2️⃣1️⃣
"It's impossible," Janet adamantly uttered. She had intended to graduate from Star High School with a low profile, so it would be impossible for her to be participating in a cultural performance. On top of that, she had never promised Emily that she would give a performance.
Gordon thought that Janet was pulling his leg, so he tapped open his Messenger and forwarded the performance list.
Performance List of Class A:
Gordon Yaleman: Singing.
Emily Jackson: Playing Piano.
Wendy Young: Calligraphy.
Janet Jackson: Dancing.
Janet was even the finale act. As she squinted her eyes, she found that the handwriting on the list was exactly the same as Emily's. It immediately dawned on her that Emily was the one who had signed her up for the performance! Now, this is going to be fun. Since she is so eager to see me perform, I surely won't let my sister down! She then replied to Gordon via text. 'I'm coming over now!' He immediately replied with an 'Okay'.
After that, she fished out a piece of paper—a prescription list—from her bag and handed it to Mason. "Just follow the prescription on the paper and get the medicine for the old madam. Inform me immediately if her condition takes a strange turn."
Their fingers had touched under the paper, thereupon a stunned Janet raised her gaze and met with Mason's before she blinked her eyes. "Young Master Mason, I'll text you my account number when I return home. You can transfer the commission to my account."
The man looked at her and chuckled. "Sure."
"Thank you. I have something urgent to attend to, so I'll head to my school first."
He raised his brow. "I'll ask Sean to send you."
"There's no need for that." Janet picked up her thin jacket and impassively headed toward the door.
The man's sexy mesmerizing eyes stared at the teenage girl's disappearing back, as if gazing at his prey. His lips were slightly curved upward and the warmth of her finger seemed to have remained on his due to their touch earlier. He brought his fingers to his lips and inhaled the lingering scent on them.
Meanwhile, at the backstage of Star High School, the voice belonging to the class teacher of Class A was suddenly heard. "Are all the performers here?"
Emily stood up first. "Mr. Smith, only Janet isn't here yet." She had planned everything out in advance—whether Janet arrived tonight or not, it would still be a humiliation to her. If she were to show up on stage, but was unable to present a performance, she would become the laughing stock of the whole school. If she didn't show up, everyone would mock her for being timid and weak.
After glancing at the three people, the class teacher scratched his head in frustration before suddenly shouting, "Damn it! Why did I approve Janet's application at that time?" He knew that Janet was a problematic student, but since the performance list had already been provided to the host, there wasn't any way to cancel her performance.
"Mr. Smith, don't worry. I have contacted Janet earlier and she will be here in a while," Gordon stepped out to console him.
Upon hearing Gordon's words, Mr. Smith felt as if his worries had been swept away and believed that there wasn't any reason for the student to lie. After that, he gladly returned to the audience seats to watch the performances. The order of the performance during the school festival was now determined by drawing lots—Class A was the second last class to perform.
A choir by Class B kickstarted the performance, which was followed by a few smaller choir groups. The performances were dull and lacked energy, causing the initially excited audience consisting of teachers and judges to almost doze off. Then, a few students from Class C gave a rap performance, which instantly livened up the atmosphere.
According to the performance list, Class F only had one performance—a girl with a plump figure went onstage to perform. She was warming up her body with her back facing the audience. Upon seeing that she was wearing a pair of shorts with a tank top, the audience guessed that her performance could be a sexy dance. A second later, voices of some boys were heard from the audience.
"She's so fat. I'm going to throw up what I ate for dinner."
"She still has the guts to dance with that sort of figure? She should have learnt to paint instead!"
"The school festival this year is so boring. None of the performances are good."
Nevertheless, the plump girl on stage wasn't influenced by the comments from the audience as she focused on getting into position onstage. Then, the lights dimmed followed by the music being played. As the lights were focused on the center of the stage, the hall was instantly filled with pin drop silence. Her body moved according to the rhythm and was perfectly in sync with the melody of the music. Coupled with the wild and dynamic melody, she instantly captured the gaze of everyone.
