It was Chloe Sinclair's first time climbing over the school wall, and she was a little flustered.
Her panic spiked when she spotted the security camera on the iron gate after she was over.
So she sped up and fled.
She didn't stop until she reached an alleyway lined with white walls and grey brick.
Chloe Sinclair had never imagined the alley behind the school's back gate would look like this.
The sides of the alley were overgrown with green moss. Groups of elderly people sat on the doorsteps of their homes, and the clatter of an automatic mahjong table shuffling tiles could be heard from nearby.
In such a sprawling city, this place was brimming with the vibrant energy of everyday life.
In front of the school, skyscrapers towered over bustling streets. Behind it, a labyrinth of alleys crisscrossed, their corners and dead ends quiet, peaceful, and full of character.
Chloe Sinclair slowed her pace and followed the sounds to an internet cafe.
The cafe's metal roll-up door was open, but a few sheets of cloth were hung over the entrance, obscuring the view inside.
A sign at the entrance read, "Minors Prohibited." And yet, from within, she could hear the sharp curses of teenage boys and the furious CLATTER of keyboards.
Without hesitating for long, Chloe Sinclair pushed aside the cloth and scanned the room, her bright eyes taking everything in.
The place was packed. All forty or fifty computer stations were occupied, many by students still in their school uniforms, cigarettes dangling from their lips.
And there, in a secluded corner, Chloe Sinclair finally spotted Summer Beckett.
With her eyes downcast, Chloe Sinclair walked straight toward him without a word.
The boy, however, hadn't noticed her. His hands flew across the keyboard as he cursed under his breath.
"I'm telling you, anyone who doesn't show is a little bitch!"
"Yeah, that's right! We're betting a million!"
As Chloe Sinclair got closer, she overheard this, and her brow twitched.
"A million what?"
"A million for whoever loses the parkour match, duh!"
Summer Beckett still hadn't registered who was talking.
His hand moved faster and faster over the mouse, and in an instant, he landed three kills.
"Triple Kill!"
The familiar announcement blared from his leaky headphones.
Chloe Sinclair had seen enough. She smacked the back of Summer Beckett's head.
Summer Beckett jolted upright and whipped his head around. When he saw who was behind him, his eyes went wide. "Holy shit!"
He scrambled to take off his headphones, staring dumbfounded at Chloe Sinclair.
For some reason, he always felt inexplicably intimidated whenever he was around her lately.
Chloe Sinclair glanced at the computer screen, her dark eyes unreadable. "Is it over?"
"Huh?" Summer Beckett looked over at the screen, then nodded. "Yeah, it's—it's over."
"Let's go, then."
Suddenly timid as a quail, Summer Beckett quickly closed the game and trailed after Chloe Sinclair.
The air outside the internet cafe felt instantly cleaner.
Chloe Sinclair took a deep breath, and much of her frustration finally dissipated.
Summer Beckett assumed she was acting this way because she was furious.
It was just like his dad, who would always take a deep breath right before grabbing the laundry stick and giving him a couple of good WHACKS.
At the thought, his heart instantly clenched with anxiety.
"Chloe, I've been going to class for days on end. I just couldn't take it anymore..."
"You said you were going to do parkour? And that there's a bet?"
Summer Beckett had expected her to be mad about him playing video games, but he never thought this would be the first thing she'd ask.
He spoke nonchalantly, as if this were a common occurrence. "Yeah, just messing around with Wilder Rhodes and his crew. The bet's not that big."
Summer Beckett wasn't lying.
He was the only son of the Beckett Family. And while his father was strict, he was never restricted financially.
He'd made much bigger wagers in the past.
A shiver went through Chloe Sinclair. She asked instinctively, "When is it?"
"This weekend, in the evening."
THUMP!
'Just as I thought!'
Chloe Sinclair couldn't recall the exact date of Summer Beckett's accident from her past life, but she vaguely remembered it was on a weekend in April!
"Do you and Wilder Rhodes have some kind of feud?" Chloe Sinclair asked suddenly.
The question caught Summer Beckett off guard. He nodded and answered honestly, "Wilder Rhodes and I have been at each other's throats since we were kids. The guy's a lunatic—extreme and totally twisted!"
Chloe Sinclair frowned. "Then why do you still compete with him?"
Summer Beckett was speechless.
He scratched his head, embarrassed. "Well, it's because I always lose."
From the time they were kids, he'd never once gotten the upper hand with Wilder Rhodes.
"So you're saying you've already lost a lot of money to him?"
The boy grew even more embarrassed. He hung his head lower, the tips of his ears turning red as he mumbled, "Yeah."
After a moment, he added, "It's not that much, really. Only... a few tens of millions?"
For a moment, Chloe Sinclair was at a loss for words. She didn't know what to say to this walking ATM in front of her.
Tens of millions. Only a rich young master like him could say that so casually.
"This time, the parkour course is in Westwood. I run there all the time, so I know the area like the back of my hand. I'll definitely win this time."
As he spoke, Summer Beckett's voice trailed off. He looked at Chloe Sinclair and asked meekly, "How about... you come along that day?"
"Okay."
Summer Beckett was so surprised by her answer that for a moment, he thought he'd misheard.
"I'll go with you. I'm competing, too."
Now Summer Beckett was convinced he was hearing things.
Before he could even process it, Chloe Sinclair had dragged him to the school's back gate.
The next thing he knew, he was watching her deftly scale the ten-foot-high iron gate, lean her body out, and land safely on the other side.
Summer Beckett's eyes were as wide as saucers. Chloe Sinclair was already back on school grounds.
He rubbed his eyes, still in disbelief.
"So... badass?"
He finally understood why Chloe Sinclair had said she was going to compete with such a straight face.
The moves she just pulled off were something only a pro could do.
However, the "badass master" Chloe Sinclair was actually panicking a little. She couldn't help but rush him, "What are you staring at? Get over here, quickly!"
Summer "King of Skipping Class" Beckett had no idea why Chloe Sinclair was in such a panic. Seeing how anxious she was, he just assumed she was in a rush to get back to her studies.
He took a few steps back for a running start, flashed a smile at Chloe Sinclair, and said, "Watch this."
"Hey, you students! What do you think you're doing!"
Suddenly, a deafening shout echoed from a distance.
Startled, Summer Beckett couldn't stop in time and ran right into the gate with a loud SMACK.
Before long, a pot-bellied school administrator came walking over.
The two faces seemed unfamiliar to him. "Well, well," he said. "Looks like I've finally caught you two red-handed."
After confirming their identities, the administrator let Summer Beckett through the gate.
He spoke, almost through gritted teeth. "So, you think you're something special, huh? From the looks of it, you were about to vault right over, weren't you?"
Summer Beckett shook his head with a cheeky grin. "Nope."
But this administrator was a seasoned veteran. Looking at the two students before him with a deep sense of disappointment—like hating iron for not becoming steel—he launched into a forty-minute lecture, earnestly trying to set them straight.
Finally, he concluded, "Now, call your parents."