C H A P T E R 4

T H E C H A M P I O N ' S W R A T H

Author: Raven Orthodox

Since the day after, I find it shocking that neither Diana nor the rest of her girl group had reacted. They haven't even reached to bully me once more.

On another note, my hands are ready to shake Raven's head up so badly right now. Including Cal on that HIV-positive post is a trip to the X-treme. So extreme that it made me choke on my glass of water and ran straight to my laptop just to have it edited again, excluding him from the rumor. Yet to no avail, the damage was done; he knew it already.

But couldn't you see the silver lining? if she hadn't posted it, if I never obliged by their rules, they would be the ones to post the rumor about me having been HIV-positive. And that will never end well for my sake.

Better them than us.

Currently, it had over thirteen thousand reacts. The most used reaction was Sad, Ha-ha, and Angry, and it's top-listed as number two in the trend section, next to a hot lesbian scandal.

Anyways, I was putting up natural makeup as I helped Dominica curl her hair. "Do you know about Vulture?"

"Hmm. Seems familiar. Although I do know an ex-best friend named just like her, the only person named like a bird was my sister."

"Vulture was her name."

"That girl," I answered. "-who the hell does she think she is?"

"Is she a friend?"

"Yeah, but not the type you'd want as a friend. She's an ex-best friend. 'The' ex best friend, the one I just mentioned."

Dominica smiled. She gave me a bit of her chocolate stick as she said, "Diana is smart, she's always got connections, so the sweet pea might have used your ex-best friend to track our room number. She even visited me a few hours ago when you took a bath, said she just wants to congratulate you. And believe me, I have no idea as to why."

The fact that this she-turd had the balls to come here on the fourth flour, room number two, and reached greeted me and Dominica already made my guts tightened in severe anguish.

"Vulture was a nasty one of a best friend. I cut ties with her the moment she drugged me to sleep and made out with my boyfriend. In my own bed. How could she?"

"Seriously!" Dominic exclaimed after I'm done with her hair. She stood up and drank a dormitory-served mojito. "Contact me if she dares stood your way, I'm gonna end her for sure."

"Ha-ha, now now. I'll stop crying, so let's just get ready."

She buttoned my long-sleeve uniform t-shirt that was intricately tailored to almost fit my body. I also covered it with a dark cardigan

It's recommended to have a signature color to wear according to our school symbol. We could wear any amazing outfits on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, while it's a must to wear uniforms on Wednesday and Thursday, which is still okay because the uniform clothing brand was rocking it too. It was made from fine wool as if it's a classic teen suit once every week. Unlike other schools, you could even accessorize it yourself, be it headpieces, personalized badge, anything you'd want.

As we stepped out of the dormitory, we kissed each others' cheeks before we go our separate ways. "Call me if you need anything."

"Not a problem," I said. This was an act of kindness on Domi's part, but I didn't want her involved in this mess. Raven and I are enough to absorb whatever society will bring down upon us, be it inflamed arrows or a never-ending rain of daggers, why the heck not?

"Alexis." A guy emerged on my sight, hindering me from my deep thoughts as I walked to the campus fields. I asked him what was going on as I uncover my umbrella for UV protection since I hadn't put sunscreen as of today.

"The Student Newspaper just released a publication," He said in a hurried panting voice. "It was so not cool on your part."

"Why on earth would I care about the academy's newspapers?" My legs moved faster. I indicated him to hurry up trekking so we could see what's going on in the large crowd.

People already made ridiculous faces directly at me. Hush negative whispers, and inaudible gossips about God-knows-what they are talking about.

"Well, you should care, 'cause everyone knew about your feud with Vulture Spencer. She's delivering a nasty speech against you just about now, and the Writers Club has published a rumor about you and your boyfriend."

"That doesn't worry me, it's fine. I expected this. And let me guess, the old hag has joined the Champions, am I correct?"

"It's a probable guess, I suppose," He said.

"Well, I can only thank you for informing me. And with all the shenanigans that happened, I need you to go back to your class now,"

With him gone, I finally reached the big crowd. I sidetracked everyone as I pushed and pressed them away from my path so I could budge in. "Out of the way, meatheads. Get out of the way."

"... Lexi was unaware and dumb enough to not realize that I was banging her boyfriend. Ha! Yeah, I mean, she's gorgeous, yes, but that alone doesn't make your guy stick to one." Vulture continued a speech, everyone was laughing. She was standing in an open podium, and I was, sure enough, this is the best idea that Diana could ever pull. Seriously?

"Oh, here she is. Hi there, having a good time, aren't we? Care to join for tea, Lexi?" She mocked and pointed at me so the crowd could look at my figure. They roared in absolute mass-frenzy laughter, making me the joke of the town once more. "Tell you what, we were just saying how bad you actually were in dealing with relationships. Seriously, just so sad to know you've been with a cheater for months and all your love wasted away.

