Chapter 1

Chloe was the most obsessive copycat at St. Jude’s Prep.

Whatever tablet brand I bought, she’d get the exact same one, even if she had to finance it in installments.

I signed up for a niche Latin course, and she registered too, even though she barely knew the alphabet.

Everyone thought she was just desperate to fit into our high-society circle.

Until late one night, I heard a cold, mechanical voice in my head:

[Ding! Learning trajectory alignment has reached 80%. Actively stripping Vivian of her Ivy League early admission spot and her IQ.]

Hidden behind my canopy bed curtains, I smiled silently.

So, she was using a sci-fi system to steal the Ivy League offers I had pulled countless all-nighters for?

The next night, I sat on my dorm balcony, chugging a glass of thick, crimson liquid. I even drew a few creepy, mystical runes on my face.

I purposely complained to a friend on FaceTime, my voice loud enough to carry: "Ever since I started drinking this raw deer blood from a European Wiccan, my brain feels as sharp as a quantum computer."

In reality, it was just organic beet juice mixed with thick tomato paste.

That very night, I watched Chloe climb over the school fence, heading straight toward the wild deer woods behind the campus.