A student suddenly shouted, "Robot dance!" Nobody had expected that the plump girl was able to perform that highly difficult dance.
The class teacher of Class A frowned. This powerful dance happened to be arranged before Janet's performance. The audience would definitely compare this girl to Janet and certainly cause her to overshadow my student.
*
The students from Class A now intensely prepared themselves backstage.
At that moment, some of the students had paid attention to the score of the plump girl onstage.
"She managed to attain 95 marks in the end, which is the highest score so far," The host immediately cheered. "This is the highest score so far. Congratulations! Class F is our number one winner for now. Next, let's invite students from Class A to perform onstage."
The first one to appear was Gordon. He was going to sing his original song—'Starry Night'.
His accompanist was Emily—one of them played the piano while the other sang a song about passion and youth.
"Young Master Yaleman is so handsome!"
"Class A will win! Class A will win!"
"The girl next to Young Master Yaleman is quite pretty too. They are a perfect match!"
Although it was a school festival, the bunch of girls offstage made the scene look like it was Gordon's personal concert, which obviously illustrated how crazy the audience was for him.
In the end, he obtained a high score of 97, which was the night's best performance at that point.
Emily thought their performance would certainly attain the highest score, causing her to grin from ear to ear.
The class teacher was beyond anxious backstage. It was nearly Janet's turn, but she was nowhere to be seen and she didn't even answer her phone.
Emily and Gordon went to the backstage after their performance. Upon seeing that, he asked, "Janet still hasn't arrived yet? Gordon, quickly give her a call and urge her to come!" The class teacher reminded him.
She intentionally bit on her lips and wore a dark expression. "Can she still make it?"
Mr. Smith now regretted approving her application. I'm doomed. If something were to happen during the school festival, the principal is going to invite me to his office for another round of scolding. Why do I have such bad luck to have Janet, this jinx, as my student…
The host was already calling for Wendy to perform her calligraphy writing onstage.
Her performance only took 3 minutes and in 5 minutes' time, it would be Janet's turn to perform onstage. If she couldn't arrive within that time frame, then it would be equivalent as Class A losing an opportunity to be rated.
As minutes and seconds went by, the backstage was filled with nervousness. Mr. Smith was so anxious that he paced in circles.
"Young Master Yaleman, do you think that Janet is coming?" Emily asked.
Gordon ignored her and continued to call Janet, but her phone was switched off.
"How about I tell the host to cancel Janet's performance?" Mr. Smith scratched his head. Although he might not succeed, he had to at least try to communicate with the host.
A triumphant expression flashed across Emily's eyes as she arrogantly raised her head. "Mr. Smith, I'm afraid that you'll have to take the trouble to do so. If she intends to escape, why even bother to participate? She's really wasting our time! I wonder what she has in mind."
Right after she said that, a slow yet calm female voice was heard backstage. "Who says that I've escaped?"
"Oh, my God! You are finally here!" Mr. Smith immediately went up to greet her.
Gordon had also approached her with his phone in his hand. "I couldn't get through to you."
Janet took out her phone from her bag and glanced at it before smiling awkwardly. "I'm sorry. My phone ran out of battery and switched off."
"Janet, are you ready? Wendy's performance is going to end soon and it's your turn next." Mr. Smith was close to tears.
Emily scoffed while deliberately wearing a worried expression, saying, "Mr. Smith, stop asking. Don't give Janet too much pressure. After all, she has never learned dancing before!"
A menacing smile appeared on the corner of Janet's lips as she asked, "Really?"
Emily stepped forward and grabbed her hand. "Hey! Let's stop talking. Janet, you should quickly go and get changed."
Janet retracted her hands on the spot, which caused the fake smile on Emily's face to freeze. Is she disgusted with me? Her hypocrisy is so revolting. I would like to see how she humiliates herself tonight!
"Janet, you should go and get changed!" Gordon pointed at the clothes hanging at the side. "Those are the performance attire. You can choose one for yourself first and it will be your turn to perform later."