“That’s right. Do you honestly believe Janet doesn’t read Lady Rose’s books just because she says so? Who knows? Maybe she does read her books in secret!”
“No way! Janet is not someone who would do something like that and there’s no reason for her to cheat!” Summer craned her neck as she argued with the others.
“Pfft! It’s not as if it’s impossible. Think about it—she didn’t take her first board exam so she’s trying to prove her capabilities through this one, and she did it by plagiarizing Lady Rose’s work. There’s nothing far-fetched about that!”
“Exactly. If she really is as capable as she makes herself out to be, she wouldn’t have missed out on the first board exam, would she?”
Someone sniggered. “You guys don’t have to speak up for her. I think she’s going to be expelled in the next two days!”
Janet hovered by the door for a moment, then strode into the lecture hall, her expression unreadable.
When they saw Janet making her entrance, Abby, Sharon and Summer looked at her with panic in their eyes.
“Janet, I believe you! We know you didn’t plagiarize anything.”
“That’s right. I believe you, too!”
“Yeah! We’ll just wait for our papers to be returned, then we’ll show them!” All three of them were so adamant on speaking up for her that Janet was rendered speechless for a moment.
However, one of her classmates then quipped, “We don’t mind waiting. We’ll just take her paper and compare it to Lady Rose’s work, then we’ll know for sure.”
“Exactly. If it can be proven that you did not plagiarize, then we’ll apologize to you on the spot! But if you did cheat off of our dear Lady Rose’s work, then I’m going to report to the headmaster and have you expelled!”
“I agree. We’ll apologize to you personally if we’ve wrongly accused you in this matter.”
These crazed fans of Lady Rose’s were all giving warnings to Janet, refusing to allow anyone to rip off their favorite author.
Meanwhile, Janet simply gazed at them and smiled leisurely, looking devilish as she said, “Whatever.”
Hazel and Madelaine stood outside the hall, secretly observing the scene before them.
Hazel’s eyes narrowed into slits as she watched the drama unfold within the hall.
It was only yesterday when she had thought about letting Janet off the hook if the wretched girl admitted her mistakes. If she were to do that, Hazel wouldn’t have put up her exam scroll on the bulletin board.
However, she didn’t think that Janet would be so headstrong, and she was only getting worse.
Seeing that Janet was as arrogant as ever, Hazel’s expression turned grim and she decided that she had no choice but to teach her a lesson.
Madelaine, on the other hand, was more than happy to see Janet ostracized like this. “Hazel, you’re a genius! I can’t believe you managed to get your hands on the evidence so quickly!”
Hazel ducked her head and chuckled. “It’s all thanks to you, otherwise I wouldn’t have known how to get everyone’s attention on this.”
Emily was the one who had introduced Madelaine to Hazel yesterday.
If only the both of them had met sooner!
Following the introduction, it was Madelaine who had come up with the brilliant plan of posting the exposé on Reddit.
Now that she thought about it, she was used to doing things like this with Emily back in the day when the both of them were in Star High School.
Ever since Lynette’s expulsion and subsequent exile from Sandfort City, Madelaine had not been able to find someone with whom she could scheme against Janet. For the past couple of days, all she did was worry about how she was going to take down Janet—then Emily introduced her to Hazel.
A girl like Hazel, whose father was President of the Yobirl National Council, had stature and a reputation that far exceeded Emily’s. Madelaine felt important just to be seen as Hazel’s friend.
“Now all we have to do is wait for the papers to be handed back, then you can steal hers and pass it to me. I’ll personally put up her exam scroll up on the bulletin board!” Madelaine looked content as she said this.
Hazel nodded. “Got it. She won’t be able to get away with this so easily once we’re done.”
“Yes, and that’s exactly what we want,” Madelaine agreed, then turned to look at Hazel imploringly. “Hazel, why don’t you go in there and ask Janet about this? Let’s see how she’ll react!”
