Chapter 5

Song Yangyao's POV

The lunch bell finally rang, and I made my way to the cafeteria with my two best friends, Jiang Mengmeng and Lin Siyu. As we entered, giggling over some inane gossip, something caught my eye that made me do a double-take.

There, sitting at one of the tables with that mousy girl Yang Lixia, was none other than my laughingstock of a sister, Song Yanyan. Normally, the poor fat thing would be cowering in some corner, scarfing down her food as quickly as possible to avoid being a target. But today, she was out in the open cafeteria, back straight and chin held high like she owned the place.

"Well, well, look who decided to grace us with her presence," I sneered, sauntering over with Mengmeng and Siyu in tow. "Figured you'd be too embarrassed to show that bloated face around here, sis."

Yanyan slowly turned to face me, and I was stunned by the utter lack of fear or shame in her eyes - only calm defiance. "And I figured you'd be too busy stuffing your face to bother me today. Guess we were both wrong," she fired back coolly.

My friends instantly dissolved into snickers, clearly expecting the insult to slice right through Yanyan's fragile ego as always. But to my shocked disbelief, she simply smirked right back at them, seemingly unfazed.

"You know, at least I actually have an excuse for being pudgy," she continued brazenly, giving her curves an exaggerated shimmy. "What's your reason for those pancake tits, Mengmeng? Or those skeletal chicken legs you're rocking, Siyu?"

I could feel the heat rushing to my own cheeks as Mengmeng and Siyu's jaws dropped, utterly stunned by Yanyan's audacity to mock their insecurities so bluntly. This...this couldn't be the same quivering doormat of a sister I was used to tormenting.

Before I could formulate a scathing retort, Yanyan plowed on ruthlessly. "Yeah, that's what I thought. If you wastoids are just gonna stand there with your mouths hanging open, may as well put those flapjacks to use, Meng."

The laughter that erupted from a nearby table of jocks made it crystal clear who had just emerged victorious from this battle of harsh words. As my friends flushed beet red with humiliated fury, Yanyan simply leaned back with that infuriatingly smug grin plastered across her pudgy face.

"W-Whatever, you fat, ugly cow!" I managed to sputter out, despite knowing the insults were falling laughably flat. "Just you wait, this isn't over!"

Yanyan's arrogant smirk only widened as she waved us off with a bratty hair-flip. "Sure it's not, sis. I'll be waiting to put you pathetic bimbos in your place again."

I stormed away, Mengmeng and Siyu hurrying after me, utterly flabbergasted and shaken by this bizarre turn of events. Since when did my doormat of a sister develop such a vicious, unflappable mean streak? More importantly...how could I put this new, revitalized Yanyan back in her lowly place where she belonged?

One thing was for certain - I couldn't let this insane reversal of our dynamic go unanswered. If Yanyan thought she could just waltz in and instantly become the alpha female around here, she had another thing coming. 

Whatever game she thought she was playing, I would win. By whatever means necessary.

We retreat to our usual table, but I can already see the hurt and embarrassment etched on Mengmeng's face as she involuntarily touches her small breasts - her biggest insecurity. She's even been mistaken for a boy on occasion because of how flat-chested she is.

"Come on, Meng, don't let that fatty get to you," I try to reassure her, though my own pride is still stinging from Yanyan's unexpected lashing. "We'll get her back for what she said."

Siyu nods fervently. "Yeah, she's just trying to make herself feel better by throwing insults. Don't let the cow win."

But Mengmeng's eyes are downcast as she mumbles, "Everyone is staring at us and laughing. I'm so embarrassed..."

I scoff, forcing as much derision into my tone as possible. "Listen, how can we let an ugly, fat slob like her bring us down? She's just jealous she'll never have killer bodies and flawless faces like us. She'll probably die of high blood pressure or diabetes soon with all that excess flab."

Still, even as the cruel words leave my lips, I can't help feeling a strange sense of unease, of being unsettled in a way I can't quite put my finger on. Where is this new bold, vicious confidence coming from in my typically demure, cowering sister? 

First she strangles a boy this morning for bullying, and now she's dishing out vicious insults and body-shaming us without a shred of remorse? That's the complete opposite of the meek, stammering doormat Yanyan I've grown accustomed to tormenting over the years.

It's like she's become a completely different person overnight - one who not only stands up for herself, but seems to almost revel in cutting others down to size with those razor-sharp insults. The sheer audacity and shamelessness is so...unnatural. Unsettling.

I shake my head, refocusing on my fuming friends as they trade their own heated insults and plots for retaliation. Yanyan has gone too far this time, stepping out of her lowly place to try elevating herself above us. That kind of insolence and disrespect cannot be allowed to go unanswered.

