Endless Love

chapter i

The halls of St Alexander High School for the rich and powerful were mostly quiet, the murmurs of students' voices kept to a minimal volume.

That was until Celeste Vauhn Duke strode into the hallways, back straight, her high ponytail of thick brown hair swinging, and her Christian Louboutin's rasping gracefully down the hall. Students stopped to stare, to wonder, to gaze, and to gawk, but Celeste spared them nothing more than a glance. All these people who claimed their power were beneath her.

You don't need to show true power off. It just follows you around, and graces the room as if nothing had ever stepped in its path.

Celeste Inès Vauhn Duke was a name that rang through the halls, the souls of the rich and powerful stepping back, the hairs on their necks standing up as they knew their true value, which could barely rack up to a cent next to such rule and importance.

As Celeste passed through the halls, the same thought popped in her head as yesterday. She could not wait to get away from all these low lives.

It wasn't that she thought better of herself- it was that she knew she was better. Sons and daughters of corrupt, vile, and cruel people were in this same corridor, and breathing the same air as her. Air that should not be theirs. These fools surrounded her, tried to consume her, tried to touch and grasp her with their filth covered, and greedy hands. They tried to take her authority, her beauty, and the wealth that she beamed into the world.

But she would not let that happen.

She was smarter than all these imbeciles, and probably most- if not all, the teachers too. Her parents had taught her to always be the smartest in the room, the quickest, but also the kindest, and politest. But she would not show any kindness or remorse to these monsters.

These people were the kind that used you for their own benefit, and threw you away with nothing but a crumpled image with all but dirt in your hands.

The only few people who she gave more than little to no regard to were all probably standing around her locker, chatting away with bright smiles on their faces, waiting for her.

The slightest pull of her mouth occurred, thinking of those idiots- no, her idiots, and she sped up her walk imperceptibly, so the hungry eyes that trained on her wouldn't notice.

Celeste Vauhn Duke was the daughter of Kyle Cole Vauhn Duke, one of the richest businessmen in the world, and daughter to Juliana Lévesque Laurent, one of the world's biggest fashion houses, cosmetic brands, movie stars, and influencers.

As Celeste finally turned the corner to her locker, she had found exactly what she had predicted. Four idiots standing around her locker.

"Good morning Sunshine!"

Yep. That was Lyra Du Pont for you.

Lyra was kind, but also brutal. Like shattered glass, gorgeous in the way it shone, but throbbing in the way it cut. Everywhere she went, smiles followed, as if the sun had given her permission to take its light and use it for her own. It probably did, with her dazzling white teeth and sun kissed skin, but Celeste guessed the sun didn't mind.

Her mother was a climate change activist, whilst her father was the best professional basketballer in the world. Lyra adored her parents to the fullest, joined all of her mothers protests and helped influence the importance that we only have one earth, and that we are destroying it.

But, not only did Lyra join her mother in the activism industry, but became an expert at basketball. Her father taught her to shoot before she could walk, and that caused her to be one of the best teenage female basketballers of the century.