The nine people sitting beside Vicky Tang looked at the girl scrolling on her phone speechlessly.
"I challenge Vicky Tang to a duel!" the girl in the ring announced again.
However, this time Vicky glared at the girl. She wasn't deaf, but she didn't want to fight. She was in a terrible mood right now. Although fighting someone might be the best thing she needed to calm down right now, at the same time, she didn't want to engage in a fight that won't get her to be kicked out of school. Wait, she doesn't even have a place to go if she is kicked out of school.
Vicky stood up from her seat while reminding herself to stay calm until her year one ends.
On getting to the stage, the girl who challenged her smirked at her and said. "Vicky, I have been waiting for a day like this for so long. Your sister might be the richest businesswoman in the world, however, I am going to prove to the school that you are nothing without your sister. A complete waste"
"It's not my fault that you don't have a wealth goddess for a sister," Vicky replied, unbothered by Rhoda's provocation.
"You should be ashamed for being a parasite on your sister" Rhoda fumed.
"Being a parasite is better than stealing. My sister loves my parasite nature though. Does your family even like you?" She paused to take in the girl's angry face and continued.
"Did you challenge me to a verbal duel? I'm busy, I don't have the time to entertain you" Vicky said and was about to leave the ring when Rhoda jumped at the opportunity and kicked her from the back.
The sneak attack plus her bad mood finally got to Vicky as she turned and gave Rhoda the beating of her life. She might be lazy and hates everything, but her sister made sure she learned self-defense.
While the fight for the weak was going on, according to the senior year students, princess Mebony was already getting tired of watching weaklings fight. She stood up and was about to leave when the instructor shot her a warning glance. She grumbled and sat back down.
Soon, Vicky's fight was over with a few teeth missing from Rhoda's mouth.
A girl climbed the stage and challenged Jiya.
"I forfeit!" Jiya yelled.
"A hundred academy points" the instructor announced and Jiya stood up and said meekly.
"Sir, I don't have any"
"Then get on the stage!" The instructor snapped.
"Jiya, go on, you will be fine. I know she won't break your bones" Abdul Rasheed said and the rest nodded.
"What if she breaks my teeth like what Vicky did to her opponent?"
She touched her two incisors and imagined them falling off while being beaten.
"Jiya Rathore, head to the ring!" The instructor called.
"Fine. What's the worst that could happen?" Even after all the encouragement from her friends and herself, she still took baby steps to the stage.
Some found it amusing while others found it stupid. Like the senior year students.
Jiya got into the ring and stood far from her opponent, then said. "Sister, can we talk about this? I'm sorry if I offended you by mistake, please forgive me and let it go. If you can't, then I will give you all my academy points in the future" she pleaded.
"Ha, what gave you the right to come to this school with such a background and weak personality? Because of you and your brother, my sister and friend were deprived of the chance to be here. I can't stand the sight of you, so for that and your brother..."
"So it's about that? And I thought I offended you. You might be able to defeat me, but the truth still remains that I and my brother are here due to our hard work. If your sister and friend could have worked hard like you did, they would have also made it here. I won't apologize for that. Let's fight"
Jiya's courage to talk back shocked her friends and a few other people. Vicky found herself smiling at her response.
The girl who challenged Jiya felt humiliated and because of that, dealt Jiya a hard blow.
Jiya almost fainted from the beating she received, however, she refused to surrender or beg for mercy.
Soon, the instructor announced the winner. Before Jiya fainted, she made a vow. "For this injustice, I will become strong and when that time comes, I will return to you what you gave me today" her eyes closed after that and she was rushed to the hospital by the medical team.
Ayaan was upset that his sister received such a terrible beating unjustly. He stared at the girl stepping out of the ring with a satisfied smile on her face and his inside hurt from holding in his anger. He was about to stand up when he felt someone's hand on his fist.
Abdul Rasheed held his fist and shook his head. "There will be a chance for revenge next time"
The duel continued and ended by 6:00 pm.
