Sinner

1| Cadara

Chapter 1: Cadara (Venus's POV)

I sat in the passenger seat while my dad drove the car. We're going to school. Yes, we have school. 

Let me take a moment to explain education here in Cadara. We start school at the age kids do everywhere else, but we're students until we're twenty. I'm currently eighteen years old. In Cadara, the education system entails this strategy which is as follows: 

Once we turn nineteen, we get two years of training in our school itself for our future career. Because there aren't too many career options in Cadara, it's split into the basics and each student chooses which field they would like to focus on, then we're trained for all jobs within that field. 

But for now, I'm just learning. It's my final year of that though. 

Cadara is still a kingdom. We follow the old-fashioned method of dictatorship of the royal family but at the same time, we're a modern kingdom. We have everything here and slowly but surely, at least I hope, things are changing. 

"Venus, are you listening to me?" 

I snapped out of my thoughts and turned to my father. "Sorry, what?" 

"I asked you what Caden has been doing," he huffed. 

Ah, Caden Locke. He's not the problem. His last name is. 

I am Venus Jade Princeton and he is Caden Locke. 

The problem is, our families despise each other. It's a very long, boring, daunting story, but to sum it up, our great grandfathers were the best of friends, both secretly betraying each other in business, and then both of them tried to kill each other when they found out about the other's betrayal. Ultimately, they both died at each other's hands. Unfortunately for us, before that even happened, they taught their sons to hate the opposing family. Then my grandfather taught the same thing to my father and now he teaches it to me and my sister Clarissa. 

She's too young to understand it all though. She's only ten. 

"Caden has been doing what Caden does, dad," I sighed. 

"Which is?" 

I chuckled, turning to him. "Get on my last nerve. Like he always does." 

"How do your teachers allow his pathetic pranks?" my dad grumbled. 

"They're just pranks, dad. They don't harm anybody, that's how." He pulled up in front of my school and I unbuckled my seatbelt, stepping out of the white convertible Cadillac. "Bye," I smiled. 

He drove off and I headed inside the small building. It's not too big, unfortunately. Education is a privilege here in Cadara. And you're lucky to receive it. Our subjects are simple. Math, English, Science, History, and loads of Arts. Arts includes a lot of different branches. Dance, painting, woodsmanship, singing, theatre, etc, etc. I take English, Writing as my art, and Dance because we do nothing in it. 

I walked into the building, spotting Remy. Remy is my best friend. Our mothers are too, actually. That's how we met. She waved me over and I picked up my pace. 

I'm a little late. "What have we got?" I asked. 

"English. Come on," she smiled.

I walked with her to class, both of us settling in at our individual tables. I sat behind her. 

The best thing about education in Cadara is that the lunch breaks are two hours long and in a huge field. We all basically have a picnic every single day outside. 

Most of the class was already here, the only people missing were, of course, our teacher and then... let's see. Roman isn't here, neither is Gianna and of course, neither is Caden. He's a little bit of a delinquent if you will. I personally have nothing against him. But I've always been told to either stay away from him or make his life miserable. I prefer the former.