RULE #18
IF HE DEFENDS YOU, HE LIKES YOU
Confidence Rating: 89%
Research Subjects Referenced: #4, #9, #13
Supporting Evidence:
- - Boys who help girls usually possess romantic interest.
- - Boys rarely assist strangers without motivation.
- - Chivalry remains statistically significant.
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In her entire three years at South Pacific High, Bella Rose Richardson had never been late. Until the first day of her senior year. Which, in Bella's opinion, was a terrible time to start.
The sky was clear. The weather was perfect. Birds were probably singing somewhere. Bella wouldn't know.
She was too busy sprinting down the sidewalk like a fugitive. Her lungs burned. Sweat clung to her uniform. Her bag bounced violently against her side as she turned a corner and checked the time.
6:45 AM.
Her stomach dropped. The morning assembly was over. First period had already started. The gates were probably locked by now. Guarded by prefects. And security guards. And every other obstacle specifically designed to ruin her life. "This is all your fault," she muttered at her phone.
One stupid alarm.
One stupid snooze button.
One stupid decision that was about to destroy her spotless attendance record. Her phone buzzed. Oh now you work, she thought.
MESSAGE FROM: ERYKA
GOOD LUCK ON YOUR FIRST DAY, LOSER. DON'T FALL IN LOVE WITH ANYONE YET.
Bella snorted. As if. Eryka had been sending increasingly ridiculous first-day messages since six in the morning. She'd probably continue until lunch.
Bella shoved her phone back into her pocket and kept running.
Detention was not part of Bella Rose Richardson's plans for the day. Neither was community service. Neither was public humiliation. Unfortunately, she was rapidly running out of alternatives.
Three blocks from school, Bella made a decision she never thought she'd make. She turned away from the main gate. Straight toward the side wall.
The delinquent entrance.
The unofficial route students used when they were late. Or rebellious. Or both. Bella wasn't either of those things. At least not usually.
"C'mon," she told herself. "Bella Rose Richardson? A delinquent?"
Nobody would believe it. Absolutely nobody. As she approached the side of the school grounds, tall grass brushed against her legs. A narrow dirt path led toward a section of wall partially hidden by trees.
The ground beneath it was flattened. Proof that students had definitely used this route before. Bella smiled. See? Completely normal. Perfectly safe. Totally reasonable. Then she looked up. Her smile disappeared. The wall was enormous. Not just tall. Humiliatingly tall. The kind of tall that made a person question every life decision that had brought them to this exact moment.
Bella stared.
The wall stared back.
She had no business climbing it. She wasn't athletic. She wasn't adventurous. And she had literally gotten her nails done yesterday. Still, she folded her arms. "Lots of students do this."
The wall remained unconvinced. "I can totally climb that."
The wall continued judging her. Bella swallowed. Hard. Suddenly, tonight's headline flashed through her head.
LOCAL STUDENT DIES BECAUSE OF STUPIDITY
She could already picture her grandmother shaking her head at the funeral. I told her not to wear those shoes. Bella groaned. There had to be a way to climb the wall without tearing her skirt, ruining her hair, breaking a nail, or dying. She was still evaluating her survival chances when a deep voice spoke behind her.
"Are you climbing, or are you planning to stare at it all day?" Bella nearly jumped out of her skin.
She spun around. A guy stood a few feet away. Tall. Dark hair. A streak of blonde falling over one eye. A nose piercing. An expression that suggested he hated everyone equally. Including her. There was something dangerous about him. Not dangerous in the criminal sense. Dangerous in the way thunderstorms looked dangerous. The kind you admired from a distance. Preferably indoors. At least he was wearing a South Pacific uniform. That made him slightly less terrifying. Slightly.
According to Rule #18 of The Definitive Guide to Boys, boys who helped strangers usually possessed romantic interest. Unfortunately, this one looked more likely to sell her organs.
"Well?" he asked.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
He looked at the wall. Then at her. Then back at the wall. "You're blocking the way."
"Oh." Bella cleared her throat. "Right."
A pause. "Obviously I was going to climb it."
"Sure." The disbelief in that one word was offensive.
Bella narrowed her eyes. "Just... chill out."
The school bell rang. Her heart nearly stopped. That was it. No more stalling. No more excuses. Bella grabbed the nearest foothold and started climbing. Slowly. Carefully. Painfully. Every movement felt like an insurance liability. The guy behind her muttered something under his breath.
She ignored him. Several terrifying minutes later, Bella finally reached the top. She sat on the wall triumphantly. Breathing heavily. Victorious. "I did it."
The guy looked up. Then climbed the wall in less than five seconds. No hesitation. No struggle. No near-death experience. He landed smoothly on the other side. Bella immediately hated him. "Show-off."
If Bella had known this irritating wall-climbing menace would eventually become Research Subject #38, she might have thrown herself back over the wall on principle.