The group of Ten left with some going to their rooms while the others went to see Jiya in the hospital.
Vicky returned to her room to sleep but she couldn't. The possibility of what was happening to her sister bothered her. She thought of calling her sister's best friend Xuelu. As she was about to dial the number, she remembered what Lu Feng told her.
Lu Feng had told her on one of his regular visits to their house. "Beware, never trust anyone, not even yourself" she sighed and threw the phone to the bed.
Just then, she thought of something and picked it up again to send her sister an indirect message by commenting on her picture with the fake her.
She opened Instagram and was about to comment on the picture that annoys her but found out it was her real picture and not the doppelganger.
She zoomed in on the picture and saw the lazy posture, the way she rested her arm on her sister's shoulder.
Her memory flashed and she remembered she had taken such a picture with her sister. On that day, she had refused to take a picture until Su Tang promised to take her to their parent's grave.
Ever since they died twelve years ago, they have only gone to their grave twice and each time, they don't spend more than two minutes there.
'What is going on? Shouldn't my doppelganger be here in this picture instead of me?' She thought as she scrolled through the pictures.
*************
The next day was Saturday. Vicky thought she could have some free time today, but who would have known trouble would come searching for her?
After breakfast, which she almost chose sleep over, she decided to go see how Jiya was doing. The dorm felt off without her around, not that she cared though. That was what Vicky thought.
On getting to the hospital, she met the others there too, and decided to make her visit snappy.
"Thank you for coming, Vicky" Jiya managed to say. All her body was in pain and one of her eyes hurt.
She was given a punch in the eye by that devil. Fortunately, her rimmed glasses fell off before she was punched, else she might have been pierced by the glasses, and worse, she might have gone blind.
"Here, I reckon you haven't eaten" Vicky pushed her a flask of food she ordered from the cafeteria for her while eating her breakfast.
"Thank you." Jiya smiled and took the flask from her. She opened it layer by layer and saw it was filled with the Italian food she spoke about the other day. "You heard it?"
She had talked about trying out Italian food three days ago in the dorm with Vicky sleeping. She didn't know Vicky heard her phone call to her brother.
"You were loud. Your voice couldn't be ignored" Vicky said and the people in the room laughed with Jiya pouting.
"I wasn't loud. It's just that your ears are too sensitive to sounds. I can't even walk properly in fear of waking you up"
"You still do," Vicky argued.
"How can? I always walk lightly. Even I can't hear my footsteps" Jiya disagreed.
"Ask the doctor to check on her ears, she might have a problem there too," Vicky said to Ayaan who was mesmerized by her and nodded like a chicken pecking at grains. She turned around and left for her dorm. She wanted to sleep.
"Brother, she left. You are drooling" Jiya teased.
"Where? Ayaan quickly wiped his mouth but found nothing. He glared at his sister, earning another laugh from their friends.
"I never would have thought Vicky has this side to her. I mean, she is always distancing herself from everyone, giving everyone the cold shoulder, and replying savagely to whoever talked to her."
"She is violet too. Like the last time, she beat up a guy in the cafeteria. Girls are supposed to be delicate and not show-offs" Ameenah sneered.
The rest of the friends all turned their heads her way.
"Ameenah, that was wrong of you to bad mouth her behind her back. I know you wouldn't like that, so why do you think it's okay to do so to others?" Junaid chastised her.
"You are defending her again, why am I the wrong one when I was only stating the truth?" Ameenah felt hurt.
"Because you are wrong Ameenah. I was sitting close to her on that day when the guy approached her and asked her to be a friend..." Xiao Ping narrated what happened on that day, then concluded." I heard that guy has been annoying girls in the school and forcing them into being his girlfriends."
"I heard the boy is from a mafia family," Richard added.
Anthonio contributed."He deserves the trashing. Vicky surprised me on that day"
"Have you guys heard?" Abdul Rasheed asked.
"Heard what? Spill it out" Junaid urged.
"I heard that General Vim is coming" he changed the topic because Ameenah was almost crying of....probably shame.