“Oh, my God! Isn’t Emily too vain? But how did she steal it? Did she do that in school?”
“How would I know? Anyway, Emily wouldn’t be able to show off in school today.”
“Emily seems to be embarrassing herself lately. She actually lost to Janet in the previous National Mathematics competition. Is she trying to win this round by stealing?”
Students in Class A were very snobbish, so they’d make pointed remarks whenever someone was involved in something horrible. On the other hand, they’d try to get in someone’s good books if the latter were to have accomplished something worthwhile. Throughout the past two years, they had been fawning over Emily.
Upon arriving at school, she heard the gossip and rumors about her and felt extremely sorry for herself. I wonder who that rascal is who spread this news. I’ll curse the person if I ever find out.
She sat in the classroom in anxiousness. Suddenly, Madelaine barged into the classroom and took her seat with her bag before handing her phone to Emily for her to have a look. “Emily, look, is this Janet from our class?”
The picture in the phone showed four young men supporting Janet while she walked.
The photograph wasn’t too blurry and anyone who knew Janet would believe that it was her.
Emily stared at Madelaine in shock while asking in puzzlement, “How did you get this photo?”
Madelaine scowled. “On Saturday, it happened that my uncle was outside the hotel. Then, he saw four men holding onto a young girl. As he was worried about her safety, he took a picture and even sent it to our Messenger’s ‘Loving Family’ chat group.”
I see!
“Based on what I know of her, this must be Janet!” Emily decisively confirmed.
Madelaine nodded. “I think they look 90% alike.”
Haha, in that case, why don’t I use this chance to shift everybody’s focus on Janet?
Emily thought of a great idea. This is thanks to Madelaine and fortunately, we are on the same side.
Janet arrived at school.
The moment she entered the school grounds, she noticed people stealing glances at her intermittently. When she looked up, they’d avoid her gaze.
Her instincts told her that it couldn’t be any good news.
Nevertheless, Janet entered Class A while appearing unfazed. She noticed that the guys were leering at her whereas the girls seemed disgusted.
At that moment, Abby dragged her to a corner at the staircase outside hastily whereas Gordon followed them.
Abby asked in a hurry, “Janet, what happened? Everybody in school is talking about you.”
He snatched Abby’s phone while switching off the screen. “I trust Janet and the truth will reveal itself.”
“No worries; show it to me.” Janet took Abby’s phone. She turned on the screen to have a look and it turned out to be Star High School’s gossip thread on Reddit.
Little Mouse started the thread.
There was a picture attached where Beast was supporting her back while she entered the car after she had some alcohol. The caption was, ‘News blast! Star High School’s **net Jackson has fun with four burly men! She has a promiscuous lifestyle. Everybody, please keep a distance from her. I hope that the school authorities would investigate her thoroughly to avoid her causing bad influence within the school.’
The person, who started the thread, was extremely harsh with their wordings. However, there were thousands of comments beneath the post.
‘**net Jackson? Isn’t that Janet Jackson?’
‘Oh my God! That’s too disgusting. Will she get infected by HIV since she’s having fun with four burly men?’
‘I can’t even imagine that this is our schoolmate in Star High School!’
‘Everybody, keep a distance from her. You might be infected with some disease if you’re not careful!’
At that point, Emily came forward with a comment, but she seemed to be advocating for Janet.
‘You shouldn’t hurt your schoolmate. They might be Janet’s siblings. You are all cyberbullying. Do you know that this will cause a lot of hurt?’
Emily’s comment had attracted lots of praises.
“Emily, you are such a kind-hearted soul!’
‘Although Emily stole Janet’s painting, it’s wonderful that she came forward by taking Janet’s side.’
‘Let’s focus on Janet for now.’
‘We should stop commenting about Emily because she is a kind person, after all. I’m sure that she did not steal on purpose. Everybody makes mistakes after all!’
Janet burst out in laughter when she read the comments underneath the post. It is undeniable that this is a great strategy for Emily to divert everybody’s attention!
