Lady Misfortune: Daddy, I'll Be A Righteous Villainess!

'Seems like today's no good after all…' was what Weiss thought upon seeing Lady and Sarah inside the café – bickering as always.

'Talk about bad luck.'

He took the exit at the back after getting rid of his disguise. Now that he'd succeeded to convince his co-worker, he's supposed to go in there and join Lady as Weiss. He has to fulfill his promise to help her out with the advice column. But with Sarah around, he doubts they'll be able to finish any work.

Then again, no one knows that she's Claudia – and no one should, especially her. 

"You two-faced girl…" Weiss sighed, shooting an exhaustive look at Lady from outside the coffee shop before glancing in Sarah's direction and remembering their interaction at the counter earlier.

"I have no way to make sure, but... Could it be that it's because of her love advices that she's good with boys?"

In the middle of his contemplation, he picked up the sound of approaching footsteps. Only then did Weiss realize that he's blocking the entrance. Immediately, he stepped aside. He then turned around and found Fallon making his way to him.

"Huh? Fallon?" he blurted out, blinking twice at him in confusion.

"Yo," he greeted in his signature laidback manner, hands in his pockets.

Like his cousin, he's still wearing his school uniform. He seems pretty calm despite seeing him stalling around there, which brings the questions, "What are you doing here? Did you know we're here?"

"Lady texted me. She said she's going to do something with you after school, and I happened to say that to Uncle Max too. He asked me why she wasn't home yet," Fallon explained nonchalantly while Weiss made an unimpressed look. 

"Let me guess. He told you to watch over us."

"And make sure that I'm the one who'll take her home, apparently." 

"Fallon, as I always say, I'm not planning to do anything to Lady."

"I know, I know."

He shrugged, expression bored, before he walked past Weiss and peered at the store window. There, he saw Lady and Sarah sitting before each other. Fallon let out a low whistle then, suddenly looking intrigued.

"Well, what do you know? Those two are as close as ever. Didn't know you invited the school's most beloved princess too, Weiss. That's quite a cast right there."

"I did no such thing, okay? And what's with the nickname?"

"What? Lady told us the title of the story – Princess of High School, right?"

"You calling her that makes it sound like you're the one who's close to her."

"As if. I can't even stand staying in the same room with her."

Weiss noticed a hint of bitterness in Fallon's voice.

He has always observed that he's indifferent towards Sarah's existence in general. However, whenever Lady fusses over her, he appears to be vexed – like he's itching to form a plan with him to keep those two apart as much as possible. 

He hates it when she gets into a fight, after all. But what he hates more is that she's only putting on an act the whole time. He hates it when she lies, basically. 

'Come to think of it, their feud is getting worse by the day,' Weiss pondered, silently recalling some of the times Lady and Sarah argued. 

---   

"Alright, as we discussed yesterday, the leading question was, 'What makes a monster and what makes a man?' Does anyone have an idea?" Ms. Mirabella had asked during a joint literature class months ago. 

"Monsters are like zombie deers with rabies that will eat anything that they come across with!" one of the students said while doing some wacky hand motions.

"Ummm... Not quite what I had in mind. Anyone else?"

Lady had noticed the English teacher was all but directly looking at Sarah. 

She only sat quietly in her seat, deciding to just listen instead of saying anything. Other people spoke up with different answers, but they weren't necessarily what their instructor was looking for. 

"Well, maybe we should have everyone partner up and talk about their opinions?"

And as fate would have it, Lady ended up pairing with Sarah. 

The latter held back a grimace. The former wasn't sure how to react. 

"Good luck," Weiss had told Lady. 

She nodded in thanks as she walked to the back of the class and sat down next to her. As expected, she wasn't too eager to engage in a conversation, but nevertheless, she asked, "So, what do you think separates monster from man, Gracelyn?"

"Oh, I don't know. Wealth? Good looks? Status?" she had scoffed. 

