9

Tyra' POV

My name is Tyra Van Gilder and I'm dating the school's heartthrob.

By theory, our relationship is perfect. Desmond Arrington is by far the most attractive man I've ever met. Not the most handsome, not the tallest, and certainly not the most normal, but he's got presence and he's got money, and that's all that matters.

Me? I'm just your typical popular girl. I know I'm pretty; I always make sure that I did my make up right early in the mornings and touched up nice at afternoon. I work out to keep in shape, and I even sacrifice the taste of meat so that I could maintain the topnotch condition of my skin and hair. My surname screams old-money, and we've always have it good financially.

To sum it all, we're the perfect couple, the source of jealousy and hatred and wistful thinking of any other couples. And goddamn it, we both know and gloat (silently) about it.

Now, everything would have been pitch perfect, if I didn't hate Desmond Arrington, my supposedly most perfect partner.

I hate him. I hate him so much I want to tear his dick apart and staple it on the walls.

On the other hand, though, I can't really say that I hate him right in his face. My family might be powerful, but his family can crush mine in mere seconds. Just like he crushed my brother.

So I do what all other sane girls would do. I scheme.

It hasn't been going so well, even though I found a lot of people who shared my predicament. Desmond is too potent, too confident, and too sturdy.

But now I found a girl who might be able to help me to dethrone Desmond, and that girl, I may add, is a monster.

Her name's Cassandra Bellington, and when it comes to determination, she's top of the class.

I gave her twenty-eight days to revamp herself, and she totally does that. At the first week, everything is still going slow. She still ate carbs, her workout routine's all messed up, and she didn't put make up at all. But when the second week passes, she's gone into a total annihilation mode. Now, armed with Dior and Lancome and a few tweaks here and there, Cassie turns heads whenever she goes.

Come to think about it, not everyone can impress Tyra Van Gilder.

And I swear on my grandmother's pearls, I keep catching Desmond looking at her when he thinks no one notices.

Not me, honey, not me.

I'm aware of his every move. We've been together for six months for nothing. I know the signs when he's going to cheat on me (by status, we're still together after all), and all the signs say that he has his eye on Cassandra Bellington Revamped ®.

Big mistake, Desmond, honey. A very big one.

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NORMAL POV

Cassie looked damn good.

The thought made Cassie flinch, but it was true. She was looking so goddamn good she almost couldn't believe that the mirror wasn't playing a big joke on her. It was already last day of the Great Makeover Maneuver, and so far she had been losing weight like crazy. Sure, it had been hard in the first couple of days, but the girls kept pestering her to go to the gym, and their lethal glares gave Cassie all the necessary incentive to keep working her ass off on the treadmill.

And boy, all of those sweat and blood, they all paid off.

Clad in her –now loose- school uniform, Cassie twirled around and pinched at the places where usually she'd find fat. Well, there was still fat, but a significant amount of it had already burnt off.

"I told you," Lucas was standing behind her, his mouth –like always- was tugged into a slight smirk. "You do have the potential to be hot."

They were in the Ping-Pong Room, only the two of them. Ten minutes ago, Cassie was supposed to have English, but the moment her eyes caught Lucas', he dragged her down here to dissect her.

Cassie half-scorned, half-smiled. She never really liked that expression, 'hot'. It sounded degrading. But somehow, with her slimmed face and non-touching calves, she decided that she could make amends to that word. Lucas calling her 'beautiful' or 'pretty' would be creepy.

"Do you think the other Elites will accept me?"

Lucas shrugged. "Sure. Tyra will personally recruit you in front of the other girls, and I've been talking about you to the guys. Besides, I think August has some kind of a crush to you."

Cassie couldn't help blushing at the mention of August. The blonde had made it very clear that he was starting to take notice of her, and not as a walking-brain. Maybe Desmond instructed him not to talk to Cassie, but August certainly wasn't instructed to not check her out.

And not only August. Cassie found out that there were other guys starting to notice her. Being a wallflower for almost an eternity, she was used to observing people, and now she caught all the averting glances and the extra attention that people gave her.

So this was how an appearance-crazed girl would feel.

"It's nice, isn't it?" Lucas leant closer towards her.

This resulted to a small gasp from Cassie's mouth. Try as she might, physical contact wasn't something she could make herself comfortable with. "What's nice?"

"You know, being looked at. You do have to wake up earlier to put on and your body's all sore from all the work out. But when a guy checks you out, you must definitely think that all of it's worth it."

Cassie loathed admitting it, but Lucas was right. She read too many magazines talking about inner-beauty and how it should shone first before outer beauty. She bought the idea, being never attractive herself. But that was then, and this was now. Now she knew that nobody would even bother to check if a girl has an immensely scintillating inner beauty if she didn't posses outer-beauty.

This was reality. This was the life of the Elite. And now that she wanted to become one, she had to accept this.

"Is she ready?" Tyra van Gilder suddenly materialized behind Lucas. Her minions, as always, made a formation of wings on her either side.

"I think she is. She doesn't stutter so much anymore and she's a natural smart-ass. Other kids wouldn't be able to trample her easily."

"That's good. She learns fast," Tyra said without an ounce of praise in her tone. "And I see she's wearing red-bra. That's also a good move."

"Show a little, tease a little," Lucas chimed in with another lewd look. "Still have to work on the blushing, though."

"I'm not blushing!" Cassie barked, although she knew fully that she was. "And don't talk about me as if I'm not here."

"Great. She grows a backbone," Tyra looked at her under her thick falsies. Cassie glared at her, as much as she was thankful of Tyra's mentoring her renovation, she didn't like her perpetual condescending tone. "Okay, sorry, Marshmallow. You grow a backbone. Happy now?"

"Super."

"You're going to join us for lunch in about, oh, five minutes. You sure you can handle all the vultures there?" Tyra asked.

"Keep it cool, composed, and classy," Cassie recited the three qualities a popular girl should have, Tyra's version.

"And don't challenge Desmond head-on," Lucas warned her. "You have to remember that other kids don't know about your little shenanigans with him that day. Desmond will most likely try to keep it that way."

Cassie drew a long breath, her chest stiffened with the mention of that fateful night. The familiar feel of hatred mixed with embarrassment seeped into her veins as she relished the feel of Desmond's body against her, and how he wouldn't admit it.

No. She was going to make him remember. He was her first kiss, and he wouldn't forget that so easily.

"Are you not bothered at all?" asked Cassie before she could stop herself.

"What? With him making out with you?" Tyra's nose crinkled. "Please. What makes you think that I haven't been fooling around behind his back? Our relationship is strictly business. He dates me because I'm the prettiest girl around, and I date him because he doesn't give a fuck about who I fuck."

Cassie couldn't close her mouth for at least five seconds. "D-Do you mean that you and him never-"

"Let's just say that we got bored of each other, but we have no idea how to get rid of each other," Tyra seemed tired. "Now let's link arms. I have to parade you around as my newest sidekick."

Right after she said it, the bell rang and echoed all across the halls. Cassie straightened her back. She knew that the people from The Society had been spreading rumors about her, the good ones, the ones that would launch her straight to the top. They'd been saying that she was an underground rock singer, and that she's been losing weight because a model-agency fell in love with her looks. There were also rumors that she was spotted numerous times in Vertigo, and how she broke the hearts of numerous guys who wouldn't give out their names.

All those rumors accumulated her hotness factor, and she knew people had been stealing glances at her, as if to confirm if the grapevine held any trace of truth.

Nobody outside the Society would ever know, and now she was going to make her debut.

"Showtime." Lucas's breath fanned against her ear, and as she shuddered, he walked past her and opened the door that would lead her to her first runway.