Erica's Scheme

"Jie Jie!" Erica happily bounded towards Luna.

Just as she reached the table, she tripped over the leg of a chair and fell towards the tall bookshelf behind Luna.

Luna dove towards Erica, placing herself between Erica and the bookshelf. Her arms wrapped around Erica's head and back. With Erica in her embrace, they crashed heavily into the bookshelf, causing books from the top shelf to topple down.

They slowly opened their tightly shut eyes, wondering why they did not feel any pain from the toppled books, and found Lucas towering over their hunched bodies with his hands on the bookshelf. While this scene made Erica's eyes twinkle in admiration, it made Luna's eye twitch.

/ Cliche...? Erica's never this clumsy. What's with his insane reflexes? Did he jump over the table or something? /

"Are you ladies okay?" Lucas's deep voice reverberated through Erica and Luna in different ways.

Erica's eyes grew wide in surprise.

On the other hand, Luna's expression remained as flat as ever. She hastily nodded and curtly thanked him, then pulled Erica by her hand to her seat. Luna stuffed her things into her bag, then left the library with Erica's hand still in hers.

For the entire time, Erica kept staring at Lucas with sparkles in her eyes. Whereas, Lucas returned to treating them like air.

As soon as they went out of the library, Erica excitedly asked Luna, "Jie! Do you know him? It looks like he knows you!"

"No, I don't. We just happen to study in the same area of the library."

"That's even better." Erica started stroking her chin with a twinkle in her eye.

Luna frowned. "Why?"

"He's promising. I like him."

"Why? Just because he saved us?"

"Tsk. Of course not! Think about it! Sitting at the same table by luck? Noticing you?"

"... I'm not getting it." Luna frowned.

"Maybe he's the one for you!" Erica half squealed out.

Luna's expression fell flat. "Give up that thought. He didn't notice me before today, before you came along. Don't even think about it. It's impossible."

"Oh, come on~" Erica shook Luna's hand childishly. "You never know~"

"Erica, please... I want you to have nothing to do with him. I don't want to have anything to do with him either."

"But... Why?" Erica pouted.

"Nothing good will come out of it."

"You're as pessimistic as ever..." Erica looked down at the ground with teary eyes.

Luna patted her head. "I'm just being realistic. It's safer this way. So be a good girl, okay?"

Unfortunately, despite Luna's first attempt at preventing Erica's association with the people she pegged as the main characters in this school, Erica's fate seemed to be tied to theirs.

Several things happened without Luna's knowledge.

Erica came to know of Victor and became one of the girls who pined for him. The thing that set her apart from the common crowd was her especially strong character, above average looks, and intellect. By objective standards, she was more qualified than even Rina. This was why Erica could not understand why Victor would not pay more attention to Rina.

In a bid to win Victor's love, she started to create minor issues for Rina to show how Rina was completely useless on her own. The only thing she had going for her was her looks that she used to charm people into helping her, like a seductress.

Unable to take the fact that Lucas was one of those who constantly protected Rina, she confronted him at the entrance of the library.

"Why're you protecting Rina?" Erica asked exasperatedly. "She's not worth it! And what about my sister? Luna's obviously much better than her! If you can waste your time on such a girl, how about you get to know Luna mor-"

"Who's Luna?" Lucas asked flatly.

Erica frowned then said through gritted teeth, "The girl who was with me last time."

Seeing Lucas's frown and obvious lack of recollection, she continued elaborating with increasingly narrowed eyes. "The falling books? You covered us. ... The girl who sits at the other end of your table everyday?"

When he still showed no sign of recollection, fury filled her heart. "Forget it." She spat out before turning on her heels to storm off. She started tearing up in her disappointment and hurt.

/I had hopes for him! For Jie Jie! I don't want Jie settling for some small fry guy just because no one else notices her! She deserves so much better! Why does that tramp get all the men for herself and leave none for others?! It's all because of her. All because of her!/

Erica did not inform her family of all that happened. She wanted to wait until her success was guaranteed so that she could surprise them with good news.

That night, she sat alone in her luxurious bedroom. She bit on her nails with hate reflected clearly in her eyes. 

/It's her face. It must be! That sickening gentle and innocent look must have seduced them./

As she thought about this, a devilish smile slowly spread across her lips.

/If I ruin that pretty face of hers... I wonder who'd still love her.../

Luna was passing by the room unnoticed when she caught sight of Erica's devious smile.

She frowned at the sight of the uncharacteristic smile. A random word popped up in her mind. /Blackening./

Luna sighed inwardly. /What happened...? ...It's not safe to leave her like this./

Luna spent days asking Erica about school and life, hoping that Erica would let something slip. However, Erica was very careful.

Thanks to Luna's tight schedule, keeping a close eye on Erica would be very tough. She had tried asking Desmond for help, but his strong familial love led him to wholly and blindly place his faith and confidence in Erica. Her older brother spoiled the both of them this way. As a result, Luna could only think of hiring a private investigator to report Erica's every move to her.

