Reborn as the Villainess

Chapter 23

So, under everyone's gaze, Gloria tucked her hair behind her ear and slowly walked up to Liam with flushed cheeks. "Hi, Liam, how did you know I wanted some sherbets? Thanks." She then reached out to grab the bag. But just as her fingers brushed the bag, Liam yanked it back, looking incredulous. "What's wrong with you? You can get it by yourself if you want to eat. Why are you trying to steal mine?"

Gloria froze on the spot, and she thought to herself, 'Isn't he always the one getting me coffee and snacks? Isn't this for me?' Her expression stiffened as she stammered, "Liam, I'm Gloria."

Liam frowned, looking at her like she was nuts. "Call yourself whatever you want; that's not my problem. Even if you're Taylor Swift, if you want it, you gotta pay for it."

Eleanor couldn't hold back her laughter. 'Forget everything else, Liam's comebacks are pretty hilarious,' she thought.

Liam set the sherbets on Eleanor's desk and instantly flipped his attitude to a beaming smile. "Boss, I got you this and added extra chocolate syrup."

Usually, Eleanor wouldn't accept such a treat; she hated feeling indebted to anyone. But now, it was tempting to enjoy the sweet sherbets while watching Gloria seethe.

With a slight smile, she accepted the sherbets and said, "Thanks."

Liam's eyes lit up when she took it. This meant his boss recognized his efforts, giving him a huge morale boost. "If you like it, I can get you ten every day."NôvelDrama.Org: text © owner.

Eleanor replied, "No need for that, thanks."

She complained in her mind, 'Ten sherbets a day is more than I can eat. Is he trying to land me in the hospital or something?'

Gloria, however, bit her lip in frustration and glared daggers at Eleanor. She thought, 'That bitch was doing that on purpose.. Everyone knows Liam likes me. Eleanor must be scheming to get close to Liam to embarrass me!

As the laughter echoed around her, Gloria felt heat rise in her cheeks. The humiliation nearly brought her to tears, and all she wanted to do was escape this hellhole right then and there.

Despite her fiery temper, Janet wasn't about to confront Liam directly. Instead, she stepped in front of Gloria and whispered, "Just hang tight, Gloria. Once Freddie and the teachers get here, Eleanor's gonna be in for it."

Hearing this, Gloria froze mid-step. 'Right, I can't leave yet-I have to see Eleanor's downfall. I'm gonna see how Eleanor can wriggle out of this one, she thought with an evil smile.

Freddie was in a meeting when he caught wind of the situation, and his eyebrows shot up in irritation. Aloria High had finally produced a top student, and these losers were spreading rumors like it was a hobby. "What's going on here?" he asked coldly as he strode into the classroom with a group of teachers.

The noisy classroom fell silent instantly. Janet, bolstered by her courage, stepped forward and pointed at Eleanor, launching into her complaint. "Mr. Evans, teachers, Eleanor cheated on the exam. Her scores are fake, not her real grades." Before Freddie could respond, Betty, standing behind him, jumped in to say, "I knew something was off with Eleanor. If she cheated, that's a serious violation of school rules. I propose we expel this dishonorable student from Aloria High School." Betty always found Eleanor a pain in the ass, since Eleanor openly defied her in class and made her look bad. No matter how good her grades were, she wasn't about to let Eleanor stick around, and now she had the perfect excuse to kick her out.

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Chapter 23

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Liam immediately shot-back, "Mr. Evans, don't listen to her. My boss... I mean, Eleanor wouldn't cheat-she's not that kind of person." Liam's blind trust left Eleanor momentarily speechless.

Betty snorted, clearly unconvinced. "Just because you say she wouldn't, does that make it true? Did you see anything?"

"Uh..." Liam stammered. He took the exam in Class A, and Eleanor was in Class D. There was no way he could have seen anything.

Janet and Gloria exchanged sly smiles, surprised that even the homeroom teacher of Class A believed Eleanor was guilty. They thought Eleanor was done for this time.

But just then, from the back of the crowd, a clear voice rang out. "I saw it."

Everyone turned to look as a tall and sharp-looking guy in a school uniform stepped into the doorway with a stack of exam papers in his arms. It seemed he had just returned from picking them up.

Still clutching the papers, he took a step forward and said, "During the exam, I saw Eleanor turn in her paper early. She handed in the physics paper about an hour in, and the math and Spanish papers were submitted after around forty minutes. Mr. Evans, if you don't believe me, feel free to ask the proctor or check the security footage."

One of the teachers chimed in, "That's true. I remember seeing a student submit their paper not long after the exam started. I even took a peek at her work, and it was solid."

Another teacher added, "Yeah, I recall that too."

Felix continued with a calm expression, "The exam papers are all written by our own teachers, so there's no way to find the answers online. Plus, Eleanor was in the last exam room. I don't believe she could have copied from anyone. Even if she could, how could anyone in the last room help her score full marks?" His words sounded like objective facts, but each one was subtly defending Eleanor.

Eleanor leaned back in her seat and heard Felix stand up for her, a smile creeping onto her lips. A warm feeling suddenly spread in her chest. After losing her mother and growing up in an orphanage, she'd always felt alone, especially in the cutthroat entertainment industry where trust was hard to come by. No one had ever shielded her like her family would.

She had thought that as long as she was strong enough, she wouldn't need protection. But now, she realized she might have been wrong because she suddenly felt that being protected was pretty nice.

Felix seemed to catch her gaze and glanced back, yet his eyes instantly darted away. At the same time, a faint blush crept up his ears.

I'm not helping her out of kindness. I just don't want the Vanderbilt family to get tarnished because of her. Yeah, that's it,' Felix thought to himself.

Convinced that Eleanor wasn't cheating, Freddie knew he had to keep things official with all the doubts swirling around. He turned to Eleanor and asked, "Eleanor, do you have anything to say?"