Chapter 10: The War Begins

I sighed and pushed the breakfast back onto his desk.

"Why not give it to her? Mallory looks like she really wants to eat it."

He hesitated, but the next second, Mallory’s stubborn voice rang out behind us.

"Who wants your stupid breakfast?!"

Her eyes were red, looking totally miserable.

Noah’s brow furrowed. "No need. I bought it for you."

Behind us, someone slammed their book down loudly.

I slowly unwrapped the brown paper. Bacon and spinach sandwich—delicious.

Unfortunately, my deskmate kept running to the bathroom, ruining my appetite. I stuffed the sandwich into my desk.

"Noah, are you okay?"

He looked pale. "I think I ate something bad. It started last night."

I shoved the remaining sandwich into his hands. "Then eat this to keep your strength up."

My relationship with Noah wasn’t close enough for us to share breakfast, but he still frowned and tucked it into his desk.

Behind us, someone was flipping their workbook pages extra loudly.

They used to go to and from school together. On Monday night, no one knew what Mallory was up to, but when the bell rang after school, she shook off Noah and left campus first.

That night, someone updated the confession wall:

"Wall, didn’t they say the valedictorian and the ice queen aren’t together? I saw them sharing breakfast—look, here’s a photo! Is this the same packaging?"

Another anonymous post, this time even adding a filter to my photo. Comparing the packaging in my and Noah’s hands, before and after.

In the comments, people speculated about when we got together, and whether our GPAs were close enough to apply to the same college.

Another anonymous user, momo, chimed in. The IP looked familiar.

"They won’t end up together. Noah already has a childhood friend. Does Aubrey really compare?"

The internet never forgets. Students at Maple Heights High have even better memories.

Soon, someone replied:

"Hey, your IP looks familiar. Weren’t you the one who posted about Aubrey last time too?"

"Looks like Aubrey’s hater is losing it."

"Just curious, whether they’re together or not, what’s it got to do with you? We’re here for the gossip, but you seem to be the gossip yourself, huh?"

‘Noah’s childhood friend…’

Before they could be exposed, momo—

I stared at the confession wall, my heart pounding. If they wanted a war, I was done hiding.