Meanwhile, Megan turned her face away from them; both of them did not utter a word. Jade couldn’t be bothered by them because all she cared about the most was her real granddaughter, Janet. She smiled sheepishly at Janet when she asked her, “Janet, why did you keep us in the dark of your talent in painting?”
Janet first raised her brow quizzically before answering in a level voice, “I started learning to paint when I was still living in the countryside and my teacher advised me to be low-key to avoid trouble. Also, he told me that I shouldn’t paint for a living because that would make my paintings lifeless and dull.”
A look of enlightenment took over Jade’s face when she exclaimed, “Oh, I see!”
Staring at Janet, Megan was unsure whether she should be happy for her talent or be sad for Emily’s embarrassing defeat. Why couldn’t she just have two perfect daughters? Why did one of them have to be so inferior to the other in a certain aspect?
At the same time, the painting competition organized by Old Mr. Collins had officially gone viral on Twitter. An article with the title ‘The daughter of a retired model turned out to be the ever famous painting artist—Master Nato!’ soon became one of the most trending topics. Not only had it gone viral on Twitter, it had caused a sensational stir at Star High School too.
Almost every student of Star High School watched the video of the painting competition. Because of that, Janet was the only thing everyone could talk about in Star High School’s forum on Reddit. In the meantime, the protagonist was impervious to the furor and spent her days snoozing in the classroom as usual. Her classmates would glance at her enviously from time to time.
“I’m taking back all the bad things I’ve ever said about Janet.”
“Damn it! You have no idea how psyched I was when I watched the video!”
“I certainly never thought that the glorious Master Nato could be my classmate.”
“From now on, I’m gonna get on the good side of Janet so that she’ll teach me how to paint.”
“Oh, just get lost because that’s my idea.”
“All of you just stay away from her!” Gordon glared at them resentfully. He couldn’t stand how shameless that snobbish bunch was as they were so eager to butter Janet up after knowing that she was Master Nato.
Holding her phone in her hands, Abby glanced back and forth between Janet in the video and Janet in real life. Several seconds later, she shook her head and mumbled under her breath, “There’s no way the person in the video was Janet.”
The corners of Gorden’s lips twitched in annoyance when he patted Abby’s bulging cheeks. “Are you out of your wits due to being too shocked?”
Staring dazedly at him, Abby pinched her fleshy cheeks and exclaimed, “Goodness gracious, I’m not dreaming! This actually happened in real life!”
One of their classmates queried, “Why isn’t Emily here today?”
The rest of them sniggered, “I don’t think she dares to show up at school.”
“She must have found it too embarrassing to come to school because Janet always manages to steal her limelight in every competition she joins.”
“What pisses me off the most is how she stole Janet’s idea in the painting competition.”
“Geez, I can’t believe she’s this cheap!”
Every student of Class A was proud of Janet and saw Emily as a disgrace. Therefore, almost every message in their class WhatsApp chat group contained praises for Janet.
‘I’m in love with her!’
‘Janet will be my role model in painting from now on!’
‘Janet is the best!’
…
Emily had been staying in her room at Jackson Residence for two days to reflect on her own mistake. She dared not log into her account on Twitter, check the forum of Star High School on Reddit, browse the internet nor read the messages from her classmates. It was because she knew everyone must be lashing out on her on all those social media platforms.
Feeling disappointed in Emily, Brain fumed at Megan, “Previously, I said that I would never go easy on her if she made an embarrassing mistake again… It’s all your fault that she is spoilt.”
Megan looked despondent because she had received a ton of messages relating to Janet and Emily over the past two days. She had mixed feelings responding to the messages because everyone was showering Janet with compliments and Emily with criticisms.
Emily turned out to be such a huge disappointment and the reputation of their family was completely tarnished by what she did.
“Please stop criticizing Emily; she hasn’t come out of her room to eat for two days already!” Wiping away the tears from her eyes, Megan wailed miserably.
