Villainess 3: Rosalie Strikes Back

Red Pill 10: Days, Updates

That same morning, Janet woke up with an aching wrist, so she pulled the sleeve of her gown aside and saw a bruise there. She wondered for a moment how that got there, till she remembered Prince Blaise grabbing her wrist during homeroom yesterday morning when she tried to give Rosalie her engagement ring. She thought of telling her maids about it, but she chose not to as she prepared her toilette and dressed for school in the presence of her suicide clone and three other clones. But when her maids gave her a note from her history professor requesting her presence at the Professor Commons Office, Janet exited the dorm and ignored her gossiping peers in the central hallway, then left Mariana House and ran the rest of the way.

When a winded Janet strode through the double-door entrance, she headed to the Eastern side of the campus building past the restrooms to the Professor Commons Office, where she strode through the double doors and spotted Viscountess Kelly Durham waving her over to her desk. Janet’s history professor was a bombshell, whose beauty rivaled Rosalie’s and caught the eye of professors and students alike: long golden-blonde hair, violet eyes, a doll-like face, and a lithe figure beneath a long red dress, all of which belied her true age. And along with the viscountess’s looks, she also had brains: a Philosopher of History and author of two textbooks, A History of the Old Guard of the Kaden Kingdom and A History: His Story, and a memoir, A Mystery: My Story.

Janet took a seat beside her history professor’s desk and waited for her to say something, while Janet’s four clones entered the Professor Commons Office and stood behind her like bodyguards.

“Are you okay, Lady Fleming?” Viscountess Durham said.

“I’m fine,” Janet said. “Thanks for asking.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” she said. “I heard you fainted. So I tried seeing you at the infirmary during Homeroom 2, but your maids and the nurse wouldn’t let me see you.”

“Sorry for worrying you, Professor,” Janet said. “Who did you hear that from?”

“Lord Woodberry,” the viscountess said. “He came to my office during lunch asking about you, but I couldn’t tell him much,” and she smiled and added, “He said he carried you to the infirmary.”

“That’s rather nice of him,” Janet said.

“That’s all you can say?”

Janet looked at the viscountess smiling from ear to ear, then deadpanned and said, “I’m not that desperate to get back at his Highness. What did Lord Woodberry say, anyway?”

“He said you seemed exhausted when he brought you in,” the viscountess said. “So I went back during Homeroom 3 and checked with the nurse on duty, but she said there was nothing unusual in your system, save for high adrenaline levels in your blood and emotional exhaustion.”

“I see,” Janet said, thinking back on DeeDee’s observation that she was susceptible to emotional influences.

“All right, back to business,” Viscountess Durham said and passed Janet her new schedule. “I’ll be your new homeroom professor from now on, and you’ll have me for Period 1 this semester. I also checked with your other professors to make sure you won’t fall behind, and they said you could make up missed reading assignments during your Homeroom periods, so no worries there. What I am worried about is your Magical Studies class with Father Robinson.”

Janet winced at the mention of Father Robinson, her Professor of Magical Studies, and said, “My magic aptitude test was yesterday. I completely forgot about it.”

“Yes, he mentioned a test on that day,” the viscountess said, nodding, “but he said you can make it up today after lunch during Homeroom 3. All you have to do is go to his homeroom at Classroom 3-2A to take it. Do you know where that is?”

“I do,” she said, knowing that the west wing of the second floor of the campus was reserved for third-year students.

So Viscountess Durham wrote up a hall pass and gave it to Janet and said, “Show this to Father Robinson when you get there. Now, shall we get going?”

Janet nodded and followed her new homeroom professor out of the Professor Commons Office, followed close behind by her four clones.

On the way to her new homeroom, Janet endured more stares and whispers as she ascended both flights of stairs, where she also endured the footfalls of her former homeroom professor Baron Palmer and former classmate Prince Blaise following in tow to her former homeroom in Classroom 1-3C. And on passing her old homeroom on her way to her new one in Classroom 1-3G, Janet couldn’t help but feel the Prince’s eyes following her, till she turned the corner of the West Wing side corridor of the campus towards her homeroom.

Janet followed Viscountess Durham through another pair of double doors and found herself in front of another class, where she found three other clones of herself waving at her. Then, as the viscountess explained her situation to her new homeroom, recapping Janet’s last four days of hell due to Rosalie’s latest ruse in just a few words, Janet looked at the faces of her new acquaintances, some of them whispering about her latest attempt to humiliate Rosalie, others wondering if she really had faked an illness in the hallway, and some still speculating about her broken engagement with the Prince.

When Viscountess Durham asked Janet to introduce herself, she said, “Pleased to meet you. I’m Lady Janet Fleming, ex-fiancée of his Highness who did this to me,” and she pulled back the sleeve of her bolero and showed them the bruise on her wrist.

