yuri, and Percy. We were inseparable. Back when my mom was still trapped with that monster Keizar, those guys were the only family I really had. I'd sneak out of that hellhole house just to breathe the same air as them.
But then the accident happened. Everything shattered. Percy died, and it was all because of Aries. I could never forgive him for that. That was the start of the war. Then, when Aries had the audacity to steal Ella—my girlfriend at the time—the hatred became permanent.
We went from best friends to strangers to finally enemies .(A/N I hate when that happens)
"Yes, but that's not the point here," Rory snapped, pulling me back from the dark memories. "The point is... Jay-Jay and Jare are related to Aries."
I felt my blood turn to ice. "How?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
"Half-siblings," Rory explained, his eyes locking onto mine. "Jay and Jare are Aries' half-brother and sister. Their biological mother, Jeana, gave them up years ago. Reycee and Jaspher took them in and raised them in London."
The world tilted on its axis. Fernandez.
"Does he know?" Yuri asked, his jaw so tight I thought his teeth might crack.
"Aries knows," Rory confirmed, leaning in. "He's known from the second they stepped foot on this campus. He knows exactly who they are. The Fernandez family supposedly messed with the records to change Aries' age for some legal reason, but the truth is, Aries is a year older than Jay-Jay, Jare, and the rest of us."
I let out a low, humorless laugh, my fingers ghosting over the bruise on my jaw. No wonder Aries was hovering around her at lunch like a moth to a flame.
And Percy... the thought of him made my chest tighten. If Reycee was Jay-Jay's stepmother, then Percy, my dead best friend, Jay would be Percy's stepsister.My past and my present were colliding in the most twisted way possible.
"What do we do now?" Yuri asked, his eyes dark with the same shadow of the past that haunted me.
I wanted Aries to suffer. I wanted to see him broken, stripped of that holier-than-thou attitude he'd worn ever since the accident—ever since he took Percy from us and then stole Ella. I wanted him to feel the same hollow, burning ache I lived with every single day.
"Keifer," Yuri prompted.
"I want to see Aries suffer," I said, the words tasting like cold iron.
"Keifer, keep Jay-Jay out of this. She doesn't even know," Ci-N piped up, his voice uncharacteristically small. "She's innocent in all of this."
I rounded on him, my gaze freezing him in place. "Innocent? That doesn't mean anything. She's Fernandez. She's related to him. Whether she knows it yet or not, the blood is there. She'll find out eventually."
"What's the plan then?" Blaster asked, stepping forward.
A slow, predatory smirk spread across my face. It was so simple it was almost poetic. "Easy," I said. "I'm going to use her."
"How?" Yuri asked.
"I'm going to make her fall for me," I stated, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "I'll be everything she wants. I'll make her think she's found her Romeo in the middle of Section E. And then, when she's completely mine... I'm going to break her heart. I want Aries to watch his little sister cry. I want him to drown in the guilt of whether to tell her the truth or watch her fall apart. I want to ruin the only thing he has left."
"Keifer, enough!" David shouted, stepping toward me. "This is low, even for you."
I didn't hesitate. I lunged forward, grabbing David by the collar and slamming him back against the bench. "Don't you ever tell me what to do," I hissed into his face. "You weren't there when the accident happened. You didn't lose what I lost."
"Come on, David. Keifer is right," Eren said, crossing his arms. "Aries needs to pay. If the sister is the price, then that's just how the game works."
One by one, the rest of the boys nodded in agreement. The pact was sealed. Section E was no longer just a classroom; it was the staging ground for a war that Aries Fernandez didn't even know was coming.
"Get ready, Jay Jay," I muttered, looking toward the distant Section A wing where Aries was probably sitting, feeling safe
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