"I initially thought that you were only from a prestigious family as you attended the same school as us and Rika talked to you really causally." Sh.e.l.ly mumbled to herself.

"What about your partner?" I asked Ben.

Luke and I were together almost all the time whether it was in cla.s.s or during the weekends when Luke constantly dragged me to his special study sessions.

"We don't really meet or talk unless we have to when it's during our break or the weekends," Ben smiled sadly.

"Luke and I are stuck together all the time even though," I complained.

"I think you and Luke are a special case," Sh.e.l.ly admitted.

"It's like that for you too?" I curiously asked.

"Yea, Alex and I don't really meet with each other unless we really have to," Sh.e.l.ly answered like she was recalling a bad memory.

Well it did make sense. We saw each other everyday during school. Even when I had a long vacation when I graduated elementary school, I only met Luke once and that was when we went to the mall in the third district.

* * *

"Rika?"

Someone was shaking me awake.

"Stop," I moaned as I tugged the blanket closer to my face.

"You're going to miss breakfast," someone sulked.

I opened my eyes to see Sh.e.l.ly already dressed up and ready to go.

"Fine," I grumbled.

I got out of my bed and didn't bother to change out of the newly bought white nightgown from room service managed by the hotel.

I went to the living room to find Ben waiting for Sh.e.l.ly and I to come out while flipping through some channels on TV.

"Are you getting ready?" Ben asked while glancing at my nightgown.

"Nope, I'm ready to eat breakfast now."

"You do know that we're going to a restaurant inside the hotel for breakfast?" Ben asked like there was no way I would go there in my pyjamas.

"I do know," I replied tiredly.

From the pattern of the school and Luke always choosing to dine at the fanciest restaurants wherever I went, I discerned that Ben would also go eat breakfast at a fancy restaurant.

"I don't mind waiting, so go change Rika."

"No it's ok, I just want to eat breakfast now to go back to sleep soon after."

Before Ben could stop me, I asked an employee to escort us to the restaurant while Sh.e.l.ly gave a knowing glance to Ben that this was normal when Luke wasn't around.

After we ordered our breakfast, I noticed people from the other tables looking at our table while whispering loudly to each other.

"What?" I asked when Ben stared at me accusingly.

I ate my meal in silence while ignoring Ben's jabbing glances when the whispering got occasionally louder than the normal level when we first entered the restaurant.

When I finished my dessert, I quickly excused myself as Sh.e.l.ly and Ben followed me soon after.

"I'm going back to sleep now," I closed the door in front of Ben's face while Sh.e.l.ly went to the washroom.

When I woke up, the sky darkened into a deep violet. When I went outside myself, both Ben and Sh.e.l.ly were nowhere to be seen.

'They're probably eating dinner right now,' I thought.

I closed our hotel room and went to the floor with the restaurant that we went to in the morning.

"I think that's her!" A person reported.

"The person that's missing from the hospital." Another person gossiped.

"Look! She's wearing a hospital gown." Another person tried to point out.

Huh?

A security guard went up to me, "Your parents must be worried, let's go back to the hospital."

Umm. My parents live in the third district and what I'm wearing is just a nightgown provided by the hotel.

"I'm actually a person from the first district visiting the second district as part of my vacation getaway." I stated to the security guard.

"Yea right! People from the first district rarely come to the second district," The guard scoffed.

The guard dragged me to the elevator where there were police officers waiting on the first floor.

"Here's the girl," The guard handed me off to the officers.

"No! I'm actually a guest at this hotel. Not some nutjob who would run away from the hospital!" I tried to appeal to the officers.

The officers ignored my pleas as they shoved me inside the car.

"Your parents are really worried about you," one officer said the same thing as the security guard.

"My parents live in the third district." I countered.

"You can stop lying now. Maybe you got into a fight with your parents, but you can make up with them once you meet them." The same officer tried to console me to get me to calm down.

"And don't think we don't know the basic fact that people from the lower districts can't come up to the upper districts," the other officer added as if he couldn't be bothered with this.

Sigh. This wasn't much better than yesterday.