8 I Become Magical Like Bianca! (02)

Owen was the first person to notice the bracelet.

On the way to Laurel Prep, Nora and Owen were constantly bombarding Beth with questions about why she returned so late yesterday without replying to their texts.

"Beth, I know that you have new friends at Laurel Prep, but please tell us in advance that you are going out with them, alright? We cannot lose you. Both your parents and us will be worried!"

Beth grimaced at them awkwardly. She used to do this to cope with her parents getting worried about her back in her hometown. It was a strange situation. Could we just diverge the topic now and go for something lighter? However, Nora didn't back down. She directly tried to "scare" Beth away by referring to the authority--Luke and Madison.

That's right, Beth's parents.

"Next time, if this happens and we can't find you, we may need to inform your dad and mom, honey."

Oh no. Nora's speech hit Beth like a hard bat on the head. My parents are probably gonna kill me if they know something like this happened! Beth nervously recalled her parents telling her not to make any troubles at Nora and Owen's house.

"I am sorry! I will make sure that this won't happen again!"

Suddenly, Owen looked at Beth and pointed out her golden bracelet. "Oh, Beth? What's that bracelet? It's very shiny and pretty."

Oh, shit...why is everything going wrong today? I have to conceal the fact that I might have become magical.

"Haha, the bracelet is nothing! I bought it from the gift shop yesterday." Beth stumbled her words and nervously laughed at the same time, trying to conceal the fact that the bracelet appeared from her dream. "Ah! Laurel is such a good city with a good culture and interesting shops and great people!"

Shortly after Beth got to school, Julianna noticed the bracelet as well.

"Beth, I just want to tell you that I left you so abruptly yesterday, and I am sorry for that. I prepared for my innovation club materials in advance, so I guess we can continue to carry on our project now."

"Haha, it's fine now, Jules!" It seemed that Beth didn't care much what happened yesterday--she just shrugged it off lightheartedly. "By the way, I was thinking about a great idea about our project yesterday!! I will show you this afternoon. I guarantee that we will win, and Simone will be defeated with her friends!"

"Right, right. I have been thinking this morning about a way to win as well. I think we should collect evidence to expose that they are cheating if they win the preliminary round for the runway show."

"Absolutely!"

"Oh, by the way, this bracelet of yours looks great!" Julianna pointed to Beth's bracelet. "Where did you get it?"

Not again. Beth feigned a smile and scratched her head as she just came up with a seemingly legit reason to put off this topic. A different one she told Nora and Owen.

"Ooooh, this one? My parents gave it to me as a gift when I got into Laurel. Like a growing-up milestone something."

Interesting. is that how the Clementine household does grown-up milestones? Julianna thought. In my family, we do that in a completely different way, for instance, during a guest visit-

"Look at our little Jules! She is so petite. How cute!" Everyone was gathering around the living room as the Millers showed baby videos of Julianna on the TV. In the video, Julianna was playing in an animal costume and got stuck in there. She tried to get out of the costume but ended up sinking herself more and more into it.

"Mom, Dad, can you guys stop that? It's embarrassing!"

The video proceeded to show an empty room. Then, a tiny figure appeared from the back. It was baby Julianna. For some reason, the video suddenly proceeded to show her doing potty training with a single car model in her hand.

A single car model? Not something else, like a book? What was I even thinking about at that moment?

"She was trying to say 'look at my car' but instead said 'this is my kaaaaaaaaaaaa'! Hahahahaha!"

So embarrassing!!

"Anyways, this bracelet seems to have very high quality," Julianna said. "I think your parents must care about you a lot to give you such a thing like this."

"Well, my mom and dad? I am not quite sure about that, to be honest..." Beth casually checked over her phone for the time. It was near class time. "Anyways, we should head to class now!"

The whole morning Beth didn't concentrate on her classes. She tried to concentrate on what her teachers have been saying, but her mind was busy occupied by the bracelet and winning over Simone's group. Her teacher's words became deep, ambiguous murmurs at the back of her head, flowing directly out through her ears.

