Campus Beauty Melodramatic Short Stories & Novels

On the night before the college entrance exam, my boyfriend misdialed and called my number to confess his feelings to the school beauty. "Adele, you promised that if I willingly skipped the exam for you, you'd be my girlfriend. "That idiot Sadie already gave up her university early admission spot for me. Tomorrow, I'll be standing right outside the testing center with a massive bouquet of flowers waiting for you. I'm going to prove to you once and for all that my heart is yours!" In the background, a rowdy chorus of his friends cheered him on. "Trading a top scorer for the prettiest girl in school. You're a legend, Mark!" "When you two officially get together, you better throw a party!" "A match made in heaven!" Mark told them to quiet down, then anxiously asked into the phone, "Adele, are you happy?" I gripped my phone, unable to utter a single word. Because I wasn't Adele, I was the "idiot Sadie" he was talking about. Mark was my high school sweetheart, the very same boy who, just ten minutes ago, had texted me encouraging words to do well on the college entrance exam tomorrow so we could go to the same college together. After hanging up, I sat in the quiet for a long time. Then, I opened my contacts and called my guidance counselor. "Mr. Simpson, that early admission spot? I'm taking it back."

The earthquake hit out of nowhere, and the whole class jammed up at the door. Rainee Bianco, our resident queen bee, jumped onto the podium. "Don't freak out! Get into the triangle zone and wait for rescue!" Yeah, no. Experts had already called that advice bogus. The so-called triangle zone wasn't safe. I looked out at the lawn. "We're on the third floor. Jump now, and we might actually make it!" Everyone froze for half a second. Then they started climbing out the windows. Everyone but Tristan Dodd, my childhood best friend. He bolted straight for the triangle zone. I ran after him, grabbed him, and dragged him out the window with me. He walked away without a scratch. I shattered my leg. After that, Tristan acted like I'd hung the moon. He took care of me every day, and after graduation, we ended up together. Then Rainee found out. She got drunk, fell into a lake, and drowned. The second Tristan heard, he shoved me off a cliff. "If I didn't owe you my life, you really think I would've picked you? She was right. This is all your fault!" When I opened my eyes, I was back at the exact moment he ran for the triangle zone. 'He wants to die this time? Fine by me.'

Ever since I was little, I've been notoriously good at taking advice. When I'm seven years old, I have a high fever. Not wanting to fork out money for a hospital visit, my grandfather, Cameron Stone, feels my forehead and says, "Don't be such a wimp. You just need to tough it out." I end up lying in bed for three days. Eventually, my fever turns into pneumonia, and I wind up in the ICU. It scares Grandpa so much that now, the moment he hears me cough, he rushes me to the hospital. When I'm 12 years old, my homeroom teacher, Alfred Buck, chews me out for my bad grades and tells me I'm only good enough to be a garbage collector. So, I stay up all night digging through every trash can in the school. After that, I pile three woven bags of plastic bottles in the principal's office. It scares Mr. Buck so much that from then on, he praises me for being an eco-warrior the moment he sees me. When I'm 18 years old, the prettiest girl in school, Irene Parker, gets so sick of me following her around that she tells me to get lost and stay as far away as possible. I drop out of school on the spot and buy a coach ticket to Daleton to pick cotton. It scares Irene so much that she travels 1,800 miles in tears. She finds me, feverish and dehydrated, in the cotton field and brings me back. After Irene learns about my past, she buys a small yellow notebook and writes three rules on the first page. "Words said in anger must not be taken to heart." "Important matters must be confirmed twice." "Only those who genuinely wish you well have the right to advise you on what to do." At the end, she also adds, "It only counts if the person looks you in the eye and confirms the advice twice." I carry the notebook with me for five years. In those five years, Irene never leaves a single piece of advice in it, because she says she can't bear to gamble with my life. But then, one month before our wedding, she cheats on me.

