Chapter 3

Lauren forcefully pushed me away, tears streaming down her face as she yelled, "Why did you make him come after me, Isla? He's clearly into me! Do you have any idea how painful that must've been for him?"

Yvonne Osborne, my deskmate, moved in front of me to shield me. "Who the hell is she, Isla? Has she lost her mind?"

I took a couple of deep breaths, holding back the urge to hit Lauren, and replied, "Yeah, I think she has lost her mind. Lauren is Margaret's daughter."

"Margaret had saved Mom's life, so Mom and Dad said they would grant whatever she asked for. She only asked that Lauren be allowed to study here, since the school had better resources. She wanted Lauren to have a bright future. Today is Lauren's first day of school."

Hearing that, Lauren immediately broke down in tears. "You deliberately told everyone about my background on purpose so they'd look down on me, Isla! You even had other people pick on me! Do you really enjoy seeing me suffer like this?"

I shrugged helplessly and said, "You're the one who bumped into him and ruined his clothes. He was going to let it go, but you insisted on getting an apology. How on earth is this my fault? You clearly brought it on yourself."

Lauren clearly wasn't buying it. "He obviously likes me! He was smiling at me just a moment ago! You must have pressured him into mistreating me! Just because I'm poor doesn't mean you can walk all over me, Isla! I'm never going to give in to people like you! I'm going to rewrite my own future!"

She delivered her speech with a flushed face and looked expectantly toward our classmates, only to be met with looks of pure disgust.

"Have you lost your mind? You're currently at a school, not a pity party. You're the only one constantly crying about being poor! Who even brought that up in the first place?"

Lauren stared at them in disbelief, then pinned the blame on me again. "I came here because I wanted to study in this school, yet you made me stay in the storage room on my very first day!

"Jude was the one who took pity on me and let me stay in the guest room! You even told someone to hit me today! Thankfully, that student couldn't bring himself to actually hurt me!"

She wore a smug look as she said it, as if she were gloating in front of me.

Everyone in the classroom was left speechless. Yvonne asked in confusion, "Didn't you say your brother has a crush on someone? Is it actually her?"

Just as I was about to reply to Yvonne, Lauren's face became even more flushed. She bellowed, "What the hell! Has Jude been in love with me this whole time? I had no idea! He even told me we had never met before this. Have you been keeping him away from me this whole time, Isla?"

Lauren shot me a resentful glare, as though I had just wrecked her happily ever after.

I was honestly getting tired of this. "Can you seriously stop being so full of yourself? You're not the one Jude likes! If you end up ruining things with his actual crush, I won't be able to cover for you. And besides…"

I looked at her mockingly and continued, "Didn't you say you were way too good for Jude the second you walked into our place? What's the matter? Having second thoughts now?"

Lauren's eyes welled up with tears again. She bit her lower lip and looked at me, as though she'd been deeply humiliated.

"Jude has the right to like me! You have no right to stop him! You've been picking on me since yesterday, and today you even made me walk to school! I just wanted to study here, Isla!

"You're just jealous that everyone adores me despite my lack of money! How is that my fault, Isla?"

With that, Lauren plopped down on the ground and cried hysterically.

She cried for quite some time before realizing that no one had come over to help her. She raised her head and found everyone staring at her with puzzled expressions.