"We need to put that delusional pig back in her place, and soon," I declare, garnering fierce nods of agreement. "If she thinks she can just waltz in and instantly become the queen bitch around here, she's got another thing coming."

"Maybe we start a rumor that she stuffs her bra with socks to try making her mosquito bites look bigger?" Mengmeng suggests acidly, seemingly regaining her usual mean girl spirit.

Siyu snickers. "Or that she smeared lard all over her face to try covering up those massive craters?"

"Those are tame compared to what I have in mind," I assure them with a wicked grin. "That bloated cow hasn't seen the last of my wrath, not by a long shot."

We spend the rest of the lunch period scheming and badmouthing Yanyan, endlessly riffing on potential ways to knock her down several pegs. Foul insults, embarrassing pranks, vicious rumors - nothing is off the table when it comes to reasserting our rightful place at the top of this school's social hierarchy.

Yanyan's bizarre newfound assertiveness and arrogance has become a threat that simply cannot be ignored or allowed to fester. If she thinks she can rise from zero to hero overnight, usurping my status as the alpha female of this school, then she has seriously underestimated how low I'm willing to stoop to cut her down.

By the time the bell rings, we've concocted a laundry list of humiliating schemes and harsh insults to bombard her with. This sudden metamorphosis or identity crisis or whatever it is she's going through ends today. One way or another, the old, passive, insecure Yanyan will be reinstalled - and she'll learn the hard way just how powerless she truly is against me.

As the lunch bell rings signaling the end of our scheming session, we begrudgingly rise and begin making our way back to Class 1 - the elite class reserved only for this academy's top-performing students.

I can't help feeling a twisted sense of anticipation bubbling in my gut over the prospect of finally putting my obnoxious, delusional sister back in her rightful place as the sad little outcast everyone knows her to be. This bold new persona she's decided to adopt is a farce, one I plan to shatter into a million humiliating pieces.

"So what's the first move?" Mengmeng mutters under her breath as we slink through the hallways like a pack of prowling hyenas, eyes peeled for our prey. "I'm thinking we 'accidentally' spill something all over her during class, then loudly mock the stains."

"Too tame," I sneer dismissively. "I want something that will completely crush her minor shred of confidence, remind her that she'll never be anything more than a worthless, grotesque waste of space to us."

Siyu smirks wickedly. "What about replacing her textbooks with some illiteracy-level nursery rhyme books, then announcing to the whole class she can't even read at a kindergarten level?"

I bob my head approvingly. "That's more like it. Let's kick things off by--"

My voice trails off as we round the corner, only to pull up short at the sight of none other than Yanyan herself standing in our path. But rather than cowering or storming off like she usually does upon spotting us, she simply folds her arms and leans against the wall, that same infuriatingly cocky smirk plastered across her chubby face.

"Well, well, look who it is - my dear baby sister and her pathetic little cadre," she sneers loudly, daring to maintain eye contact rather than meekly glancing away. "Tell me, did you three finally come up with a fresh new batch of insults beyond 'fatty' this time? Or are you just going to keep regurgitating the same lame attempts at body-shaming?"

My jaw clenches with fury as the gathered crowd starts tittering with laughter at Yanyan's utter shamelessness in the face of my glares. Who does this little shit think she is, talking to her superiors with such bold disrespect?

Mengmeng takes an aggressive step forward, shooting off her mouth before I can formulate a response. "Why don't you try shutting your fuckin' mouth before Istaple it shut, you disgusting land whale!"

But Yanyan just tosses her greasy hair back with a disdainful snort. "Wow, real creative stuff coming from the flatchest bimbo in school. Tell me, are those chicken cutlets in your bra, or have you seriously not hit puberty yet?"

"That's enough!" I snarl, refusing to let this upstart insect continue belittling us in front of the entire student body. I stalk right up until we're face-to-face, sneering down at her despite our identical heights. "You'd better watch that smart mouth of yours before I shut it for you myself, you fat fucking pig."

To my disbelief, Yanyan doesn't so much as flinch away from my proximity. She simply smirks even wider, leaning in so I can smell her rancid milk breath as she hisses, "Is that a promise, or just more hot air from an empty-headed cuntbag like you? Either way, come and try to shut me up...if you've got the guts to back up that big mouth."

The hair on the back of my neck stands on end as her shameless challenge hangs heavy in the air between us. The surrounding students have gone utterly silent now, holding their breaths in shock and anticipation over whether a physical altercation is about to erupt.

I search Yanyan's mocking eyes for any flicker of fear, of instinctive submission to my alpha status over her. But there's nothing there except cold, brutal confidence, completely untamed and unbroken despite my most scathing glares.

It's almost as if she's an entirely different person wearing my sister's body as an ill-fitting disguise.