The Act Continues

Orla carefully unfolded the crumpled letter in her hand, her eyes scanning the handwriting. It was from Ephyra. Malia, curious, leaned closer, trying to catch a glimpse of the words.

"What does it say?" Malia whispered, her voice low enough not to attract attention from the lingering students.

Orla's eyes skimmed over the contents, and as she read, her expression shifted—first in mild confusion, then in realization. "It's a letter she wrote to Alan. Ephyra apologized and wanted to clear up the misunderstandings between them. She explained that she didn't want to harm or make anyone's life miserable. She only wanted the best for Myra and Alan, especially him. So, she wanted to break off her engagement with Alan and let them be together."

Eira might have tweaked the letter's content a little bit.

"So she was telling the truth, and the second letter?"

Orla opened it and skimmed through it. "It's Alan's reply to her letter, and his words were far from friendly," she said as she crumpled the letter.

By now, they were the only ones left in the locker room.

"Wait!" Malia hurriedly collected the letter before Orla could throw it away. "Did you say it's Alan's letter?"

"Yes, why?"

"It isn't."

"What?"

"It wasn't Alan who wrote this letter. You know I have a photographic memory?" Malia stated, making Orla sigh and roll her eyes.

"Yes, so?"

"Remember that Ms. Sam had asked me to help her with last semester's Golden class test scripts?" She raised a brow. "Well, I saw his handwriting then, and it doesn't look anything like this."

"So, if it wasn't Alan who wrote this letter, and what Ephyra said earlier was true, then Myra was the one who wrote it," Orla said calmly, not caring that they had just seen the truth about the extremely kindhearted Myra Allen.

Malia grinned as her eyes sparkled in wicked delight. "You know what this means, right?"

"No."

Malia pouted. "Aww, come on! It will be fun, I promise! Please? Pretty please? Pretty, pretty please? Pretty, pretty, pretty please? Pre–"

"Alright, what do you want to do?" Orla cut her sister off, sighing exasperatedly.

"Don't you think that now that we know the true face of that bitch—well, we've always known—but wouldn't it be unfair to not let others know?"

"I'm sure they already know now—with what happened here."

"Only the girls in the junior and senior classes know, and for the others, hearing it from others isn't the same as seeing it for themselves, right?"

Orla didn't speak; she just stared at Malia, prompting her to continue.

"You're no fun; you can't even fucking guess?" 

"I don't want to."

"Ah, why do I always have to explain things to you in a way I would to a two-year-old?" she shook her head. "This—" she pointed to the letters, "and that." She pointed to the CCTV camera in the corner. 

Orla followed Malia's gaze to the small, almost inconspicuous CCTV camera tucked into the corner of the room. The realization hit her like a cold breeze, and she couldn't help but chuckle.

"You want to show everyone the footage," Orla stated, more a declaration than a question.

Malia's grin widened, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "Exactly!"

Orla hesitated. There was a part of her that didn't want to get involved in this kind of public spectacle. But she couldn't say no to Malia, no matter what it was.

"You know this could cause a lot of trouble," Orla warned. "But we do this carefully."

Malia waved off her sister's concerns with a flick of her hand. "Yeah, for those involved, especially Myra. It's not as if anyone will know that we had something to do with how the whole school knows what happened."

"So, what's your plan?" Orla asked, crossing her arms.

Malia's eyes gleamed with excitement. "Simple. We get the letters and the footage, post it on the groups and school students' website, and if we want to go all out, we can post it on your duplicate account where you have millions of followers. And once the post is out, well, let's just say Myra will have a lot of explaining to do."

Orla sighed. This was going to stir up a lot of drama, but she didn't care, and since Malia wanted to have her fun, then let her have it. Maybe it was time for Myra's facade to finally crack. 

"Fine," Orla said, finally relenting.

Malia's grin stretched from ear to ear. "Perfect! This is going to be more fun than I thought." 

With that, they both headed towards the CCTV room.

…

At the recovery room:

"All right, all done," the brunette in a nurse outfit said as she stood up, smiling at Ephyra as she closed the first-aid kit. "It might look like a simple scrape, but there are a few cuts, so I'd advise you not to go anywhere yet and rest here for a bit."

She turned to the gray-haired senior girl who had brought Ephyra over. "Or does she have any important classes she can't miss?"

The gray-haired girl shook her head immediately. "After physical class, the senior class doesn't have any classes."

"Good," she smiled and turned to Ephyra. "Why don't you rest for a bit, hmm?"

"Thank you," Ephyra murmured, flashing a smile at the nurse, who was now standing.

"You're welcome. I will be going to my office. If you need anything, tap the button here, and my assistant will answer. Excuse me." With a warm smile towards the two girls, the nurse turned and left.

