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

Weiss ponders on what Fallon has just revealed about Lady.

He'd always known better than to judge a book by its cover. Since he's a great pretender himself, he believes that not everyone isn't what they seem. But that doesn't mean he's prepared for what he'll end up discovering about others. This one, for sure, was one of the most shocking learnings that he ever had in his life.

Lady had been through a lot. Weiss can't even begin to imagine it.

Now, he feels stupid for trying to distance himself from her. If only he wasn't being such a coward, he would've already known more about her – and he could've already been on his way to be one of those few people she could entirely depend on.

"I have a lot of questions, Fallon. I really do…" Weiss started with a downcast gaze.

"But right now, there's only one thing I really feel like asking you."

"Only one? I thought for sure you'd have at least a hundred…" Fallon chuckled.

"But sure. Go ahead. Shoot." 

"Is there any way I can help her?"

"Huh? With what exactly?"

"Anything. I just wanna be of use." 

"I'm not sure I understand, but in any case, that's not for me to decide. You've gotta ask her yourself."

"Do you think she'll let me?"

"Most likely not if you haven't completely earned her trust yet." 

"Figures."

"As I've already told you, she's a tough nut to crack. In fact, I think you'll have a harder time understanding her from now on. But since I've already told you that she has to be someone she isn't, at least you're aware that there's a reason why she's being the way she is-"  

Fallon suddenly froze and trailed off right then. Weiss blinked in puzzlement.

He seemed to have caught sight of something from behind him. Perplexed, he swerved around to see what it was. He didn't get what's going on at first. But as he looked a little bit more closely, he realized that the commotion that was going down at the other side earlier had already eased out.

What replaced the scene was what appeared like this encounter with an unfamiliar-looking girl. 

"Were you expecting someone else today?" Weiss asked.

"Is that… who I think it is?" Fallon muttered in quiet shock. 

"Huh? Who is it?"

"What the heck is she even doing there?"

Weiss pouts, feeling ignored. It seems that Fallon is having a monologue. 

He can tell that he's kind of shaken – perhaps, from the appearance of whoever that girl is. Because she has her back on them, they can't see what she looks like, but even then, what she's trying to do there is clear to them.

And going by how stunned and befuddled Lady is right now, Weiss surmised that it's something that shouldn't even be happening.

--- 

"Hello there. We meet again."

Lady was still in the middle of distracting Belle and Hartigan when Sarah made an entrance out of nowhere.

She didn't even realize she's standing right behind her. Even her friends didn't seem to notice, seeing that they're just as surprised as her when she greeted them. She whipped her head around so quickly that she almost broke her neck, and sure enough, she found what she was expecting to find from the moment she heard her voice.

Sarah really is there, and Lady is confounded.

'Why is she here?! I don't remember this happening in the story!' was the first thought that popped up in her head at that moment.

The heroine looks as radiant as ever, and as she beams down at her, the villainess, she appears like an angel, especially with that breathtaking smile on her face. There, she remains standing in all her ethereal glory, and here, she's looking like a boulder with how rock-stiff she's gotten. 

"You've got quite a cool spot here. Mind if I join you?"

Lady hasn't even recovered from the shock of seeing Sarah yet.

And now she's being asked if she'll let her stay there. She really can use some break right now. But she has to remind herself that six years are more than enough time to prepare. It doesn't matter if this scene isn't in the script. That's the main reason why ad-libs exist, to begin with.

Yet, before Lady could even speak, Hartigan piped in.

"Ummm… I don't mean to sound rude, but... Who are you again?" he inquired nonchalantly. 

It was a timely-wronged intervention that Lady should be annoyed about. But instead, she perked up - a realization striking her. It was proven further when Sarah smiled at Hartigan and introduced herself. Seeing their interaction, she finally came up with an idea as to why she was there.

'Could it be because of Hearty?! I mean, he's one of the male leads, right?! Could it be that Sarah went all the way here just for him?!'

Since the Princess of High School was mostly written from the protagonist's point of view, Lady knew that she already met Hartigan during the first or second week of classes. She vaguely remembers how this particular scene goes down, and all she recalls is that Sarah has accidentally bumped into him in the hallway while she's searching for the faculty office.

'Wait, what?'

Her brain short-circuited, her body static. 

Now that Lady is going over the story again, she realizes that she might have just switched positions with Hartigan. It wasn't her who Sarah was supposed to meet in the hallway back then.

'EHHHHH?!!!"

She can't believe she's only remembering now. She regrets getting too caught up with her own teen drama this past week that she has completely forgotten to check on the male lead's side.

'No, no, no. Wait. Calm down, calm down…' she mentally told herself, trying to get her thoughts together.

'Just meeting now is probably not that bad. Nothing is ruined yet. What matters is that they're still going to be close in the future-'

Her chain of thinking was cut off when her shoulder suddenly bumped into something.

Lady forced herself to zoom back to reality. Then, to her great surprise, she realized that Sarah has already taken a seat beside her. 

She was so close that their shoulders were literally touching each other. This didn't seem to bother her as she only started munching on her lunch. She can smell her flowery, fruity scent, and as if that isn't enough to get her head spiraling, she can also feel how warm her sun-kissed, smooth skin is. 

'What in the world is happening?' she wondered, completely stupefied.

Lady has no idea what her deal is. But whatever it is, Belle and Hartigan don't look too pleased about it.

"Pardon me. But aren't you being a bit rude now, Ms. Gracelyn? I don't recall Lady giving you permission to invade her personal space," the former began.

"There's plenty of room for you to sit on, Ms. Gracelyn. You're making Lady uncomfortable," the latter chimed in next.

They know they should also add that they haven't totally agreed to let Sarah sit with them. However, they're not that mean, so they just chose not to say anything when she settled herself beside Lady. That would still be fine if only she didn't start acting all chummy with her for no reason.

It didn't help that Lady hadn't said a single thing about this either. Thinking that she's just too shy to voice out her protest, Belle and Hartigan decided to speak up for her instead. 

"Oh, of course, she doesn't mind…" Sarah said in what Lady felt like an all-too-innocent tone. 

"She's so kind to me the first time we met, you see. I thought she's quite adorable at the time. So, I immediately got the impression that she wanted to be my friend."

The way she's acting now is bordering sassing, patronizing – as a whole, it's absolutely odd. She didn't write this character this way. How she approached them with so much confidence should've already been a sign. She was designed to be timid yet kind, unassuming yet congenial. Even the tiniest bit of possibility that she was imposing would've made her cower back to being meek.

In other words, this Sarah is not the Sarah she's been expecting.

Regardless, it's too early for Lady to conclude or even suspect that there's something wrong with her.

But then, she went and dropped the bomb by mentioning the word 'friend'. That was a different story altogether. It got her wondering if she acted so out of character that Sarah felt like she's trying to be her friend, which was everything she should never ever be to her. In fact, what she should be doing at this very moment is harassing her – not giving her all these wrong ideas.

'You've got to do it right this time, Lady. Get it together…' she thought, cringing inwardly.

'Your role as the villainess is at risk here.. If you fail to do your job, then who'll do it for you? Sarah is counting on you to give her a happy ending even if she doesn't know it.'