━━━+*:ꔫ:*+ﾟ━━━

I made you my world, have you heard?
I can reclaim the land

Bejeweled (Taylor Swift)

ꔫ

When I woke up the next morning, I noticed that I had received a new message on my new Instagram account. But it was no surprise when I saw the same person from earlier.

kingoftheworld04: decided to help u out a bit ;)

And then a picture of a drawing loaded and I almost burst out laughing. It was the same scenario he told me about in his earlier messages but honestly it was horrible. There was only a stickman with dots as eyes, a curved line as his mouth but the trophy in his hands above his hands was easily recognisable.

drawingprincess74: I'm not sure you know the meaning of the word no. Maybe you should look it up in a dictionary...

I was ready to put the phone away when I noticed the green circle by his profile circle.

He was active.

I stared at the three moving dots.

kingoftheworld04: tell me what u think about it. am i a better artist than u?

I rolled my eyes, a playful smirk wandering on my lips.

drawingprincess74: Truth?

kingoftheworld04: truth, princess ;)

drawingprincess74: Don't attempt to draw a portrait ever again.

kingoftheworld04: noted

I left the chat after that and went to the bathroom to get ready for the day. When I looked into the mirror and noticed the dark circles underneath my eyes, suddenly I got reminded of what happened last night.

I had no doubts that Paul would appear at school today. In fact, he would certainly hang out with his friends and my half brother happened to be one of them.

But one thing was for certain. I wouldn't fall for Paul's sweet words and apologies ever again. He had his second chance and it turned out the Paul I knew wasn't the Paul in real life. I had no other choice than to accept it.

And move on.

If that was even possible considering our paths would probably cross every day.

While quickly checking my bag to see if I had everything, I came across my chemistry notes and I knew that I had to get lost in the library after school again. The test was next week and if I didn't rush myself, I wouldn't be happy with the results. Recently, I had been avoiding it a little because every free minute was spent with Paul. Now I regretted that decision.

At school, the students seemed to have been divided into two categories. One couldn't stop staring at Ruby and James that were walking side by side not giving any attention to their audience. However, the second group was obviously whispering about me. I was afraid to switch to my other Instagram this morning because I knew that people were surely recording my fight with Paul and God knew where those videos ended up.

My schedule was already packed without the chemistry because tomorrow would be the Donation Gala we had been preparing for for a long time. The event committee was fully booked and Ruby did everything in her power to have it the way she wanted. Honestly, I was taken aback when I spotted James carrying a table as well. But one good thing came out of it because I had been successfully avoiding Paul all day.

When I was finally free and let out of Ruby's reach, I led myself to the school library. I didn't waste a single minute as I pulled out my papers and took my usual seat.

"Haven't seen you in a while here, Sassy Betty."

I flinched because only now I noticed Cyril between the bookshelves. But now, he was impossible to miss as he stepped out of the shadows, dressed in his school uniform, even though his blazer was gone.

"Where's your chick?" I snapped back, remembering his regular activities in this room.

He shrugged. "No idea. Would you like to substitute her?"

I sighed tiredly. "I really have no time for this, Vega."

"What's the matter? You never seem to be so grumpy. Is it the headache from last night's alcohol? You surely drank a lot."

"Cyril," I said sternly as I was unsuccessfully trying to concentrate on chemistry. "Please."

He furrowed his eyebrows and curiously walked over to me, annoying me even more in the process. When he quickly read through my notes, he hummed. "Chemistry, I see. You're preparing for that exam next week, aren't you?"

"Shouldn't you be doing that too?"

"No need. I've already studied this topic. And besides, it's easy as pie," he said and made himself comfortable on the table.

"Speak for yourself," I replied.

I returned to practicing the exercises as I was doing everything in my power to ignore Cyril who was on his phone now but I knew him well enough to know he was aware of everything around him. Including me.

Especially me.

"You've got that wrong," he spoke up all of a sudden.

"No, I haven't," I objected, even though my confidence in chemistry was way too low right now.

"Here," he said, grabbing my pen and he wrote down the correct answer next to it, crossing mine before that.

I buried my face in my hands in desperation. I was never going to learn it and it bugged me like nothing else.

"Come on, it's not that hard."

"Shut up."

But then he did something which was the last thing I would've expected from him. He offered to explain the topic to me and at first I stared at him, unable to form any words.

"You'd really do it?" I asked.

"Well, my planned company must have gotten stuck somewhere so I'm kinda bored," he said nonchalantly.

"I... thank you."

"Quit thanking me yet," he remarked.

