SCANDAL ✓

Chapter 011 | Progress

WARNING: This chapter is quite the info dumper and a host of other problems. I didn't have time to declutter the abdominal mess its in. Was hoping to do so after exams. But I just really didn't want to keep ya'll hanging for that long. So, here goes nothing.

It turned out that being Paris's fiancé did have its perks. Shanya hadn't had any troubles getting into Nursing school like she thought she would. If anything, they were quite eager to have her. Especially the students. But it wasn't all a bed of roses. Some genuinely liked her, others simply pretended to. She'd been gaslighted a number of times as three people—two girls and a boy, had tried to extort money from her, using her scandalous past as leverage.

Obviously, she was the wrong person to blackmail, but they didn't know that. And by the time they did, it had been too late for them. She'd fished out all their secrets and damned near got them expelled. She should have. Her old self would have. But for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to disrupt their education. Instead, she'd forced them to get transferred, claiming that if she ever saw them again, she'd expose their secrets.

Since then, very few people picked on her.

A month had gone by and it had proven that the University had been the absolute perfect choice for her... if she was aiming for humiliation, that is. As fancy as it was, its courses were equally challenging. She'd been away from school too long and had forgotten the amount of studying it demanded.

In her very first week, they'd had her work with actual babies, learning how to care and treat them with a dude called Alan. It had been a test and she'd failed woefully—and it ate at her. In her previous school, she'd been the smartass. A grade A bitch, but a darn brilliant one.

All those months waiting tables had dulled her brain and she was determined to change that.

Her Anatomy lecturer wasn't making it easy for her though. He was condescending and prejudiced against her and somehow, she got the feeling he carried some grudge against people with money or against the Bodens. Her status as his fiancé had only kept growing. She'd had more people fawn over her and give her hateful glances. Both of which she responded with an air of grace and a befitting remark with more sense of bravado than she felt. She'd always been the kind of girl people loved to hate. Still, hatred and contempt wasn't something one particularly enjoyed getting used to.

Speaking of hatred and contempt, Shanya had a boat load of it for a certain activity called driving. After Paris had told her to take it up, Travis had arrived at Shanya's place a week later and practically whisked her to this free lane by a supermarket where they had to practice for almost three hours. Shanya had taken one look at the convertible and known it was a bad idea. It was so complex . She'd barely understood anything when Travis was taking her through each car part. She'd been very foolish to agree to being taught how to drive. Shanya practically couldn't think of a worst way someone could spend their time.

Travis taught her how to accelerate and brake, but her hands became clammy as soon as she heard the loud vooom of the engine. It didn't get any better when she had to hold the steering wheel and navigate the car. She'd thrown up at least five times that day.

She hated that Travis saw how terrified she'd been. Hated how utterly clueless she was. The only thing she'd enjoyed was when Travis and Lily bickered—Lily being dismissive were he was concerned, and Travis getting annoyed at her for dismissing him.

The poor fool was probably used to girls fawning all over him, but what he didn't know was that, like her , Lily was not easily swayed. Especially by someone who'd harmed her friend. And man, those two did not like each other.

A month back, she and Lily had moved into a fancy apartment in their neighborhood befitting their current account. The chances of them finding one they both liked had been less than zero, so it was such a relief when they did.