Lucas Gets Involved

Erica felt like she was in a perpetual bad mood for the past three days. She had taken Luna's warning to heart but felt so unsatisfied.

As she was about to turn around a corner in school to go to the library to find Luna, she heard two familiar voices that made her stop in her tracks.

"What exactly is that cream you gave to Rina? It worked wonders! There's not even a mark left on her arm!"

"I have my resources."

"Can't you at least give me a hint?"

"Why should I make things easy for you?"

"Heartless."

"Grow up."

Victor continued whining and bothering Lucas to no avail.

/Some miracle cream huh… I wonder how it'd fare against my creation. Too bad I'll never find out./ Just as she took a step forward, Victor changed the topic to something that made her stop again.

"Hey hey, before you go, I just want to know if the families' downfall is all your doing?"

Lucas must have nodded because Victor followed up with another question. "Why?"

"They were the ones responsible for Rina's state the last time."

"What? It wasn't just one girl?"

"It's not even the girl you're thinking of." Lucas said in an especially dry tone. His patience was definitely being tested at this point.

"What? Ugh... Man, as much as I hate to admit it, you're really good… I still don't like how my old man keeps telling me to learn from you though." Victor sounded incredibly displeased.

Erica's opinion of Lucas raised a little again. Nonetheless, a frown still formed on her face. /If only he wasn't enamoured by Rina just like every other guy./

She smoothed out her expression before finally coming out from behind the corner. The boys' attention was drawn to her but she kept her head held up high and back straight while she walked past them to get to the library.

Right after she passed by, Victor spoke in a volume that was obviously meant for her to hear, "I still don't like that girl though. She rubs me the wrong way. Did you know she called Rina useless? Who does she think she is? A jealous wannabe like her could never measure up to even Rina's toenail."

Erica's eyes bulged in anger and she gritted her teeth hard. She clenched her fist and turned her head back to stare daggers at Victor.

Lucas stared at Erica then turned his attention back on Victor. "Look. I won't control your flapping mouth but don't come looking for my help if trouble finds you because of it." Lucas walked off clearly fed up with Victor.

"Hey-" Victor's voice got caught in his throat as his eyes met Erica's hateful gaze. He humphed, tugged on his blazer, then walked off.

/I can't believe I once liked him. What exactly did I see in him?/ She continued to stand alone by the library entrance trying to compose her feelings before she went to find Luna.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard she tried, she found that she could not calm herself down. She simply could not take an insult lying down. She made up her mind to get her revenge and make Victor regret what he said of her.

This time, she knew that she had to be extra careful. She did not want her dear sister to get dragged into her ploy only to get hurt again.

Around 3 months later, unpleasant rumours about Victor ran rampant throughout the student body, causing his reputation and popularity to crash. He was now known as a playboy, flirt, and sex maniac, yet someone who is unjustly possessive and controlling of Rina.

This made Victor completely stressed out as he was used to having things within the palm of his hand. His angry outbursts and testy attitude that were a result of his stress only served to worsen his situation.

When Rina tried to defuse the rumours, it fueled the rumours that he was a controlling individual. It also created a new rumour that Victor was really just a cowardly person who was willing to sacrifice the innocent weak lamb to save his face.

The trio was now gathered in a private discussion room of the library.

Victor looked like he could explode in anger at any time. It was a look that everyone was used to seeing him with by now. Rina sat beside him looking sad and pitiful with her teary eyes. Lucas stood by the door near to Rina and was the only one looking annoyed.

"What should we do now?" Rina asked worriedly.

"We? I told you that you did not need to do anything! That I'll handle it! You just had to go and make things worse! Are you happy now?!"

Tears left Rina's eyes. "How can I be? I was only trying to help! I couldn't bear seeing you like this!"

"You'd help by not doing anything!"

Lucas's eyebrows drew even closer together than it had already been. "Hey, watch it."

"There must be something I can do?" Rina continued to ask.

"No! There isn't! You're useless!"

Rina gasped in shock, while Lucas punched Victor squarely in his jaw.

Victor was completely knocked off the chair. He fell to the floor then brought his hand to cover his mouth. Feeling a sharp pain when he touched his mouth, he looked at his hand to find blood on it. He looked at Lucas with a mix of anger and shock.

"I warned you." Lucas growled.

Lucas's undisguised anger made him regain his senses and he quickly realised what he had just done to Rina. He instantly got up on his knees to hug the sobbing Rina. "I'm so sorry, so so sorry. I didn't mean that. You're definitely not useless. I'm the one who's useless. I couldn't fight these rumours on my own and I even hurt you now."

Once Rina stopped crying, he asked her to stay away from him for the time being since he was afraid of hurting her again in his anger.

Although Lucas did not like the way Victor chose to push Rina away, he left it up to Rina who obviously ended up listening to Victor.

To their dismay, news about what went down in the discussion room traveled. As private as the discussion room was supposed to be, the walls have ears.

Not long later, rumours about Rina began floating around too.

Coupled with the discussion room gossip, there was gossip about how Rina was getting increasingly close and chummy with Lucas now that she had to stay away from Victor. This earned her the ire of Lucas's silent fans and secret admirers.

Rina eventually earned a reputation of being a bitch and a slut who only knew who to charm and seduce boys into giving her things she needs. This led to an increasing number of all kinds of harassers who had their individual agenda for harassing her.

Meanwhile, Erica was happily humming to herself in her room while she prepared for bed. While Victor and Rina were suffering, she had stayed on the sidelines happily watching everything go down the whole time.

Everything was going perfectly.

Erica had really done nothing much besides doing some digging into their lives, altering some information and doctoring some images, before letting those slip to some people in school. With some truth mixed in with the lies and a little bit of story weaving, what was created became the truth.

The scary thing about human's memory is that it is not perfect. One can simply suggest that something believable happened and the involved party can end up believing it themselves, especially when there was something else to back it up.

The speed at which people changed their opinions from one extreme to another did impress and scare Erica. What she took comfort in was the fact that it all worked out in her favour in the end.

Luna passed by Erica's room with an empty cup in her hand. She stretched her back that was stiff from sitting for so long, however she still had a long night ahead of her.

Her ears perked up when she heard Erica's happy humming, drawing her attention to Erica's equally happy expression. She did not know why but the sight of Erica's happy expression instantly reminded her of Lucas.

Recently, Lucas looked anything but happy and relaxed. Since Lucas had the habit to do all his work in the library, Luna was privy to everything he did there unbeknownst to him.

She sighed lightly. She really hated to spoil Erica's mood but she simply had to confirm her suspicions, so she knocked on Erica's door.

"Jie? What's up?" Erica asked chirpily while bounding to her. She looked down at Luna's empty cup and her expression fell a little. "Working late into the night again? You should at least rest on some days... You don't even have tuition anymore."

Luna smiled a little and reassured Erica, "Nothing that I'm not used to. I'm fine. Anyway, you seem really happy. Is there something up?"

"Hm? It's nothing much, times are just good now. Isn't it?" Erica smiled a little unnaturally. She was clearly trying to hide something.

"I hope it has nothing to do with Victor and Rina. Or does it?" Luna continued to probe with a small smile.

Erica's smile froze on her face then slowly dropped. "That's not fair, Jie Jie..." Erica pouted. "Fine, I am behind all the rumours and gossip but all I did was spark a little something. Everything else ran by itself. It's totally fine. Can't you just be happy for me already? I clearly won this round."

Luna looked apologetic and put her hand on Erica's head to stroke it. It looked a little weird since Luna was shorter than Erica but none of them felt that way.

"Erica, your plan is perfect, you did everything perfectly, and I really hate to be a jinx or a spoilsport but it's still too early to say that you've won this round."

"Why?" Erica looked at her with puppy dog eyes.

Luna sighed and retrieved her hand. She then explained with a little exasperation. "It's Lucas. Lucas is still in the picture."

"What's he got to do with this? He didn't step in when Victor got bashed up so badly. If he cared about Rina enough, he would have helped Victor out, because Victor getting hurt would hurt Rina, isn't it?"

Luna shook her head slightly. "As long as Lucas is involved, you won't be able to bring them down. Victor, Rina, and Lucas are meant to flourish in this school. They'll win, hands down. If you want to ruin them, at least wait until all of us graduate safely. Maybe when the world expands, there'll be stronger parties coming into play and the story would change. You have to be patient."

Erica frowned deeply. "Why're they meant to flourish? What story are you talking about? Why are you saying things that I don't understand?"

A still silence hung in the air.

Suddenly, Erica's phone rang and made them both jump in shock.

Erica went to check her phone and frowned when she did not recognise the number. Not long after she rejected the call, a notification sounded, informing her that she received a text message.

"I could ignore it when it's Victor since he brought it upon himself. Your mistake was touching Rina when she did nothing to deserve this. It's time to settle the score. For the previous incident in the canteen too."

Luna noticed Erica's pale face so walked forward and took the phone from her to read the message.

Erica simply stood there frozen in shock. /How was I found out? How?/

Suddenly, she felt arms wrapping around her. "Jie Jie… What will he do…? What should I do…?" Erica had been confident that she would not be found out so her brain stalled.

"I'll take over from here. You don't have to worry."

"But... How...? Actually, no. Don't get yourself involved. I don't want you getting hurt because of me again. I created this mess. I'll clean it up myself."

Luna calmly responded, "I may not be much. I may not have any strengths. But let me be your older sister, okay? Will you trust me?"

Now that Luna said it like that, Erica could not find it in her to reject Luna's help. She pursed her lips and hugged Luna tight. "Please, just don't end up sacrificing yourself for me?"

Luna squeezed her tighter in response without giving her a proper reply. She had a feeling that if she let things be, Erica would only end up like the canon fodder she read about in fictional stories. /I won't let you get reduced to that./