Zero

20 : "Finally"

P A R T 2 0

I'm in absolute dismay. This is bad. I have found out who the Eighteen is and I will not make any attempt to get her to join us.

So, it's Fleur, the girl who hates me because she's going after Jet and thinks I'm the reason it's not working. Then feeling's mutual, but it's because she keeps making digs at me for being a Zero as if I asked to be born one.

I can't believe I didn't notice it earlier. At Jet's birthday masquerade, she was wearing a shawl, so it couldn't be seen.

But as for all the other times, I never paid attention to her, dismissing her as a bimbo, which she is, and yet she's the Eighteen.

I forget that the above-Nines can be anyone. Anyone at all.

Ugh.

Anyway, I'm in class now, sitting alone at the back, staring daggers at Fleur.

Someone flops down onto the table next to mine. I look up to see Jet. He glances in the direction I was glaring, then turns to me, smirking. "Is someone jealous?" He teases.

He has got to be joking. "What of?" I scoff.

"That I might like her more than I like you," he says, grinning.

What does that have to do with me? And if he really does, it's his downfall, then. "How's that my problem?" I ask.

He grins that annoying grin and says, "Just kidding. Of course I like you more." Then he ruffles my hair, hops off the table and goes to join his buddies.

Leaving me scoffing in disdain.

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{ C A D Y }

I look around the hall before stepping over to the lockers.

Every week, I leave a peanut butter cookie wrapped in blue cellophane stuck onto the locker door. Everyone knows Kole loves peanut butter.

And yes, I do like him even though I don't want to think about what my parents will say about me liking a Two.

"He's of too low ranking for you," is probably it.

Now, I rush off to the cafeteria after leaving the cookie. There won't be time for me to have lunch if I do not hurry.

Camille, my best friend who is a Six, is waiting for me at our usual table, giving me an exasperated look. "You really should give up," she tells me. "It's a waste of time."

"It would be a waste of time if I really give up now," I insist. "Think of all the lunch time I've forfeited for him!"

Camille is blonde and thin, unlike me. I've been trying to lose weight. Sadly, it's not working as quick as I'd like.

We gobble down our lunch just in time for the bell to ring. On our way to afternoon classes, we pass by the twins in the locker hall.

They're so alike that the only way to tell them apart is their numbers. Also, being on the football team, they are a couple of the very few popular people in school who are below Five.

Anyway, they stop by their lockers and as Camille and I walk pass, Kole takes the cookie and stares at it while Kev smiles and waves. I return the gesture while Camille sighs and pulls me away.

Later, in between lessons, I loiter outside the classroom where the twins are in.

It is pretty much chaos in there. Students are all over the place, chatting, throwing things around - and these are all seventeen year olds. I spot Kev tossing a football to his classmate, but I don't spot Kole.