It was a Monday afternoon at Star City University two days after the shopping incident. It was a normal day except for the fact that the school's poorest student had evolved. Patricia's video went viral but it earned Brian popularity instead of her. Brian had become the hot topic of discussion in the school. Who would have thought Brian had so much money? Everyone knew him as a poor student. Brian, who was aware of the attention he was getting, entered the cafeteria with Melanie and Charlene behind him. All heads in the cafeteria snapped towards him immediately. "OMG! The rumors are true." "Isn't that the latest shirt and shoe brand he is wearing?" "How is this possible?" "Charlene and Melanie are really lucky." Murmurs and hushed gossips filled the air Brian wore one of the shirts, jeans, and sneakers he bought in the mall to school. He even had a gold wristwatch and chains on his neck, and a new pair of glasses. He could have been mistaken for Raymond if not for his glasse
*SLAP* Brian's face turned to the side from the impact, shock written on his face. He wasn't expecting the slap to come at all. Slowly, he turned and looked at Patricia who was fuming in anger. "How dare you carry your wretched self into this prestigious place? Have you no shame? Do you see your type here?" Patricia spat. Brian felt rage rush through his blood. He fought the temptation to hit her back because if he did, he would do more than slap her. He opened to speak but was interrupted by another person. "What's going on here?" Alexia, who had just come out from another door and saw the commotion, asked. She also worked there. Alexia's expression of surprise changed to disgust when she saw Brian. "What's this good-for-nothing fool doing here?" Brian opened his mouth again but Patricia spoke immediately. "After humiliating me online, you still have the guts to come here, huh? Do you think you are some big shots because you paid some money? I'm very sure Melanie and Charlen
"Say hello..." he raised his hands in the air, "...to your new black card." He slammed his hand on the table and withdrew, revealing a black card. Brian gasped in shock and took the card. He turned it, examining every spot. His name was embedded in it. "Your father created an account with your name recently and sent me the card." He paused allowing Brian to process the first piece of information before adding. "There's ten billion dollars in it." Brian's eyes widened. "Ten what now?" "Ten billion dollars," Richard repeated. "Yeah. As long as you are in this house, you'll never lack anything." "Oh, my goodness. I think I'll go shopping again." "Of course go have fun. Also, you'll start training tomorrow." Brian's face twitched. "Training?" Richard nodded. "Being the heir of the Addams family, you need to learn how to protect yourself. Sure, Melanie and Charlene are your bodyguards but they can't protect you all the time. There are times when you may need to protect yourself. S
"So, how do you think Brian Ashton got rich?" "Well, he could have been pretending so he wouldn't attract attention but Alexia's heartbreak must have hit him so hard he decided to expose himself." "Or he could have done something to get rich after Alexia broke up with him to get at her." "Come on, Lillian. What could make him rich in two days?" "Something illegal?" "Hmm, it's possible but Brian doesn't strike me as someone who would do something illegal." "You never know what is going on in someone's mind." Two girls gossiped loudly without a care of the world in the school parking lot unaware of the eavesdropper lurking nearby. Raymond couldn't take it anymore. He walked towards the car where the two girls were gossiping. "Don't you two have anything to do with your life rather than gossiping?" hissed Raymond. The girls only glowered at him before entering their car and zooming off. Raymond blinked. Did the girls just glare at him? Before, they would quickly go away without
'Dang it. Why did this man waste our time? Mel and Brian must be waiting for me.' Charlene thought as she came out of her class and started rushing to the cafeteria. The lecturer, who taught her class, overused his period, making them stay five minutes extra after the ringing of the bell. The students were not happy about the delay. Due to her focus on getting to the cafeteria quickly, she didn't notice the person coming towards her until she bumped into him. "Ouch!" Her head hit a strong forehead and she bounced back. "Oh, I'm so sorry." They both apologized in unison, rubbing their foreheads. "No, I'm sorry." They said, speaking at the same time again. Charlene raised her brow and stared at the boy, noticing his features for the first time. He was as tall as Charlene with a red fluffy hair and freckles on his face. Charlene couldn't help but admire his cute face. She reminded him of the Weasleys from Harry Potter. "Uhm...I'm sorry. My forehead must have been really strong
Brian clenched his jaw. "Why does it pain you so much that I'm not attending the ball?" "No, no, no, Rian. It gladdens me, instead. No competition." "I have better things to do than attend silly dances." "Better things like burying your face into Harry Potter books or Business Management textbooks? Life isn't always about studying, my dear Rian. But you won't understand. After all, you lived three-quarters of your life in poverty." "Hey," Brian protested. Raymond flashed him a smug smile. "That hit a sensitive spot, huh? Well, not sorry. Oh, I heard a new teacher had an interest in you. Dating a teacher? That's too low even for my standards." Brian frowned. How did Raymond know about his encounter with Miss Claudine? One of his classmates must have spread the news. Before he could clarify he wasn't in that kind of relationship, Raymond added. "Anyway, see you some other time. Have fun with the teacher." He entered his car and zoomed off. Brian clenched his fist. The nerve of
