Viral!

Previously...

...

"I'm sorry Director. She can't possibly make it. This illness is... serious. Please let her off this time. You know she hardly ever skips class.", Lisa's mom replied.

"Umm... Not even for some extra credit?", Mrs Jennings tried again.

"No. Not at all. I'm sorry." Mrs Hatton replied.

Mrs Jennings sighed deeply.

'That's it. My life is over.', she cried within.

"Alright then. Please send my best to Lisa. We'll see her tomorrow.", she managed to say without her voice breaking.

"Of course. Thank you for your understanding. Goodbye ma'am.", Lisa's mom replied with gratitude.

...

Mrs Jennings ended the call with her heart in her stomach.

"Oh, sh*t! I'm screwed! How do I explain this to him?!", she broke a sweat.

...

The Director-General returned to her office, hyperventilating.

"Umm... Mr Theo, due to some unfortunate illness, Lisa couldn't show up to school today. I'm so sorry.", she managed to say.

Silence...

Theo's gaze got darker.

Dark clouds formed over Theo's head, and for a second there, Mrs Jennings could have sworn she saw lightning flash dangerously.

She was about to collapse.

"... Did you not inform her?", Ralph cut through the threatening silence.

"I tried to but couldn't reach her. I informed her mom though. She assumed Lisa would be here, but now... uhh... s-she can't make it.", Mrs Jennings stuttered.

'This is dangerous. They say this young master Theo is a distant relative of the Hughes family. The name Hughes alone is enough to end my entire life, this school, everyone and everything I know in Z State! I must be insane to offend him! Oh God! Please help me!', she thought, shaking with reasonable apprehension.

"Well, we can't help it if she's ill...", Ralph further cut the tension with reason.

"I'll let this slide today, but if I don't see her tomorrow, consider my sponsorship cancelled.", Theo warned.

Mrs Jennings breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you for your understanding, sir.", she said bowing low.

"Let's go Ralph.", Theo called authoritatively. Disappointment lined his face as he exited the Director's office.

'She stood me up. She will be punished.', he decided.

************************

...

"I can't believe it! Someone finally stood you up! Ha-ha!", 'Ralph' laughed heartily, completely enjoying the look on Theo's face.

He laughed so hard he needed to lean on his custom made convertible sports car to prevent himself from falling over.

Theo's gaze darkened.

He dialled Gerrard on his mobile.

"Gerrard, sign Vince up for extra classes and the basketball team.", he instructed.

Mr Vince's eyes popped in shock.

"What!? No! Please! I'm sorry!... You know I was just kidding right? I'm already too busy as is!...

I wouldn't even be here if you hadn't threatened to shut my company down! Please don't do this.

...Theo, C'mon! Forgive me....", he begged Theo, practically weeping .

"You can laugh at basketball practice.", Theo countered mercilessly.

Vince deflated.

He looked at his watch.

"... We'll talk about this later. I gotta go, Leo. I have an urgent job to do. I found a new artist I want to sign.", he said.

"Alright.", Theo let him go.

"See you later Theo. I look forward to meeting this special tutor of yours.", Ralph (Vince) said before driving off.

...

**************************

...

Meanwhile, Ruby searched around for Lisa at the University Library.

"Hmm... Not in her class and not here either. Girl, don't tell me you're not in school today?", she questioned the air.

She dialled Lisa's phone.

It went to voicemail.

"Her phone is still off... Huff... Poor girl.", Ruby sighed, sympathetically.

Ruby had spent most of the weekend at Lisa's home. She knew the breakup had taken a toll on her, but she had hoped Lisa would make it to school today.

She walked through the University hallways, deep in thought, deeply concerned about her bestfriend.

"Hey Ruby!", Jeremy from Lisa's class called to her. He sounded more excited than usual.

"Did you see? Your bestfriend, Lisa's gone viral! She's the talk of town!...", the dark haired boy informed with a smirk.

"Wh- What!?", Ruby asked, now alert.

"Yeah. Really! Haven't you seen your post? The one about Lisa? It's viral! It's got like 30 million likes.", Jeremy elaborated, a little puzzled that the popular social media influencer had no idea what he was talking about.

"No way! Are you serious?!", Ruby checked her phone.

"My notifications are muted. I haven't had the time to go on my socials this entire weekend... Something came up...", she explained.

Ruby turned her notifications on.

Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!

Ping! Ping-ding! Ping-ding! Ping!

