Mira tried again, “I’m so sorry—”

  Behind her, Jessica said in a very nonplussed voice, “Blythe?”

  Daisy’s eyebrows drew together in obvious bewilderment.

  Then Mira’s control over her voice box was gone, and again her mouth began speaking on its own.

  “Oops, my hand slipped.” Her tone was sickly sweet. “But this suits you so much better than the uniform. Wouldn’t you agree, Willoughby?”

  Eyes brimming with tears, Daisy let out a choked sob before pushing back from her chair and getting to her feet. Within seconds, she was out of the dining hall, her pounding footsteps against the polished hardwood floor fading away.

  Daisy’s barely-touched food remained on the tray on the table, evidence that she’d begun eating only to be harassed out of the dining hall.

  A purple notification light, followed by a blue one, flashed before her eyes.

  I don’t need that! she wanted to yell, but her mouth wouldn’t move.

  Then Mira’s mouth finally went slack and she regained control of her body once again. Just to confirm that she was truly in control again, she lifted a hand and stared at it, flexing her fingers.

  They moved as they should.

  The horrible aching sensation Mira recognized as a combination of guilt and shame ate into her veins, turning her cold from the inside out. This bullying scene had been frustrating enough to read in the game. Never in a million years had she thought she would witness it in person, much less as the culprit herself.

  She’d had full control of her body since she’d woken up this morning until just now, when the first in-game bullying scene was supposed to play out.

  If her limbs were going to disregard her input when it came to these game events, the possibility of getting executed for making an attempt on Daisy’s life suddenly became very, very real.

  She looked up again at the closed glass doors of the dining hall. As Daisy’s running silhouette gradually went out of sight, Sophie and Jessica approached Mira from behind.

  A couple of the dining hall staff members came up to the table. One of them carried a mop and bucket in her hands, and the other wheeled an inconspicuous lidded trash can with a classy gold-and-black design forward. They began cleaning up the mess, and Mira felt even worse that 'she' had created it.

  “You have such good taste, Blythe,” Sophie said, the corners of her lips quirking up. “That suits her so much better than our school uniform.”

  Mira flinched.

  On the other hand, Jessica asked in a careful tone, “Are you alright?”

  “No,” she began, but then Magnus stepped into view, his eyes blazing with fury.

  “Excuse me, Blythe,” he said, his voice hard, “but I would like to speak with you.”

  “I didn’t want to do it!” she blurted out, dropping her hand to her side. “I need to go—I should apologize—”

  “Apologize?” Sophie echoed.

  “I don’t understand.” Jessica continued speaking, but Mira tuned out the rest of her words.

  How would anyone believe that she didn’t have any control over what her body had just done?

  She spun on her heel and strode for the doors. She could feel people’s eyes on her, but she was too afraid to look around to confirm it.

  “Blythe!” That was Magnus’ voice, but Mira was too stressed to bother responding to him at the moment.

  Daisy was probably on her way to her dorm room right now, getting a change of clothes while crying and blaming herself for not being alert enough.

  She hurried out of the dining hall, ignoring her rumbling stomach. Maybe she could still catch Daisy. She found herself standing in the mostly empty large, white porcelain marble hallway, turning her head in all the different directions only to discover that Daisy was nowhere in sight.

  She was too late. She couldn’t just go down a random hallway hoping she’d find her.

  And as her rapidly returning common sense, no longer overpowered by the numbing panic, reminded her, what would she even say to Daisy if she managed to catch up with her anyway?

  ‘Sorry, it was an accident!’

  ‘Sorry, I got possessed by some force and was made to say and do all those horrible things to you!’

  Just the thought of trying to explain away ‘her’ actions gave her a headache.

  Magnus easily overtook her, his stomping footsteps resounding through the hallway. He stepped in front of Mira. Despite the cold smile on his face, Mira could feel the animosity and almost murderous aura emanating from his entire being.

  "Care to explain what that was?"

  If she admitted she’d been forced, they might consider her dangerous and lock her away. What if they tried to exorcise her? The safest choice was—

  "It was an accident!” she blurted out.

  It didn’t explain the mean words that had come out of Blythe’s mouth, but allowing them to think she might be possessed might be a worse alternative. Besides, who would believe her that she’d been possessed to do something that Blythe ordinarily did anyway?

  He shot her a disgusted look. "Is that all you can say? It was foolish of me to believe your words this morning.”

  "But I didn’t want to—“

  Her heart sank. It didn't matter what she said. He wasn't going to believe her, and, from his perspective, it was completely understandable. The original Blythe had likely downplayed her actions to him so many times he was sick of her deceit.

  "I've spoken to you about this so many times," he said frigidly. "As my betrothed, your actions affect not just your image, but mine as well. Does it please you to damage my reputation for the sole purpose of being spiteful to a peer that you dislike?"

  How did the original Blythe get through this argument with Magnus? Did she stick to the paper-thin excuse that her hands slipped and insist it was all an accident?

  When Mira hesitated for a second, a red light flashed across her sight again.

  His expression hadn’t changed. If Mira hadn’t received the notification, she wouldn’t have known that she’d lost more points with him.

  What could she really say? If she claimed she wasn’t Blythe and was in fact someone not from this world, they’d probably lock her up for mental instability.

  ”I’m really sorry. I would never want to damage your reputation.”

  “Just what has Daisy ever done to deserve this behavior from you? The school year has just begun, and you’re already picking on her without any provocation.”

  “Nothing!” she cried in frustration, realizing that nothing she said would matter to him. “She hasn’t done anything! I really didn’t want to do that …”

  As expected, she received another notification that his favorability toward her had plummeted once more.

  In disgust, he turned away from her and walked away.

