When the bell rang for break the class spilled toward the cafeteria. Not everyone carried their backpacks. Most tossed them into lockers or left them under their desks. Harper and Nicole left theirs beneath their chairs.Isaac noticed it. Guess luck was on his side with this.
Five minutes. Maybe ten before they come back. That's all he had to work with.
He didn't have much time. He'd have to wait for the room to clear out first.
He drifted out with the others, counted from one to a hundred in the hall, then slipped back inside. The classroom was empty. Lights humming softly. The faint smell of dry erase marker still lingering in the air. He crouched down and tugged their bags into the aisle. One had a tiny key lock on the zipper. The other had nothing.
Interesting.
He opened the unlocked bag. Textbooks. A makeup pouch. A pink notebook plastered with stickers, a name written neatly inside. Harper Clark. The worn edges and thick pages full of ink gave it away instantly. Her diary.
He told himself he didn't need to feel guilty for what he was about to do. Why should he? Harper and Nicole were Brock and Mikey's girlfriends. They'd watched him get hit. Laughed at it. Even threatened to tell their boyfriends if Isaac ever refused to run their errands. He had never thought about messing with them before. But today was going to be different.
He started flipping through the pages, moving fast and not stopping to read anything he didn't need. There were years of entries in here dating all the way back to sixth grade.He skimmed through it until he found the kind of words that could cut the deepest if they ever got out. His pulse quickened. The whole time he kept glancing at the door hoping no one would walk in on him like this. Once he found the right parts he memorized enough lines to sting and humiliate but not enough to trace directly back to Harper's handwriting.
He walked to the whiteboard, uncapped a marker, and began to write in tight blocky letters. Lines twisted from the diary, rearranged just enough to disguise where they came from. No names. But detailed enough that everyone would know. When he finished he capped the marker, wiped his fingerprints from it with his sleeve, slid the diary back into the bag, returned both backpacks exactly where they'd been, and ghosted out before the first footsteps returned in the hall.
The bell rang again. Break was over. Isaac slipped back into the classroom expecting the usual chatter and noise. Instead the air buzzed with shock.
At the front Harper was on her knees, tears streaming down her cheeks as she stared at the board. Nicole crouched beside her whispering frantic comforts. But nobody was paying attention to them. All eyes were on the whiteboard.
["Well, it's me again, dear diary. I can't say if I should feel guilty or excited… I got a boyfriend, but the problem is, I lost my virginity to my boyfriend's friend on the third day of our relationship. I acted like I was experienced so he wouldn't suspect, but it still hurt…
…I thought dating wild boys in school meant they all had big dicks. Guess I was wrong. Sex with his friend wasn't enjoyable, and today with my actual boyfriend? Even worse. He didn't last more than two minutes after all that talk about pounding the hell out of me and sending me to heaven…
My friend couldn't stop talking about how good her boyfriend was in bed. Maybe I should seduce him just to see if he's better… I mean, I'm sexy enough, right? Honestly, I just want to bang every boy in class to know what real sex feels like.
I don't know if this makes me sound like a slut—but who cares."]
-[BY YOUR FAVOURITE COCK-LOVING SLUT - HC]-
The classroom buzzed like a hive gone rabid. Gasps mixed with whispers. Cruel laughs bubbled up despite half hearted attempts to hide them. Everyone knew exactly who the words on the board were about. The "HC" at the bottom gave it away and Harper's very public breakdown only sealed it.
Isaac sat at his desk with his jaw clenched to keep from grinning. His pulse thrummed with wicked satisfaction. Not all of that was actually in her diary. He'd twisted a few lines and added some of his own. But who cares? This was gold.
Then Harper snapped.
She shoved Nicole's hand off her shoulder and spun on her friend with eyes blazing, sharp enough to cut glass.
"You… bitch. This was your doing wasn't it?"
Nicole froze. Her mouth fell open and her face went pale. "Harper what? What are you even talking about?"
"Don't play me for a fool!" Harper's voice cracked but didn't falter. "You're the one who told me to bring my diary today. You set me up!"
The noise in the classroom swelled. Whispers doubled in volume. By accusing Nicole so directly Harper had basically confessed. The diary was real. And the filth written on the board had truth behind it.
