Chapter 4

A smug look flickered in Molly's eyes, and a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

That was Molly for you. No matter what happened, she always found some way to drag me into it and make me look bad.

Whenever we got our tests back, she'd go out of her way to bring up my low grades. If I complained that the cafeteria food was too spicy, she'd somehow twist it into proof that I was too spoiled for cafeteria food.

Little by little, she'd turned the whole class against me.

"She's just some poor student Molly took under her wing. I heard her mom picks through trash for a living! And she seriously thinks she's some rich girl?"

Back then, I hadn't seen what Molly was doing. Now it was obvious.

She built herself up by tearing me down, making sure everyone looked down on me while she came off looking even better. Now she was pulling the same stunt again.

Too bad for her, I wasn't about to let her walk all over me this time.

I turned to Molly, my voice cold. "If you feel so bad about canceling the trip, why don't you make it up to everyone yourself? You were the one who offered to take the whole class.

"Since the trip's off, just give everyone the money instead."

Then I looked at the others. "You all know how cheap I am. There's no point asking me for money. Ask Molly. She's the generous one who's always helping everyone out, right?"

Every eye in the room immediately turned to Molly.

They didn't care where the money came from. As long as someone paid up, they were happy.

Molly's expression stiffened. She clearly hadn't expected me to dump the problem right back in her lap.

Of course she didn't have that kind of money. But with everyone staring at her expectantly, she had no choice but to force a smile and keep up the rich-girl act.

"I don't have that much on me right now, but don't worry. I already promised everyone a trip, so I'll make sure you get the money."

Felicia was Molly's biggest suck-up, so naturally, she was the first to defend her.

"We should trust Molly. When has she ever let us down? She buys us gifts for every holiday, pays for drinks at school events, and treats us to meals all the time."

That was enough to settle everyone down, and soon they were nodding along.

"Yeah. Molly's always been generous."

"She's spent plenty of money on us over the years. There's no way she'd lie about something like this."

They had no problem turning on me, but when it came to Molly, suddenly everyone was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

They were such hypocrites.

Then again, they were just as selfish as she was. The only reason they sucked up to her was because they thought she was rich.

I couldn't wait to see how they'd react when they found out the rich girl they'd been fawning over was a fraud. She'd been living off my family all along and couldn't afford to give them a dime.

I glanced at Molly, determined not to let her off the hook that easily. "So when are you actually going to pay everyone? At least give them a straight answer instead of leaving them hanging.

"And if you don't have the money on you, just ask your parents to send it. That only takes a few minutes."

That got the others thinking.

"Yeah, Molly. If you don't have the money, just ask your parents to transfer it. You're not seriously planning to back out, are you?"

"You're the one who promised us the trip. You can't go back on your word now!"

Molly went pale and started trembling with anger.

I'd backed her into a corner. If she refused now, she'd destroy the rich-girl image she'd worked so hard to maintain.

With no way out, she gritted her teeth and said, "My parents are away on business today, so I can't get ahold of them right now. But I promise I'll have everyone's money tomorrow."

As she spoke, she shot me a vicious glare. The hatred in her eyes was unmistakable. She looked like she wanted to tear me apart.

Once Molly promised to pay, everyone finally backed off.

I never expected her to actually show up with the money the next day. She handed out 1,000 dollars to each person, for a total of 48,000 dollars.

At first, I couldn't figure out where she'd gotten that kind of money. Then it hit me.

I did the math in my head and realized 48,000 dollars was exactly how much had been in the class fund.

I knew exactly what Molly was up to. This time, she wasn't going to manipulate me the way she had in my last life.