Chapter 3

After scrolling for a bit she suddenly yanked me over as I walked past.

"Rachel, help me pick—does this one look good?" she asked.

Huh? She already picked one and now she was asking me?

I froze for a second, then it hit me—she just wanted me to pay for it again.

When I pressed her, she finally admitted she couldn't squeeze any more money out of those loan apps.

"I don't have that kind of cash," I said with a bitter laugh. Victoria opened her mouth to argue but I cut her off.

"Why don't you just ask Mrs. White for an advance?" I suggested, then elbowed her.

"Hey, Tom told me Adam's grades actually went up this month. You're basically his savior right now! Mrs. White will definitely say yes after seeing that."

After hesitating a long time, Victoria finally clenched her teeth and messaged Sibyl.

Sibyl replied fast—she sent the money immediately and told Victoria to keep doing a good job with Adam.

From then on Victoria was glued to her computer every night at ten sharp, waiting for Adam to log on, completely ignoring our protests while she played with him till morning.

To make up for lost sleep she ditched all her other tutoring jobs and even paid someone to cover her evening classes.

She was really going all in on this shit! I couldn't help but sneered.

I gathered proof that she was paying people to cover her classes, plus the receipt for that slutty bodycon dress and screenshots of her buying the phone, then sent the whole package to Helen Fox in our class.

In my last life Victoria had maliciously reported Helen and got her financial aid taken away—just because Helen bought a pair of cheap shoes.

This time Victoria was counting on that same aid to pay off her loan sharks.

Well, time for her to taste her own medicine.

Lately after her all-night gaming sessions, Victoria would spend hours on the balcony whispering on the phone with Adam.

Even with the door closed you could still hear her giggling from inside.

Tom, who's in Adam's class, told me Adam had been falling asleep in class and his grades were tanking hard.

I glanced over at Victoria—she looked completely spaced out with massive dark circles under her eyes.

It was presentation day. When they called her name she was still zoning out. I had to shove her to snap her out of it. She staggered up to the front looking like she could barely stand.

While she was fumbling to plug in her USB and open her PowerPoint, her phone suddenly rang.

Victoria panicked trying to decline it but accidentally answered instead. Sibyl's furious voice exploded through the quiet classroom.

"Ms. Chase! I trusted you! And you let a high school senior stay up all night gaming with matching couple usernames?!" Sibyl screamed.

"Adam just turned eighteen! How the fuck could you take advantage of someone that young?

"Victoria, you're done tutoring my son. I'm taking this straight to your tutoring center. Is this what you call an outstanding student?"

Victoria hung up fast, but it was way too late. The whole class was already whispering and gossiping.

"She's even going after a high school kid? Damn, is she really that desperate?"

"Holy shit, she's using couple usernames with someone who's barely legal? That's fucked up."

"She's from our official tutoring center? No fucking way..."

"Wow, I never would've guessed she was like that."

Victoria's face turned bright red. With everyone staring she grabbed her phone and stormed out without a word.

When I got back to the dorm I saw her out on the balcony, voice full of desperation as she begged on the phone—she was clearly groveling to Sibyl.

After a while she came back in with puffy red eyes, threw her phone on the desk, and collapsed onto her bed.

I could hear her muffled crying from behind the curtain.

But I knew Victoria wasn't the type to give up that easily.

"Rachel, you have to help me! The tutoring center blacklisted me and Sibyl won't even answer my calls," she begged.

"You're all I've got left! If I can't reach Adam, I'm fucking done!"

I figured she'd come running to me eventually, but when she suddenly dropped to her knees it still caught me off guard.

With the others staring at us like we were crazy, I quickly yanked her back up.

"Get the fuck up! Just talk to me!"

Once the others left, Victoria immediately pulled out a letter and shoved it at me. "I know Tom, the kid you tutor, is in Adam's class. Can you sneak this letter to him for me?"

I jerked back like she handed me a bomb. "Don't drag me into this shit! Mrs. White already told the tutoring center yesterday—you're completely banned from contacting Adam.

"If we get caught we're both fucked! She will kill me and Tom!"

When I refused, Victoria's face twisted with rage. "Oh so this is all your fucking fault, Rachel! If you hadn't told me to ask Sibyl for an advance none of this would've happened. You owe me!"

I took a deep breath. Since nobody else was around I dropped to my knees with a loud thud—way louder than hers.

"Then go talk to Mrs. White yourself. If she shows up again we'll both go down together."

That completely threw Victoria. She had no way to reach Sibyl anyway—it was actually kind of funny.