10. End of Scene 1

The female lead eventually came out of her trance.

She sighed sadly, "I'm really sorry, and thank you," before turning around to face Paige at the top of the stairs.

"I'm really sorry to you too for the coffee."

"You could have been dead!" The girl whose Frappuccino was the start of this drama stormed down a few steps, accusingly glaring at Paige.

"I have heard about you, Paige, right? But pushing someone down the stairs? Even the principal's goodwill cannot help you!" 

The girl, a tall, short-haired blonde, was the female white knight of this novel. When she later couldn't save the female lead during her and the male lead's journey to insanity, she took her own life. Until the end, she was there for the female lead so many times and with such fervor that some speculated online about a secret girls' love plot. 

Their friendship/unrequited love story began with this scene! It was she who had to tie her shoelaces in the corridor near the top of the stairs, grabbing a new student and asking her to hold her coffee for a moment. Then the female lead stumbled. 

This scene also marked the shift from 'Paige the tyrannical bully' to 'Paige the tyrannical bully who couldn't be tolerated anymore.'

A few students nodded at what had been said. They had been too scared, and Paige hadn't gone overboard before, not like now. 

But her scene was not over; with a wooden expression, Paige replied,

"So all bitches flock together. Not only did she ruin my shirt, but she even let a little dog bark for her." 

It was again so woodenly recited that everyone had to pause for a moment. She would soon be finished and could go sleep in the classroom. 

Exasperated, the tall girl wanted to counter when Paige 'looked' for the 'first' time at Lance and started blinking oddly.

Lance wondered what she was doing but figured it should be the 'love-at-first-sight' plot.

Even Eve, the blond knight, was pulled out of it, asking,

"Do you have something in your eye?"

Paige decided that it was time to end this, ignored her, and asked Lance,

"What's your name?" This time, it was not as monotone.

"Lance," he answered obediently, shrugging.

"Hi. Don't believe these bitches. They want to frame me." Now, woodenly again.

Lance thought that maybe she became like this every time she recited lines she wouldn't say in real life.

Natasha looked at Lance with stars in her eyes.

"I'm Natasha; are you new here too?"

He nodded.

She asked,

"Then should we go to the principal together for the administration?"

He nodded again, then winked at Paige—first scene wrapped up perfectly.

"Do you know each other?" Eve asked after looking at the blazer on Paige.

"No." Both answered simultaneously, looking a bit suspicious.

"Then can you help testify what she did to the principal?" Eve asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

'That was not in the plot,' Paige thought. Originally, the male lead was trying to make a cold withdrawal, but it was too hard, so he lived on small amounts of drugs he bought with the money from pickpocketing.

He was under the influence when this scene played, so maybe he didn't look reliable enough for Eve to take him as a witness?

Though the female lead didn't notice his addiction until the later stages of their relationship. After the staircase scene, the other students made a circle around the bully, but the principal only learned a few days later about what happened because of a few complaints and Eve, who pressured him.

Now, being a sober male knight, the female knight had found an ally and wanted to take action right at that moment.

Paige asked the system, and after receiving a positive answer, she nodded lightly at Lance. He understood that the plot had changed, as this was not in their rehearsal.

So he languidly followed Eve and Natasha, who neither looked at Paige, while he felt that, for the first day, they hadn't done too badly.