Which had its intended effect: a collective gasp issued from the throats of her peers, and an uproar of rumors and outright questions arose from her audience—

Which also had an effect on her new homeroom professor: Viscountess Durham bit down on her lower lip and said, “Settle down, everyone.” Then she leveled a glare at Janet and said, “Come with me, Lady Fleming.”

She followed her out through the double doors into the hallway and said, “What is it, Professor?”

“Don’t be coy with me,” the viscountess said with her arms akimbo. “Why are you antagonizing his Highness?”

“Because he actually did this to me,” Janet said, showing Lady Durham the bruise on her wrist before looking from side to side and looking at the approval of her four clones that had followed her out of the classroom. All the while, she also gave her new homeroom professor the impression that she was looking out for eavesdroppers in the hallway.

Which made the viscountess follow her gaze and say, “Why didn’t you tell me at the Office?”

“You weren’t there to witness it, Professor,” Janet said and pulled the sleeve of her bolero back over the bruise. “During yesterday’s homeroom, I was giving Miss Edgeworth my engagement ring, because I thought she deserved it more than me, but his Highness grabbed me so hard I almost yelped. He wouldn’t have done that if Professor Palmer was there.”

Lady Durham gaped, then shut her mouth and looked around again and said, “Did you report this to him?”

Janet shook her head. “He wasn’t in the class when it happened, so I doubt he’d believe me, anyway.”

“Then did his class see this happen?”

Again Janet shook her head and said, “They did, but they either never noticed or ignored it.”

Viscountess Durham said, “I’ll talk with Baron Palmer during the next homeroom.”

“Please, don’t,” Janet said.

“And why not?” Viscountess Durham said.

“It will only anger his Highness,” she said. “He already has it out for me, and I don’t—”

“His Highness may be the crown prince,” Viscountess Durham said, “but he’s still a student of this Academy. Janet, I can’t overlook this.”

Janet looked up at her professor for a moment, then said, “Do what you must, but don’t let him near me.”

Viscountess Durham nodded.

With that, Janet and her clones walked back inside the classroom amidst whispers from her classmates, who all eyed her but turned away before meeting her gaze. She just ignored the whispers as Viscountess Durham pointed out her designated seat next to her fellow student sleeping at a two-person table in the third column of tables from the classroom’s double-door entrance.

“Who is that?” Janet said.

“That’s Sir Kevin Sydney,” Viscountess Durham said. “He’s a bit rough around the edges, but try to get along with him. Also,” she added, “please wake him up when class starts, and don’t let him dawdle.”

Janet nodded and approached her designated table, where she slung the shoulder strap of her book bag on the backrest of her chair and sat beside her sleeping classmate. Along with her, three of Janet’s clones approached her table and inspected the young man up close, while Janet’s suicide clone stalked over to the corner of the classroom and talked with the three other clones she had assigned to watch over Kevin Sydney. As such, back at the table, one of the three clones (Janet’s poisoned clone) passed her hand through Kevin Sydney’s head, while another clone bent over the table and looked in between the man’s arms at his face and smiled.

“Oooh, he’s roguishly handsome,” her clone said.

“And strong, too, I bet,” her poisoned clone added. “If I’d have known there was someone like this here, I would’ve dumped his Highness before I entered this school.”

“Really?” Janet whispered.

“You have DeeDee pendant crystal with you,” her poisoned clone said. “Use your thoughts to talk to us.”

“And don’t look at us,” her other clone said, “lest people might think you’ve gone daft.”

Janet turned away and said, “Who is this man, anyway?”

“We looked through DeeDee’s profile books last night,” her poisoned clone said. “Sir Kevin Sydney’s profile book is one of the five books that have been tampered with. Out of those five books, it seems that his profile book in particular had been burned. DeeDee said he was supposed to be energetic and romantic, but now he’s a sluggard.”

“I see,” Janet said. “What about the others?”

Janet’s suicide double came up to the table, saying, “DeeDee had a hard time opening his Highness’s profile book, so she doesn’t know the extent of the tampering. Yet from her memories of that book before it was tampered with, DeeDee remembered the Prince to be an upright young man with a love of ghost stories. Now he’s just a possessive and overprotective bully.

“As for the others,” she added, “Lord Woodberry’s profile book had also suffered from tampering. In fact, it seems that his Highness’s love of ghost stories has been transferred over to Lord Woodberry, whom DeeDee remembered as a skeptic. Yet compared to the others, Lord Woodberry’s book shows nowhere near as much tampering or damage. Then there’s the profile book of another man named Joseph Reeves, which had several pages torn out. DeeDee remembered him as a morally upright and taciturn man, but now . . .”