I've been in a relationship with Ralph Green for seven years. However, he tells me he's sick of me. He finds himself a younger and prettier woman. I don't break down or cause a scene this time. I merely turn and leave. He's confident that I won't leave him because of how much I love him. Later, he finally finds a way to contact me. "Has it been fun pretending like you've gone missing, Mabel? Hurry up and come back once you've had enough of this fit." I'm not awake. The person beside me, Ambrose Steele, takes my phone away. He holds the phone up and deliberately leans down to kiss my cheek. "Mabes can't come to the phone. She's exhausted from last night."

After transmigrating through three novels in a row, the hardest thing I ever suffer through is drinking iced long black. But when I open my eyes again, I somehow become the pathetic simp side character in a trashy romance novel. Just as I debate whether to file a complaint against the system, the trembling system hurriedly explains something to me. Although this is a trashy romance novel, it is also an unfinished abandoned novel. I ask, "So you're saying I decide how the story develops?" The system replied, "Yes. Everything is completely under your control." Satisfied, I lazily stretch and begin checking the original Jacob's background. He has a trillionaire father and a billionaire mother. On top of that, he has seven rich and beautiful older sisters. With such a ridiculously overpowered setup, how can he go around simping for a broke college girl with no money? What a complete waste!

On the night of the blood moon, I seduced the Alpha every she-wolf dreamed about. I only wanted to see what Cain looked like when he lost control. I never thought that after that one night he'd hold me through every full moon, lock me against his chest, and murmur the same three words into my ear, over and over: my little wolf. Then his first love came back. And I got thrown out like garbage. He tore the wolf out of me, drove me from my pack, and left me with nothing but the open road and a rogue's name. I held on for three years. What I got at the end of them was the Luna sash that should have been mine, tied around Seraphine's waist by his own hands. So this time, I let go. I cut my bloodline, rode north, and agreed to marry a wolf who would treat me like something precious. Yet it was this very moment that the proud, cold Alpha who never bowed to anyone dropped to his knees in front of the whole pack and begged me to come back.

After the SAT results come out, the girl everyone knows as the school's scholarship case throws a lavish graduation party. That same night, I get a text alert saying my credit card has been maxed out. I go to confront her, but she's already in my boyfriend's arms, sobbing like she's the victim. "Just because I'm on financial aid, I'm not allowed to throw a party?" My boyfriend rushes to comfort her and turns on me instead. "Your family's loaded anyway. Spending a little on Lacey isn't going to kill you." Sure, my family has money, but I'm not a saint, and I don't see why I should be footing her bills. I refuse to back down. I call the police to make her pay me back, but my boyfriend retaliates by going after my family's company, pushing it to the brink of bankruptcy. On my way to meet potential investors, my boyfriend and Lacey Kemp conspire to run me off the road and kill me. When I open my eyes again, I'm back on the day of her party.

My roommate, Katie Lloyd, is a hardcore environmentalist. Even in a hundred-degree heatwave, she locks the AC remote in her drawer. "We're going to sweat in the summer anyway. Just suck it up and consider it your contribution to saving the planet." That night, there isn't a breath of wind outside, and our dorm feels exactly like an oven. My head pounds from the stifling heat as sweat pours down my face. When I try to steal the key, Katie stands on a chair and snips the AC power cord. "Can't you see Mother Nature is running a fever? You're really selfish for making more greenhouse gases." In my last life, this is the exact night the entire school starts hunting me down with insults. Everyone calls me spoiled, claims I have no empathy for nature, and praises Katie for having a sense of mission. In the end, I suffer cardiogenic shock from the heat, without even getting a chance to call an ambulance. Katie weeps on camera, claiming my health failed simply because I eat too much processed junk food. When I open my eyes again, I'm back on the very first day of the semester. Katie's dropping the AC remote into her drawer, asking me with tearful eyes, "A little heat won't kill you, right, Jane?" I grab my phone and medical records and head straight for the resident advisor's office. "I'd like to request a single room, please." Anyone else can play the martyr if they want. I'm just looking out for my own life.