But to my surprise, the way he explained the topic to me was more understanding than the teacher's teaching in the class. Even though he had his moments when I felt like he was most likely going to give up because he had to repeat the same thing over and over again until my brain finally got it right. In the end, I didn't even know how much time passed until I glanced at the clock on the wall.

"Fuck, I gotta go," I let out in shock and quickly started packing up my books. "Thank you for this. Really."

Even I was surprised by the words that left my mouth but it wasn't his obligation to tutor me. He was willingly doing it.

Why?

That was unknown to me.

I was so lost in my own thoughts that I accidentally pushed over my bag and it ended up on the ground with its content out as well.

I instinctively ducked down to retrieve my notebooks and Cyril did the same. Unfortunately, my stuff was all over the floor and some of the books even opened from the impact.

One of them being my sketchbook.

I gulped down nervously when I saw Cyrtl grabbing it. The only person who'd come across it was James and I had no intention of showing it to anyone else. His eyes immediately went over it, scanning the portrait of the formula driver I posted on my secret account.

"Did you draw this?" he wondered.

"Please refrain yourself from making a sarcastic comment," I pleaded because that would be very typical of him.

However, he didn't say anything. He only stared at the drawing as if he'd never seen one before. It wasn't even anything special.

"Can I get it back?" I broke the silence.

Thankfully, he wordlessly returned my sketchbook to me and I hid it among the rest of the book in my satchel.

I was on my way out when he said my name one more time.

"Yes?"

His eyes looked down shyly which was a completely new side of him. A side I hadn't seen of him before. "If I had known that the Bell girl couldn't swim, I would've never thrown her in the pool."

I took a deep breath, my lips parting a little in shock. I wasn't expecting such a confession. Or an ashamed version of Cyril Vega. But why was he telling me all of this? I doubted he cared about my opinion of him.

I didn't even wonder about my response to him. It just flew out automatically but there wasn't a bit of a lie in them. "I know."

ꔫ

Outside, I was surprised to see James and Percy waiting for me. And it caught me off guard even more when I found myself in the backseat again.

"What happened between you and Paul?" James asked all of a sudden.

"We got into a fight," I shortened the truth.

"Did he do anything?"

"No."

It wasn't a lie because he didn't have time to do anything before I stormed out of the room.

"Dad saw the video of your fight," James revealed at last.

"Oh." I had a feeling I didn't want to know his reaction. "Is he mad?"

"From what Lyd said, he isn't calm about it. However, he's not angrier with you than with me."

"What do you mean?"

"He also found a picture of me and Ruby."

"Oh," I repeated.

Things weren't looking bright for either of us. And when we got home, my thoughts weren't wrong at all. First, father wanted to speak with me and I readied myself for his harsh words.

Even though he didn't say anything new, just repeated his strict instructions from when I moved in, I got caught off guard when he added that he wanted me to apologize to Paul.

"What?"

"You heard me. The Smithers family is a good family. Their influence is great and I won't let you shame ourselves in front of them."

"And the fact that I don't want to do anything with him isn't just as important?" I questioned, even though a part of me already knew what he was going to say.

"For once, do something for this family, Beatrice! You've received everything you could wish for. Being with that boy was your luckiest choice you've made living in this house."

I bit the inside of my mouth. He could yell, threaten me, I didn't care. But I would never stay with Paul against my will. After all, the most important thing had already been taken away from me.

My mom.

My father could threaten to cut my allowance or take me out of Maxton Hall, I didn't even flinch. My whole life I lived without wealth and I could go on like that.

Without another word I stood up from the couch and left my father sitting there on his own.

ꔫ

The next morning I skipped breakfast and brought my sketchbook outside instead. I chose to sit on a white bench which offered a perfect view of the stylish backyard. Percy was washing the car not far away.

My original plan was to draw the scenery of the garden but somehow, I found myself outlining the figure of a man holding a shining trophy.

"Can I sit?"

"Yes," I replied to James. "What's wrong?"

He wasn't even trying to hide his sunken mood.

"The gala is tonight." I waited for him to add something that would clear things up. "And it's also Ruby's birthday."

"Oh," I said in realization. It was no secret that father was taking the twins on a dinner with someone important after the presentation of the Beaufort collection. Thankfully, I managed to slip out of that with the excuse that I was one of the main organizers of the Donation Gala and it wouldn't look good if I didn't show up at school. But James wasn't so lucky.

"I don't know what I should do," he confessed.

"I'm not the best person to come for help to," I admitted, setting aside my pencil and sketchbook.