A few weeks passed by without an incident, but Luna did not give up. She just knew that something was up.

Erica seemed to uncharacteristically spend more time studying Chemistry. When she asked Erica about it in passing, Erica had told her how she was inspired by Luna to work on her weaknesses. Luna refused to believed that someone as insignificant as her could serve as an inspiration to anyone, much less to someone who qualifies as a main character.

Rina was also very often present where Erica hung out with her friends.

/Is this coincidence? Fate? Or is Erica tailing her?/

Luna was in the library scrolling through her phone, reading yet another report sent by the investigator. /She took a transparent liquid out of the Chemistry lab after spending 30 minutes in there?/

Her heart dropped. She took only her phone and rushed to where Erica had always been reported to be at on Fridays.

In the late afternoon of every Friday, Rina would be alone at a table in the almost empty canteen. She was waiting for Victor to finish his soccer practice.

Erica was seated at a table far away from Rina. Although she was chatting happily with her friends, her attention was on Rina's table. She had to get the timing right. She did not spend this long observing for nothing. Her mood was already good in anticipation of the deafening scream that would leave Rina's mouth.

It was relatively easy for Erica to control the flow of the conversation in her group. Just as they stood up and prepared to leave the canteen, the soccer boys returned from their practice.

The group of boys crowded around Rina as usual, taking the only chance they could get at getting close to her before Victor returned from his captain's duties. Although there was no confession, everyone could tell that Victor and Rina liked each other. Unfortunately for Victor, who was still too proud to confess, the open secret was not enough to stop boys from trying to win Rina's affections.

One boy in particular was always right beside Rina and Erica had subtly stoked her friend's interest in the boy. While they walked past the group of boys, Erica teased her friend with a wink, "I'll help you to create a chance encounter." She then nudged her friend hard enough to bump into the boy who was about to drink his water.

Luna reached on time to see Erica grinning from ear to ear and raising her arm to push her friend. The entire scheme became clear for her to see.

The only thing she could do now was to save Rina and prevent the chain of events that would lead to Erica's downfall.

"Erica! There you are!" She called out while running, giving herself a reason to be present in this scene.

She pretended to ignorantly run by Rina and toppled Rina off the chair by knocking into her chair. The chair fell backwards hard enough to to make Rina's body flip out of the splash zone. Luna was, however, running straight into the splash zone as a result of that.

A significant amount of 'water' got onto her thigh.

"Jie Jie!" Erica screamed, making the entire canteen fall quiet.

Luna felt an intense pain sting her entire thigh. She instinctively clenched her jaw so hard that it hurt to prevent herself from screaming. Her face paled, her breathing turned ragged, and her body broke in cold sweat.

When she saw that there was still some 'water' left in the bottle, she pretended to be angry and slapped the bottle out of the boy's hand.

"How dare you be so careless and dirty me!" Luna snatched someone else's bottle to pour water on the guy. It inevitably diluted the acid on the floor.

Just as the boy wanted to rage about how unreasonable Luna was being, he got pushed aside by Erica. Her face was full of tears. "Jie Jie! We've to get you treated now! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!"

The entire melodrama over spilled water completely dumbfounded the boys. Everyone looked at the siblings with weird looks while sharing the same thought.

/What's with them? Is it really so dirty?/

Luna smiled kindly but weakly. "It's okay. Let's go. Now, please."

Erica nodded furiously with tears streaming down her face then supported Luna out of the canteen. Although Luna pretended to be alright, she knew how much pain Luna had to be in. After all, the acid was modified by Erica herself to cause the highest level of pain possible. The only comfort she could possibly get from this was knowing that it would only corrode the skin away. She was not yet at the point of wishing that Rina would die.

They now sat in their family's car with Erica still crying her eyes out and apologising. Her eyes were already red and puffy from all the crying.

Luna smiled gently and patted Erica's head. "You've already did emergency care for my wound. Our family's doctor is also waiting at home. It's alright now."

Erica raised her head and sniffled as she stared at Luna's still pale face. She was clearly still in a lot of pain. "It's not alright. Rina's still all fine and pretty and you're the one that ended up hurt. Why...? Why did you have to come? Why did you have to intervene? Why did you save her? Why sacrifice your body like this? Everything would have been fine if you just stayed in the library."

Luna looked at Erica with a hint of sadness in her eyes without replying.

Suddenly, Erica gasped and covered her mouth. Everything that spilled out of her mouth registered in her brain and she felt even more guilty. Fresh tears filled her eyes and streamed down her face without stopping again. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like it was your fault. I'm sorry. I know it's mine, it's my fault."

Luna sighed. "Erica. Is Victor really worth all these? Is Victor worthy of you?"

When Erica did not answer, Luna continued. "You're more than this... Don't reduce yourself to this state. Please?"

Although it sounded sad, Erica could hear the unspoken pride behind those words. She hugged Luna's arm and cried the whole way home.