The guy dusted off his uniform and started walking away. Bella glanced down. Her stomach dropped. The ground looked very far away.
Very.
Very.
Far.
"Oh." The realization hit her. "I just remembered something."
The guy kept walking. Bella swallowed. "I hate heights."
The guy didn't stop. "Hey!"
Nothing.
"HEY!"
He paused but didn't turn around. Bella brightened. "Can you help me down?"
"What?"
"I'm stuck."
He finally looked at her. "How is that my problem?"
Bella blinked. "Wow."
"Wow what?"
"You're really committed to being rude."
The corner of his mouth twitched. "What do I get?"
Bella frowned. "What?"
"For helping you."
"You want payment?"
"One thousand."
"One thousand pesos?!"
He shrugged. "Have fun up there." And started walking away again.
"WAIT!"
"What? No pleeeease?"
Bella stared at him. This guy was unbelievable. He had left her stranded on top of a wall. Extorted her. Mocked her. And now he wanted manners."Please help me down," she said through clenched teeth.
"Didn't hear that."
Bella closed her eyes. Somewhere in the distance, a bird chirped. She imagined throwing a rock at it. "Please," she repeated sweetly.
"There it is."
Satisfied, he turned around again. Then put in his earbuds. And started scrolling through his phone. Bella's eye twitched. "This guy."
With no other options left, she looked down. Immediately regretted it. The world tilted. Her stomach lurched. Her vision blurred. Nope. Absolutely not. She squeezed her eyes shut.
"Okay," she muttered.
"You win."
The guy glanced up. "Three thousand."
Bella nearly fell off the wall. "Excuse me?"
"Inflation."
"You are a terrible person." He nodded thoughtfully.
"Three Five."
"What?"
"You insulted me."
"You deserve it!"
"Four thousand."
Bella pointed an accusing finger at him. "You can't just keep increasing the price!"
"Five thousand, Princess."
Her mouth fell open. Princess? Princess? Who did this guy think he was? "You monster."
"Five thousand and five hundred."
Bella gasped.
"You are literally proving my point."
"Six thousand."
"I WASN'T EVEN NEGOTIATING."
"Seven."
"FINE!"
The word echoed through the trees. Several birds fled for safety. The guy finally walked back. He stopped below the wall and folded his arms. "Well?"
Bella frowned. "Well what?"
"Jump."
Silence. Bella blinked. Once. Twice. "Are you insane?"
"No."
"You want me to jump?"
"Yes."
"Off this wall?"
"That's generally how jumping works."
Bella stared at him. He stared back. Neither moved. Finally she pointed downward. "That is a long way down."
"It really isn't."
"It is for people who value their lives."
The guy rubbed his forehead. "Princess."
"What?"
"Jump."
"I said help me down, not help me die."
His expression suggested he was rapidly losing patience. "You are not going to die."
"How do you know?"
"Because I've done this before."
"Oh, fantastic." Bella folded her arms. "The criminal has experience."
He rolled his eyes. "I'm not a criminal."
"That's exactly what criminals say."
His jaw tightened. Bella considered that a victory. A small one. But still. The guy pointed at the ground. "Any day now."
Defeated, Bella tossed her bag into the bushes below. It landed safely. Unlike what was probably about to happen to her. She glanced at him again. A bandage wrapped around one hand. Another around his shoulder. Suspicious. Very suspicious. For all she knew, he was going to step aside the second she jumped and let gravity finish the job.
Bella scanned the school grounds. Surely there had to be someone else. Someone nice. Someone normal. Someone who didn't charge rescue fees. Then she spotted two students walking nearby. Hope surged through her. Finally. Real human beings. She opened her mouth to shout— And froze.
Red armbands. Prefects. Of course. Of all the people in school. The prefects. The two students continued down the path.
Beyond them, through the windows of the nearest classroom, Bella caught a glimpse of students already settling into their seats. One boy near the back window happened to be looking outside. Thick glasses. Messy dark hair. Quiet-looking. The kind of student nobody ever noticed. His gaze lingered on her for a moment before he lowered it back to whatever he was reading. Bella never thought about him again. At the time, she had much bigger problems than some random boy in a classroom.
One of them started turning his head toward her. Panic exploded inside Bella. Without thinking, she jumped.
The second her feet left the wall, she realized something important. She hadn't warned the guy. "Oh no."
The ground rushed toward her. Her stomach shot into her throat. She braced herself for impact. For broken bones. For humiliation. For death. Instead— Warm hands caught her around the waist.
Rule #18 immediately flashed through Bella's mind.
IF HE DEFENDS YOU, HE LIKES YOU.
The rule had an eighty-nine percent confidence rating. Unfortunately, it had never been tested on someone actively charging rescue fees.
Everything stopped. The panic. The falling. The world. Bella sucked in a breath. And looked up. Right into his eyes. They were unfairly beautiful. Green. Brown. Gold. Colours shifting together every time sunlight touched them. The kind of eyes poets wrote entire books about. The kind of eyes that absolutely should not belong to someone this annoying.
