The Class Reject: A Damsel in Disguise (Featured Story)

Chapter 18

Artemis and Parker—under resident supervisor permission—began to make their way toward the second level of the female dormitory. Her eyes darted ahead as she studied each door. After passing a few, and some female students that stood and stared in awe at the forbidden presence of the boy, they stopped in front of Chara's room. 

Artemis rattled her knuckles against it. After a few seconds, she knocked faster, harder. Parker held her wrist back.

"Calm down. I think I hear her coming," he said. Artemis sighed, crossing her arms. Calm down?

"How can you be so relaxed?" she said, combing a hand through her hair. She glared at Parker who stood with his usual carefree exuberance. Finding a missing person was a race against time. And the sophomore was wasting it. "Chara!"

"What?" Chara said, emerging from the door with her cellphone propped against her ear. Her eyes widened when she focused on the two people before her. "I'll call you back, Wallace." She flashed them a wide smile after sliding the device in her pocket. "Hey, guys! Anything I can help you with?"

"Yes," Artemis said, her eyes narrowing on the girl. "Tell us where Miren is."

Chara's smile faded into a frown. "Why are you looking at me like that?" she said, averting Artemis' glare.

Parker rolled his eyes at Artemis' interrogation approach. "Look, do you know where Miren is?"

Chara stared at Parker, her hands falling to her cheeks in mock shock. "Oh no! Miren's gone?" she said,  trying to play dumb. "This is awful." This was awful. Miren was gone for a week and she already had a search and rescue team after her? She really was popular--just in the worst way possible.

"It is," Artemis said, her voice now calmer. "Do you have any clues? When did you see her last ?"

"A few days a go," Chara said truthfully. "God, I can't believe this." And she couldn't. This could be bad. Part of the passable factor of Miren's new alter ego came from the fact that no one was looking for her. Now that people were, there was better chance someone could recognize her.

Especially since she was hiding in plain sight.

Chara gulped, inhaling the hostile air through the cracks of her teeth. "I'm sorry, but that's all I have." She was almost surprised that lying came so naturally. But then again, she didn't know them that well. She knew Parker because of the obvious, as for Artemis...she didn't care. Not when the popular girl was a perpetuator of Miren's suffering.

"Oh." Artemis gave a reluctant nod. "Well, thanks anyway for your help. Please let us know if she contacts you."

Chara smiled. "Will do." She turned to Parker. "I hope you guys find what you're looking for."

Parker nodded as the two of them left. Waving a modest goodbye, Chara's smile disappeared once they were out of sight. Retreating to her cellphone, she dialed for Miren.

"Hello?"

"They're on to you!"

**

There wasn't much Miren could do at the moment.

In the middle of The Glove, which was just shorthand for The Gloveria Mall, Miren felt like she was in a daze. The clothes were distractingly pretty, the lights were blindingly bright, and she kept on having a reoccurring dream that she was in the mall with the populars. Wait.

This was actually happening.

She was trailing a little bit behind the group, which consisted of Jemma, Klondike, and a girl she didn't know too well named Theodora. Well, it's not that she knew any of them all that well, but she knew Jemma and Klondike as the over-exposed populars that ran their respective schools. Theodora, a girl of medium height with strawberry-blonde hair and abnormally long eyelashes, was new territory. But so was her new identity.