Karen's P.O.V.

　　After being a girl for so many years, I never expect, one day, I'll become a guy. I mean, to disguise as a boy.

　　I was standing before a mirror, looking at my image.

　　My attention was focused on my long blonde hair, smooth and beautiful, pouring down on my shoulder like a waterfall.

　　"Still a girl," I said to myself.

　　I took scissors and cut my hair, as short as it could be.

　　Tears rolled down my face.

　　I had kept my hair for ten years.

　　I felt sorry for it.

　　But it's time to let it go.

　　Because I must go to a boy's boarding school!

　　I must look like a boy!

　　Only in this way, could I find out what had exactly happened to my dear brother in his school!

　　I wiped my tears away and stared at the "Boy" in the mirror with messy hair, feeling satisfied.

　　Except...with blond hair and blue eyes...I looked a little bit like my brother...

　　Hope that none could find it...

　　......

　　I was walking in the Lockwood Boy Boarding School, with my head down.

　　But I could still sense that everyone was looking at me.

　　People were all talking about me, remarking "this little chicken", giggling.

　　And they even deliberately kept their voice loud.

　　I took a deep breath, pretending I was deaf, to make myself feel better.

　　I never imagined my first-day school would be that worse.

　　I was a skinny girl, losing so much weight out of the worrying for my brother. Besides, I was rather short, compared with those teenage boys.

　　I wore loose clothes to cover my female characteristics, which made me look even smaller.

　　Boys loved to bully someone who was not bigger, taller, or stronger than themselves.

　　That's the only way they could get a sense of superiority.

　　And "the small boy"----me, appeared to be an easy target.

　　Today, when I introduced myself as a new student here, a boy directly shouted at me, "Hey! Baby boy! Come to the wrong place! Kinder garden is miles away!"

　　"Woo!" His words arose laughter among the class.

　　"I am Karen Wales----" I tried to ignore them, although my face was turning red.

　　"Karen! Ha ha! Such a girly name!"

　　"Hi! Wales! Will your mommy pick you up after school? En?" A boy interrupted me and teased at me loudly, laughing.

　　"Of course! Her baby was too small to go back home on his own! Ha ha..." Another boy yelled happily.

　　In that way, I took several horrible classes in mocking and laughter.

　　And now I was rather frustrated.

　　When my brother Simon was sent here, I heard that the Lockwood Boy Boarding School was the best high school in this community.

　　Oh! Come on!

　　It was the most terrible place in the world!

　　Have a look at the students here!

　　A group of wretched little devils!

　　I regretted terribly for my decision of sending Simon here, otherwise, two months ago, he would not have fallen down from the school building...

　　Right in front of me...

　　Thinking about my little poor brother, who was still lying on the bed unconsciously, I regathered my courage.

　　The situation in the school could not be worse, but I must stick to it!

　　For my brother!

　　I must find out the truth and at the same time, protect myself!

　　While I was encouraging myself, I had arrived at my locker.

　　But I found that it was broken.

　　My stuff went missing!

　　Luckily I just put a notebook in my locker.

　　Boys passed through me as nothing had happened, but I could see the smirks on their faces.

　　They were all waiting for my reactions.

　　They were quite certain that something interesting would happen next.

　　"Hey! Little chick! Looking for your notebook?" A tall boy said, waving my notebook right before me in his hand.

　　"Give me back!" I said bravely, but a little terrified inside. He was such tall and strong...and he was a boy...

　　"Unless you can get it from me. Oh! Sorry! You cannot even reach my middle, sucker!" He laughed loudly, and the other boys followed him.

　　He was right. I could do nothing about him...

　　If I could not do even such a small thing like retreating my notebook, how could I find out what had happen to my brother?

　　Suddenly, I was trapped in extreme frustration.

　　Seeing that I made no reply, the tall boy walked to me and pushed me hard on my shoulder.

　　My back hit the locker heavily.

　　"Baby boy? What rubbish are you in? A bib?" He teased at me viciously.

　　The whole crowd burst into laughter.

　　I wore high-collar clothes to cover the fact that I didn't have the Adam's Apple. Hearing his words, I got nervous, and I quickly covered my throat with my hand.

　　But the tall boy opened his large hand and began to pull my collar open.

　　I grabbed my clothes tightly, tried to defend myself, and meanwhile, holding my tears back, afraid that he would find out I was a girl.

　　Just at that moment, the crowd was silenced.

　　I could feel that the atmosphere changed in an instant.

　　The tall boy turned around and was frozen also.

　　I looked up and saw someone approaching vaguely through tears in my eyes.

　　The crowd was quiet because of the approaching boy.

　　When I saw him clearly, I understood why.

　　The boy was in a black tee, leather jacket, and dark skinny jeans with holes, and high buckled boots. There was also a metal chain hanging on his belt as decoration, and on his left ear ossicle, there was a glistening stub. He dressed like a gangster rather than a student.

　　He might think he's cool. In particular, a pinch of blue hair at his front.

　　The boy noticed me, and in the next moment, he looked into my eyes. I felt weird and uneasy, so I took my eyes off him, avoiding making eye contact.

　　But what happened next truly surprised me a lot.

　　The gangster-dressed boy directly grabbed the tall boy's collar from his back, dragged him away, took my notebook from his hand and threw it to me.

　　I caught it subconsciously.

　　I even forgot to say thanks.

　　Then I saw him gave the tall boy a cold glance.

　　The tall boy's face turned to ash-white, like he had just eaten a frog. But he didn't dare to say anything.

　　Terrified, he left in a hurry, almost running away, not forgetting to cast me a hard look from his back.

　　Other boys also scattered, leaving only me and the boy in this room.

　　The next thing I knew, the boy with dark grey hair had come close to me.

　　I swallowed hard, feeling so embarrassed to face someone who had saved me, without knowing why.

　　But the one who had just helped me looked like a bad boy.

　　What did he want to do next?

　　He lifted one of his arms, put it against the locker, braced his body with it, trapped me right between the locker and himself, and opened his mouth with a smirk on his lips, "Hi!"

　　I suddenly got nervous to be so close to him.

　　"Hi...Hi!" I stuttered.

　　"Are you nervous...En? Little boy?" He smiled, whistling.

　　"No...I...I am not!" I tried to pretend to be calm.

　　"Well...I heard your name...Karen? Isn't it?" He curved his corner of lips and squited at me. I knew, he's laughing at me.

　　I suddenly felt angry.

　　"So what?! Wanna say it is girly also?" I stared at him, feeling that I was rather brave to talk to a "gangster" like that.

　　"Um...No...I just wanted to say...it was a cute name."

　　Hearing that, I blushed. I even didn't figure out why myself.

　　"Ralph Osborn. You can call me Ralph." Ralph got back on his feet, turned around, and left.

　　"Bye! Karen...Take care of your stuff next time." Before I came to my sense, his voice had faded away.

　　Hearing this, I held my notebook tightly against my breast, remembered that I still owed him thanks.

　　I didn't expect the first day of school would be so rough. All those wretched boys in school wanted to bully me, except for a weird-looking boy...

　　This all-male high school rumored to only accept decent students with good backgrounds. That guy who looked like a bad boy was an out-of-place alien in this school.

　　However.

　　It was the first time I received help in this school.