Classes in the morning ended. Many students hurriedly left their classroom for the cafeteria, and the two friends Wendy and Sofony were no exception.
"What should we buy?"
"Just Spanish bread for me, it's sad being broke, I really have to find a part-time job."
"Is that so, Sofony? How about you be my tutor and I have my mom pay you per hour?"
Sofony laughed and looked at Wendy, "You kidding? The smartest girl in the world needs a tutor? Wendy, you are the grade's rank first, and the school's brainy queen!"
They walked side by side as they strode to the canteen. They passed by several rooms and Wendy saw many students in their year level pointing at Sofony.
"Fine, I don't need one." Wendy laughingly replied to Sofony's previous speech.
"I perfectly know. If there's someone who needs one though, please recommend me to them. Maybe I could do that as apart-time." Sofony sighed.
"Girl, stop sighing. Though I don't know what is worrying you so much, only knowing that you'll never fess up to me, I'm at least still here. Cheer up. And I saw many boys talking behind us."
Sofony's brow rose. "Oh? They are probably checking you out since you're one of the goddesses of our campus."
"They are. But not only me. I think some are very interested in the beauty next to me who suddenly transformed."
Wendy watched her friend blinked and frowned. However, the girl said nothing to follow up.
'Haha, Sofony's cute, but she probably won't acknowledge it. She's been hiding behind her eyeglasses and weird getup for so long that she could no longer believe she's also beautiful, especially without that thing blocking her bright eyes.'
Wendy giggled to herself. They had now reached the dining area, and they were still gathering attention. It's just sad that her friend assumed it was only her, Wendy, turning people's heads their way. Sofony was way too lacking in the confidence department.
The cafeteria was undoubtedly stirred by the appearance of two beauties. For Wendy Gomez, it was a daily thing. She was a beautiful and smart lady and many accepted that fact. She was also fully aware of it and was already used to the attention. Sofony was a different story, though. People were now marveling at her beauty and were in constant discussion of how odd it was that they only found out about this quiet goddess.
"Sofony, go reserve that empty table for us. I'll order for the both of us," Wendy said to her best friend.
"You know my order already," the girl awkwardly laughed. "Sorry for the bother."
Wendy didn't mind though, and she didn't take the Spanish bread order seriously. Wendy planned to buy her friend a decent meal out of her own pocket. Anyway, Sofony wouldn't be able to refuse once Wendy already paid for it.
Sofony sat down on the table her friend had chosen and put her handkerchief on the chair next to her to mark it as a reserved seat for Wendy. Once done, her mind went to who-knows-where as she brainstormed on how she'd deal with getting a part-time.
'Maybe I should just try giving out flyers on the weekends. It doesn't pay much, but it's okay. Then I'll find some restaurants that need extra help every evening. I could also be a tutor.'
'Thankfully, I upgraded my intelligence and studying skills. I should be good enough for that.' Sofony disregarded the unusualness of studying being recognized as a skill.
'System, do you have some opinions there?'
As usual, within three seconds, a reply came,
She replied, 'If it's something immoral, no thanks. Yes please, if it's about decent money-making.'
The system sneered.
'Huh?' Sofony's heart was alarmed. She felt like the system would say something unwelcome next. And her hunch did not fail her.
'...I don't care about that. I won't do that again!'
Fear gripped her heart as she read the last part.
'That's hardly reassuring.'
Anger welled up from within but when she reflected that she really didn't stop the guy from exploding within her, her face lost color and she's now as pale as a white paper. Panicked consumed her body system as she fidgeted in her seat.
'... I beg you, don't scare me anymore.'
However, inside her mind, the immoral system was still heartily laughing.
....
"Who's the one who arrived with Miss Wendy?" asked a tall and lean student who was above average in terms of looks.
The adolescent man was acting like the boss of a small gang of boys. One boy next to him mouthed, "She's the nerd who's always next to Goddess Wendy. Her name is Sofony Mendez, from the same class."
He lifted his left arm adorned with an expensive watch and smoothed out his gelled hair. The name was Floyd Cruz, one of the popular students of the school. His family was very rich and influential, and that was being reflected by his unusually refined bearing. It's just unfortunate that his eyes always had tinged of redness. He's a known playboy even though he's never the most handsome guy in the school.
Floyd's eyes were pinned onto the quiet girl sitting a few tables away from theirs. When directly paired up with Wendy, it's a puzzle how she remained unknown when in fact she's actually a looker. A while ago, Wendy's brilliance didn't eclipse Sofony's.
"She's always wearing eyeglasses before. For some reason, she doesn't have them with her today."
"That girl used to be like air, not very noticeable, probably because she's not eye-catching enough with her glasses on."
"No no. I think the reason is that today, she's not as gloomy."
Floyd stared at his good friends. "You sure know the person a lot, huh. What else?"
The freckled face guy next to him laughed. He was the first to cater to his boss' thirst for knowledge.
"Nothing much. She's a nerd so she's smart, always ranking 9th or 10th every semester in the entire grade. That's it."
The most handsome of their bunch suddenly spoke, "Boss, are you planning to hit on her? How about Miss Felicity?"
"Oh? What about her, Chris boy?" Floyd grinned and returned the question to his most hated underling. The guy was not really a welcomed folk within their gang.
"She's your girlfriend, right?" The expression of the young man called Chris was not that good. He didn't like it when Floyd, their nominal boss, acted like all girls should be played around.
Seven, the freckled guy, answered for his boss. "What of it? Our boss is mighty. It's okay to have one official girlfriend and many other flings! As underlings, we must strive to be like him!"
As everyone else in the group laughed, Chris raised a brow and threw a stare at the quiet and pure looking girl who continued to sit on her chosen spot.
'Did she hear us? She looks so pale, probably scared by this nasty group.'
Then Chris thought of his wealthy childhood friend Felicity and bitterly wondered. 'What kind of group is this? Felicity, how are you tolerating this bastard as his girlfriend?'