3 broke(n) souls

Chapter 1

The only thing ringing in Sayori's ears was the intense ticking of the clock.

Tick tick, tick tock.

She wished she knew how to tell a clock to shut up, but she was too busy trying to focus on the painting before her. The only good thing about today was that it was Thursday, quite close to the beloved friday.

She pushed her brown hair off her face and tried to focus on her painting. She worked best in silence, but the sound of her teacher's heels clicking against the floor plus a clock ticking incessantly irritated her.

"You have 10 minutes left to complete the sketch," announced Madam Selle, the fake blonde teacher who had a flair for the dramatic. She flicked her hair off her shoulder and strutted over to Sayori, bending down to look at her easel.

Sayori held her breath, hoping that her swallowing wasn't loud enough for the arrogant teacher to hear. "Mm..." Madam Selle sighed and straightened, catwalking away towards the next easel. Sayori wrinkled her nose and returned to finish her painting.

Unfortunately, her last three minutes were wasted when the teacher turned an easel around and started hollering praises to the high heavens. "Bravo! This is a work of art! Masterpiece!"

Sayori craned her neck to look past her easel, only to return back to her painting. She grimaced, intentionally pushing some hair from behind her ear to cover her eyes. She didn't want to see the painting everyone was praising.

Of course it was 'good'. It was done by none other than Flora Chong, the richest girl in the entire school. She always had an innocent smile, the mask hiding all the cruel things she did to the other students around her. The ones that disliked her were too scared to go against her, while the rest all admired her, following her like a moth to a light.

She was a trendsetter. The celebrity of the school.

Her father was a sponsor to the school too. L'académie des rêves, the school of dreams. Those who wished to pursue the arts, whether it be music, art or literature, it was all available here. Flora got here through money, while Sayori got in through hard work and sheer determination. It wasn't like she had a choice.

From the start her family wasn't exactly the richest. Being the oldest child, she used to work part-time to support herself, but now she depended on scholarships, and her younger brother took over the role of working part-time.

"Sayori! Are you listening?" seethed the teacher, shoving Flora's easel into Sayori's face. "I am, ma'am," she replied, trying to keep a straight face the moment her eyes caught sight of the 'work of art' in Madam Selle's gnarly fingers.

There was a sun at the corner of the easel, and some grass at the bottom. Minimal effort but maximum gain. She didn't know whether it was better to cry or laugh.

Sayori pretended to try and understand the 'marvelous' and 'spectacular' painting while Flora placed on her humble mask.

"T-thank y-you all. It's not that good," she giggled, batting her eyelashes, her eyes wandering over to Sayori. Sayori instantly spotted her sly smirk. She pretended to not see it and looked at the painting again.

It isn't good.

"It's excellent," lied Sayori, chewing on her lips, wanting to sift the words out of the air and stuff it back into her mouth.

Flora didn't even pay attention to her as Madam Selle and the other students showered her in compliments, all hoping to get on her good side.

Some might ask, what drew Sayori to hate Flora that much? Was it jealousy? Boredom? Pure evil?