For some time after the nurse's departure, there was silence until Ephyra spoke up, "Thank you… senior, for bringing me here. I appreciate it. You don't have to stay anymore. I don't want to be a bother, so you can leave now. Thank you again."

"You can call me Selene, and we're in the same class, so no need for that." Selene smiled warmly at Ephyra. "And don't worry, you're not a bother at all. I was just glad I could help."

Ephyra gave a small nod, still feigning awkwardness. "I just don't want to cause any trouble," she murmured, her gaze dropping to her hands.

Selene's expression softened. "You're not causing any trouble. In fact, I'm glad what happened today happened. If not, we wouldn't have known that Myra was such a manipulative person." 

Ephyra blinked in surprise, her gaze lifting to meet Selene's. "You... believe me?" 

Selene nodded. "Yes, I do. I've seen how Myra acts around others, especially around Alan. She puts on this sweet, innocent act, but I've always had my doubts. What happened today just confirms them."

A look of relief washed over Ephyra's face. "I thought no one would believe me."

"Maybe not without witnessing what happened," Selene agreed. "And besides, not everyone is fooled by her act."

Ephyra shifted uncomfortably. "I just wanted to make things right. I never wanted to cause all this drama."

"I know, and it's not your fault."

Ephyra gave a small, hesitant smile. "Thank you, Selene. For believing me and for helping me."

Selene returned the smile warmly. "Anytime. And, I will be leaving now, so rest up."

Ephyra nodded. "I will. Thank you."

"Bye." 

"Bye."

As the door closed behind Selene, Eira lay down and made herself comfortable. The memories of this morning when she was called a bastard surfaced.

How could Ephyra have lived through the names, taunts, and insults?

How did Ephyra become the bastard, and the bastard became the legitimate child?

Looking back, it wasn't always like that, and one could also say that it was partly Ephyra's fault.

It started when they both began attending the same school after Marriane complained to their father about how biased he was by making Myra go to a different school from her sister, forgetting that the school had chosen Ephyra, not the other way around. After much persuasion and pleading, he finally made Myra attend the same elementary school as Ephyra, but not without spending a lot of money, as Myra's grades weren't good enough for the school.

When they both started going to the same school, Myra, who had at first tried to get along with her stepsister, found herself ignored multiple times. Then, it turned to envy and jealousy, as Ephyra was good at almost everything and, despite being reclusive, stole attention with her appearance. At first, she called herself the favorite daughter and showed off what their father had bought at her behest, trying to spite Ephyra, who still didn't spare her or anyone else her attention. Then, during an argument with a classmate who liked Ephyra very much, she angrily called Ephyra the bastard, which calmed her down. From then on, Myra started saying it to everyone except their father and in Ephyra's absence.

It wasn't that Ephyra didn't try to rid herself of the label, but by the time she knew, it was already too late. Her antisocial, softhearted self gave up, not seeing the use of refusing something known by all.

Eira had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Ephyra had not only been kind and naive; she'd been a pushover and stupid.

Anyway, it doesn't matter; she was going to correct all of her mistakes.

[Hey, how's it going?]

[The Dellinger siblings have retrieved the edited footage and are now preparing to post it to the school students' website.]

Ephyra smiled hearing that. [Perfect, let's see how good little Myra takes this, yeah? And thank you for shielding the pain.]

[Master doesn't need to thank me; it's what I was supposed to do.]

[Whatever, and stop calling me Master. Call me by my name.]

[As you wish, Master]

[I said call me by my name.]

[Alright, Master.]

"…?"

[You know what? Forget it.]

[Yes, Master. There is something I would like to report to you.]

Eira sighed, [What is it?]

[I just finished a new round of upgrades, and my abilities have increased as well as the efficiency of my previous ones.]

Ephyra's eyes lit up. [Really? That's great news! So, what can you do now?]

[In addition to previous abilities, which were manipulating digital records, creating false identities, blocking surveillance systems temporarily, and rewriting digital footprints, my new abilities are advanced data reconstruction, enhanced disguise protocols, predictive behavior analysis, automated anomaly detection, remote device access, augmented reality integration, and emotion simulation in communication.]

This is perfect, she thought. With these upgrades, everything will become easier.

[Good job,] Ephyra responded. [Keep monitoring the situation, and make sure nothing goes wrong with the footage release. We need Myra's downfall to be as public and as humiliating as possible.]

[Understood, Master. I will keep you updated on any developments.]

With that, Ephyra leaned back, closing her eyes with a satisfied smirk on her lips. Everything was falling into place, just as she had planned. Now, all she had to do was sit back and watch as the chaos unfolded.