Chapter 32 : A Morning Announcement

The enemy of my enemy is my ally. I thought about it a lot before deciding, but I couldn't deny that there was no one more suitable to use against Mr. Gilbert as Mr. Hudson. The fact that these two were getting along badly was always becoming a hot topic within the school.

I didn't know the details, but it seemed these two were always on each other's throats. The popular and dependable Mr. Gilbert versus the strict and knowledgeable Mr. Hudson. A glance was all needed to know which one had a better reputation in school.

Originally, Mr. Hudson was one of the most senior teachers in school and thus he was revered and being looked up to by teachers and students. However it changed since Mr. Gilbert was admitted to this school. He was younger and more approachable, so gradually the position of Mr. Hudson in the eyes of everyone was lessening. Mr. Hudson tried to be mature of it, but even a child could tell that he was bitter and bore a deep grudge for it. Furthermore, Mr. Gilbert constantly provoked him in every chance he got, increasing Mr. Hudson's resentment.

Based on Mr. Gilbert's nasty personality, I bet he deliberately used Mr. Hudson as his stepping stone towards popularity. Both of them detested each other and found the other one an eyesore.

I would be stupid if I didn't take advantage of this.

I stared at my phone screen, watching how one after another chat appeared. After starting phase 2 of our plan, so far it went smoothly without a hitch. I successfully got 4 more allies, and while the number was more than what I was hoping for, it would be okay if I tweaked the plan a little.

I made a group chat to make it easier for me to communicate with the victims, but they completely treated this group chat as a platform to vent their stress. Not to mention no one actually knows who was on the other side of the phone, since I deliberately declared to make themselves anonymous. This was to ensure they wouldn't pry into the mastermind's identity. In other words, me. After all, cooperation could only run smoothly if the participants are of equal standing.

As a result, my phone kept vibrating all day, to the point I needed to mute it so I wouldn't be disturbed.

I rarely checked on the group chat and only used it when I had further instructions for them. They were surprisingly cooperative. Being in the same situation gave them a sense of camaraderie, thus making our plan progressing rapidly.

I typed a message to them. [It's almost time. Send me everything you had in you.]

Upon reading my chat, they immediately stopped joking around. Did I already say that they are surprisingly obedient? This was the perk of becoming a mysterious identity. They wouldn't treat you carelessly since they were unaware of what you were capable of. To be honest, I was secretly enjoying this rare occasion of being the superior one.

Soon after that, I received a few new emails in my inbox. Fortunately, no one was dumb enough to send them using their personal email.

I checked them one by one. Actually, the first task I gave to them was to collect information and preferably evidence that can put Mr. Gilbert in a difficult situation. It didn't have to be conclusive evidence, even the small one like Mr. Gilbert bad mouthing Mr. Hudson would do.

To my surprise, my minions (*cough let's call them that for now) collected a bunch of them. From the date of pictures and recordings, the evidence seemed to be collected not only recently, but ever since a few months back. Mr. Gilbert was so conceited he didn't even notice his most 'trusted' students were doing this behind his back.

I checked everything they sent me. There are quite a lot of them, but I needed to check them carefully if I wanted to know which one was the best to use in certain situations.

After checking some of them, I didn't feel surprised when I found out Mr. Gilbert was a frequent customer of those kinds of places. From Mr. Gilbert's tendency to bully the weak, and how he forced himself on me the other day, I guessed it was inevitable to think he had a 'unique' taste. I had nothing against people's preference, but society was not that lenient. His reputation as a teacher would be tarnished in an instant if the whole school knew about this.

I smirked as I put this file in the 'Special' folder. I didn't intend to ruin someone's life, but it would be a waste if I didn't make use of this to blackmail him. It was a good thing I asked the minions to stalk him in turns every day. I knew someone like him wouldn't have a clean record.

I checked many pictures, recordings, and videos that night. Just by moving my fingers on the phone screen, I could acquire many of his weaknesses. As time went on, I couldn't suppress my wicked smile anymore.

My minions were too afraid to use this against him since Mr. Gilbert threatened them, but unfortunately for him, his threats meant nothing to me. I experienced worse than that, and I hated his type of person the most. Let's see if he still could smile so smugly after having the table turned on him.

Now that there was a person who offered to disclose all of his 'misbehavior' to the public, the minions saw me as their savior while actually they were the ones who did the actual work, and I reaped the most benefit of it.

'Fufu. Just wait, I will use the result of your hard work well.'

I collected enough dirt about him, so the next step was how to use these pieces of information wisely. Of course, my ultimate goal was not to crush Mr. Gilbert but to maintain my status quo. I had to cancel my expulsion plan. To do that, I would use Mr. Gilbert. Since he generously offered to help me, I would be wasting his kind intention if I didn't take him seriously.

"I should contact Mr. Hudson as soon as possible."

***

The day after, I was walking in the hall when I saw a crowd of students standing in front of the news board. Usually, that was the place where the school placed their announcement or where the newspaper club pasted their most recent news regarding our school.

I had never been interested in news placed on the board aside from when the result of the exam was announced, so I didn't pay any attention to it as I walked past it.

However, as soon as people noticed me near them, they stared at me weirdly. Some of them even whispering to each other. It's not the first time I received this kind of unwanted attention, but I could feel something was different this morning.

'Great. I just arrived and something is already going on.'

I turned my head and saw a few students snickered at me. From the way they behaved themselves, I assumed they were acting like this because of the announcement on the news board.

I slowly walked towards the news board, and the crowd automatically split to give way for me. If not for the blatant hostility and disdain from them, a passerby might have thought I was some kind of celebrity.

There was a sheet of paper pasted on the board. The words were typed by computer, announcing that the student whose name was written, hereby required to attend a disciplinary committee meeting, as the result of their misconduct and their bad influence on the other students.

The student name written in bold and large size font on that paper, was undoubtedly mine, Eirlys Williams.

The disciplinary committee meeting was a forum attended by representatives of the school board, the headmaster, and a few teachers to discuss with the student's parents how to deal with the said student's misconduct. To put it simply, it was a meeting to judge whether a student should be expelled or not.

It wasn't the first time for a student to be called to this meeting, and actually, not every student would be expelled after attending this meeting. In most cases, the student's parents only needed to take out a sum of money to settle the matter quickly. That's why those rich kids could always get away with everything, despite their horrendous behavior.

However, what these announcements meant for a poor orphan like me, I assumed everyone in this hall already knew what it was.

It was basically a death sentence. These so-called disciplinary meetings were obviously just a formality.

'No wonder it was so quiet these days. Those people must have already known about this beforehand.'

I stared at the announcement with a blank expression. The meeting was scheduled for the day after tomorrow at 1 PM. It meant I only got less than two days to execute my plan. Would I make it in time?

"It's the end for her. Who told her to defy Michelson and Mrs. Gabrielle?"

"She is so pitiful right now I kinda feel sorry for her. Well, I guess a person couldn't avoid the inevitable."

"To be able to come this far is already praiseworthy actually. Not that I will praise her or anything, though. Haha!"

"Seriously, they were being too harsh to an orphan girl. Aren't they afraid of retribution?"

"What retribution? That girl is the child of misfortune, you know? It's better for her to leave before dragging all of us with her!"

"Yeah. What goes around comes around. She might be innocent for being born from parents like that, but there's no guarantee she won't be one in the future. Do you want her to jeopardize our future just because she is pitiful?"

"Is she going to cry? I need to record this hilarious moment! Hahaha."

Well, I knew from the start that I was on the verge of expulsion, so this development was not that surprising. I ignored the malicious whispers around me as I turned my body and walked away.

My next action had already been determined. I had to make my move as soon as possible.