Villain’s Favorite 53

 

Chapter 53 Back to School 

90 

Funched 

A few familiar faces had quietly disappeared, and two new ones had taken their place. 

The school ran that way. The student body turned over constantly. 

New transfers showed up every other week because as long as your family name carried enough weight and your tuition cleared without issue, the door was always open. 

Departures were just as frequent. 

Some families relocated abroad for school, while others followed a parent’s career to a different city. 

Jenny noticed Maya studying the two new arrivals and nudged her. “I’ve been picking up on a pattern lately.” 

“What kind of pattern?” 

“Every time a new transfer student shows up here, Kaia’s entourage gets exactly one person bigger.” 

“Have I ever told you that you’re a genius?” Maya gave her a thumbs up. 

She hadn’t picked up on that herself. 

Kaia’s orbit was always in motion, with people cycling in and out so regularly that two new faces barely registered. 

Jenny preened a little at the compliment. “I know I am.” 

Jenny was the kind of person who never learned from getting burned, always charging straight at Kaia, getting thoroughly outmaneuvered, and then retreating to Maya’s side to debrief with indignant energy. 

It was honestly kind of endearing. 

As long as the malice wasn’t pointed at her, Maya had a hard time seeing anyone as truly bad. 

The two new arrivals were a different matter. Neither of them felt like actual humans. 

In Maya’s private assessment, both the girl and the boy were like phantoms. 

The girl looked timid on the surface. Her appearance was forgettable except for very pale skin that could generously be called delicate. 

Round glasses. 

A shy, hesitant smile whenever she made eye contact. 

Kaia attracted all kinds, and Maya didn’t have clear memories of every one of them. 

But this girl had something. A blurry impression at the edge of recognition. 

She was the clinging type. 

The kind who latched onto Kaia and then made life difficult for anyone who got too close to her. 

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bat, May 

Chapter 53 Back to School 

Not exactly unstable, but close enough to make the word fit. 

The saving grace was that Maya and Kaia had never been close. So this girl had never come after her. 

She silently thanked her own poor social standing for that. 

As for the new boy, Maya would have described him as the type who belonged in a crime drama, the kind of character who grabbed people by the collar, ignored crosswalk signals, and operated on the unspoken belief that the rules of civilization applied to everyone except him. 

Maya rested her chin on her arms and stared at the two of them openly. 

The boy was Jonathan Filmore. 

The girl’s name was Phoebe Pearson. 

Jonathan’s name struck her as strangely familiar. 

She traced small circles on her notebook paper, trying to place where she’d heard it. 

Eventually, she pressed too hard and snapped the pen clean through. She set it aside and slowly raised her eyes toward the boy with the casually superior expression. 

She thought she remembered who he was now. 

She had a fiancé. 

Thomas had arranged it. 

The Filmores, old money, with ties to the Jacksons that stretched back generations. 

When she was small, she’d learned from overheard conversations that a fiancé was someone she’d be expected to marry one day. 

In the bleakest stretch of her old life, that vague concept had been something she’d clung to without fully understanding why. 

Maybe marrying that person would mean getting out. Getting away from all of it. 

The reality was that Jonathan had never looked at her directly, not once. 

Back then, Maya hadn’t understood why someone she’d never met would carry such an instinctive coldness toward her, a kind of contempt that hadn’t been earned. 

Now she understood. 

He and Kaia had known each other since they were small. Childhood companions, completely intertwined. 

She was surrounded by familiar faces she hadn’t asked to see again. 

Why does good fortune always seem to land nearest to the worst people? 

And why do the worst people always seem to land nearest to me? 

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12:49 Sat, May 2 

Chapter 53 Back to School 

90 

Jonathan was attuned to being watched. He glanced instinctively in Maya’s direction. 

Their eyes met. 

Maya didn’t look away. She smiled at him. 

The smile left him with an inexplicable warmth on his face and a vague, unidentifiable irritation he couldn’t quite name. 

Why is she smiling at me? 

Does she like me? 

Carrying that thought, he turned to Kaia beside him. “Who’s that girl?” 

Kaia’s mouth pressed into a small, unhappy pout. “Her name’s Maya. I don’t like her.” 

Jonathan’s answer was immediate. “Then I don’t like her either.” 

He said it, and the strange feeling didn’t go away. “She looks familiar somehow.” 

Children’s memories were short, but Jonathan had always been sharp, the kind of person who noticed things quickly and liked being useful to Kaia when problems arose. 

“Familiar?” Kaia tilted her head, unbothered. “I don’t see it. She’s unpleasant and her clothes are completely unremarkable.” 

Jonathan didn’t respond. 

He tried to get a clearer look at Maya, scanning his memory for a match. 

Maya immediately stood her textbook upright on her desk, cutting off his line of sight entirely. 

The move only made him more determined. 

He stood and walked over toward her desk. If she wouldn’t come to him, then he would go to her. 

He stopped at the edge of her desk, and the movement earned him sharp looks from both Alfred and Jenny. 

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12:49 Sat, May 2 

This Time. I’ll Be the Villain’s Favorite Daughter