Janet's P. O. V

"Janet! Janet! Janet! Wake up!"

Kiara is yelling way too loudly for my liking. Her nails have dug into my arm and she's shaking my entire body tight now. I snuggle deeper into the pillow and she sighs.

Last night I called my aunt outside and both of us carried her to her room. Aunt got angry off course but I'm glad she still helped. After that I rushed to my room and read all the scripts and I dearly regret it.

Steven was right after all, the scripts were not fit for drama. The one that he had doodled on was perfect. I doozed off after the epic waste of time and energy.

I'm still pretty tired and Kiara is not helping.

"Janet, school starts in fifteen minutes."

I jerked up, my eyes wide and the hair on my skin standing. I gape at her and she gives me a sad tiny smile.

Holy shit, I'm late.

The next ten minutes pass by in a blur because I'm working faster than I normally work and that is...very fast. I freshen up, get ready, pack my bag, stuff my breakfast in my mouth, pull a semi ready Kiara out of her room and get into the car. All this in eleven minutes to be precise.

"Janet, I'm going to kill you for this! You didn't let me set and curl my hair!" a grumpy Kiara complains and I roll my eyes at her.

"I let you carry your comb. You should be thankful for that," I mumble and she gives me a perplexed look.

"Janet I'm going to look so bad! My hair style is like a day old-"

I cut her rant off."No Kiara you won't. Just brush through your hair and let them remain open. It's okay if it's a day old. You don't need to make that extra effort to look good, you don't need different hair styles everyday. You look good enough even without that."

"Janet I do it for myself."

"I know you do it for yourself Kiara. But you do it for yourself for the wrong reasons. You don't do it because you enjoy it, you dont do it because it makes you feel good about yourself. You want to do it because you want to make others feel good about you. You do it because you want to prove to the world that you're prettier than them, superior and that you're way out of their league. All this because you don't want anyone to take you lightly or make a joke of your feelings."

I rant out my thoughts from last night after we came back home. After the shocking revelations last night, a lot of things became clearer. Kiara's sudden obsession with looking the best had started after that particular summer. She has become extra defensive of everything related to her. She started caring a little less about others.

Before yesterday, I thought it was all because if puberty and the effect of high school. But now I realise that this stronger and bolder version of hers is because of what happened that summer.

Offcourse it was a good thing in many ways. She was emotionally smarter, she dealt with people better, she had become more competitive, like she wanted to be the best, she opened up.

But there is this negative effect too. The effect where she overdid herself to maintain the aura. She liked make up from before, no doubt, but after that summer she went out of the way to make sure it's perfect. I didn't want that.

I like her change, but I won't let her become fake.

I obviously left her tongue tied. She kept staring at me trying to figure out why I just said what I said.

We reached school and I parked the car when she spoke up.

"What happened last night? What did I tell you when we were at the park?" she asks me and it's my turn to be a little taken aback.

"You remember?"

"Not everything. Just that we were at the park and I was saying something about wattpad."

I nodded before dismissing the topic."We'll talk about it later. Right now, I'm late and I may also be in trouble."

I get out of the car after grabbing my bag from the back. I walk ahead when I hear the car door being slammed and footsteps catching up with me.

Kiara caught my arm and turned me around, her eyes full of doubt and her breathing heavy. "No Janet, I want to know now. What did-"

That annoying voice cut off Kiara and further spoilt my not so great morning."Look at the inseparable cousins fighting. Not even a week after the election and the differences have started to appear."

I shut my eyes trying to control my irritation while Kiara rolls her eyes."Selena I really don't have time for this right now. Some other time okay?" I say and she chuckles humourlessly.

"Off course you don't have time, you're so busy fighting." she comments and this time Kiara loses it.

"You need to take your wish of us fighting out of here with your bitchy little ass. The thing is, there is not plastic surgery to cover up someone's scarred personality and social image and if I get my hands onto yours, my girl, you'll be in trouble."

Selena just glares at Kiara while I gape at her.

Where the hell did that come from? She's going all Luna Wolf today.

Selena then just smirks at her and then looks at me from over her shoulder. "Well then, I guess I'll tell my aunt you're too busy to meet her right now when she's waiting for you at the auditorium."

My eyes widen at that.

No way in hell. Now what does her bitchy aunt want? I was supposed to submit whatever she wanted by today afternoon.

I hold Kiara by the arm and turn her around.

"Find Steven and tell him to find Jason Wellington and meet us at the auditorium. Please?" I plead and she nods before running into school.

I glare at Selena who turns and walks off before rushing into school. I run through the corridor, my shoulder clashing into someone else's shoulder or my leg getting caught up in someone else's, making me stumble ahead. I mumble 'sorry' all the way to the auditorium.

I finally see its doors and I rush to it before swinging it's door open. The student body including Delna, the principal and some other students along with the one and only, Mrs McCartney are present there and I catch everyone's attention in the room.

I walk into the room with everyone's expectant eyes fixated on me.

"Good morning."

"Good morning Janet. Luckily, you reached school on time. Anyway, any idea about your cousin's whereabouts?" Mrs McCartney asks me and I'm about to say something when the girl herself beats me to it.

"I'm here."

I turn around to see Kiara walking in with a very flushed Jason. His head is down and he has clutched his bag really tight.

I wonder if it's because of anger or he's blushing. And by the way, where is Steven?

"Good. Finally everyone is here. We are good to go now," Mrs McCartney announces and glances at me with an evil smile before continuing.

"In case everyone is wondering, we are here for the important drama related announcements. Since this year, we have a very responsible head of the department, we have taken part in the competition and taken it much more seriously. So, I had instructed Janet to make a few decisions and I called you all to give your suggestions on it. Since its interschool, it's better to have alot of opinions and everyone's approval. So Janet, tell us, which script did you pick out and who will be your lead cast?"

My breath is stuck in my throat when I realise I still haven't found a female lead. My eyes go slightly wide and my brain is running at a very rapid speed.

Mrs McCartney smirks at me.

I knew it. She doesn't care about the damn competition, all she cares about is humiliating me.

"I'm sorry, I'm late."

Steven walks in and everyone's attention turns to him. I share a glance with Kiara and Delna who give me worried looks.

"No issues. You came just in time. Janet is about to tell us all the important stuff." Mrs McCartney turns all the attention back to me. I take a deep breath before removing the script from the bag.

"Here, this is the script I chose and Jason Wellington will be my male lead." I say and Mrs McCartney's expression falls.

Pricipal takes the script from my hand and smiles at Jason who nods at him in acknowledgement. Principal is reading the script out loud and I share a glance with Kiara and Delna. They smile proudly at me. Everyone else are also listening to the reading.

I then look at Jason who gives me a hard look. I look away from him immediately and my eyes fall on Steven.

He jerks his head upwards, asking me what happened. I shake my head and look away from him. I look at Mrs McCartney and almost ask her where is Selena but I bite my tongue back.

There's enough bitchiness in the room already. Wouldn't want two pairs of claws coming at me.

"Who's your female lead?" Mrs McCartney asks me and principal halts in his reading. Everyone is looking at me and my heart has stopped. I look down at my shoes and then up at Jason.

Then I turn to look at Kiara and then in the spur of the moment, I say something I will definitely regret.

"It's Kiara."

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A/N- longer chapter, I know but I wanted this to happen in this chapter, hence I just had to.

Anyway, excuse me for the typos. Feel free to point them out.

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Love you all.