The rice Kate was about to spoon into her mouth trembled slightly, half of it spilling onto the table.
She clenched her jaw and slowly lowered the spoon, raising her eyes to meet the inquisitive ones of everyone at the table.
The girl with red hair turned to her in surprise.
"You didn't get rid of yours like you said you did?"
Kate blinked several times in one second, reaching out to scratch the space above her brows as she denied in a soft voice, "Why would you ask that? You were right there when we burnt it."
The girl, however, wasn't convinced.
"I don't know, it was so late at night and I couldn't find my glasses that night."
"Are you saying I might've deceived you?"
"What do you think?"
Tongue-tied, Kate felt a scratchy sensation in her throat and a certain triumphant air around her.
She shifted her gaze to Zoey.
She wasn't smiling. Not even an atom of happiness in her eyes as she watched them bicker.
But why did it seem like this had all been brilliantly set up by her—and she had been foolish enough to believe she held no grudge from last night?
The thought had just formed in her mind when Zoey sighed and dropped the bottle.
"You know what, I think I may have made a mistake. It was so early in the morning and the door was just slightly ajar. Furthermore, the lights were dim, so I must've seen wrong."
Her words had just fallen when a relieved sigh escaped the lungs of the three girls at the table.
"Phew! I really thought Kate was still sleeping with a plushie."
"It would've been too embarrassing, given she was the one who made us get rid of all of ours."
"Oh, how much I loved my plushie. But when she said we had to get rid of them to grow, I couldn't help finding sense in it."
The boy who vehemently defended Kate yesterday, leaned toward the table and chuckled, gazing at Kate lovingly.
"When you look at it, Kate never suggests something wrong. It always ends up working for the best."
Then he stopped talking and leered at Zoey, long displeased with her ever since Kate told them about her
"And you—next time you're not sure of something, don't mention it. You almost made Natalie doubt her friend of sixteen years!"
Austin, who had been silent the whole time, turned his head to look at him, snickering in utter disdain. "Since when did it become a crime to mention something? And what does it have to do with you?"
"They're sisters, and they'll sort each other out later. An outsider like you has no business butting in and reprimanding Zoey when Kate hasn't said anything."
His retort made Robin Dawson's face darken.
He knew Austin was right, so even if he had a dozen things to fire back with, he reined them in knowing it'd only make him sound unreasonable.
The person being defended, sipped her mineral water quietly, watching red-haired Natalie from the corner of her eyes.
She was visibly fuming, not hiding her emotion like the three girls who sucked up to Kate.
Interesting.
Clearing her throat, she smiled faintly, "Last night, when we got home, Kate promised to give me tips on how to effectively play Brielle Sloane."
Natalie Langley choked on her soup and hurriedly pressed a towel against her mouth to stifle the sound of her cough.
Kate smiled forcefully and clenched her bowl tightly, holding herself back from glaring at Zoey.
"This is lunchtime, and we should be eating instead of talking about something so insignificant."
Natalie huffed.
"What do you mean, something so insignificant? Your sister is playing the role of Brielle Sloane and you didn't care to tell me?"
Suppressing the building irritation inside, Kate slanted her body toward Natalie, retorting through clenched teeth, "That's because it wasn't very important."
Zoey grimaced, slowly reaching into her pocket for the flyer she had tucked into it just this morning.
"Things must be done differently here in the city, but I really thought something like the Annual Drama Festival at Laun was a big deal around here."
Her words had just fallen when Natalie shot to her feet, reaching over to snatch the flyer from her grasp.
Confirming it was really what was written on it, her eyes trembled.
"How could you lose this? I know this is the Day of Reckoning, but you've played the female lead in countless dramas. Don't you feel ashamed of yourself for losing this?"
"Feel ashamed of herself? Haven't you heard? I'm Zoey Smith, Kate's sister. Last night we had a long talk about this, and in the end, we agreed it wasn't a loss for our Smith family—since one of us still got the role." Zoey casually butted in before Kate could think of an answer.
Someone standing up for her was supposed to make the situation less humiliating, but it only reminded everyone the one who got the role instead of the best in drama class was a country bumpkin who hadn't been in the school for more than a day.
Embittered, Natalie turned and stormed off.
Kate didn't hesitate and went after her, as did the boy and the three girls with them.
Just like that, the original owners of the table had it all to themselves once again.
"I have never seen such a well-thought-out manipulation." Austin gasped, propping up his head with both hands to properly ogle Zoey in admiration.
"You're this smart and you still get bullied?" Zoey laughed and leaned back in her seat, picking up the mineral water.
Though it had only been a day, Austin was already used to her snarky remarks and subtly reached for her still-filled plate.
Zoey caught him almost immediately, and he stopped like a puppy who had just been caught doing something wrong.
"You're not fed at home?" She was genuinely curious.
His eyes fell sadly. "They forget I exist most of the time."
She squinted at him for a moment, then pushed her plate toward him.
Watching him gobble it all up without hesitation, she scoffed. "You know, usually when people don't eat, others try to convince them to. But it's different with you."
"Why convince you to eat when I can eat yours instead? Say you collapse along the way, I'll be strong enough to carry you to the infirmary—because of all the food I've eaten." He mumbled through mouthfuls.
"You're shameless."
"I'm aware. By the way, I haven't seen that pompous Berschwith scum or his minions anywhere. You did beat up Sheila Stratton yesterday—they won't let you off easily."
"I'm going out for dinner after school today. Just go home."
"How could I possibly do that! If you haven't noticed, I'm a gentleman. What if Dylan's minions…"
Zoey glared at him and he immediately stopped talking, lowering his eyes sulkily.
"Please let me come. I'll only drink water."
Zoey slouched back. For a second, she regretted going up to the rooftop yesterday.
Didn't they say a situation like that gave every student in school an automatic pass to the next grade?
Ah, forget it. She was too nice a girl to let such an idiot harm himself like that.
A moment later, her eyes lit up with an idea and she turned to them apprehensively, "You know what, do you have the number of any of Dylan's minions?"
He nodded.
"Send him a message telling him where we'll be eating today, then act like it was a mistake and only delete it after he's seen it."
"Why?"
"So he'll pay for us."
Austin didn't understand what she meant, but he still did as he was told.
Meanwhile, in Berschwith & Sons, Dylan Berschwith stood over an unconscious Sheila Stratton, his pierced brows twitching repeatedly in irritation at the state she was in.
It was too embarrassing to say they'd stood by and let a girl do this to their friend, so the boys made up an entire lie—claiming two grown men had come out of nowhere to hurt them after they tried to greet someone familiar.
As they expected, he was burning with rage.
"Those bastards. I'll kill them. I'll kill them both for hurting one of mine!" He looked like he was ready to split someone open.
The boys promptly lowered their head in fear, knowing how destructive he could be when he got like this.
One of their' phones pinged at that moment.
The owner hurriedly held it up, attempting to turn it off when his eyes fell on the new message.
His lips curved into a wicked grin when he saw the location sharing from Scaredy Wimp.