KAISER
They didn't wait. As they scrambled toward the door, Miller grabbed me by the back of my neck, hauling me up and away.
"You got lucky today," Miller hissed. "Next time, Luke won't be there to play with you."
"Chill out Miller," Sarah laughed. "The rat probably liked it. Didn't you see him staring?"
The teacher appeared at the roof door.
"What's going on here?! Shouldn't you all be in class?"
Miller's hand dropped. He put on a fake smile and draped an arm over my shoulder.
"Just helping him out, Ms. Gable!" Miller called. "Kaiser had a spill with some juice. He's a real klutz."
The teacher looked at me. My hair was a sticky mess, shirt stained purple and brown and I was limping. She knew. But this was Kingston Academy. The Alphas ran this place. She just sighed.
"Get to class, Miller. Kaiser, go change and report to my office later."
I walked toward my locker, my leg throbbing.
Our world was a messed-up place with a simple system. We weren't just classified as male or female or intersex. That part was only biology.
The real system came after that. It was called the secondary sex classification.
Everyone was assigned one of four categories: Alpha, Beta, Omega… and Apex. The fourth and rarest.
That's it.
You're either one of them or nothing at all.
That is the whole game.
Betas are fifty percent of the world… the majority.
Alphas are the twenty-five percent who get the cheat codes. They get the respect, the jobs, and the attention just for breathing.
Then there's the Omegas, the twenty percent who are treated like property because of their biology.
At the very top are the Apex Alphas, the 2.5 percent who rule everything.
And then there's people like me called "The Null." The other 2.5 percent.
Manifestation is supposed to happen between ages eleven to fourteen. By fifteen, you're a late bloomer.
At sixteen, I became an error in the system.
I had no scent. No identity. I wasn't even at the bottom; I was just… outside. Which was somehow worse. It felt like being a ghost in a room full of people screaming at each other.
Kingston Academy was where rich kids were sent when their families wanted them polished into something presentable.
Marble halls, old money names carved into plaques, uniforms that cost more than most people's yearly rent.
It looked like privilege from the outside. Inside, it was still just the same system wearing nicer clothes.
Alphas moved through it like they owned the air, Betas blended into the background like they were supposed to, and Omegas learned early how to make themselves smaller without being told.
Even the teachers didn't really pretend it was equal. They just called it "order" and kept things running.
I changed my shirt in the locker room. The burn on my leg was a raw, angry red circle. I cleaned the grape juice out of my hair as best I could before going to the infirmary.
The nurse, a beta who often smelled like lavender looked exhausted before I even sat down.
"What happened this time?" she asked quietly.
"Accident." I lied quickly.
This was my seventh visit in two weeks. The last time, it had been a bad bruise that needed an ice pack and tons of painkillers.
"You're a bad liar, Kaiser," she whispered. "Have you told your parents?"
My father was an Alpha with magazine covers and political friends. Every room he entered bent around him.
Then there was me. The defective son.
The broken thing nobody could fix. As for a Mom, I simply didn't have one.
"They already know," I said flatly.
The nurse went quiet after that.
I left the infirmary and walked back to class. I was late. When I opened the door, the teacher stopped talking and looked at me.
One Alpha in the back wrinkled his nose dramatically.
"Jesus," he muttered. "He still smells like grape."
Quiet laughter spread through the room.
"Where have you been, Kaiser?" Mr. Henderson asked.
"I fell," I said. It was a pathetic lie.
"That's the fourth time you've been absent for most of my class this month," he said, shaking his head. "See me after class. Sit down."
I walked between the desks while whispers followed behind me.
"Look at the juice stain in his hair," someone snickered.
"I heard Luke burned him."
"No way."
"Rowan recorded it."
"Seriously?"
"I wanna see."
"I bet he looks like a wet dog." Another snickered.
My desk sat near the back beside the windows.
Ghost, defect, waste of space... they were fresh scratches covered the wood.
Someone had carved 'Kill Yourself' deeper than before.
I didn't care. I'd seen it every day for a year. I sat down, pulled out my notebook, and tried to ignore the stinging in my thigh.
A folded paper ball bounced off my desk. I ignored it. Another one hit my notebook. Across the room, a Beta grinned at me.
"Open it," he mouthed.
I unfolded the paper slowly. Inside was a drawing of a ghost hanging from a noose. Underneath it someone had written:
Do everyone a favor.
I folded it back up and slid it quietly into my bag.
When the bell finally rang, the room filled with the sound of chairs scraping and people whispering.
A girl sitting next to me, Sapphire, kept glancing over. She was an Omega, chubby with pigtails and a face full of pimples.
She was a target for ridicule too, though not as bad as me. I ignored her until she rolled up a piece of paper and flicked it onto my desk.
I looked at her.
"I… I have the notes from the last class," she whispered shyly, sliding a notebook toward me. "You can copy them."
"Thanks," I said. I stood up to leave.
"Where are you going?" she asked, trying to keep the conversation going.
"Teacher," I said.
"Oh. Okay. See you later, Kaiser."
"Yeah."
I went to Mr. Henderson's desk. He spent five minutes telling me I needed to "take my life seriously" and "focus on my future." I just nodded. I was thinking, What future?
I was nothing but a ghost in a world of predators. But I didn't say that.
On the way back, I caught a glimpse of Miller ahead heading towards my direction with his fellow idiots and decided to take the long route to avoid them.
I ended up near the equipment shed again. The smell of the grape juice was still there, souring in the sun.
Suddenly, a heavy scent hit me. Omega. It was strong, sweet but jagged, like it was being forced. I tried to ignore it, but a group of guys ran past me, knocking my notes and pen out of my hand.
My pen rolled away, sliding right toward the back opening where Luke had been sleeping earlier.
I walked over to pick it up, moving quietly. I realized the Omega scent was coming from right there. I reached down for the pen, but a shadow fell over me.
I looked up. Luke was standing right in front of me.