Nicole's lips trembled then steadied. "That's not true! I was with you the whole time! You're like my best friend. I would never do something like this to you."
"Oh really?" Harper spat. Her fury twisted her face into something unrecognizable. "Maybe you planned it earlier. Maybe you got someone else to write it while we were out. Why was only mine on the board huh? Why not yours? You didn't tell them you lost your virginity at fourteen. Or that your mother was a prostitute. Or that you've been screwing half the teachers in school!"
The room erupted. The whispers turned into a full blown storm. Students clutched their mouths or leaned in closer for every scandalous word that came out. Isaac's stomach cramped from holding back his laughter. He hadn't expected Harper to drag Nicole into the dirt too. This was going further than he ever imagined.
Nicole's face contorted with rage. "Harper… first off I wasn't the one who told you not to put a lock on your bag. And second," her voice sharpened to a knife's edge, "you'd better shut your mouth before I make you regret it."
"Oh? And what are you gonna do?!" Harper shrieked and lunged forward.
Her hands tangled into Nicole's hair yanking viciously. In a heartbeat the two of them were thrashing on the floor. Screaming. Clawing. Pulling hair. Rolling like wildcats in a brawl.
Desks screeched and toppled across the tiles. Pens and notebooks scattered everywhere. The class didn't move to stop them. Instead everyone leaned in wide eyed, caught between shock and raw entertainment. A few students bolted out the door to grab others from nearby classrooms. Word of the fight was spreading like fire.
Sure enough within minutes the doorway was crowded with curious onlookers. Some even had their phones up snapping pictures and recording videos. The commotion only grew louder until their boyfriends Mikey and Brock stormed into the classroom, faces dark with fury. They yanked the two girls apart but Harper and Nicole weren't finished. Even restrained they still spat venomous words at each other across the room.
"Enough!"
The word cracked like a whip. Mr. Prescott had arrived. The strictest bastard in school with a glare sharp enough to cut steel. The room froze.
"What the hell is going on here?" His voice was cold and laced with threat.
The class fell into a heavy guilty silence. No one dared speak. Mr. Prescott's gaze swept over them before settling on the whiteboard. His expression hardened as he took in the words scrawled there. The story practically pieced itself together before his eyes.
"Everyone back to your classes. Now." His tone left no room for argument. He jabbed a finger toward a student in the front row. "Clean that board. Move."
Then his eyes locked on the two girls still seething in their boyfriends' grip. "And you two. Principal's office. Immediately."
The crowd dispersed reluctantly, whispering in hushed voices as they filed out. But before Harper left her gaze lingered for just a second too long on Isaac. His chest tightened. Did she know?
No. Impossible. He had never written on the board before. He'd even altered his handwriting to mimic one of the usual note writers in the class. There was no way she could suspect him.
Still, a certain unease prickled at the back of his neck and it left him restless for the remainder of the day.
When the final bell rang Isaac didn't waste a second. He packed his things in a rush and slipped through the halls before anyone could stop him. Derek wasn't in school today so he was in luck. Not that anything would have happened even if he was there but it was still better not to risk it.
By 3:30 he was already home. The house was silent. Too silent. Victoria wouldn't be back until four and his dad rarely returned before evening. Perfect.
Isaac bounded upstairs, shut his door, and pulled the book from his bag. The black leather gleamed with an unnatural sheen, almost alive in the dim light of his room. The quill still clung to its side as though held there by some unseen force.
The moment his fingers brushed the cover the tendril whipped out and wrapped tight around his finger. It bit into his flesh, sharp enough to draw blood.
He hissed through his teeth. It was the same as yesterday. Like being injected with fire under his skin. But even through the sting his fascination outweighed his fear.
At the tip of the quill his blood thickened into deep crimson ink.
So it really does use my blood.
He didn't hesitate this time. He opened to a fresh page, pressed the quill down, and began to write. Every detail of what happened in class. The chaos. The fight. The accusations. Word by word his blood soaked into the paper, carving letters that seemed to sink into the fibers as though the book itself was drinking it in.
When he finished he leaned back in his chair with his heart pounding. His breathing was unsteady but his eyes stayed locked on the book.
Now all that was left was to wait. To see if the book was truly real.