New Life: A Second Chance

Lianne felt something hit her shoulder, and she rubbed it, her face frowning. The pain was not much, but it was uncomfortable nonetheless. 

However, other than rubbing her shoulder, she didn't have any other reaction. She figured that normally, one would look back or around to try and determine what had happened, but not her.

From that one sharp and sudden pain, she had her suspicions. She wasn't curious at all, so why should she turn around to see? 

In fact, sitting here, she had been blissfully in her zone while drawing. When she was in this state, everything around her faded away and she was at peace. However, with that slight pain at her shoulder, she was brought out of it.

It annoyed her.

Now, she was aware of her surroundings, and could also feel that she was being looked at. Lianne figured it was really her own imagination because she knew that some classrooms that were facing the field were filled with the students with the extra classes. How could anyone 'feel' the gaze on them, right?

Initially, she had not wanted to sit here because she was self-conscious of such an audience but the field scene was just too lovely to pass.

It had the trees that were nice and green, full of life, near the field that would normally be full of life. The contrast of life (of the trees) with and one that was empty (the field), appealed to her.

Lianne decided to ignore the slight discomfort and looked down at her sketch, preparing to get back into the zone. She could forget her surroundings then.

Just then, another slight pain, this time on the other side of her shoulder. 

It didn't need a genius to figure out someone stupidly persistent was trying to get her attention.

With an exasperated sigh, Lianne took a big gulp of her drink to calm down the rising agitation in her heart. Twisting the cap close, she carefully kept her sketchpad and drawing materials into her bag. 

Flinging the bag across her shoulder, she grabbed her drink and walked off in the opposite direction - away from the source of the pain.

From her analysis, the person didn't want to be seen. So, naturally, Lianne chose a route that the said person wouldn't be able to follow. Luckily, she had already memorised the map and knew the school grounds so it was quite easy to lose the person, whoever he - or she - may be.

Lianne couldn't help but think that the person was really stupid.

The person was obviously either a student in the third year, or the fifth year. The fact that he wanted to remain hidden meant that he was skipping class. 

Just to annoy her? 

No, probably to get to know her.

Such an idiot.

The person must be a guy, for a girl wouldn't go through all that just to get to know another girl. 

So, he must have been curious for there as nothing about her that was striking. In fact, she doubted that he had even managed to see her face as she always had her back to the building when she went to the field.

All of his actions pointed out a few things about his character.

Him skipping class meant he was a troublemaker - at the very least, a mischievous person. He may, or may not be, harmless.

Secondly, the act of trying to get her attention by throwing something at her? That showed confidence and, to a certain degree, some arrogance. He must be popular and most likely, good looking. 

Did he expect her to obediently follow him and talk to him?

Lianne rolled her eyes just thinking about it. 

Lianne thought idly that the guy must either be in the baseball team, or the basketball team. To be able to gauge the distance and throw accurately was something a baseball pitcher and a basketball player would be able to do. 

However, based on what had happened, it was most likely a baseball pitcher. 

To throw whatever it was that was thrown, there had to be some sort of power behind it. The throwing technique for throwing a ball into a hoop was different from a baseball player pitching a ball. 

Having come to that conclusion, Lianne made a mental note to stay away from all jocks, especially those from the baseball team. It wasn't that she was looking down on them for she admired anyone with skill.

Just that this experience made her feel that they're probably going to be more trouble than their worth. The fact that this troublesome idiot had come out just to disturb her already pointed to it.

She could do without it, thank you very much. 

Lianne preferred being low-key and away from all those 'popular' people. Joey may love and thrive on it, but she didn't. 

She sighed.

Now that they were in high school, and remembering the way that Hope girl had fawned over her brother, Lianne suddenly felt that her high school life was going to be one torturous experience indeed.

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Kay sat in the Cyberwar room, a place that she had not been in for quite some time. 

She tapped her finger on the table, glad that she was alone in here while everyone was in Country M. 

As for her own team, they had been dispatched elsewhere. After all, their job wasn't to monitor her, or be her bodyguard; but rather, to help her in the running of the Smith Industries. 

In short, what Zero and the others appeared to be to the public, was exactly what her team was about. She didn't have some vendetta, and she wasn't involved in the Underworld either.

However, right now … 

She was doing something that she never thought she would ever do.

Stalk someone.

No, no, no … it wasn't stalking.

It was merely 'observing with care from a distance'.

Stalking gave the impression of a crazed fan that would eventually pose a danger on the person that he, or she, was obsessing over. 

Kay wasn't doing that at all.

Her fingers flew across the keyboard, easily bypassing the firewall without leaving a trace. 

Luckily, the school that Joseph and Lianne were going to, had security cameras installed in all the common areas. It wasn't as extensive as Sakura Academy, of course, but it was better than most.

Tongue in cheek, Kay got the security feed easily. She picked up her phone and soon, managed to connect it to her phone. Then, she slipped in a special AI programme into the security programme of the school.

The AI was something she had developed quite some time ago during the Kyle fiasco. From the initial spiders that she let loose in the Internet to capture and flag any posts about Kyle, it became a programme that would capture his image and send her alerts.

Now, she used it to ensure that only Joseph would be recorded and sent to her phone, eliminating any other images. As a precautionary measure, she also had the AI work in the background to identify persons of interest.

Ordinarily, 'person of interest' was a term used by Country US to identify a person that is involved in a criminal investigation but has not been arrested as yet. However, for Kay, what she had done was created an algorithm whereby the AI would observe and recognise any behaviour that may be a threat.

Thus, Kay's hacking into the school system served two purposes. 

One, to 'observe' Joseph and two, to ensure that the environment was safe. 

Kay hadn't neglected Lianne, but she was placed 'in the background', so to speak. The AI will continue to capture and oberve images of both Joseph and Lianne, but only the live stream mages of Joseph would be sent to her phone automatically and continuously. 

In short, Joseph was the 'default' mode. If Kay wanted to check up on Lianne, she would need to access the programme and click on it to do so.

After spending a few more minutes to tie loose ends, Kay sat back in relief. It took longer than she expected, but it was better to be safe than sorry. She didn't want to do a botch job for this did entail their safety as well.

She continued to study the nine screens in front of her, which showed the feed for the main areas of the school. 

To her surprise, Joseph was still in school. 

She sat and watched him, seeing how easily he made friends. Class had just finished and people were surrounding him, talking to him with smiles on their faces. Her eyes narrowed a bit when she noticed that the girls were giving him googly eyes. 

Turns out the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Even though he's not biologically Kyle's son, the charm he gives out appears to be the same as Kyle.