Revenge In Disguise

CHAPTER THREE

Valli had won. I'd think each time I had wanted to pick up my phone and scroll social media but remembered that Valli was a social media celebrity herself and that meant happenings around and pioneered by her would always reach millions of people.

But I had soon got exhausted of the wait and boredom due to the lack of harassment by pressmen or their surrounding our house, I had picked up my phone and clicked on i********:. I had expected thousands of tags as usual but had been surprised to see over a million tags. Curiously, I had clicked on a few and had watched videos of several fans and celebrities defending me and calling out Valli. It had backfired and that threw me back onto my feet the next day as I got up to model for a few magazines out of the many brands and NGOs that had contacted me due to the rave.

But school hadn't been any better with Valli continuous pranks and stunts to humiliate me backfiring on her. You might call me lucky but I promise you, I'm not. I knew Valli and how spontaneous she could be - never thinking through an idea properly or doing good research to top it up, she'd never take advice or contributions from others on how to sharpen her ideas for fear of losing essence as a leader. I knew how she listened to her whims more than the wits of others and so, I had watched her fail over and over again.

Until…

Until the end-of-term talent day where Kaylin and I decided to do a gymnastic c*m cheerleading dance because that had been our starting point as kids when daddy had still been there with us and had taught us himself and because, after a hectic row of weeks, we had wanted to unwind by remembering daddy and our awesome childhood.

But just as I knew Valli's impulsivity over analysis, she knew how I could get caught up in the euphoria of attention or get engrossed with having the perfect dance and temporarily be unaware of anybody or anything. So, she had preyed on that.

While Kaylin and I had practiced day and night for the big reveal on the talent day, she had worked on her plan for those much hours according to what she said. Slowly, the day had arrived and we'd gotten our outfits from a nearby store due to last minute preparations and gone as far as shaving off our hair together due to Kaylin's rapid hair loss from chemotherapy.

On the D-day, Valli had executed her plans and while we had awed the crowd of students on the stage as we danced, Valli had been somewhere in the crowd waiting with bated breath for her plan to come to the light.

Firstly, we hadn't notice the tiny ball on the stage when we got on. Maybe, it was because they had been of the same colour, that is the rug on the stage and the ball or it had been due to the eagerness to be cheered by the crowd for our weeks of effort leading to the big reveal.

This time, Valli hadn't waited for me to get off the stage first. She had pulled it off right there. We had danced for a while before I had tossed Kaylin into the air and caught her deftly while joggling a few tennis balls. We'd done a few more awestrucking moves before the disaster happened. I had moved out of the position we'd been in as we'd planned to do but had stepped on the rolling ball, slipped dramatically and landed on my butt pulling Kaylin with me as well as the entire stage decoration. It hadn't ended there.

As we helped off the stage, a bucket of sand fell on us causing Kaylin to go into a cough frenzy which had ended her in the hospital. Valli had known that the cough had been as a result of the dust from the sand and had pulled it off anyway to get me disorientated enough for me not to know when she'd slipped my phone out of my hand.

As I had sat on the hospital waiting area, bawling my eyes out, I'd heard murmurs around me and soon got news that someone had hacked into my account and posted a number of videos about a few celebrities who had supported me during her first attack, herself and even Kaylin. She'd used my device so that the Police would trace it back to me and that meant, nobody would ever believe it wasn't me.

I had faced and still faces the hugest scandal in my career and worse still, it was from my best friend. I couldn't even address the public due to my drowning mental health status and I had impending lawsuits according to my manager plus mum was losing money on her end too but there's not been even the smallest evidence that Valli had planned all of this even though every little thing in me believed she did.

“Hmm” She turned around sarcastically. Yes, we're back in the present. “She's ready for a show down.” She dragged her words as if she were singing and I blinked back tears. Knowledge that every bit of my personality and life had been shared with this vile being left me even more hurt and helpless than I'd ever thought I'd be.

I forced myself to regain composure since I was practicing live due to the various flashes of a camera taking videos, “What do you want, Valli. We are no longer friends, so what could I possibly help you with?” I managed to say with a placid expression as I watched her burst into laughter, causing my stomach to churn.

“Yes. You're right, we're not. Because who'd be friends with a heartless and ungrateful b***h like you? What had I ever done to you? I trusted you with that video, Kait.” She feigned a hurt expression, buying the heart of the crowd, but I'd gone past reacting to her whether in word or in deeds.

“We both know you plotted this, Valli.” I reverted after my impulse won over my wit and my lawyer's instructions never to give into her in public. Her smile was genuine, she'd gotten an accusation on camera.

She arched her brow, inching closer to me. Fully aware of my repulsion of close contact with someone, especially when they were trying to shove words down my throat, “You're aware that what you just say can make you say a huge fine for defamation of character, right?” I avoided her eyes as I sunk my teeth into my lips.

“And as a good daughter, you're supposed to try your best to reduce the loads of fines your mother has to pay already, right?” She sighed, lifted and dropped her hands dramatically by her side. “We were friends, but I never knew you could be this selfish or vile. What will you gain from this, huh? You should have thought this through, but I guess, your brain only understands romance books.” She chuckled but quickly straightened her face. “See you in court, bestie.” In the most demeaning way I'd ever hear her speak to me then sashayed away.

How blind were these people? The media, the public, the brands I'd worked with, my schoolmates, even the colleges I'd applied for but declined my request due to the scandal

l. Who was being bullied, I or Valli.