Chapter 7

• “Anna! Over here! Here!”
• Andrea spotted the red hair standing out in the crowd. There were about ten to fifteen students sitting on the benches near what looked to be a garden and a stadium. Monday came which meant Andrea had to face the reality and fulfill the role of Anna – a student at Ember High.
• After her speech that day, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson were enraged and reprimanded her. In the end, she ended up grounded and the phone was even postponed. Fortunately, they didn’t take the Internet privilege away from Andrea. It gave Andrea the time to learn another devastating truth: she was currently in Metro A City, the farthest city away from Grand Z. Her face paled. It would take about ten to twelve hours of plane travel to get her to Grand Z.
• She decided she would contact Giovanni. However, before she could even do it, she noticed her laptop was bugged. As expected, she was still being monitored by her parents. Andrea stopped herself at the last minute, afraid anyone would discover her connection with the underground family.
• Maggie’s smile revealed her enthusiasm while looking at Andrea.
• Andrea glanced back at her with a simple smile. She could ask Maggie for help but using her phone for that kind of transaction would put her in danger.
• “I heard what happened during dinner. Are you going to share or do I have to ask questions like a freaking slam book?” Maggie suddenly opened.
• If she already knew what happened, what was the point of retelling the story?
• “It wasn’t that interesting,” Andrea directly said. She looked around, spotting the same students who were sitting around when arrived earlier. All of them were wearing uniforms except for one, a girl with braided hair who was currently surrounded by four other girls. On the side, a group of male students was laughing, two of them wearing the school’s basketball club’s varsity jacket.
• “Oh, come on. It’s the first time you blew on Connor. What makes that uninteresting? Stop being stingy, tell me more. Did he bully you again after that?” Maggie excitedly asked.
• “He didn’t bully me,” Andrea answered, eyes discreetly swept across the other side of the school park, swiftly catching two male students near the stadium. From her angle, she could see the exchange of small packets which if she could guess right, were bags of cigarettes. She shook her head. It seemed this school – Ember High – wasn’t as ‘clean’ and decent as the articles claimed to be.
• “Don’t lie. I know your head is a mess right now but you couldn’t possibly have forgotten all the things Connor did to you. Your brother’s the worst man anyone could ever meet, Anna,” Maggie said.
• Andrea finally turned to her. “Do you still hate him?” In that journal, Anna mentioned Connor and Maggie dated and broke up. It was only natural for Maggie to act bitter since Connor cheated on her during junior high although hating your ex for a long time didn’t sound pleasing to Andrea.
• For her, once love arrives, you have to accept it with wide, open arms. And once it leaves, you have to let it go as there is literally nothing you can do about it. Nothing too complicated about it.
• “I don’t!” Maggie exclaimed with a deep, defensive frown.
• Andrea nodded. “Good. I don’t either.” It wasn’t like she was in the position to hate anyone in Anna’s life anyway.
• Maggie was about to speak when the school bell rang.
• Thankfully, Maggie and Anna had the same schedule for today’s classes. It saved Andrea some time to figure out the ins and outs of the school at the same time learn about the people in this institution who had an important share in Anna’s life at some sort or point in time.
• “Which club is still recruiting for members?” Andrea opened up when they were sitting in the cafeteria one time after class.
• Maggie took a sip from her smoothie. “The Opera, why?”
• Andrea hummed and nonchalantly said, “I want to join it. Do you know their qualifications?”
• Maggie almost spilled the drink from her mouth. “What?!” She wiped her face and looked at Andrea with wide eyes. “Are you crazy? Or does your head still hurt? Hold up, let me call Mrs. Johnson—”
• “No, I’m fine. And you don’t have to do that anymore. I have a phone now,” Andrea said, smiling as she pulled her phone out and instructed Maggie to put her number.
• “Oh my gosh, your dad finally allowed you after a century, I’m so gonna share this to my page,” quickly as she contained her excitement, Maggie saved her number. “Okay, there you go. But, Anna, this doesn’t mean you can join that club.”
• “Why not?”
• Maggie sighed and rolled her eyes. “Don’t play dumb. After that speech, I know you did not lose your memories. At least, not all of it.”
• “No, I don’t...”
• Maggie let out an exasperated sigh, “Gosh, Anna. Drake is part of that club! Remember it now?”
• Anna paused. Then she asked, “He’s a singer?”
• “No, dummy! He plays the guitar!”
• Andrea frowned. “They play guitars in an opera house?”
• “No, ‘the Opera’ club in our school has mixed musical groups. There’s class A and class B. Class A is what the typical opera house has while class B consists of modern music. Drake is, of course, in Class B.”
• Andrea nodded. “That’s good then, we won’t be in the same group.”
• “But you will still be in the same club! Also, when did you start playing an instrument? Anna, let me remind you of your weaknesses. Aside from not knowing how to swim, you are also tone-deaf!”
• ...
• Two hours later.
• Andrea entered the room located on the third floor of the farthest building of the academy. Inside, there were two huge mahogany-colored curtains on each side and a table at the center.
• One man sat behind the table and spotted Andrea, “May I help you?”
• “I’d like to be a member of your club.”
• Suddenly, a man spoke. “Anna?”
• Andrea turned to the right, finding a tall, young man with a charming, youthful face. She immediately recognized him. It was the same person who was mentioned in Anna’s journal a hundred times.
• He was Drake Grande, Anna Johnson’s crush and ex-fiance.