Gumball Lesson

I died on the day I won the Global Medical Doctorate Award. Fresh from celebrating the sixteenth birthday of my younger sister, my parents, brother, and my fiancé finally returned home, but it was three hours after my death. My family photos were beaming with happiness on social media, while I laid in the suffocating basement drenched in blood. Before I died, I had struggled to slide my tongue across my phone screen in a desperate attempt to call for help. My parents and brother had blocked my number. Only my fiancé answered my call. The moment his voice came through, he snapped, "Winona, Winnie's sixteenth birthday is important. Stop trying to hijack attention with your pathetic excuses. Enough with the theatrics!" It murdered my last spark of survival. In that electronic death rattle, my heart flatlined. The 100th time they chose her. The 100th time they abandoned me for her. But it was also the last time. They thought I had ran way to get their attention again, and that if they taught me a harsh lesson, I would come crawling back pathetically. But not this time. Because I didn't leave home. I had been lying in the basement of my house.

A 17-year old student, Lizette Kryzion Flores belongs to a rich and well-known family. She's known for being a volleyball player and still on the number one spot on the varsity list for three years. Not until the party happened, his dad witnessed her ugly behavior and attitude. Chaster teachers her a lesson by sending her to Anastasia High where Kryzion's mortal enemy, Avis attends. On her first day, she met Sean Philip Delos Reyes, Avis' first love. A media art club student came from an ordinary family which is her total opposite. Despite her newfound highschool life, there's a lot of adjustment she needs to keep in mind. She met Jerome Sebastian Buenavista, a cold-hearted and snobbed basketball player at Anastasia. When Avis got into an accident and caused her sprain, Anastasia high is in search for a new volleyball captain to compete with Foster University. There, where she finally meets her chance to prove herself, the clash between Sean and Jerome begins. The relationship between these three enabled her to make a decision to go back to Foster. She was pleased to return to her old university to earn her title as Flores Corp's heiress. What will happen when a spoiled brat girl who doesn't know about love finds out that love is mischief? Will she go back or stay?

'He tried to force her to submit, but he wasn’t her Alpha. No, SHE was his.' Becoming an Alpha seemed like too much responsibility for a newly turned teenaged werewolf, but life doesn’t always go the way we planned. It was a lesson that Alexa Winters had to learn, and fast because the world continued to spin even when she was falling apart, and it wasn’t going to wait for her to catch up. And ready or not she was the Alpha. Learning to lead whilst fighting enhanced emotions makes for a really stressed, she-wolf. Add super strength to the mix and you have disaster, and a lot of broken furniture. Well, at least she was keeping the handymen busy. Just when she starts getting the hang of things the nightmare from her very recent past comes back, and this time he isn’t planning on leaving empty handed. With events from her family’s past coming to light and secrets making themselves known they have to face something much older, crueler, and so much stronger than she could ever hope to be. With Aiden at her side, she just might be able to do it. Can she learn to control this newfound power before her enemies succeed in their mission to take it from her?

Everyone knew that Aria Jackson had loved Larry Spencer for years. The usually obedient Aria got tattoos for him, broke rules for him, and even moved to a foreign city for him. But when she fell into the lake and he rescued her rival instead, leaving her soaking and miserable, her heart finally shattered completely. The man who came after Larry held her protectively in his arms and suggested with a gentle laugh, "Miss Jackson, have you considered teaching your ex-husband a lesson?" She promptly filed for divorce and married Archer Duncan, the heir to the Duncan empire and the powerful CEO of Duncan Industries. That evening, their marriage certificate was posted on social media. The typically aloof Larry finally showed his desperation, begging her not to marry Archer and then turning to threaten him, "You think she loves you? She's just using the Duncan family's wealth and connections!" Archer simply tightened his arm around her waist and replied calmly, "So what? Fortunately, I have both in abundance." What no one knew was that Aria had been Archer's carefully laid plan all along. He had deeply loved this rose from the beginning—he admired her ambition and was eager to support her boldness and independence.

War is coming, and this time it is more than personal. For generations, the Stormborn lineage has carried one story like a scar, the former Draconis destroyed their empire and left their bloodline in ruins. The Red Alpha grew up on that story. He was raised on it. Fed with it. Every lesson, every battle, every scar carved one belief into him, when the Draconis rises again, it must be put to death. But fate has a cruel sense of humor. Because the new Draconis is Lyra. She doesn’t fully understand what she is yet. She only knows she’s being hunted. Villages are being wiped out. Borders are closing. The wolf clan are preparing for open war. The vampire council is divided, each elder with their own hidden agenda. And somewhere deep within the forbidden forests lies a power that could either protect her or expose her. The Red Alpha knows more than he admits. He knows what the last Draconis did. He knows secrets about Lyra’s blood that even she doesn’t know. And he is not just preparing for battle. He is preparing revenge. As the Blood Eclipse approaches, alliances will begin to crack, previous betrayals will surface again, and the truth about the former Draconis will threaten everything. Because this isn’t just history repeating itself. This is unfinished hatred. And when Lyra finally steps into the fire, the world will learn whether she is their salvation... Or the final mistake.

