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Chapter 11
~Beatrice’s POV~
The cafeteria was half-empty, the usual lunchti chaos simred to a low, scattered sound. We sat near the back window, where no one could overhear us—just the four of us at our usual table.
But today, the air around us wasn’t casual. It was sharp, almost like an electric.
Madelyn leaned forward, her hands clasped under her chin like a general about to give battle orders.
Her voice was low, more like venomous. "We’re doing this. No half-asures anymore. Spring Kaine needs to break."
"Not crack," I added, lips curling. "Break. I had decided to back off and told Rose off but this... hehhe. This is beautiful."
Justine laughed under her breath, picking at her nail polish with the edge of her fork while her entire attention was locked on Madelyn. "And here I thought you were starting to feel bad."
"I don’t feel bad for snakes," Madelyn muttered. "She strutted through that hallway like she owned it. I saw the way Alpha Jace looked at her at top of the stair. You all saw it."
Justine humd and nodded.
"Good. A little birdie told ... It’s her birthday tomorrow. Ti to gift her so reality, don’t you think?"
"What’s the plan?" Liana who had been quiet al these while finally asked, while stirring her drink lazily.
Madelyn slid her phone across the table. On it was a calendar event. ’Ga of Queens: The Pet Rule Challenge’ — Friday @ Gym B.
I raised my brow. "You’re going to make her play?"
"She won’t get to refuse," Madelyn said coldly. "We’ll invite the whole senior class under the radar. Make it look like a regular dare challenge—the loser becos a ’pet’ for the week. On her birthday, she either walks away humiliated or gets dragged in."
"She won’t co," Justine said.
"Oh, but she will," I murmured.
"How," I asked swiftly.
"Once we put her na on the challenge board in the student Discord, it’ll be her reputation if she doesn’t show. Cowardice is its own form of sha and the new Spring doesnt seem to love to back down without a fight."
"Okay, that’s fair," Liana stated. "And...?"
"But if she does show up..." Madelyn grinned. "That’s when we make her lose."
"Cheat?" Justine asked?
"Not entirely, just rigged gas. Traps. Set her up to fall. And when she does—"
"Pet," Beatrice said. "Spring Kaine shall be collared on a leash and video for all to see."
"And she’ll have to crawl across the gym floor to kiss the winner’s feet," Liana added, already imagining it. "We’ll upload it. No one will see her the sa again."
"But we don’t stop there," Madelyn said, her eyes flashing. "After the ga, we move to phase two. Public humiliation during assembly the next morning."
I leaned in, curious. "What are you thinking?"
"Simple. After she’s been labelled the ’pet’ of the senior class, we announce a special birthday surprise for Spring Kaine. We bring out a fake cake—sothing disgusting inside. Sothing that’ll explode when she opens it. Paint. Rotten eggs. Maybe add a few cockroaches. Film the whole thing. Tag it to the school gossip page. Caption it ’Princess Kaine’s Royal Unveiling’."
Justine grinned. "Make it go viral?"
"And if she resists?" I asked.
"We corner her before the event. Threaten her with the video. Remind her she has no friends. That her ’perfect’ brothers can’t always save her."
There was a mont of silence between us. Even Liana paused.
Madelyn’s smile didn’t falter. "We’ve pushed her before. And she finally got back up. This ti, we don’t push but we bury her completely."
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~Spring’s POV~
"Please don’t die on now."
The old laptop groaned in protest, its fan wheezing like it was gasping for air. A restless buzz filled the room as the screen flickered once, twice—then finally stabilized on the browser, dim and sluggish, but alive... for now.
I leaned forward, balancing the clunky device on my lap as I typed slowly, carefully, afraid that even the lightest keystroke might send the thing into another coma.
The site loaded—barely. I bit the inside of my cheek and glanced at the pile of notes beside . I had a research assignnt due in less than twenty-four hours—no way out of it, and no way to fake it.
If I wanted to pass, I needed that information and since Spring wasn’t dull, I needed to get her to the top of her class and prove to everyone she was frad in her previous schools.
A sudden whirr sputtered from the laptop.
Then the screen went black.
I blinked and tapped the trackpad but all I got was nothing. I pressed the power button once, twice. Then held it.
Still nothing.
"No," I whispered, sitting up straighter. I tapped again, this ti harder, more frantic. The screen remained dead, lifeless, just like it had been the first ti Rose handed it to with that smug look of fake generosity.
I gritted my teeth, staring at my reflection in the dark glass. "Fine," I muttered and stood.
I realised that Spring had a laptop and not this hand--down.
The new MacBook—the one Rhys gave when I turned sixteen—wasn’t gone. It had just been taken by Rose, like everything else.
I walked down the hallway, careful not to draw attention, and slipped into her room. The laptop sat right there on her bed, plugged in and charging.
Bold as daylight. Mine.
I did not waste a second and snatched it.
Barely a minute passed before I returned to my room and sat on my bed, powering it on. My eyes were drawn to the initials fixed at the laptop’s left side—my initials, S.K.
The familiar sound of the startup chi relieved as I waited for it to co on, but then the door slamd open, and a shrieking voice like that of a banshee or a siren rang out.
"Thief!"
Rose stord in like a thunderstorm in designer perfu and lip gloss. Her eyes were wild, her mouth pulled back like she was ready to tear into flesh.
She reached in two strides before I could carefully place the laptop on the table, and yanked my hair so hard my head snapped back.
"You stole from ! You went into my room and took what’s mine! How dare you?!"
I pushed her hands away, biting back a yell. "It’s my laptop. You stole it from first."
"It was given to !"
"Liar." Imdiately, I said that, she gripped my hair once more, yanking so hard my skull hurt, and then she pulled back, tilting the chair backwards. "Bloody hell."
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