Filed to story: That Campus Prince Is a Girl
The door shut behind her with a soft click. Cameron stared at the mountain of shopping bags on the sofa, not knowing where to start.
Just as Bradley wanted, Cameron went through them all, trying on each jacket and hoodie. Even the underwear was her size.
Even though Cameron was a girl, she’d always worn boys’ clothes growing up, even down to the underwear. Once she’d checked everything, she slipped back into her school uniform and walked out.
Bradley was lounging on the sofa, half-watching the legal channel. He looked up as she walked in, taking in the uniform with a raised brow as he asked, “They didn’t fit?”
Cameron said, “They fit perfectly, Brad. You’ve got good taste.” She actually thought she looked pretty good in them.
Bradley raised an eyebrow. “Then why aren’t you wearing them?”
“I want to wash them first,” Cameron replied.
Bradley laughed. “Right, I forgot you’re a bit of a clean freak.”
Cameron smiled. “It’s not that bad.”
As soon as Cameron sat down, Bradley put down the remote, stood up, and grabbed his phone.
“Brad, are you heading out?” Cameron asked.
“I need to go home today,” Bradley replied.
Bradley lived in Steerfall. It wasn’t that far-just over 60 miles from Viremont.
Last week during break, Bradley had dropped her off at the mall before heading home. But now Cameron couldn’t help but wonder if he had delayed his trip this time because of her.
At the door, while changing into his shoes, Bradley said, “Remember to lock the doors and windows. The security here is solid, so don’t worry. I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”
Cameron followed him, resting her hand on the wall and nodding. “Okay. Drive safe.”
Successfully unlocked!
Bradley smiled, then walked out the door.
Cameron turned around, looking at the big, empty house. The only sound was the TV playing a legal talk show.
She sat down on the sofa, hugged a pillow to her chest, and stared at the TV screen. But her mind wasn’t on the show. It kept drifting back to the clothes Bradley had bought her.
She let out a quiet laugh. It was all because she was too broke that Bradley thought she couldn’t afford to buy herself new clothes.
All she had left was the 100,000 dollars she’d gotten from Elijah-and now, it was already down to just over 65,000 dollars.
She really needed to figure out a way to make money fast. Cameron glanced around the whole place. She was still carrying a mountain of debt, so she wondered, ‘What’s the best way to make money these days?’
Cameron got up, grabbed her laptop from the desk, and opened her browser. Right away, a headline flashed across the screen: [Serial killer still on the run. Police stumped. 350,000 dollars reward for capture.]
Cameron touched her chin, a slow smile spreading across her lips.
*****
By the time Cameron got to school the next day, it was already five in the evening. Evening study didn’t start until 6:50. So honestly, she was pretty early.
But as soon as she reached the boys’ dorm, she ran into the last person she wanted to see, Milena. The night before last, Milena had texted her, but Cameron ignored her and just blocked her on WhatsApp..
She never expected Milena would actually show up at the dorm to ambush her, making her beyond speechless at this point.
Strangely, Milena wasn’t yelling or picking a fight today. She was back to her fake- sweet routine, wearing a carefully staged smile. “Bro, I finally caught you,” Milena said in her softest voice.
Cameron’s face stayed cold as she walked straight toward the dorm entrance. Milena rushed to block her path. “Cam, wait. Don’t go. I need to talk to you.”
“No time for that,” Cameron shot back.
“Cam!” Milena grabbed her arm in desperation. “It’s Mom. She really misses you, bought you some new clothes and wants you to try them on. Just to see if they fit.”
The sight of Cameron’s solemn face made Milena fume inside. If it weren’t for Xander, she wouldn’t be standing here taking this.
Xander was completely ignoring her now.
Her only hope was to get Cameron into those girly clothes, snap a few pictures, and send them to Xander to get his attention back. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have wasted a second on this.
Cameron was still pulling a long face, making Milena feel sick, but she had no choice
Cheater 161 Too Short Of Money but to put up with it.
Cameron yanked her hand away. “I don’t have a mom.”
