CHAPTER 80: A PARTNER IN REVENGE!

Catherine’s POV

After I made the search, Google wasted no time reminding me that the first step to "getting physically strong enough to beat two girls at once" was... exercising. And eating healthy. And drinking water. And basically doing every single thing I had not done since arriving at the Vaughn mansion.

I sighed, but I wasn’t backing down. If I couldn’t destroy Lucy and Sasha emotionally, I would build myself like a small but mighty tank. Enough of them hitting me, while I watched and cried.

So I searched "beginner exercises," and the list looked encouraging enough: light jogging, morning stretches, simple cardio. Jogging seemed like the easiest of the bunch, and honestly, the one that would let me escape my thoughts for a while.

I got up immediately, pulled on joggers, tugged a hoodie over my head, grabbed my headset and phone, and left my room before I could change my mind. When I stepped into the hallway, I took a cautious glance around.

There was no Lucy or Julian in sight, thankfully. Though, I already that they were probably in his room together, doing whatever the universe used to punish me mentally.

I stepped outside into the cold evening air and walked down the driveway until the gates opened for me. The estate roads were clean and quiet, lined with tall trees that made the wind whistle softly.

I plugged in my headset and started jogging.

At first, I felt awkward, like my arms and legs weren’t on good terms. My breathing was uneven and my hoodie suddenly felt like it weighed eight kilograms. But after a few minutes, my body relaxed into a rhythm. My thoughts stopped tripping over themselves. My mind cleared a little.

That was when I noticed that there was another girl jogging ahead of me. She had her hair up in a ponytail, her pace steady and confident. This obviously wasn’t her first time.

For some dumb reason, seeing someone else jogging made me feel... normal, like I wasn’t the only one running away from chaos.

I kept my own pace, watching the ground briefly and that’s when I spotted something brown on the pavement. It looked like a wallet.

I could have ignored it, but something told me it belonged to the girl ahead, so I picked it up and jogged faster.

"Hey!" I called out, trying not to sound winded. "Wait up!"

She turned, and raised her eyebrows. I quickly held up the wallet and flashed it to her. "This yours? I think you dropped this."

Her eyes widened. "Oh my God! