The Scholarship Girl Tried to Play the Savior Chapter 1

A new "Little Miss Innocent" transferred into our elite private academy.

She practically had the words "The 'I Can Fix Him' Heroine" glowing in neon letters above her head. Every single day, she hovered around my fiancé, showering him with excessive concern and handing him cheap lollipops.

Whenever I got close to my fiancé, she would shield him behind her back and scream at me:

"I—I know you're rich and powerful, but I won't allow you to bully him!"

With tears welling in her eyes, she looked like she had suffered the ultimate injustice.

Me, having literally done nothing: "Are you psycho?"

* * *

Mia Collins was delivering candy again, while I was spinning my pen in sheer boredom.

The classroom was a chaotic mess of chattering voices.

My desk mate, Zoey, who was busy checking her makeup in a compact mirror, suddenly nudged me with her elbow.

She tilted her chin to the left, her eyes full of blatant disgust. "Chloe, that transfer student is giving Liam candy again."

Her again.

Mia Collins, the scholarship student who always acted like she was the designated savior heroine of a tragic romance novel.

I stopped spinning my pen and looked over at her.

She was wearing a brand-new pristine uniform. In one hand, she clutched her usual cheap lollipop. In the other, she held a slightly warped plastic thermos filled with some kind of hot white liquid.

Looking straight ahead, she marched past the first row, then the second, heading straight for the back of the class. Finally, under the increasingly gossipy gazes of everyone around us, she shyly took a seat at Liam’s desk.

A few students in the back huddled together, whispering excitedly.

Mia remained completely unfazed.

She gently placed the lollipop in front of Liam’s pencil case, then decisively unscrewed the cap of a high-end insulated tumbler sitting on the corner of his desk.

Zoey pointed at Mia in shock. "Chloe! Isn't that the tumbler filled with the imported vitamins your family got for Liam?"

"Looks like it," I replied casually.

Resting my chin on my hand, my eyes followed Mia as she marched over to the trash can, poured out every last drop of the expensive supplements, and scurried back to Liam’s desk to mess with her plastic thermos.

A girl nearby caught my eye and leaned in toward Mia, pretending to be curious. "Hey, transfer student. Did you ask Liam for permission before messing with his stuff?"

Mia put on an incredibly shy expression and whispered, "This is warm almond milk. I just wanted to prepare something for him myself..."

As she spoke, she began pouring the almond milk into the expensive tumbler.

Zoey let out a mocking scoff. "Do you honestly not know what Chloe Sterling and Liam Vance are to each other?"

Mia’s hands froze. She cast a fleeting, pitiful glance in my direction before quickly lowering her head, her voice trembling with manufactured grievance. "I know. I just... I just wanted to be nice to him. I wanted to warm his stomach."

Honestly, whatever she wanted to do with Liam had very little to do with me.

But watching this entire performance unfold, I was getting a serious whiff of manipulative "pick-me" energy.

Her constant, victimized glances in my direction were starting to annoy me.

I clicked my tongue and casually reminded her, "Transfer student, Liam has a sensitive stomach. He can't drink almond milk."

Zoey chimed in, "And the supplements you just poured down the drain cost a small fortune, by the way."

Mia flinched. The hands holding the tumbler and the plastic bottle went completely stiff.

The hot almond milk missed the rim and spilled over her fingers. Scalded, she let go.

With a loud BANG, the heavy tumbler crashed onto the floor. The scalding hot almond milk splattered everywhere in a messy puddle.

The classroom instantly went dead silent. Countless eyes zeroed in on the scene.

A sudden, burning pain flared across my left calf and foot. Even the back of my hand, resting on my desk, hadn't escaped the splash zone.

I had been pampered my entire life. No one had ever treated me like this.

I looked down at the reddening skin on my leg, and then at the custom $7,000 leather loafers that had just been delivered yesterday. I let out a dry, irritated laugh. "Talk about rotten luck today."

Mia’s eyes filled with tears. She didn't utter a single word of apology.

I stood up, intending to head to the locker room to change my shoes. As I walked past Mia, I paused.

"Mia."

My voice sounded sharp in the unnaturally quiet classroom.

I wiped my hand with a tissue, looking down at her coldly. "That tumbler? I gave it to Liam. It's worth about $1,500. I won't even count the imported vitamins you poured out. But these shoes cost me seven grand. My lawyers will contact you after school."

The kids in our social circle never shied away from drama. They immediately started jeering:

"The Sterling family's legal team is known as the undefeated sharks of Wall Street."

"Transfer student, you're screwed!"

Hearing this, Mia cried even harder. She sat at Liam’s desk, sobbing and hiccuping. "You... you rich kids are all bullies. You're so mean!"

That was exactly when Liam walked in.

He stopped just to the right of me and Mia. He was tall and lean, wearing a pair of silver half-rimmed glasses resting on his straight nose.

His indifferent gaze swept past Mia, who was weeping a river at his desk, and locked onto me without a trace of emotion.

"Chloe Sterling, what did you do this time?"