Legendary Business Woman

School Crisis

She slept peacefully. In the morning, as promised she received her punishment, no breakfast. She shrugged and moved on. Her tummy was protesting seriously but she ignored it, she only had breakfast yesterday and till now not even water had entered her poor tummy. She ignored it too, all these years the punishments are always the same. No breakfast or lunch or dinner depending on her Stepmother's whims. Most times she had to work around the house like that. Yes, she worked in her house and had to report her work like all the maids here, the only downside been that she was never paid.

She strode right out the door, not bothering with greetings and arrived at the crossroads a while later.

She waited for the bus and when she entered was once again reminded of another place she labelled 'Hell 2.0'. State High School, a government owned school for special children, which was not as special as the name suggested. Vagrants, vagabonds, children of rich and mighty people that needed reformation. The creme de la creme of the nation's richest children were here. Contrary to the fact that it was government owned, the sponsors of this special school had very deep pockets. So one could say it was a 'privately owned joint government establishment', anyhow that sounded that's how it is.

She sat in the bus and went through her daily meditations, she needed it to survive.

...

She walked from the designated bus stop all the way to her class. Class 7, Grade 11. Class 7 was the worst class in her grade and she happened to have the honor of being a member. She hated this class, but she preferred it to home, at least if strangers hurt her it would not pain her as much.

She entered the class and as usual before she made it to her seat, she had managed to dodge three 'accidents' and fall prey to one, the saliva ladden paper. It was shot straight into her face and hit her forehead, it stuck and rolled down messily down her face till it landed on the floor.

She took a very deep calming breath in the face of the laughter that had erupted and sat down in her seat, but she only sat down after she had scanned the area and found no other harmful substances or potential accidents. She took out her wipes from her backpack and wiped her face and chest. She had begun to carry them in her bag after the last ten packs or so were littered in the hallway and nearly cost her a demerit for littering.

She looked up and before she could pat herself on the back, something came flying at her from nowhere. No, not from nowhere, the culprits were walking towards her at the moment.

The 'three musketeers', three weird, snobbish, obnoxiously dressed young ladies. She didn't think they knew what being a musketeer entailed. Probably chose it course it sounded cool and now they were walking towards her. From her first day of kindergarten these girls had hounded her, especially after she refused to join them when once of them thought she was a business tycoon's daughter. Not that she wasn't but after a while it became obvious she wasn't favored and luckily they never mentioned it in school. However, since then they had made it their life's work to torment her and they were here for today's dailies.

"If it isn't our very own flaming ghoul!", pink haired Juliet the ring leader said and as if on cue, giggles erupted from her sidekicks whom she didn't even bother to know their names.

"Julie, I also think she needs a haircut too. Hideous is a disease you know", left sidekick sniggered.

She pointedly ignored them, talking back would worsen and unduly prolong this interaction, but she made sure to look subservient enough not to come off as challenging. She really needed to sleep, but the universe was out for her today.

Grrrrrrghhh

Her abused tummy decided then that it didn't like the tone pink haired 'Julie' spoke to her with and protested strongly. The sound was deafening even to her ears and she blushed furiously, her pale skin making her look like a well cooked lobster.

Laughter erupted from everyone in the class, except one, but at the moment she was feeling too embarrassed to care.

She however, sat down ramrod straight like it wasn't her tummy that came from and stubbornly refused to run away as she would have done if this was yesterday. She had made a decision on that crossroad last night. She won't ever be embarrassed or make herself inconvenient for no reason, but everything were baby steps and this was one small step she was going to take t start her reformation.

She reached for her backpack and brought out her notebook and an Economics textbook. She forgot she still had visitors.

"Rude! I am right here in front of you and you want to do what? Read?", Pink haired looked around like she couldn't believe a peasant could be so disrespectful.

Dinah simply looked her straight in the eye till she became uncomfortable, she loved her dead eyes.

"Julie, leave her okay? We need to go to class 2 remember?", left sidekick said.

Pink haired's eyes lit up and with a tiny squeal turned on her nicely painted toes and sashayed out of the class without a backward glance. Dinah was already an after thought at this point. She was so relieved and proceeded to read.

Thud!

A very small bento was placed right in front of her, she looked up but all she saw was the receding back of a very cute Loli. The Loli looked back shyly at her and when she noticed Dinah was looking blushed and rushed back to her seat. Dinah didn't know what to say, but before she could protest her tummy growled at her very aggressively. She swallowed and opened the box since an unanimous consent has been reached. She proceeded to devour it's contents at lightening speed, she didn't know how hungry she was till she saw food. She drank from the mini water bottle attached to the side and belched unceremoniously. She covered her mouth immediately.

'That's so uncouth, Dinah!'

She looks up again and met the smiling eyes and face of the Loli, she didn't know when she smiled back.

...

School was over, and she didn't take the bus that was right in front of the school but walked a certain distance till she got to a busy district. After wounding round many small shops saw an internet cafe. She walked in with familiarity and after paying respects to the old man at the counter, paid some change for a computer booth and sat down.

After a while the interface of a game came on and she logged in.

Emperor's demise was a very popular game and what made it awesome was that very OP ability of trading with real money. Yes, players could use real money and also sell things in the game for actual cash. This has been her steady source of income for about a year now and she was here to make sure it didn't dwindle. However, today was meant to be a very dreary one. The person in the booth beside hers was a goblin, a loud and annoying one. He couldn't seem to keep shut, she looked over and found out he was playing the same game and got his game ID. She proceeded to invite him for a PVP match and taunted him with a bet.

'You can't make me unable to make money in peace and still be at peace', she reasoned.

She made sure to bet with actual money and fortunately the guy was one of those with dog-like characters. He kept trying to beat her and she made good money and equipment too. After she was done she left.

She unknowingly walked into an alley that was fairly deserted and happened to meet misfortune. A group of boys she recognized was ambushing another she didn't know, the one being ambushed was obviously from a different school since his blazer was blue not brown. Before she could retrace her steps one of them spotted her and immediately like dog to a bone they all turned to her. She was so scared. Her body was drenched with cold sweat, these guys were ruthless too and they were known to not even spare the fairer s*x and tales of their debauchery was rampant.

She was frozen solid and had no way to escape to and in no time she was surrounded. She chanced a look at the injured boy and saw he had fainted long ago. She gulped hard and that caused laughter to erupt from the boys.

"Hey, flaming ghoul. How are you here?", one asked

"Probably here to accompany us, right?"

"She is pretty alright, if you ignore her eyes. They look like a dead fish's", they guffawed

"Since you are here, how about this? You accompany us and we make it worth your while", the ring leader said to her

At that she looked right at him and spat in his face. The moment she did it she knew she was in trouble, she turned and ran with all her might but before she could make it out the alley, she was hit and down she went.

"If you refuse a toast, you will be forced to drink a forfeit. Beat her up", he said dangerously.

"Hey, hey. Didn't your mama tell you girls were born to be pampered? How dare you?", a voice said.

She looked up and she couldn't believe it. It was the boy she had KO'ed several times and now he was here for another round of beating, she looked at his skinny body and felt bad for him even though he was trying to help her.

A hand appeared in front of her and she took it, no need refusing help at this rate. The beating would be bearable at least with someone to share it with her. She was smacked in the face soon, and she had never felt so embarrassed before.

The boy she looked down on was wiping the floor with these vagabonds in no time. She was stupefied, and a few words popped up in her head.

'Don't judge a book by its cover'.