Chapter 57 Dreadful
“Of course!” Kaia declared. “My dad loves me the most.”
Then, as if some invisible hand had reached in and pulled the words right out of her, Maya asked the single dumbest question she’d ever uttered.
“Can you stop him from coming?”
She regretted it the second it left her mouth.
Hoping Thomas wouldn’t show up was completely pointless. She’d be far better off finding a way to skip school that day herself.
Missing one day wasn’t the end of the world, anyway. A little sweet-talking with her mom would handle it just fine.
Those words settled between them, and Kaia’s gaze softened into something drenched in pity. “Is your dad an embarrassment? Is that why you don’t want mine coming?”
Maya stared at her. “Excuse me?”
There was absolutely no way her dad was an embarrassment!
Raymond was, if nothing else, a living legend when it came to sleeping.
He could fall asleep anywhere, under any circumstances.
Half-asleep in the dead of night, he’d hear her call out just once and launch himself straight out of bed. He’d pour her a glass of water with his eyes still shut, then shuffle back the exact same way he came.
Her dad was practically a superhero.
“Your dad is the most pathetic, cowardly, and disgusting man alive.” Maya’s voice came out ice-cold, each word dropping like a stone.
A father who turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to his child’s suffering wasn’t any better than a corpse.
“Don’t you dare insult my dad!”
Fathers were a topic Maya and Kaia could never touch. The moment it came up, Kaia would detonate, snatching whatever book was closest and hurling it straight at her.
Maya didn’t even flinch.
With aim that atrocious, it was practically a comedy routine.
When the book missed, Kaia lunged forward and grabbed the tie at Maya’s collar.
Maya wasn’t about to let herself get dragged around like that. She caught Kaia’s wrist without hesitation and pinned her down flat against the desk.
It could’ve ended there.
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Chapter 57 Dreadful
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But someone just couldn’t leave well enough alone.
Still overflowing with misplaced righteousness and apparently having learned nothing from last time, Rufus pushed forward again to back the wrong side, grinding his hand hard into Maya’s shoulder.
“Knock it off, Maya.”
With one hand, Maya shoved Kaia’s head down and cracked it against the desk.
With the other, she grabbed the nearest book and slammed it straight into his face. “Back off, Prince Toad!”
The impact sent him reeling back two full steps.
A boy’s pride was the most fragile thing in existence. Rufus pressed a hand to his face and snarled, “You’re done.
“My brother will hear about this!”
Maya blinked at him. “Seriously?”
Who actually runs to get their big brother just because they can’t win a fight?
She blinked again, and the little rat had already bolted right out the door.
Jonathan was startled. No matter how he turned it over in his head, he hadn’t expected something like this to blow up in the time it took to blink.
He/rose to his feet, trying to work out if there was anything he could do for Kaia.
The two of them had grown up side by side since they were small, and what they had ran far deeper than an ordinary friendship.
A red welt had risen across Kaia’s forehead.
Maya had slammed her head into the desk without a second thought.
A fierce pang of protectiveness surged through Jonathan. He’d barely lifted his foot toward the chaos when Alfred grabbed him by the collar and hurled him down hard to the floor.
Alfred’s warning came out flat and frozen. “Stay out of it.”
Whatever fighting techniques Jonathan had picked up were worthless here. He refused to quit and wrenched against Alfred’s grip twice, only to find it completely immovable.
They were the same age. How is he this strong?
Alfred was weighing whether to just knock Jonathan out cold right there and then.
His mother had shown him exactly how to render someone unconscious without doing any lasting damage.
But no.
Not in front of this many people.
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Chapter 57 Dreadful
No matter how composed a six-year-old could seem, choking someone out with this many witnesses around wasn’t an option.
He kept his grip locked around Jonathan instead, his expression carved from stone.
“You can’t beat me. I don’t mind putting you out right now.”
Jonathan caught the absolute seriousness threaded through those words. Choke me out, just like that?
What kind of monster is this kid?
Jonathan wasn’t about to lie down and accept it.
Since he’d trained in some fighting techniques, he could at least thrash hard enough to make his resistance
known.
There was nothing else he could do, and Alfred only clamped down tighter.
This was unbearable.
If they weren’t in a classroom right now, he would’ve already wrung the life out of him.
A beat of dead silence pressed down over that corner of the room.
Two older students reached the classroom fast, carrying not one drop of guilt about going after younger kids, and bristling with the urge to avenge their little brother.
“What’s your problem, kid? You actually hit my little brother?” the older one said.
He reached out as he spoke and grabbed for Maya’s collar.
“Are you serious right now?” Jenny, who’d been standing nearby, snapped. “You two are way older than her! At least pick on someone your own size!”
She frantically snatched a ruler from the front of the room and threw herself into the chaos, terrified that her friend was about to get hurt.
The two little girls looked…
Honestly, they were kind of adorable.
“You’re so cute!” The older boy burst out laughing.
He reached out and tousled Maya’s hair, grinning. “So you’re the one who hit my brother, huh?
“Tiny little thing, but you’re fierce.”
While he was talking, Maya lifted her foot and drove it down hard onto his toes.
Searing pain exploded upward from his crushed toes and tore a sharp cry straight out of him.
Maya didn’t look back. She seized Jenny’s hand and bolted for the back door.
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But the students near the back door had watched her rough up Kaia and had no intention of letting her slip away. They shoved the door shut with force.
Fine.
She’d seen that one coming.
The front door was open, though. Two older students were blocking it.
One of them was closing in fast. Maya used her small frame to her advantage, dropping low and slipping past his reach, landing a sharp kick on his backside, then twisting free the instant his hand shot out to snatch her.
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This Time, Ill Be the Villam’s Favorite Daughter
