Chapter 157: Celeste’s Shock
"Hi there."
It was Celeste, Oliver’s older sister.
Holding a selfie stick while live streaming everything around her, she lowered it and leaned a bit towards them.
"You two look great together. How come I’ve never seen you before? Chloe? How are you, Chloe? I almost couldn’t tell it was you. Oh my, you look great."
"Thank you," Chloe responded, forcing a little smile.
Celeste rattled like a newscaster, exchanging handshakes with the goddess beside him while seemingly confused about his identity, but purposefully put him on hold as a tactic to grow his interest in her and her incredibly curious viewers.
Lowering her voice, she whispered, asking—
"Can I stream you guys?"
—but withdrew and promptly turned her back against them, then raised her selfie stick again before they could reply.
"Hello guys. Here we have one of Dominion High’s finest. Pretty, isn’t she? This is Chloe, and behind me we have her equally, no less handsome Dominion High’s finest partner. But oh no, even I don’t know his name. Hold on, let’s ask the handsome guy."
Apparently, she had been so far away during the school week that she didn’t see the headlines. And previously, Miles was a common-level character that barely etched itself in her memory as part of her younger brother’s clique. In other words, he didn’t exist.
Most of the spectating students at this moment sucked in a cold breath.
Who didn’t know Miles after he brutally stepped on his bullies to fame?
"Handsome, what is your name?"
Without noticing the oddity in the atmosphere, she pointed the selfie stick to properly capture Miles’ face for her viewers.
"His name is Miles, and please stop invading our privacy."
After noticing Miles’ eyes turn cold at his sister’s pretentious act, obviously not intending to play along, Oliver gritted his teeth and stepped in to save her from the embarrassment that could ruin her career.
"Oh—"
Celeste was taken aback, and wanted to say a couple of things, but froze when she recognized the voice and the sharp, defiant eyes behind it.
"You—" her eyes widened. She wanted to retort to him, to ask how he slipped in here, but choked on her words after properly taking in his appearance.
The simple nerd she knew and hated was actually dressed superbly and had a girl beside him, his date.
’How is this possible? What happened?’
Her eyes quickly shifted to Simon, who was staring at her calmly while holding the hand of a girl, not looking bad either.
’This...’
She found it hard to believe and shifted her gaze to the next person.
’Theo?’
A vague name surfaced in her mind. Indeed, the person fit the image in her head. But the simp and weak temperament around them was no longer there.
’Wait, don’t tell me....’
Her heart leaped from the shock.
’...Miles.’
Although not many knew, there was only one person that shared the same last name as Josephine, her rival.
Indeed, how could she have forgotten the disgusting boy that hung around her brother?
’Miles.’
The person before her was Miles, but compared to the weak, lean image in her head, he had bulked up a lot and looked athletic, even taller. Handsome.
Seeing this, the other students began to buzz.
"What’s wrong with Celeste?"
"Did she see a ghost or something?"
"I bet."
"Wait, is it only me, or does that dude actually share some semblance?"
"No way, are you blind—" the voice paused, startled.
On the live stream with 5,000 viewers, comment after comment spawned at the semblance between the two.
’Shit! Shit! What happened? How could they change this much?! Fuck! I filmed Oliver, I’m so done. What should I do now? What should I do...’
Instantly an idea sprung up; hopefully, she could divert everyone’s attention from what just happened.
"Wow, wow, wow. What a surprise. Now that things are so interesting, why don’t I suggest a game to spice things up?"
Celeste beamed a bright smile, using her acting skills to gather a few people to agree.
"But first, let’s ask our birthday girl. Rachael, what do you think?"
"I’m excited."
Rachael agreed right away.
Amongst her guests today, Celeste had the highest priority. How could she refuse a person who was streaming her birthday, making her known by thousands of viewers?
"Alright. Let’s start with an icebreaker."
Celeste walked away from the table, flicked her fingers in the air, and Rachael nodded at someone. Then, more than half of the disco lights turned off.
The pool became brighter and a wheel of countless names was projected in it.
"So here is the rule. Each time the wheel spins, the selected get to ask anyone any sort of question once. If you can’t answer, then you’ll have to leave a hundred bucks behind. Remember, always be honest."
"Woooahhhh!"
"Now we are talking!"
"Yeeeaahh! Let’s get this started, baby."
A wave of cheers and shouts erupted.
Those in the pool began slapping the water.
"Good," Celeste said, now holding a microphone as she walked towards the pool to stream the wheel beneath.
"Start."
Instantly the wheel began spinning, causing a lot of people to crane their necks just to look.
"Patrick Jones??"
Celeste called out the selected name, but unfortunately, the person wasn’t present since the game had begun ahead of schedule.
"Maeve..."
"That’s me! That’s me!"
The girl whose name happened to be selected excitedly stood up.
"Okay, go on. What’s your question and to whom?"
"Which girl do you consider Dominion High’s finest? Directing the question to Jason Kingsley."
As expected, the first question instantly set up waves, lighting up excitement in the eyes of the crowd. Everyone turned to Jason, who had been silently brewing some serious thoughts, sitting alone at a big round table and not expecting to be implicated in such a manner.
Shifting his gaze, he saw the curious eyes of the others, including Celeste, but taking a secret peek, the girl he wanted most was actually staring at someone else at this moment.
He took a breath and smiled to rein in his emotions.
"Unfortunately, I’ll prefer to leave behind a hundred bucks."