"Hmmm… Well, how about respect for your fellow human? A bit of empathy, perhaps? Kindness? Doing things for the greater good instead of self-interest?" she had suggested.

Sarah replied with a mere shrug. Lady frowned.

She was certain she was smarter than this. 

"That's bullcrap, Mireille. I've tried all of that before, and it's gotten me nowhere in life."

"Oh, so you think acting like a beast is what makes you a human and not a monster?!"

Lady had wanted to say then that this was not how she raised her as a character. Sarah was definitely no pessimist. But then, Ms. Mirabella had called their attention and interrupted with a, "Ms. Mireille? Do you and Ms. Gracelyn finally have an answer for the question?" 

"Hey, why don't you go first? You have your answer," Lady had told Sarah who simply obeyed.

"According to my ever so lovely partner, what separates monster and man can be a variety of things. Respect for other people, perhaps? Looking out for others instead of oneself, perhaps? Doing what's good, perhaps?"

Sarah's tone was dripping with boredom and sarcasm. Lady groaned, a bit vexed. Whether or not Ms. Mirabella noticed was hard to gauge.

Weiss and Fallon were there to see the whole thing.

They were torn between concerned and amused. It wasn't the first time they took their personal matters inside the classroom, though. They have already been doing it for a while.

At that point, even Ms. Mirabella seemed to have given up on patching things up between Lady and Sarah. 

--- 

The next class was Science – more particularly, Biology.

They were using their school-provided tablets to play a game where they paired genetic bases together in a strand of DNA and try to find any anomalies in the sequence. The game was similar to that of a popular one called Kahoot, which made the whole thing fun for the students.

"Okay, if I remember right, it's adenine with thymine, and guanine with cytosine," Lady had rambled on as she and Weiss were about to start the game.

"Ms. Mireille, you'll be working with Ms. Gracelyn today. You'd been taking advantage of Mr. Saoirse too much," Mr. Richards had cut in.

"Huh?! When did I ever?!"

"You always pair up with him during our games just because you're friends. Go with someone else for once."

Lady groaned in annoyance before looking at the back of the classroom. Once again, Sarah was there, playing the game like a seasoned professional.

"I honestly think she's doing fine on her own, Sir," she had told the Science teacher.

"This is a pair assignment. Not a solo one," he had insisted, leaving her with no choice.

Lady sighed before standing up and making her way to the back to join Sarah. Fallon quickly took the opportunity to sit next to Weiss.

Once she settled down beside Sarah, she looked at her tablet before asking, "How far along in the game are you?"

"Level ten. Why?"

"The teacher's insisting you and I work together for this. So, maybe you should restart your progress, and we can play it together?"

Sarah grumpily spat, "Whatever," in reply. Lady was speechless but quickly recovered. 

"Let's just get to work on the assignment."

After resetting the progress on the game, they tried to actually cooperate on it. But of course, it was far from smooth sailing.

"Hey, that was an adenine! That's supposed to pair up with a thymine, not cytosine, you dummy!" Sarah had scolded when they missed something and lost many points in the game.

"Don't nag me!" Lady had bitten back.

"We're supposed to be working together on this! Could you please try and cooperate with me?"

"I was trying to help, okay?!" 

Right then, the music of the game started indicating something bad in their progress. Lady had cried out, "Oh, come on! Great, now the game says we're increasing the chances of giving the cell tissue cancer!"

"That's what happens when any of the cell division regulation rules get broken!" Sarah exclaimed as she took the tablet and started to correct Lady's mistake.

She looked at Sarah then, a little angry, before taking the other side of the tablet. Despite her protests, Lady just continued playing.

Weiss, who'd been listening to everything, had looked at Fallon in worry and said, "I hope she doesn't have to put up with her all day."

"Seriously, dude, even our cousins are easier for her to deal with."

The rest of the class consisted of Lady trying to cooperate in the game. Even then, Sarah wasn't making it easy for her. 

They managed to score in the top percentile of the class for the game and got a good grade in the end, though.