Seriously? Why is everyone in favor of her? The cheater? Everyone here is driving me nuts!

But I guess they already hated me so far that they even praised a cheater instead of the pariah. Well, that's fine if almost everyone around here too dumb to sympathize the one who got cheated.

I gave her my coldest Frostfyre look. Devoid of emotion except the raging anger brewing up inside me. She knew this look, the one that would unleash hell on earth. She just chuckled it away and continued her boring speech.

But even from far away, I could sense her eyes on the slightest hesitation from the fear she tried to hide.

I pushed everyone out of the way and left to go to my first period.

A guy imitated sucking a hot dog to piss me off from the relationship, my knees clashed on his groin "Ungh!" He grunted in pain.

But at least it was the shoes that hit him, not my heels, or else that would mean another kind of pain. "That vulture lied, I never sucked my lover's penis, she did. I haven't even sucked one before, I'm a literal virgin, you dork. " I defended myself as I walked out of the crowd.

"Whoa, man, you got that one coming," A guy said to his friend. And of course, he was overwhelmed by my strength in spirit, but I was still very much wary if he dared come back to make a fight, because other than my footwear, I am very much ready to show him the berserk of my fists. So I left without harm.

Sixteen minutes had passed.

On the walls of the hallway, there were posters of me and my cowardly cheat of a boyfriend. Photo-shopped, it was all over the place as if we were on a honeymoon under the stars.

There are other socially-discriminated posters about other poor teens, they are probably just innocents who are bullied at a disadvantage, I'm not sure. But it really pains me to look at these sexually explicit photos. Had they done something so wrong that made a people print a visual for sabotage ? Like... cheating? But I am not sure about that. But what I am sure about is getting all these posters torn and crumpled.

These hands were fast enough to tear every damned image-manipulated posters in every wall. Straight to trash, every one of them was thrown, but I bet there are other ones on the other floors.

I looked at my poster, which is a little less scandalous and awkward teen angst of us. Yes, I find it cute, I mean who wouldn't be when we looked too head-over-heels at each other, and those pimples and zits and bad makeup covering my face made it look realistic. It was a fun year back then, and I'm not even ashamed if I had acne. Although, any 18-year-old would think we were just a laughing stock ready to happen.

Entering the class, I was surprised everyone was quiet. There were a few derisive snickers and annoying ridicule from the guys, but I simply ignored it. It hurt at first, yet learning when to stop charging and attacking with a probable aimless direction is pretty much a virtue. I must also know when is the right time for the perfect strike, and I'm sure it's not inside a Physics room with 200 students.

I opened the six-hundred-sixty-one-pages book, Introductory Physics. We were told to study lesson one-point-one to one-point-seven and to answer the given questions on the board. I encircled the points in the book's content, from Introductory Physics History and Philosophies to Spring and Mass in Static Force Equilibrium.

When I found out that I had to study all these hundred pages, I held myself intact when I realized how hot my skin got, feeling so wary that I'll get sweaty in this air-conditioned lecture hall. So instead of hyperventilating and being so dramatic, I copied the text on the board with my sheet of paper and answer the basic questions, but that was right after I hopelessly made the sign of the cross and hoped that I could survive this catastrophic year, despite all the first-day disasters.

"Alright, this session's over. Get out." The professor said after I'm done reading thirty-five minutes later. I got up and finished writing notes and listening throughout the discussion. I took snapshots of it and fact-checked several times on my textbooks since I could only hear our professor's voice, not what he wrote. My seat was too far away.

I left the room with my books and fixed my hair a bit. "Hmm, less hair fall than usual." I was glad my scalp prevailed healthy thanks to my coconut and castor oil, which worked wonders for me.

Checking on my phone, Raven texted me seven minutes ago:

Raven Orthodox: You've got be in the cafe right now. They're giving free Cookies n' Cream smoothies today! And we need to discuss how you should be top of the Serpent's Fangs.

Raven Orthodox: And also about the Champions' bad blood against you, I have another plan to overthrow them out.

Alexis Frostfyre: You saved me a seat?

Raven Orthodox: Yas!

Alexis Frostfyre: You're a gold rush. Thanks, sis.

Yes!

I made a victory fist. Although my other hand was handling my bag and my books, I screamed inside my head and walked to my locker.

"Ugh! how long is this going to open?" I muttered as the lock on my locker refused to open. I pulled it with all my strength until it gave up and opened itself. A familiar fear crept into my eyes when a big can of black tar accidentally poured out. Drizzling black liquid down the surface, I stomped my feet in anger. "I should've known better."

I kept myself together from creating an outburst. There's no need to question why this tar is even inside my locker in the first place, this is just an old revenge trick.