  Mira was too tired to care. If the game was just going to forcefully steer her in the direction of the original plot, what could she realistically do about it?

  A wild fantasy of running away from home to live in the wilderness and grow her own vegetables to eat crossed her mind for the briefest of seconds. She had to shake her head to snap herself out of it.

  She’d been raised in a suburb her whole life—she’d only ever read about fictional people growing crops and raising livestock that provided no real glimpse into what it actually entailed.

  She almost allowed herself to entertain the possibility of hiding her identity and starting over as a commoner in one of those towns Daisy had visited during her summer breaks in the game before being reminded of the harsh realities of life. Given her age and skills, she’d probably have to work menial jobs like washing dishes in the back of a kitchen.

  Then again, struggling to live for the hope of a better future was better than being dead if she was sentenced to death.

  If it comes to that, she thought grimly, I’ll just have to do it.

  In the meantime, she would try to see if there was any way she could get out of this terrible fate Blythe was seemingly doomed to.

  Mira sighed, both relieved and gloomy that she was alone at last. Now that Magnus was no longer breathing down her neck, and nobody else was around to catch her ‘odd’ behavior, she could go somewhere to think for a little bit.

  There was a wall clock in every hallway, which was likely how people kept an eye on the time as they went about their business in school.

  She checked her class schedule. Their lunch break was two hours. There was still another 90 minutes until her next class. Maybe she still had time to seek Daisy out. An elegant crystal plaque on the wall next to the large winding stairs to the left of the dining hall entrance indicated that it led to the student dormitories. She knew Daisy would be in her room until her next class. Maybe she could wait here and apologize when Daisy finally came back down.

  As she was putting her class schedule away, light but hasty footfalls drew near. Mira barely took her next step forward before she was flanked by Jessica and Sophie once more.

  “Are you alright?” Jessica asked, nothing but concern in her voice. “You seemed very frazzled in the dining hall.”

  “Why did you say that you wanted to apologize to Willoughby?” Sophie asked.

  Jessica nodded at Sophie. “I know you said you didn’t mean it, but I thought it was for His Highness’ sake since he’s been a little … upset that there were so many ’accidents’ last year.”

  “Well, I really didn’t mean it this time,” she insisted.

  “Don’t worry.” Jessica’s smile was conspiratorial. “Only the three of us are here right now. You can tell us what you’re really thinking.”

  “That is really what I’m really thinking,” she said irritably.

  Sophie gazed blankly at her for a couple of seconds before laughing politely as though Mira had just cracked a joke. “We’re your friends, Blythe. You don’t have to hide your feelings from us. We know how annoying she is.”

  As Mira stared at them, her heart sank. Nobody was going to believe her. If she were in their shoes, she doubted she would after that public display of spite either. No one could say those words and do those things then turn around and say they hadn’t meant to do it.

  But Mira didn’t know how else to handle it.

  “No other girl will blame you for it,” Jessica added. “We’re all exhausted by her constant attempts to get attention from our male classmates.”

  If she hadn’t been drowning in dread and right at that moment, Mira would probably have smiled at their saltiness. Daisy’s charm was like a two-edged sword—like honey for the boys and vinegar for the girls.

  Her gaze fell to their sides, and she finally noticed that they were each carrying a tan canvas bag in their hand.

  She tried pulling up the information window on them, but all she got was:

  Evidently, this ability of hers couldn’t see through opaque objects.

  “What’s that?” she had to ask.

  “Oh, we ordered takeout instead,” Jessica said, opening hers to show Mira the brown cardboard boxes inside. “We requested a grilled steak for you.”

  Sophie revealed hers to contain three glass bottles of fruit juices.

  “Since there’s still time to eat, and we thought you might prefer not to return to the dining hall after the … accident.” Sophie glanced over her shoulder at the large glass door.

  Incredible. Takeout was allowed at this school’s dining hall. Daisy had always eaten her meals there, so this was news to Mira.

  “Thank you,” she said sincerely, touched by her friends’ thoughtful actions.

  She couldn’t imagine people doing something like this for her back in her own high school. Even though she had Riley, her friend was the pragmatic kind who would finish eating her meal first before coming out to find her. Then again, if she’d left the cafeteria in a hurry after publicly humiliating someone else, Riley would—understandably—not look for her.

  It didn’t matter that she wasn’t really Blythe. Right now, she was Blythe in every functional sense, so their concern was for her.

  Jessica’s and Sophie’s smiles were almost blinding.

  They were so easy to please. Mira wondered just how hard the original Blythe was on them.

  “You really are very different today,” Jessica said, still beaming.

  “You’re wonderful either way,” Sophie said, “but I’m really enjoying getting to know this side of you.”

  Mira’s eyelid twitched. She really hoped this ‘nice’ behavior of hers wouldn’t blow up in her face later.

  They suggested going to the school garden to eat their lunch among the greenery, so Mira agreed, abandoning the idea of finding Daisy. She knew that Daisy would be staying in her dorm all the way until her next class, so her only real option was to risk looking like a stalker waiting at the bottom of the stairs that led to the dormitories. After all she’d ’done’ to Daisy today, it wasn’t worth it.

  They crossed the huge courtyard to get to the school garden, which was behind the blue classroom building. All kinds of shrubs, flowering and non-flowering ones, populated the large, green lawn, along with beautiful, colorful flowers in multiple rows of flower pots. Chirping birds inhabited the branches of the tall trees that provided shelter over some of the wooden benches installed strategically throughout the garden.

  There were a few other students in the garden as well, but they were too far away to be within earshot. Mira could barely make out their faces.

  They picked their way through the cobblestone path that led them to one of those benches.

  They’d barely sat down when a squeaky but feminine voice shouted, “I-I-I like you!”