During the holiday season, a flood hits. The company's warehouse is submerged up to the third floor. Due to the emergency, I have my assistant tell everyone to come back a day early to help. I promise that the company will provide stipends and extra time off to make up for this. But on that day, a Gen Z employee goes live across the internet to report me. "Oh, my God. It's 2025, yet there are still companies forcing employees to adjust their time off and work overtime! Is this heartless boss so broke that she needs to exploit us like this? Will she die if she doesn't squeeze us out of every drop of usefulness? Company notices override the law. Impressive stuff, this is!" Soon, the company ends up on the trending list due to criticism from the online community. Even the regulators come knocking to hold us accountable. In the end, the company is forced to cancel the notice. A lot of equipment isn't salvaged in time, resulting in significant losses. The employee even posts a victory lap. "Give the boss a tiny lesson—see if she dares to force overtime again!" I'm so angry that I laugh out loud. I tell my assistant to cancel the annual benefit we give all employees—an entire month of paid time off for Christmas and the New Year holidays. If we have to stick strictly to the law, then fine. Have it your way!

The autumn break has just ended when a call arrives from school. "Ms. Watson, your daughter failed to secure a scholarship and bullied her classmate in retaliation. Can you please come to school?" When I rush over, I find Lila Keats bound to a trash can, her hair drenched in sewage, and her mouth sealed with duct tape. Meanwhile, the so-called victim merely has had two strands of hair pulled out. After some querying, I discover that Melody Caldwell is jealous of Lila's achievements and has been waiting for an opportunity to strike. When I demand an apology, Vanessa Morrison flies into a rage. "You're lowly trash without a proper family! My daughter teaching her a lesson is the greatest honor you can obtain in this life! "Expel her immediately! My husband works in the Education Bureau! Beg for mercy, or she can forget about taking the college entrance exam!" That arrogant woman is convinced that Lila and I will beg for forgiveness after being expelled. Unfortunately, she has chosen to mess with the wrong person. Lila's grandfather is a nuclear weapons expert. Her true origins have been concealed for her safety since her whole family works for classified operations. I immediately call the Intelligence Agency. "Mr. Keats' granddaughter was bullied severely at school. Send someone here to deal with this now!"

I had been managing the company’s warehouse software for five years. Then the new manager came to me out of the blue, saying I didn’t understand frontline operations and that I was being fired. Looking at the five-thousand-dollar severance, I just nodded. “Fine.” He patted my shoulder after seeing me so compliant and started lecturing. “Young people should be out on the line, moving boxes! What’s the use of sitting in the office staring at data every day? “We’re a logistics company. Strength is what matters, not a tech geek like you!” I glanced at the high-end gaming computer in his office and obediently replied, “Yes, Mr. Fuller. Lesson received.” Maybe I had been too comfortable these past few years, and he thought I was dispensable. So, I handed over my ID badge and casually deleted all my personal login keys from my computer. Little did he know that the entire warehouse logistics, inventory management, and route planning software had been coded by me. I had let the company use it for free simply because the place was close to home and the work was easy. Now that I was gone, the system running on my personal cloud server was naturally inaccessible. Tens of thousands of items in the warehouse ground to a halt. As for any commercial software that could replace my system, a year’s subscription would cost exactly one thousand times my severance.

Presley Brookmore was bullied by her older half-brother Odin and his two best friends Cruz and Anderson, all of her life. They made it their life mission to humiliate her at every turn. Was it her fault her father carried on an affair with her mother who got pregnant with her and wrecked Odin’s idyllic life? She didn’t think so but apparently, Odin and his cronies did, and so they bullied her at every turn. When an opportunity to get back at Odin’s best friend Cruz Hawley presents itself in a serendipitous moment, she doesn’t let it slip away. Taking full advantage of the fact as a billionaire, an attractive one at that, all eyes are on him and people are snapping photos and videos of the celebrity in the restaurant, she makes a scene straight out a daytime soap opera. Cruz Hawley returned to Vancouver with the intent to take his billion-dollar medical equipment company to the next level. When his childhood best friend’s younger sister pops out of the woodwork and not only destroys his chance at a connection with a client, but makes him a social media sensation, his businesses take the hit. Cruz is going to teach the troublemaker a lesson but it’s his heart on the line when he finds himself looking forward to every challenge she is presenting. It’s win, lose, or draw and as a former Olympian, there is no way he can lose. Let the game of hearts begin. Winner takes all.

Some bad girls need a steady hand to keep them in line. I'm bad enough to need two. Two old men can teach me a lesson when I misbehave. Two hot bodies to keep me warm in bed at night. Two best friends can learn to share with a dirty mouth kid like me. After all... dirty girls need very dirty dads. Anna Josephine is nothing but trouble. She's wild and tough. Not worth anyone's time. Anna is a beautiful little girl. She is also a vulnerable young man on my case list. She is half my age and has absolutely no limits. I broke every rule in the book by giving her somewhere to stay when she was out on the street with nowhere to go. And I'm breaking all the rules of friendship by locking her up at my best friend Jack's house while he's away on business. I thought life was hard enough when I fell in love with the girl, but it got even harder when Holmes came home early and discovered a beautiful stranger was causing a ruckus in his house. And it's even harder when he has a crush on her too. He is the only man on this planet with whom I want to share my last supper. I'm happy to share that. I'm not sure how I feel about sharing Anna.