The force made Milena stumble, and she smacked her forehead right into the wall. Her head buzzed, a huge bump instantly swelling up, and tears sprang to her eyes.
But Cameron didn’t even glance at Milena. She just turned and walked off, completely fed up with Milena’s endless pestering.
Milena was the one who kept chasing her down, so Cameron didn’t see the need to be nice about it.
“Cameron, you piece of trash!” Milena suddenly shrieked.
The pain was too much for Milena. She totally lost it, screaming her head off without caring how she looked. The students passing by stared at her like she was crazy.
Crying, Milena ran off, but she wasn’t about to let it end like this. It had taken her so much effort to get close to her dream guy, Xander, and there was no way she was giving up now.
But Cameron just wouldn’t cooperate. Fine, if Cameron wouldn’t play along, Milena would just have to figure something out herself.
She didn’t even have time to get her forehead checked out. She made up her mind that Photoshop would do the trick.
She just needed to find a girl with a similar build to Cameron, swap Cameron’s face onto the model’s, add a beauty filter, and she would be done.
But for her plan to work, she prayed that Xander was just as blind as the other men, not knowing how to tell if a photo was photoshopped.
Just as Milena expected, Xander didn’t notice a thing. She sent him two photos with a flirty caption: [Mr. Murphy, I went shopping today and found two dresses I like. Which one do you think looks better?]
She’d grabbed two model pics from Amazon, dropped Cameron’s face on them, and smoothed everything out with filters. The result was stunning.
Xander stared at his screen, totally mesmerized. He’d been in a foul mood after yesterday’s blowout with Cameron on the mountain. He’d even planned to confront her at school to settle their scores.
But now, staring at the girl in the photo, who looked so much like Cameron, his anger melted away.
He thought, Cameron is Milena’s brother. What am I even thinking? Why am I butting heads with Cameron in the first place? Was I out of my mind?”
Xander replied almost instantly. [Ms. Wallace, both dresses look amazing. You’d look beautiful in either one.]
Milena was absolutely thrilled when she saw his reply. She felt pretty smug. It turned out she only needed a photo to get Xander wrapped around her finger.
Milena: [Oh, thank you. I’ll just buy them both, then. I’ve got class now, so talk now.}
She knew exactly when to pull back, just enough to keep him wanting more.
When Cameron stepped into Room 316, the dorm was empty except for Austin.
Austin looked up as Cameron opened the door. He had his usual little cough before he flashed her a dazzling smile, lighting up his strikingly mixed-race face. “Cam.”
That smile could melt half the school if any fans were around. If any of his fans were here, they’d probably be screaming like crazy.
Cameron didn’t even blink in his direction. She dropped her backpack on the chair, ready to head right back out. She still had dinner to grab, a library visit to squeeze in, and class to catch.
“Cam.” Austin coughed and quickly stood up, stepping into her path. “You’re not still mad at me, right? I’m really sorry about yesterday. I didn’t mean for things to blow up with Xan. It’s on me.”
Cameron rested her fingers on the bunk bed, finally giving Austin a slow look. “Are vitamin tablets tasty?”
Austin froze. For a second, he had no idea what she meant. Then he started coughing again-this time harder.
He was coughing so hard he could barely breathe, his face turning pale.
It wasn’t until Cameron pulled open the dorm door that Austin managed to ask weakly, “Cam, what are you talking about? What vitamin tablets?”
Cameron replied, “Oh, I just suddenly felt like trying vitamin tablets lately, so I wanted to ask if they taste good. Have you had them before?”
“Uh…I-I hardly ever take them,” Austin said, still looking weak.
Cameron nodded. “Alright, I’ll ask someone else.”
And with that, she left the room.
Austin slumped into his chair, looking pale and pressing a shaky hand to his chest, thinking, ‘That was close. Turns out it was just a false alarm.’
He really thought Cameron had found out about his secret. Austin picked up the medicine bottle on his desk, which was labelled as cough medicine. But he’d swapped out all the pills inside for vitamin tablets.
He’d even sanded off the letters on each tablet, one by one, and there was no way Cameron would know. So, he concluded it was just a coincidence earlier.
Successfully unlocked!