"You don't like him, do you?"

"We aren't on the best terms."

"What did he say to you yesterday?"

"Just the usual," I said. "He wanted me to apologize to Paul because apparently his family is so important."

James listened to me carefully. "Do you want to talk about it? About Paul, I mean."

"Isn't he your friend?"

"Which is why I know that he can be a dick sometimes. To girls especially. I don't want that for you, Betty."

"Don't worry. I know that now. But thank you."

He nodded. "I'll let you draw then."

I watched him walk away and then I glanced back down at my drawing. However, all of my desire to continue got washed away by thoughts of Paul.

I had to let him go.

And I had to tell him tonight.

ꔫ

The welcome that was waiting for me at Maxton Hall was not what I expected. It turned out the 150 partridges that had been accidentally brought yesterday were now all wildly running free all around the school's grounds. All the members from the event committee instantly got to work to catch them but there were still very few of us. They called as many friends as they could to help us and it turned out that James let his lacrosse team know as well. I was anxious for them to arrive because Paul played as well but my pulse returned to normal when I found out that Paul was too busy to come and help.

Things weren't going so bad though. I had already caught 4 of those birds in an hour. But then I spotted one relaxing on the windowsill of a high window. I attempted to scare it away but it didn't even budge. What kind of partridge was this?

I sighed, knowing I had to find another way.

My eyes fell on a bench and I carefully stood on it. My first attempt wasn't enough though and I had to step higher to reach the bird. I was doing everything to keep my balance.

"What are you performing here?" Cyril's voice sounded from behind me.

I had to quickly grab the wall to keep straight. "Get a pair of glasses and then you might see that I'm trying to get down this damn partridge."

"Haven't you tried scaring it away? I don't know, throwing something at it?" he suggested.

"Like a lacrosse ball?" I snapped back.

"Why not?"

I shook my head, rolling my eyes. I didn't need to turn around to know he was smirking at his own joke.

The bird was almost in my reach. One of my legs was now on the backrest while the other one was resting on the armrest. I was ready to step up but all of a sudden the partridge decided to move and fly away, scaring me in the process. The shock made me lose my unstable balance and before I knew it, I was falling sideways.

I was expecting a strong hit to come but to my great surprise I stopped mid air.

"Opsie-daisy."

Cyril's strong arms were wrapped around me, catching me before I could reach the ground. My heart was in my throat, racing wildly. One of his arms was holding my back while his right one was underneath my knees.

"You okay?" he asked, which made me wonder what kind of reaction I must have shown.

His usual smirk transformed into a straight line. His small earring glistened in the sun as his head was bowed down, our eyes meeting.

I swallowed. "I'm fine. T-thank you."

Then the corners of his lips spread, the Cyril that I was familiar with returning.

"Was this part of your performance?" he said.

"Maybe?"

I couldn't make myself look away. In the process, my arm had found its way around his neck to steady myself too. Then, my eyes fell on his lips. The warmth of his hands on my body was impossible to miss. Our chests were now rising simultaneously. His smirk had faded again, his eyes focused completely on my face.

Suddenly, the moment was broken when a splash of something landed on Cyril's head. His reaction was immediate and he quickly put me on the ground, shaking his hair. Then I saw the thing that fell on him.

It was a bird's poop.

"Oh my God," I let out, covering my mouth as I started laughing.

"This isn't funny!" he grumbled.

"Of course it is."

My laughter must have been heard by others because Alistair, Kesh and Wren joined us as well. "What's so funny here?"

"One of the birds pooped on Cyril's head," I explained between laughs but the boys were quick to join me.

"Stop it!" Cyril yelled at us but we were all ignoring him. "Fuck, I'm going to the restroom."

"Don't forget to hit the shower!" Alistair shouted after him.

"Like the poop hit you!" Wren added, holding his friend's shoulder.

There was another wave of laughter as Cyril angrily stomped away from us.

ꔫ

Hello!

I had so much fun writing this chapter! We got a Cyril and Betty scene, a scene between James and Betty and also some more of the mysterious account...

The idea to drop some poop on Cyril's head was spontaneous because I needed to interrupt them somehow but I have no regrets haha. But there are some sparks showing already and now that Betty isn't blinded by Paul, she might notice it soon... We'll see (but there are some very exciting chapters on the way!)

Thank you so much for reading and I hope to see you in the next chapter. Until then, feel free to reread your favorite Cyril and Betty scenes (like I do haha - but seriously, why am I fangirling while reading my own story??)

Take care!

Sincerely, writingmagic 💘