He took a sip. Immediately, he made a disgusted face and spat the espresso out. "I asked for a sugar-free espresso," Brian yelled. The espresso was loaded with sugar that irritated his taste buds. Marilyn's face went pale. She glanced at Jason who only raised his brows. "Uhm, sir..." Marilyn tried to pacify him but Brian cut her off. "Is this how you treat your customers? Arguing with them and giving them wrong orders?" "It must have been a mistake," Marilyn said, regretting why she added sugar to the espresso. She did it only to piss off Brian but she never knew it would backfire this way. Brian scoffed. "Mistake? What kind of stupid mistake is that? You could have just gotten my espresso from the machine and brought it to me directly. I think you did this deliberately." "No, why would I?" Marilyn was already panicking. "You tell me. Oh, I'm so disgusted. I'm never coming here again." Brian got up. Jason nodded and scribbled something on the clipboard. Marilyn bit her li
Melanie and Charlene's jaw dropped. Charlene glanced at Brian and Melanie and covered her mouth, holding a squeal. Melanie was speechless as she stared at the rose in Brian's hand. Brian was nervous. "I thought...I thought you weren't going to the dance." Melanie stuttered, still staring at the rose. Brian shrugged. "Had a change of mind." Melanie looked at Brian with her brow raised. "Awn, this is so sweet, Brian," Charlene said with a dreamy face and placed her hand on her chest. "You like Melanie?" Brian's eyes widened. He nearly dropped the rose. "No..." he cleared his throat. "Let's not misunderstand things. I don't have that kind of feeling for her. I just need a date to go with to the ball." Charlene narrowed her eyes and looked at Melanie and Brian. "Yep, definitely like her." "Charlene," Brian protested, his cheeks flushing red. "Awn, he's blushing." Charlene teased more, causing Brian to blush more. "Brian is in love." Melanie rolled her eyes. "Stop being such
"SURPRISE." Brian's heart skipped as applause and cheers filled his ears. He blinked repeatedly and looked. The living room was crowded with a lot of people, at least two dozen and they were all clapping and cheering. Edward and Rosanna stood in front of them with smiles on their face. Conan was behind them, grinning. About two dozen of Nightbirds, Gray Guardians, and Butterflies also filled the room. Brian looks around. There was a line of flag pennants attached to the ceiling, together with flags with letters forming the word, "Happy Coronation." "Welcome home, honey." Rosanna stepped forward and hugged Brian. "I...you guys didn't have to throw a welcome home party for me," Brian said after they separated. "This is not a welcome home party, silly." Rosanna laughed softly. "What is it then?" Edward stepped forward to explain. "Well, it's the tradition of the Addams to celebrate the heir of the family on their eighteenth birthday. Kinda like an heir coronation. But with the gi
Brian became dumbstruck after Lana dropped the bombshell. Charlene's mouth hung open, Melanie covered hers while Dalton was the one who spoke in astonishment. "She's-what now?" "The person that called said she tried to carry out an abortion, but...it..." Tears streamed out of her eyes. Brian didn't need the complete statement to understand. His ex-girlfriend was dead. Alexia Baker was gone from this world forever. Brian exhaled deeply. Perhaps, if he was still dating her he would have burst into tears and rushed to the hospital like an insane person to hug her corpse and cry harder. But he didn't do that. His sadness for her death wasn't overwhelming. She wasn't worth his tears. But that didn't mean he wanted her dead. Alexia, just like Patricia, did horrible things but they didn't deserve death. They could have changed their ways and lived better. "I told her not to do it. This is all my fault." Lana continued crying, refusing to wipe her cheeks which were wet with tears. "
"Nebula news. Just last night, the kidnappers responsible for the disappearances going on in our city were caught and abducted. The victims were unharmed and saved. And sources tell us this was possible only because of a young man called Brian Ashton..."Brian could still remember the news as he was seated in the middle row of seats in the Dolly Hall.Just as he thought, the news about Brian saving the victims spread like wildfire that in three weeks, Brian was like a celebrity in the city.All the victims were returned to their families after being checked on in the hospital. Brian received a lot of thank-you messages from them on social media. Brian couldn't be happier.The children in Richard's mansion were also returned to their families. And what more?Brian snitched on Gabe and his friends about his connection with the kidnaps and his drug dealing. They were now in the police station, preparing for his verdict.These last few days were nice. Students now treated Brian like a cel