“Now what?” Janet said.

“Now he’s gone insane,” her suicide clone said.

Janet looked up at her clone, eyes wide at the implication that whoever tampered with these books might have damaged her own, then looked back down and said, “What about our book? How bad is the damage there?”

“That’s the strange part,” her suicide double said. “Out of the five affected books in her possession, DeeDee said that ours had the least amount of tampering. In fact, she said that whoever infiltrated her private library must’ve had a difficult time making any direct changes to our profiles, because there’s too many of us to keep track of.”

“Because of all those silent clones?” Janet said.

“Exactly,” her clone said. “All of those clones with lamps in their hands are DeeDee’s proxies. Because of this, she said that our personalities have remained the same throughout all of our incarnations, including yours. The only changes DeeDee noticed were the variations and degrees of severity in our punishments.”

“You mean all of your deaths?” Janet said.

“Yes,” her clone said, nodding her head. “DeeDee said that none of us were supposed to die. When we asked her what she meant, she said that we tended to follow a banishment route after the Prince reveals our wrongdoings against Miss Edgeworth at the graduation party. So far, she’s said that our deaths are anomalies and added that, besides the thirty-one of us with you now, there are eighty-five others just like us whose whereabouts are still unknown.”

Janet bit down on her lower lip, wondering what had become of that missing tome containing Rosalie’s profiles, and said, “What about that vixen? Did you find her book yet?”

Her clones shook their heads, and her suicide double said, “None of us knows the whereabouts of Miss Edgeworth’s book. As such, DeeDee reviewed the entries of all of our profiles, including yours, and discovered a major anomaly in Miss Edgeworth’s actions.”

“So she wasn’t always a bitch?” Janet said.

“Nope. Not even close,” her clone said. “In fact, DeeDee said she was almost the exact opposite of how she is now: kind-hearted, smart, determined, and hard-working. DeeDee suspects that whoever’s stolen Miss Edgeworth’s book must have either changed her personality or taken her place.”

“You’re saying she could be someone else?”

“Yes,” her clone said, nodding her head once again, “but we won’t know for sure, till we find her missing book. Till then, DeeDee wants you to avoid all contact with Miss Edgeworth, and we’ll keep an eye on her and the Prince and the others in the meantime. That’s it for now.”

Then her clones doubled back through the desks and seated students like holograms towards a corner of the classroom, joining the three other clones watching over Kevin, where they all stood sentinel by the entrance discussing something amongst themselves that was out of Janet’s hearing.

Only then did Viscountess Durham’s voice reach Janet, who looked up and said, “What is it, Professor?”

“Class is starting, Lady Fleming,” and she pointed at Janet’s classmate sitting next to her.

Janet looked over at her sleeping classmate, till it clicked in her mind. So she nudged Kevin Sydney’s shoulder a few times, till the man woke up as if he’d been jolted with an electric shock. Needless to say, Janet jumped in her seat, wondering if the man had had a nightmare or something, then saw the loosened tie under his open collar and his unkempt hair.

“Um,” Janet said, “are you okay?”

“I was,” he said as he slumped in his seat, “till some prude just decided to wake me up.”

Janet gaped and was about to scold him—

When Viscountess Durham said, “Good morning, Sir Sydney. It’s good to have you with us, for a change.”

Sniggers erupted from her surrounding classmates.

For his part, Kevin stared at Viscountess Durham, then stole a glance at Janet and said, “Who’s Miss Wake-Up-Call?”

More sniggers from her classmates.

“That’s Lady Fleming to you,” Janet said through gritted teeth, “not Miss Wake-Up-Call!”

“You’re a touchy one,” Kevin said.

Janet shoved his shoulder amidst more sniggers.

“Oh, I like forceful girls like you,” he said, then got out his books and notebook and pen from his book bag and sat there grinning like a male parody of a Goodie Two-Shoes. But then he sneezed into his hand and wiped it on the flap of his blazer, then touched the sleeve of Janet’s bolero.

Which caused Janet to slap his hand away and say, “Keep your germs to yourself!”

Sir Sydney raised his hands, saying, “Whatever you say, Miss Wake-Up-Call,” then ran that same germ-filled hand through his auburn hair in a flash of dewy sparkles.

Janet just stared at him, wondering how in God’s name she was going to survive the next three accursed school years with someone like him sitting next to her. Then she looked back at Viscountess Durham, who winked at her as if she was expecting Janet to keep this sluggard out of trouble without getting into trouble herself. Then she looked over at her clones by the corner, all seven of them grinning like maniacs and laughing as though they were watching a comedy of errors.

And that’s how Period 1 began.

To Be Continued