An endless stream of notifications flooded Ruby's phone.

The social media influencer checked her post on Viewtube...

The video post read, 'Hey, check out my girl @ Curseword! Is she talented or what?'

Ruby looked at the bottom of the video.

"33.4 million likes! 26.8 million comments!", Ruby exclaimed, astonished.

"Yeah... Where's Lisa, by the way? I didn't see her in class...", Jeremy asked with sparkling eyes.

Ruby stood there, rooted to one spot. Too stunned to reply.

"...Well, she's a superstar. I guess you can't expect her to come to school no more... hehe...", Jeremy answered his own question with a joke.

"Omg!!! I have to see Lisa right now!", Ruby squealed with anticipation, not hearing a word from Jeremy.

She hurried off.

**************************

...

Back at Lisa's house...

Lisa slurped the last spoon from her bowl of soup.

'Ohh so good! Breakfast in bed is definitely the best treat, especially when the food tastes this good.', she thought, feeling refreshed.

Mrs Hatton announced the outcome of her chat with the Director-General.

"I told her you can't make it. Everything's going to be alright ok? Now rest up.", she said, still concerned about Lisa.

"Thank you mom. I love you.", Lisa flashed a brief smile to ease her mom's worries.

Mrs Hatton hugged her daughter again.

"l love you too honey. Now I have got to go to the bakery.", she said, getting up in a hurry.

Ding-dong!

The door bell interrupted her.

"Sounds like someone's at the door. Who could that be?", Mrs Hatton asked rhetorically.

She went down the stairs to open the door.

"Good morning Mrs Hatton! I gotta see Lisa now!", Ruby greeted briefly before disappearing off to Lisa's room in a flash.

'Ha-ha... Youngsters these days... Always in a rush.', she thought, closing the door with light laughter.

Ruby entered Lisa's room smiling ear-to-ear.

"Hey girl! You will not believe what just happened.", she started.

Lisa raised her dishevelled head to look at the bright shining Ruby.

"Hey Ru.", she greeted weakly. She sounded like she was just recovering from a thousand hangovers.

"Wow! You look like a catastrophe...", Ruby couldn't believe Lisa's face.

"Yeah, mom says I look better now. What's up?"

"This is better?!...", Ruby asked, tilting her head in disbelief.

She switched to a more important topic.

"Ok, first, I have to tell you... Don't freak out...

...You know how I always say you should let the world hear you?..."

"Yeah?", Lisa wondered where Ruby was going with this.

Ruby continued,

"... Well... I saw you performing in the music practice hall on Thursday - day of the 'incident', (that's what they had decided to call the breakup).

...and it sounded so good, so I recorded you ...and posted it on Viewtube.", Ruby informed with a nervous smile.

"What?", Lisa tried to process what she was hearing.

"Listen, Lisa. I'm sorry I posted it without your permission, but girl, your performance was so good! I couldn't help it."

Lisa couldn't believe her ears.

"You were with me all weekend, and I'm grateful for that Ruby, but why didn't you tell me?", she asked, still processing the news.

Ruby huffed.

"...I was gonna tell you, but you were too sad to think or speak about anything other than that devil and I knew if I brought it up, you would just make me delete the post... Then the incident took over and I just muted my socials to focus on you. I didn't check back on the post till I got to school this morning and heard you'd gone viral! I had no idea this would happen. You've gone viral Li!!"

"What!? Viral?", Lisa pronounced the word eith skepticism.

"Yes. You're the talk of town! Eeeeee!!!", Ruby couldn't contain her joy.

Lisa was dumbfounded.

"Where's your phone girl? Turn it on.", Ruby urged.

"Uhh... it's somewhere...", Lisa had no idea where she'd tossed the poor thing.

Both girls searched all over the heap of sheets on her bed to find her abandoned phone. She found it tucked in a forgotten corner.

She turned it on.

Suddenly, Lisa's phone went off like fireworks on New Year's.

Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!

Ping! Ping-ding! Ping-ding! Ping!

The notifications streamed in for like a year!

...

Lisa checked the post tagging her account 'Curseword'.

"33.6 million likes!? No way!", she pleasantly exclaimed.

"See? This is why I keep saying you should share your talent to the world. You're a superstar Lisa, and apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks so.", Ruby re-emphasized before jumping up to dance to imaginary music.

"C'mon Lisa! Woo!!"

She pulled Lisa off the bed. Both girls jumped up and down on the bed in celebration.

...

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