They went to their lockers to get their materials for art class. Sophie’s and Jessica’s lockers were a good few feet away from Blythe’s, so Mira was left to blindly rummage around in her locker by herself. Sophie and Jessica had implied that they’d all left their art supplies in their lockers, but what that looked like, Mira didn’t know.

  Since nothing else in the locker gave the obvious appearance of being her art supplies, she decided to begin by crouching down and opening the large black storage box beside the pink gym bag on the bottom shelf. The latches opened easily, allowing her to slide the lid off the box and onto the locker floor.

  Anxiety ballooned in her chest when she was greeted with the sight of more drawstring bags made of various materials. Was one of them what she needed for art class, just like that white one had been for embroidery class? A quick scan over the bags provided useless ‘information’ pop-ups just like the one she’d been given for the opaque plastic bags that contained takeout from the dining hall.

  In the hopes of seeing what Sophie or Jessica were taking out of their own lockers, she peeked over in their direction. Their locker doors blocked her view of what they were grabbing and putting into their bags.

  With a sigh, she began opening the first drawstring bag.

  It contained a bunch of embroidery frames of different shapes and sizes. She closed it.

  She was checking the third drawstring bag, a light blue linen one, when a shadow fell over her. She was about to look back when she heard Sophie’s concerned voice.

  “Is something wrong, Blythe?”

  “W-what?” Mira cleared her throat and closed up the bag she was holding. It held a few packets of hard candy. “No, everything’s fine.”

  “We have to get to class soon,” Jessica said. “Shouldn’t you take your art things first?”

  “Um, yeah, I will.” Mira frantically ran her gaze over the remaining drawstring bags, wondering if it would be suspicious to continue opening them to check the contents. What if they weren’t in any of these bags at all?

  For a moment, her hand hovered over the other bags for a moment while she considered her options.

  Sophie let out a confused giggle. “Why don’t you just take it first?”

  Desperately, she groped at the different bags to feel for their contents, unsure if she should grab the first thing she saw to pretend it was the right one and distract them enough to search for the actual one.

  Behind her, Jessica bent down and reached over for the purple cotton drawstring bag that was semi-buried under the other bags Mira was deciding between.

  “Don’t you keep your art stuff here?”

  Mira didn’t know whether to be relieved she hadn’t gone through with snatching up one of the mystery bags or to be horrified she’d almost done it.

  “Oh, yeah, of course.”

  Taking the purple bag from Jessica, she stood up and verified its contents. Paintbrushes, tubes of paint, a small cup, and a palette were inside. When she pulled the cords of the bag to close it, the hairs on the back of her neck pricked up at the sensation of being stared at.

  She glanced up, seeing Sophie and Jessica gazing at her in undisguised worry. She slipped it into her school bag, zipping it back up.

  “Yeah?” Mira asked, bracing herself for some uncomfortable questions.

  They were probably wondering what was wrong with her.

  “You seem to be very … distracted today,” Sophie said. “If there’s something troubling you, we’re here to listen.”

  “We’re best friends, remember?” Jessica chimed in.

  Smiling weakly, she replied, “I know. Thanks.”

  It wasn’t like she could tell them what was really going on. That would probably land her in this world’s equivalent of a psychiatric hospital.

  They waited at the side for her to close her locker door.

  As it turned out, Sophie’s art class was with another professor, so Jessica and Mira parted ways with her when they got to the fifth floor.

  “Don’t walk behind me anymore,” Mira insisted when she noticed Jessica making it a point to stay a couple of steps behind even while she was next to her. “Walk beside me. We’re best friends, right?”

  Surprise flickered over Jessica’s face for only a second before it was replaced by delight.

  “Yes!”

  She sped up to walk right alongside Mira.

  Mira smiled, glad that it seemed to have boosted Jessica’s mood greatly. She also could see this change in walking formation coming in useful in the future if she wasn’t sure of which direction to go in.

  They walked into classroom 502, where easels with a canvas each were arranged in a large circle around a podium on which a large vase of flowers sat in the middle of the room. Each easel had a wood stool in front of it.

  About half of the stools were already occupied.

  Jessica wore a puzzled expression as Mira gravitated toward a random vacant seat. Bemused, Mira looked back at her. Did they have seats they usually sat at?

  After about a couple of seconds of silent mutual staring, Jessica caved first. “Do you feel like sitting here today?”

  She resisted the urge to scratch her head. “Yeah, why not?”

  Jessica lowered her voice. “What about His Highness?”

  I don’t know what that means, Mira wanted to say, but she bit her tongue instead. Mild pain flared up on the spot where her incisors dug into.

  She didn’t get to ponder on Jessica’s question for too long, however—the classroom door swung open again, and Daisy appeared in the doorway. The latter’s entire body tensed when their eyes met.

  Beside her, Jessica scoffed.

  Daisy had already changed into a clean uniform set. Hugging herself, she avoided eye contact with Mira and scuttled to the opposite side of the circle of stools where Mira and Jessica were standing.

  The incoming sensation of relief stood out amidst the guilt that arose upon seeing her.

  She hadn’t been able to control herself in the dining hall, so it was probably for the best that Daisy was avoiding being near her in any capacity. The further away Daisy stayed from her, the less likely she was to end up doing something mean to her, right?