Luckily it didn't ruin my outfit of the day, because it only made a leak, but a gushy leak nevertheless, "Haha, you got burned." A girl exclaimed. "I bet Diana's henchmen did that."

"What?" I looked at her. "She has slaves spying here in Serpent's Fangs?"

"Uh-huh. And If I were you, I'd pay a few bucks on securing my locker."

That bombshell is literally raining daggers on my path. If I never expected this tar prank, then I should expect more tricks from her. I left my empty locker opened, and I promised to never lock or open it again.

For over ten minutes, I reached the cafe with my lip gloss popping. Plenty of people were already fixing their unapologetic gaze on me, some douchebags decided to take snaps on me walking. My presence impact is compelling them from their mockery against me. Now they're seeing me as someone they hate to love, not love to hate.

This wasn't a karaoke bar, but after the sweet girl was done reciting some well-versed poetry, another one tried to sing. It felt good to hear as I walked towards Raven because she was waving and beckoning at me like the siren that she was. "Girl, you're winning it."

I laughed, "I know, right?" I put my bags on the table and texted Dominica to join us, telling her that we're on seat number sixteen on Belladonna X-Fort cafe. "Anyways, do you know Dominica?"

"Yeah, we were literally friends, that girl's father was like an emperor in Jamaica. Why do you ask? Wait, are you telling me she's your roommate?"

"Yeah, a snake and an eagle living in the same dorm, you know what I mean?"

Raven chuckled as she sipped on her Cookies n' Cream smoothie. "Oh, here comes the waiter."

The waiter named Stevens placed a tray of a small ice cream cup, chicken drumsticks, two yogurts, two Fanta sodas, and a healthy salad bowl.

"What is it with you on your junk and non-junk orders?"

Raven rolled her eyes, " Oh please, don't mind it. Perhaps you should thank my contradictory orders by now. Hey, wait. That's Dominica. Dominica! Over here, girl."

"I sense I'm with the stepsisters today." Dominica smiled, placing herself a seat on our table and opened a yogurt. "I was busy with the Calculus, but I'm very good at it. Any tea to spill? Mathematics is seriously stressing the life of me."

"Well, apart from the tar they pulled on my locker, Diana must have used Vulture to-"

"Wait, how did they get to be in your building? Diana was in Lion's Den."

"I know, but had slaves who are spies there, they have new tricks to pull against me soon enough, I ought to be more careful. Vulture even made a retarded speech on me and my boyfriend to assassinate my reputation."

"My goodness." Dominica cried out. "Are these people insane?"

"I think me and my sister were insane, we pulled the HIV rumors in the first place."

"Nu-uh, they started it first when they threatened you to be one of their slaves. That is way too sick." Raven defended. Dominica sipped on Raven's smoothie and said, "True that."

"Hmm, sounds about right, when I tried to-"

"Oh geez, looks like these girls got company." The deliberate, repulsive, pretend-schoolgirl voice of Diana had entered the conversation. How did she-

"How did y'all find us here?" Dominica asked everyone, there were at least four of them. I could not say they were pretending to be rich because they really are. I think me and Raven were the only ones who are fakes. And it made me laugh so hard each time I think about it. Oh goodness, we were trying so hard fitting in, and nobody even noticed. Yet!

"Find you here? You were blabbering like wild animals. A serpent like her shouldn't hang out with eagles you two." Diana threw shade out in the open. "Girls!" She ordered for ambush.

Three of her friends splattered their drinks on us. They missed Dominica, leaving Raven splashed greatly. I was soaked in juice too, yet it only messed and soaked my cardigan since it wasn't too much liquid. "Jesus Christ, help me." Raven made the sign of the cross.

Dominica stood up the table and slapped the first girl from the three. Raven charged at the two other girls.

"Ah! Sasquatch!"

"Diana, do something! Ow, get off!"

"Stop pulling me!"

"Hey!" I yelled. Diana turned to look at me just as I splashed her face with my Fanta soda and Cookies n' Cream on her ornate gold coat with swift alacrity, leaving her bare chest cold from the ice and smoothie.

"Argh!" She screamed as if in dying in the most painful death sentence. I stalked toward her and slapped her annoying face with the back of my hand. "Take that," I let out. "You filthy lioness."

"Hurry up, girls," I told Dominica and my sister as I pushed Diana's squad away from us.

"What the hell is your problem!"

"You moron."

They muttered and grunted in pain as butts made a thud on contact to the ground. Ooh. . . that must hurt.

Raven's black tight dress was definitely soaked, revealing her sexy baby bra, which earned hungry looks from others. I uncovered my cardigan and covered her just as I give the middle finger on the people who catcalled.

Dominica hurried up in enthusiasm as she carried my bag and sipped Raven's smoothie as we walked to the exit. "Best day ever!"

"We're not done with you, Alexis! You're about to taste the Champions' wrath!"