Failed Revenge
Emma woke up to a sleeping Lily right beside her.
Emma shook Lily's arm gently at an attempt of trying to wake her up.
"Lil, wake up! Assembly starts at about an hour or so," Emma whispered as Lily opened one of her eyes.
"5 more minutes," she said as her eyes once again dropped to a close.
"What time did you stay up until for you to be this tired?" Emma asked curiously to her half-conscious best friend.
"3 AM," Lily admitted, eyes still closed and head still buried in pillows.
"Well, that must mean you didn't get enough sleep," Emma realized.
"Well. I'll be ordering breakfast soon. Any specific requests food-wise?" Emma asked.
Lily nodded in her sleep.
"Caffeine," she muttered.
Emma nodded.
"Okay. Coffee it is, then."
After ordering their breakfast, and a short wait later, the two girls sat across each other, savouring their breakfasts.
Lily had freshened up and looked radiant in a button dress, suede pumps, and a coat.
Emma had freshened up, wearing light makeup, keeping it cosy in a brown monochromatic look. She wore a turtleneck, pairing it with a midi skirt and pumps and wearing a coat draped over her shoulders.
Courtney and Winnie walked past the two girls, macchiato in hand and designer coat in the other.
"Look at you losers. Having breakfast made by some random chefs. My breakfasts are always made by private chefs daddy hires to cook," she boasted as she took a sip of her diabetic macchiato.
Emma rolled her eyes.
"Well, no amount of money your daddy can pay will be able to buy you a better attitude," she said snarkily.
Lily snickered. Emma had completely obliterated Courtney with her words.
Courtney scoffed.
"Watch what you say, peasant," she replied as she stormed out of the room, Winnie in tow, and right behind her.
At the word 'peasant', Lily had instinctively stood up to defend her best friend, but Emma waved her hand, signalling Lily to back off.
"How do you deal with people like her?" Lily asked, quite startled at how calm her best friend was.
Emma shrugged calmly.
"We're bound to meet people like this in life. We just have to make sure to not let them get to our heads," she said as she continued eating breakfast.
Meanwhile, with a furious Courtney and Winnie, in a rage, Courtney had fished her phone out from her coat's many pockets to place a call.
A short while later, a voice picked up, and Courtney placed the phone beside her ear.
"Hello? Yes. That thing I requested? I want it to spread like wildfire. Make sure everyone sees it. Especially the girl," she ordered as she walked to the dorm's elevator, Winnie right behind her.
The two girls entered the elevator, and just as the doors were about to close, a smirk curved on Courtney's face heavily covered with makeup.
Hours later, James, Emma and Lily were situated on the seats of ZALE's private cafeteria.
It was their break after assembly and classes, so they decided to spend their time in the cafeteria.
Emma and James sat beside each other, being all lovey-dovey as they fed each other food, while Lily played the perfect role of the single third wheel who watched their acts of PDA and wondered when was the time she could snag a prince charming herself.
The fourth seat was empty, as Connor, who was the very same guy who had asked Lily to dance with during their very first waltz class, was caught up with something and would be late.
As expected, he arrived late, but he had prepared some shocking news to inform the trio of.
"Emma! Just the person I was looking for. I have something to show you," he said as he approached the three.
Luckily, he hadn't noticed the two feeding each other, or James would never hear the end of it.
James stared uneasily at the magazine Connor held, wondering what was it that his brother wanted to show her.
"Connor, hi. What is it that you wanted to show me?" She asked.
He took a deep breath.
"Emma, you made it to the ZALE magazine, how you did...I guess you'll have to see for yourself.
The serious expression on Connor's otherwise good-looking face only worried Emma even more, as he took the magazine in his hands and placed it on the table. It was ZALE's weekly magazine. And what was on its cover shocked and enraged the trio.
"Maid's daughter turns out to be royal from wedlock and is now attending ZALE for the whole semester," Emma said aloud, reading the headline of the magazine.
At the front and very centre of its cover was a picture of Emma edited it to make it look like she was trying to hide her face.
Emma and Lily stared at the cover, the both of them knowing everything in the cover was true but appalled at who might've found out about this piece of news and had the audacity to get it to the front cover of the ZALE weekly magazine.
James looked enraged, but what shocked him even more, was how Emma was too calm.
"What. Is. This." James stressed out, teeth gritted.
Connor frowned.
"This week's cover for ZALE's weekly magazine, apparently," he said as he seemed just as upset as his half-brother.
"Who would do such a thing?" Connor asked.
Emma sighed. She looked at Courtney and Winnie perched nearby.
As much as she wanted to admit that many people would, she knew exactly who found out about her parentage and exposed her was.
"I have my suspicions," she admitted.
James turned to Emma.
"Is this true? Are you truly a maid's daughter? Or is this some made-up nonsense?" He asked.
Emma slowly nodded, nervous at how he'd react. She had mentioned she was born out of wedlock, but she never really mentioned who her mother was, and what she worked as.
"I wanted to tell you, but it would've been weird if I suddenly mentioned that. In all fairness, I did mention I was born out of wedlock," she said as she stared at her face on the magazine placed on their cafeteria table.
Lily shook her head.
"Just because this cover is true doesn't make it any less invasive and wrong," she said as she glared daggers to Courtney, knowing she had something to do with this.
James clenched his fist, while Connor remained silent. He was usually one to observe from the sidelines, and only join if necessary.
"Agreed."
Emma smiled.
"Well. There's nothing we can do about it, can we? If the people that did this had ill intentions of wanting me to react in a way that would only further proceed to humiliate myself, wouldn't it only give them even more satisfaction if I overreacted and went berserk?" She reasoned, a hint of terror in her voice.
Lily nodded. Even if this wasn't the route she wouldn't have taken, she knew her best friend was one to keep quiet now but get her revenge much later.
"My best friend is one smart person. I know she won't let some magazine cover get in her way so easily," she said as she smirked, proud of how her best friend handled things.
James was still utterly shocked at how she reacted, and Connor still remained silent, not wanting to anyhow intervene.
James spoke, breaking his silence. As much as he wanted to pull her into an embrace, or bring her to some paradise where she couldn't get hurt anymore, he couldn't, and since both Lily and Connor was here, they'd have to dial down the PDA for the meanwhile.
"Well. Emma, you're right. But, we still have to find out who did this. First, it was Lily's poisoning. Second, it was this magazine cover. Someone is out to get you, and matters will worsen," he said, worried for Emma's safety.
The last thing he wanted was for her, out of all people, to get hurt. The fact that she would have almost been poisoned, and now was close to being humiliated and exposed privacy-wise, he didn't want to admit, but it terrified him to his very core.