  The transmigrated characters in the web novels she read always managed to turn their lives around by being nice to the original main character. However, that wouldn’t be a viable plan if Mira physically couldn’t stop herself from harassing Daisy. Maybe the best thing she could do right now was to stay away from her.

  Then Magnus came in a few seconds later, his eyes narrowing when he caught sight of Mira. She averted her eyes instantly, her heart sinking. So that was what her friend had meant. Magnus was in this same class as them.

  Jessica whispered, “Are we not going to sit beside His Highness today?”

  Definitely not.

  He was obviously still furious at her, and she didn’t want to be anywhere near him anyway.

  She scrambled for an answer. “Um, I think it’s for the best if we don’t. Why don’t we just sit together instead, just the two of us?”

  Jessica beamed, thoughts of Magnus clearly flown out from her head at Mira’s suggestion. “Sure!”

  It all worked out since she wanted to keep Jessica away from Daisy too. Given what she’d tried to pull in embroidery class earlier, Mira wouldn’t put it past her to spill paint onto her or something.

  Magnus sat down on the seat next to Daisy, exchanging pleasantries as they both got their things out from their bags. As she watched them, Mira remembered this happening in the game. Magnus had chosen to sit beside Daisy instead of in his usual seat next to Blythe so that he could keep an eye on Blythe and prevent any ‘accidents’ similar to the one in the dining hall from happening. Very knight-in-shining-armor chivalrous thinking.

  Of course, he hadn’t said as much in the game, but the player could tell from the narration—when Magnus saw Blythe, he looked displeased and made a beeline for the seat next to Daisy. He’d also been apologetic for Blythe’s behavior.

  “I can’t believe her,” Jessica whispered to Mira, who was sorting through the art supplies in her drawstring bag.

  “What?” she said, reading the labels on the paint tubes she’d pulled out. They were acrylic paints.

  Looking around in the classroom, she managed to spot a white sink in a corner of the classroom. A couple of students were filling up their cups with the shiny faucet over it. Mira pulled out her cup and checked out the other students’ easels.

  “Acting like a victim and luring His Highness to sit with her when she knows he always sits beside you. You’d think she’d have learned her place after having to change clothes.”

  “Relax,” Mira whispered back, a little annoyed by the distraction while she was trying to decide whether or not she needed to fill her cup with water before class. “It’s no big deal. He can sit wherever he likes. And she is a victim. She was literally minding her own business when she got food poured over her.”

  With doubt in her eyes, Jessica pulled back. “What are you saying?”

  Right. I was the one who dumped my whole tray of food onto her.

  She couldn’t blame Jessica for being baffled.

  She leaned into it anyway. What else was she going to do? Act like she’d meant it and be perceived as the villainess like the game had intended?

  Since the moment she’d woken up this morning, she’d felt, heard, seen, smelled and tasted things that were too real to be part of a dream. Her dreams hopped from scene to scene, but every second that had passed had been accounted for. If she really was transmigrated into the villainess role like in those web novels she’d read, she couldn’t afford to go along with the original storyline—not with an execution or exile order looming over her head.

  “It was a total accident, okay? I honestly didn’t mean to say all those things and do all that. I don’t know what came over me.”

  Jessica’s skeptical gaze made her sigh.

  “You don’t have to pretend to be fine with her in front of me,” she whispered. “I’ll have your back no matter what, you know.”

  “I’m not pretending.” Mira sighed again, looking back down at her empty acrylic cup.

  It was nice that Jessica was demonstrating loyalty, but Mira didn’t need this kind of ’support’.

  “I’m sure I could trip and ‘accidentally’ splash some water onto her painting later.” Jessica’s tone was as casual as offering a bag of chips to a friend. “That might make her steer clear of His Highness.”

  “No,” Mira snapped. “Please leave her alone.”

  Taken aback, Jessica raised a hand. “Okay, if that’s what you really want.”

  “Thank you. And yes, it is.”

  After Mira filled her cup with water, she placed it in the little cupholder attached to the side of the easel.

  Professor Newton, a handsome middle-aged man with a pair of large glasses on his face, came into the classroom not long after that. On his shoulder rode a white dove. Unable to shake her amazement, Mira stared at the dove that seemed perfectly happy to remain perched on the professor’s shoulder, occasionally tapping its feet.

  Professor Newton greeted the class cheerfully before instructing everyone to begin painting a still life of the vase of flowers on the podium. He walked around the classroom, pointing out flaws and praising good work and giving out tips.

  Mira learned that painting worked the same way as embroidery did; her intent to paint was enough to put Blythe’s skill to work. Unfortunately, Blythe’s talents did not appear to lie in painting. Her brushstrokes were slow but shaky, resulting in a rather wobbly-looking vase with a poor attempt at shading. Mira wasn’t a prodigy in art class back in middle school either, but she had a steadier hand than Blythe’s.

  She took over the task this time, using her own ability to flesh out the flowers as best as she could.

  Professor Newton stopped behind her, sounding mildly surprised as he said, “I must say, this is a great improvement from your work last semester, Miss Ridge. Have you been practicing at home?”

  Embarrassed at getting attention in front of the whole class, Mira nodded and said quietly, “Yes, professor.”

  It wouldn’t make sense to say no, would it?

  She could feel eyes on her. When she looked around, she noticed Magnus staring at her.