Olivia lay on her faded dark blue pillow, her black hair with red tips spilling around her like a dark halo. Her onyx black eyes were wide open, staring fixedly at the ceiling as if lost in thought.

She didn't move, didn't blink, just laid there, frozen in contemplation. The silence around her was almost palpable and the only hint of life in her was the faint rise and fall of her chest despite the storm raging in her mind.

The dean, Mrs Rachel had told her about the scholarship revision program. As a scholarship recipient, Olivia enjoyed privileges that normal students without scholarships don't get, including a weekly allowance of fifty Euros. Even with that, the weekly allowance barely covered all her expenses. She'd been using the same smartphone since when she can remember, her clothes and boots are overworn. She couldn't help but wonder where Sorbonne expected her to see 25% of her tuition fees.

As she laid on her pillow, her black eyes, which had been fixed on the ceiling in a trance-like state, suddenly snapped into focus. Her gaze intensified and her eyebrows furrowed. Her eyes widened, and her pupils dilated as if her mind had been burst open by a floodgate of ideas.

Her red-tipped black hair seemed to quiver in excitement as her plump pale pink lips curled into a hint of a smile, her entire face lit up as she sprang up from her bed and hastened to her reading table in excitement, her feet barely touching the ground.

She drew back the reading chair and dropped onto the chair with a soft thud. Her table was empty except for a laptop and two heavy books which she'd borrowed from the university's library. Drawing the black laptop which never left her table due to how heavy it is closer to her, Olivia wiped it with her palm.

As a student majoring in computer science, this one Toshiba laptop had been Olivia's trophy since high school. When she discovered that she's interested in hacking, with a mixture of guilt and desperation had snuck into her mother's room where her mother laid motionless, the empty alcohol bottle beside her - a testament to the night's escapades. She'd opened the drawer with a soft creak, the act was a familiar one, a habit formed from years of necessity.

Olivia gently wiped the surface of the only laptop she'd ever had in her 22 years of life, her onyx eyes still glistening with excitement. She opened the laptop's lid, the hinges creaking softly as the screen sprang to life. It emitted a faint, slightly screeching sound as the old joints protested the movements. To Olivia, the noise was a familiar one, a soundtrack to countless years of the laptop's existence.

With a practiced motion, she extended her right foot beneath the table, her toes flexing as she felt for the socket plugged into the wall underneath the table. She aligned her foot with the socket, her big toe finding the small switch and with a gentle press, the socket clicked and the soft hum of the laptop coming to life filled the air.

All the while, Olivia's fingers and eyes remained focused on the keyboard, her eyes glinting with determination and excitement. She inputted her laptop’s password and hacked into the school's system.

“Sorbonne made this mess, Sorbonne will clean it up.” She muttered to herself, her fingers flying across the keys with lightning speed and accuracy.

Determination coursed through Olivia's veins. Since Sorbonne tried to snatch away her education, her scholarship, thereby trying to break the promise she made to herself. Olivia was hell-bent on hacking into the school's system to serve them a taste of their own bitter medicine - or so she thought.

Olivia's goal was simple - infiltrate the school's database and gain access to the coveted list of sponsors, including the prestigious alumni sponsors with her exceptional hacking skills.

After learning the basics of unethical hacking from one of her seniors in Sorbonne who'd graduated when Olivia just gained admission, Olivia had worked harder and gained more insight into hacking, making her proficient and confident in her skills. Her senior, Alessia, had taught her when she saw that Olivia is very passionate about hacking and computer science.

Olivia's fingers continued to move like rapid fire. She accessed the list of the wealthy alumni, her onyx eyes scrolling through the list before it landed on a particular one.

“Lorenzo Profaci…” She whispered.
“Ohh, Italian. Makes it better.”

The Italian businessman, an alumni donor of Sorbonne, she had targeted was based in Italy, far from France, making it unlikely that their digital trails will cross, more to Olivia's relief. Luck was smiling down on Olivia as she gazed at the screen, her eyes widening with excitement.

“5 fucking billion dollars!” She whisper-shouted, her eyes widening like saucers as she finally accessed his account after breaking some barriers. The number was staggering and the fortune seemed almost unimaginable for a pauper like Olivia.

‘He's so rich, he won't even notice it's gone.’
She thought with a sly smile, feeling like she'd pulled off the heist of the century.

Her fingers continuously moved at lightning speed across the keys, hacking her way into the Italian business man's account with great effort before another devilish thought crossed her mind, making her mutter with a shaky breath:

“Why settle for a mere fraction?”

Initially, Olivia had planned to siphon off a mere million before her greed got the better of her, her fingers flying across the keyboard as she transferred a whopping five million dollars into her own account.

When she's done with the transfer, she inputs a random screen name, ‘little red’, then wipes off all her traces and turns off her VPN, her chest rising and falling in a way that defies logic as the rush of excitement and adrenaline finally dies down. She placed her hand on the keyboard of the overheating laptop, breathing heavily.

With a sudden burst of urgency, Olivia sprang from the chair, leaving it screeching against the floor as she hastily abandoned her laptop. She darted across the room, her sock-clad feet barely making a sound.

Reaching her bed, she dove for her phone, snatching it from the charger, her hand shaking as she forcefully pressed the button and unlocked it. And right at that moment, her phone made a beeping notification sound- the money had entered.

A sly mischievous smile began to spread across her face, the corners of her mouth twitching upwards before she started bobbing her head up and down without music.

Olivia hurriedly transferred the money into five different accounts, moved back to her table and pushed her laptop's lid close. The laptop was overheating, but Olivia pushed it close without a care, she knows she will soon get another one anyways.

Moonwalking to her locker, she grabbed a jacket, slipped in comfortable home slides and stepped out of her room and into the streets of Paris.