For a second, Bella forgot where she was. Forgot she was late. Forgot she was hanging halfway off a school wall. Forgot her own name. Then she caught the faint scent of his cologne.
Something soft. Something familiar. It reminded her of roses. Of her mother's garden. Of summer mornings spent chasing butterflies between flower beds. Her mother always said roses were beautiful because of their thorns.
Bella never really understood what that meant. Until now. A sharp breeze swept through the trees. Reality returned with a slap. Bella found herself standing safely on the ground. Still staring. Still being held. Still forgetting how normal human beings behaved.
The guy stepped back. Immediately. As though none of it had happened. As though he hadn't just saved her life. Bella watched him pick up his bag. A dangerous thought entered her head. Maybe she should ask him out. Not now. Obviously. That would be insane. Maybe later. Casually. For coffee. As a thank-you. Normal people invited people for coffee all the time. Her palms instantly started sweating. Okay. Maybe not normal people. Maybe desperate people. Still. He was kind of cute. In a terrifying, emotionally unavailable sort of way. Like a wolf. Or a serial killer with really nice eyes. She could work with that. "I believe you owe me eight thousand."
Bella blinked. The fantasy evaporated. Gone. Dead. Buried. "I'm sorry, what?"
The guy looked down at her. "We had a deal, Princess." Nope. Definitely the devil. Not a wolf. Not a misunderstood bad boy. The devil. With good cheekbones. And annoyingly pretty eyes. The worst kind.
Bella folded her arms. "Wait. What happened to seven thousand?"
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"You jumped without warning."
"So?"
"You almost dislocated my shoulder." He raised the bandaged hand. Bella stared at it. Then at him. Then back at the hand. Okay. Maybe she had jumped like a maniac. That wasn't the point.
"For someone your size," he added thoughtfully, "you weigh a surprising amount."
Silence. Bella blinked. Once. Twice. Three times. Did he just— "Oh."
A dangerous smile spread across her face. "Oh, that's funny."
"It wasn't meant to be."
"You're calling me heavy."
"I'm saying gravity likes you."
Bella gasped. The audacity. The absolute audacity. With all the strength she possessed, she shoved him in the chest. Or at least attempted to. The result was disappointing. Very disappointing. He barely moved. Maybe half an inch. Possibly less. The human wall simply looked down at her. Then laughed. Actually laughed.
Bella immediately regretted every decision that had brought her to this moment. Including being born. She considered kicking him. She considered stepping on his foot. She considered grabbing one of the nearby rocks. None of those options seemed likely to end in her survival.
"Unbelievable."
"I know." The smirk returned.
Bella hated the smirk. Mostly because it looked good on him. Which was deeply unfair. She grabbed her bag from the bushes.
"You're impossible."
"Probably."
"Rude."
"Definitely."
"Narcissistic."
"I've been called worse."
Bella stared. How was she supposed to argue with someone who agreed with all her insults? "You're exhausting."
"Yet you're still talking to me."
Bella opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. Nothing came out. Unfortunately, he had a point. That was irritating. She turned away before he could become even more irritating. "Whatever."
She started digging through her bag for money. Behind her, she heard him clear his throat. "Uh, Princess?"
Bella groaned. "What now?"
No answer. Instead, he pointed. Bella followed his gaze. Then froze. Time stopped. Her soul left her body. And somewhere in the distance, a funeral bell rang. Her skirt was caught on a thorny branch. Not just caught. Lifted. Lifted enough to reveal— Oh.
Oh no.
No no no no no.
Blood drained from her face. The world tilted. A screaming sound filled her ears. It took Bella several horrifying seconds to realize the screaming was coming from her. The guy looked genuinely stunned.
"Well." His eyebrows lifted. "That's not something you see every day."
Smack.
The sound echoed through the trees. A flock of birds exploded from a nearby branch. The guy's head snapped sideways. Bella's hand stung. Neither of them moved. For one glorious second, the entire world seemed frozen. Then—
"YOU PERVERT!"
Bella yanked her skirt free. Grabbed her bag. And ran. She ran past the trees. Past the bushes. Past every ounce of dignity she had left behind. Her face burned. Her ears burned. Her soul burned. She was never coming back. Ever. She would transfer schools. Move cities. Change countries. Legally alter her identity. Anything. Anything to avoid seeing that guy again. Behind her, silence lingered. Then a voice drifted through the trees. Annoyed. Confused. And completely undeserving of sympathy. "I was trying to help."
Bella ran faster. Absolutely not. Not today. Not ever. Somewhere in the future, she would write three new guidebook rules because of this disaster.
Unfortunately, all three would be wrong.
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EXPERIMENT RESULTS
Research Subject #38 assisted researcher in descending a wall.
Subject immediately attempted to charge eight thousand pesos.
Conclusion:
Subject may simply be a jerk.
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