Chapter 2

Ms. Dickson thought that Miranda was shocked by her reprimands and hurriedly began comforting her. However, Miranda changed her story just then.

"I'm sorry for lying, Ms. Dickson. Sierra forced me to lie on her behalf. She was actually playing computer games all night… S-She even threatened to slap me if I told the truth…"

At that, I just laughed coldly and said nothing. Then, I slowly got to my feet, raised my hand without hesitation, and delivered a tight, forceful slap across her face.

The sound reverberated across the classroom. Miranda was frozen to the spot, staring at me like she didn't know what to do next.

A long while later, she finally snapped back to her senses and thrust a finger in my face, yelling, "What the hell was that for, Sierra Phillips?"

Ms. Dickson hurried over to stop me from slapping Miranda again. I just grinned slyly as I glared at her coldly, looking her dead in the eye.

"I just slapped you so people would believe what you said earlier. I mean, if I didn't do it, the whole class would only think that you were lying, wouldn't they? You wouldn't want that, would you?"

If she insisted on acting like a bitch, then I was going to make sure to give her exactly what she wanted.

…

As night fell, I went back home with my parents, Miguel Phillips and Andrea Moore. Ms. Dickson had called them to the teacher's office that afternoon because she was mad at me for slapping a classmate in class.

Yet, Mom and Dad never blamed me for anything. They just gently reminded me not to get too stressed while studying for the SATs. They also told me to get enough rest if I was tired or exhausted.

They were like that in my past life too. When I realized that my grades were so bad that I wouldn't even manage to get into a vocational college, my world literally came crashing down on me.

However, after the initial shock, Mom and Dad still pulled me into their arms and comforted me, telling me not to be so upset.

Everyone around us, including our relatives who'd always had their eyes on me, began looking at me in contempt and poking fun at me. Mom and Dad were also ashamed and ostracized because of my grades.

I wasn't going to let any of that happen again in this life.

The next day, I went to school early in the morning as usual.

It was obvious that Miranda was still holding a grudge against me for what happened the day before. She glared at me fiercely and then ignored me for the rest of the day.

However, during the break between classes, she suddenly pulled me out to a corner in the hallway, asking me to explain something from class to her.

"Why can't we do this in the classroom?" I asked.

"Oh, it's too noisy in there. I can't focus."

Her motive became clear soon enough, though. I wasn't even done explaining the first question when she suddenly shook me off and ran into the teacher's office to complain.

She sobbed and said, "Ms. Dickson! Ms. Dickson! Sierra just tried to attack me again as revenge because she got called into the office yesterday!"

She continued wiping the tears from her face, pretending to look as pitiful as possible while silently observing me. When she realized that I wasn't responding to her accusations, she sobbed even more loudly and aggressively.

"She pulled me into a corner in the hallway and threatened to push me off the seventh floor if I dared to tattle on her again!"

Miranda was just too adept at showing different sides of her to people—one in public and one behind their backs.

And if things didn't go her way, she would immediately complain to someone of higher authority, put on a pitiful act, and play the poor victim card so she wouldn't be held responsible for anything.

In the past, I never bothered refuting any of her accusations against me. I'd just weakly defend myself, telling Ms. Dickson that I had never done such a thing.

After all, every time I tried to explain my side of the story, Ms. Dickson would always take Miranda's side and reprimand me no matter what happened.

"Miranda wouldn't be complaining about you if you never did such a thing to her. What's the point of slandering you if you were innocent in the first place?"

Ms. Dickson would always assume that I was making up excuses. In fact, she would even tell me that there must be something wrong with my attitude and character if I simply couldn't get along with my classmates.