CHAPTER NINE: THE PLAN BACKFIRED

Ariel was just headed to the wasroom to relieve herself when she felt someone watching her with a sharp gaze.She ignored it since she was already used to receiving such stares. After relieving herself,she washed her hands in the sink and headed for the door. While pulling the door handle,she noticed that it didn't burgeoning matter how much strength she used to pull it. That's when it registered in her mind, she'd been locked up in the washrooms by someone. Good,she decided to wait for them to come and tell her why they had her locked up in there. While waiting ,an idea came to her mind. She smiled mischievously ,went over to the window and half-opened it.

"Why isn't she screaming? Are you sure you locked her up?" Velma,who was growing impatient,questioned her sidekicks fiercely.

"Yes,we really did,we made sure she had entered before we locked the door,isn't that right? " One of her sidekicks answered and waited for confirmation from her two other friends who nodded hurriedly in assurance.

"Are you sure she didn't run away? " Velma asked uncertainly.

"Yes,I can assure you,besides ,the windows in the washroom are way too high for someone to jump over to the ground." Another sidekick answered confidently.

That was strange. It was believed that ghosts really did exist in Anderson high school. Especially the famous rumours,that two girls committed suicide in the girls' washrooms and since then,they are still filled with resentment,their presence is always felt in the washrooms. Velma didn't believe that a young girl like Ariel would survive such a horrifying ordeal.

"Unlock the door and push if! " ordered Velma.

"Yes" a sidekicks answered while unlocking the door hastily.

When the door was opened,what met them was total darkness. Before they could react, a hand pulled the four of the them in a swoop inside swiftly. The four girls didn't react until they heard a loud thud of the door slamming shut and being locked from the outside. Since all of them were so fearful of the ghosts,they huddled together in a corner shivering fearfully. Suddenly, a strong wind blew,making their hair stand on edge. They were now very sure that a ghost really existed. The wind that blew next was too horrifying for them . It was even accompanied by some whistling. This made the four girls huddled together scream in terror at the top of their voices.

Ariel,who was waiting for the show to begin,curled up her lips mischievously and sashayed away in a carefree manner. She had one hand in her pocket while walking casually. ,this made her appear so suave that students had to take a few more glances at her before going back to what they were doing.

"Hmph, so what if she's beautiful? her dirty laundry has been exposed on the school forum." a chubby girl who heard the gasps of amazement from students when they saw Ariel snorted and chided them condescending.

"Yeah, she looks good on the outside but is rotten on the inside,what a waste!" Another student chimed in.

"You are right,she is just a pretty vase,what's the need huh?" a boy commented sarcastically.

After hearing all these comments, Ariel was very sure that something was happening on the school forum and it had something to do with her. She walked to her class stream to take a look. When she entered the class, the ongoing discussions immediately came to a haltand everyone pretended to be buried in their books. When she looked at Maya, Maya looked away guiltily which further confirmed her guess. She sat down on her seat,took out her cellphone from her locker and turned it on. When she opened the school forum,she met with all the curses from different people who had read the thread that was anonymously posted.

"Hey,are you okay? I tried arguing with these bullies but they outshone me." Maya sighed while complaining.

"It's okay,thank you" Ariel thanked her sincerely. She was really touched that someone was willing to stand up for her when she was bullied.

On the seventh floor of the Cliffstad corporations, a man was busy flipping through the files when a knock came from the outside. The man was Cliff Hovstad,Ariel's brother and their first born sibling.

" Come in!" he said calmly.

Leon,his assistant, pushed open the door and entered holding a stack of papers and a file.

"Sir,the things you asked me to check." Leon said while placing the file on the table.

"Okay,you may leave " Cliff instructed him.

"Yes sir" Leon acquiesced and left.

Cliff took the file and began flipping through it. The more he read,the more tye area between his eyebrows creased. He was reading through the dirty things Ariel had done while in the countryside. On looking at her performance records,he was now sure enough that something wasn't right. His interest toward her kid sister Ariel intensified. It seemed that his sister has alot of secrets and he had to unravel them one by one. He had to meet her as soon as possible.

In the hunter residence, In Bellamy's study,a knock came from the outside,distracting him from what he was doing.

"Come in!" Bellamy ordered darkly.

Liam his assistant entered while holding a cellphone.He cleared his throat and said:

"Boss,you have to take a look at this." He said while handing him his cellphone. On the screen was the thread that had been posted anonymously earlier that day about Ariel and the insults and curses that were directed at her. They were so disrespectful and hurtful that even someone as hard hearted as Mr Bellamy Hunter felt hurt just looking at them. How could such a frail looking girl take that on her own? He wondered how she was doing after undergoing such a fiasco alone. He suddenly smiled,Mr Liam, who was familiar with that smile,knew that someone was going to face the boss' wrath.

"How dare they!" Bellamy suddenly growled sinisterly,his voice reverberating throughout the study.