You are not that academically talented. Concentrate on the class or you will fail. Her mind warned her. Yet she couldn't help but catch a glimpse of the bracelet. I know. However, I need to figure out why the magic happened to me. This bracelet could be a clue. Besides, Jules just gave me an idea to debunk Simone's cheats. Hee hee, now they can't walk all over us! Beth held back a giant sneeze, preventing herself from almost bursting into chuckles in class. Stop this! Her mind reissued a warning. No, can't! Jeez, why is it so hard for me to do this?

In the end, her head lost to her heart. As a result, Beth didn't wait until the afternoon to carry out her little plan. She sneaked into the art room as soon as lunchtime started.

"Here it is! The art room!" As usual, she looked around the room. "wow, there are several other groups that have already started making their clothing as well!

Huh...?

Simone and her group's project was at the corner. It was indeed gorgeous--a long, pinkish A-line dress with a silk cape and lots of small gems, starting to take shape. The gems showed bright colors by reflecting on the sunlight that leaked into the art room.

What?!!

"This is insane!" Beth gasped. "Wait, what am I here for?"

"We should collect evidence to expose that they are cheating!" Julianna's words echoed in her mind.

"Right. Evidence!" Beth walked towards the dress and felt the loaded pieces of jewelry on it. "Oh gosh, that's already a great piece of one evidence."

How can these kids afford so many gemstones? They must have found a supplier. Besides, do they allow three people to join the competition together? I think they infringed on this other rule as well. Let me just start by taking a photo of those gemstones...

Just as Beth was positioning her phone on the dress to take a picture, she saw three people heading towards the art room from the window. Since the windows adjacent to the hallways were high on the walls, she could only see three heads instead of the whole body. The three heads were pink, blonde, and brunette. She knew from her gut that they were Simone and her friends.

Shit! Why do they come at such an hour? She quickly hid behind a cabinet near her.

"I wonder how Beth and Julianna doing on their project..." the blonde feigned caring about Beth and Julianna in front of Simone and the brunette. "Wait. Did I just hear a sound coming from here?" She looked to the cabinet direction.

Don't. Find. Me!

Fortunately, the blond didn't see her.

"Oh, maybe it's just the darn wind!"

"We are doing an amazing job here!" Simone was very pleased.

"We are so proud to have a friend like you, Simone. You know what, we took the dress to a tailor to let it be made just to cater to your pretty design!" the brunette sucked up to Simone.

Oh god, they admitted that the dress was made by someone else. Let me just record what they said on my phone...

"You are amazing, Simone! We need to make the top place to let people acknowledge the fabulous you on the stage!"

"Awww, don't say that!!" Simone blushed. "If it's not for you guys, we would not have seen this project in fruition!"

Gosh, they are taking so long to talk. Beth felt her legs started getting sour and herself getting impatient. Why can't they just leave...

Fortunately, they were just going to leave in her favor.

"Come on Simone, let's come back this afternoon to continue working. Don't look at all those other costumes on the mannequins—they are not worth the attention."

How can they just say that! Anyways, I need to continue recording what they had said and start redoing my dress now!!

As soon as the Simone group left, Beth tottered unsteadily to her original table with her sour legs. She turned around to her backpack and grabbed her sketchbook. As her pen touched the paper, she suddenly found out she can produce inspirations quickly. Is it because of the bracelet? She tries to draw the dress that she wore under her transformation the day before, and for some reason, she vaguely remembers the shape. I need to carry on doing this and see what it leads to. In a couple of minutes, she drew the dress down and was very satisfied with the shape.

Just as Beth was putting down her pen, her bracelet suddenly started shaking on her wrist and emitting strong lights as if those weird color blobs appeared again. The small pen disappeared. Instead, now her giant pen was in front of her, jumping on her palm. She tried to grip the giant pen, but it slipped out of her hand, scribbling patterns everywhere in the art room. There was no way Beth could catch it since it was so quick. As the pen jumped onto the table, it created the perfect cloth and gemstones for the dress that Beth drew.

"Oh my goodness, oh my god, oh my god! What even is this?" Beth stood at the table, dumbfounded. "Did I just cheat by...unknowingly using magic myself?"

I will be a hypocrite if I expose Simone and her group now!