"He escaped." Dalton completed. "What? How?" Brian exclaimed. "We tried holding him but some guards came to his rescue. We were outnumbered." Melanie explained. Brian curled his fist. He should have sent some men to help them. But then, he wasn't expecting them to be outnumbered. "Did you see anyone with dreadlock run this way?" Brian asked Arata. Arata shook his head. "We guarded here heavily. No one left or entered." Brian's brows furrowed. How did Raymond escape? Was there some kind of secret passageway or tunnel in the house? Melanie let out a weak gasp and winced. The pain on her side was getting intense. Brian returned his attention to her and stared at her side. She seemed to have been stabbed where she was stabbed previously at Alexia's place. She needed treatment immediately. Just then, a deep voice boomed, causing Brian to jump a bit. "FREEZE." Brian turned. Blood drained from his face at what he saw. Several men barged into the compound. They were all armed
"You are not the only one with a bullet vest here." Miss Claudine cackled and pointed her black pistol at him again. "You are all dead meat."Before she could pull the trigger, Dalton moved and kicked her hand. Her gun skidded from her hand and she yelped."You must have forgotten you are outnumbered," Dalton said. "No one is dead meat except you."Miss Claudine straightened up."It's over." Brian raised his gun at her. A gunshot was heard in the hallway, causing Brian to turn. Two guards lay on the ground meters from them. They were shot by the Nightbirds.Raymond took advantage of the distraction. He grabbed Melanie's hand and twisted it.Melanie winced in pain and left her gun. Then, Raymond delivered a kick on her abdomen which propelled her towards Brian. As Brain caught her, he and Miss Claudine took off in the direction of the stairwell. Dalton raised his hand to shoot but they started moving in a zigzag manner making it difficult for Dalton to target. They entered the stairw
Brian's heartbeat increased its rate as he glanced at the guards pointing their guns at them as if they prepared for this moment their whole life. Melanie and their others stood in the same state of shock as Brian. The guards were about ten in number. Some of the guards stepped forward and took their guns, leaving them with no means to defend themselves. "Awn, sweet Brian thought his plan would work. Haha." Miss Claudine cackled maniacally. "But we were already one step ahead." Brian gritted his teeth at the sight of his Business Law teacher. Nothing had changed about her except that she was wearing a black shirt and black leather jeans, something he thought he would never see her wear. Her dimples, which once gave her a nice look, now made her look sinister with the wicked grin. "Long time no see." Raymond chirped in. Brian glared at him. Raymond also wore black like everyone else and for the first time, Brian saw Raymond without his earrings or chains. His dreadlocks dangled on
Conan tapped a button on the control unit of the kit after Brian's order and sent the command to the transmitter. Instantly, the lights went off and the area was covered in darkness. Brian tapped the button by his glasses and jumped out. He started seeing in radioactive green through the glasses. He moved towards the fence with the others. Just like they planned, the Nightbirds stood on the shoulders of the Gray Guardians. The Guardians stood up, lifting the Nightbirds to touch the electric wire.Since the power supply had been disrupted, they were able to touch the wire without being electrocuted. They snapped the wire quietly with wire cutters. Still on the Guardian's shoulders, they shot all the guards they found in the compound. As if fate was on their side, the cloud had covered the full moon, so the darkness thickened a bit.After they'd shot the guards, they indicated to the guardians that the coast was clear by tapping their feet on their shoulders.The Guardians lifted the
The black Sienna drove through the road in the forest. The headlights were dimmed to avoid easy spotting so Dalton had to drive carefully because of the limited light. Luckily, the full moon helped with some illumination. Some meters behind, two black minivans, in which Richard, Sasha, and the rest of the men and women were in, trailed behind. For some reason unknown to Brian, the cars made little noise as they moved. The laptop stood on the middle of the car dashboard. They were following the dot on the map which was still moving on the water as represented on the map. There was another dot on the map. It was a blue dot that represented them, enabling them to know how far they were from the kidnappers. The two dots were meters apart, the red dot being by the right and ahead of the blue one. Brian's uneasiness came back for a moment but he shoved it aside. He had started this already, so there was no point being negative. "Will our gas be enough for the whole journey?" Brian inq
Brian watched in amazement as a Nightbird, whose name was Killian (he was apparently the best voice imitator and actor they had), put on a Mohawk wig that resembled Gabe's hair. His face had already been covered with makeup, giving him Gabe's complexion. His eyes were covered with contact lenses, giving him Gabe's blue eyes color. "Wow, this is impressive work," Brian said to Sasha was just finishing applying the makeup. She bowed and smiled. "Thank you." "Now for the voice part. How's it going?" Killian took out his earpiece with which he had been listening to Gabe's voice. "How's this?" He cleared his throat and changed his facial expression to an angry one. He looked just like Gabe. "Hey, dude. What the hell are you doing?" He spoke in a voice that almost sounded like Gabe's if not for the deepness and pitch. Brian nodded again, impressed with what he witnessed. "Wow. How did you do that?" "Well, I've been listening to his voice since today so I studied his speech tone an