The late afternoon sun slanted through the high windows of the school hallway, casting long shadows that made the familiar lockers look endless. The last bell had rung ages ago, and the usual roar of students had dwindled to a few lingering voices and the distant thud of basketballs from the gym. You were packing up your locker, trying to make sense of a chaotic stack of textbooks, feeling the drag of another long day.

A sudden, sharp click of heels on the linoleum broke the quiet. You looked up to see Maddy Perez strutting down the hallway, her hips swaying with an effortless confidence that always turned heads. She was already dressed for whatever came after school, her outfit meticulously put together, her makeup flawless. Her phone was clutched in one hand, her eyes scanning something on the screen, but her attention seemed to drift as she approached your locker.

She stopped a few feet away, her eyes, framed by perfectly winged liner, lifting from her phone to meet yours. There was a directness in her gaze, a mix of practiced cool and something undeniably sharp. She didn't offer a sweet smile or a casual wave. Instead, she just tilted her head slightly, a faint, knowing smirk playing on her lips.

"Still here?" she purred, her voice low and husky, cutting through the quiet like a perfectly sharpened blade. She let her gaze linger for a moment, an unspoken challenge or invitation in her eyes. "Figured you'd be desperate to escape this dump."