The UnRanked

"Are you going to keep staring," Marcus said without looking up, "or were you planning on actually finishing that argument you started in class?"

I froze.

"I'm not staring," I replied flatly.

A beat.

"No?" he said, voice low, threaded with something that felt suspiciously like amusement. "Then you might want to work on your subtlety, Brains. It's slipping."

"My subtlety is perfectly intact. Your ego, however, seems to be expanding again."

"Occupational hazard," he murmured, turning a page. "It happens when you're right too often."

I let out a short, humorless laugh. "You're right occasionally. Let's not rewrite history."

"Mm," he hummed, like he was humoring me rather than engaging. "And yet, here you are. Still thinking about what I said."

"I'm thinking about how wrong you were," I corrected.

⋆༺𓆩🗡𓆪༻⋆

Hollowvale Academy isn't a school-it's a carefully curated illusion, stitched together with prestige, power, and secrets that refuse to stay buried. Here, every student is a story sharpened by something dangerous: mafia legacies, royal bloodlines, broken alliances, and pasts that don't survive daylight.
Octavia has none of that.

No past. No memories. No name on the ranking that decides who matters and who disappears.
For four years, she has lived as a ghost in a place that worships visibility-watching, listening, unnoticed. But ghosts aren't supposed to be seen... and they're definitely not supposed to rise.
The moment Octavia is pulled into the orbit of Hollowvale's most untouchable circle-the five who rule without trying-something shifts. Eyes begin to follow her. Whispers begin to form. And for the first time, her name appears where it never has before.

On the list.

But Hollowvale doesn't make mistakes.

As tension coils beneath polished hallways and quiet alliances begin to crack, Octavia starts to realise something far more dangerous than being seen-

And whatever erased her once... might be waking up again.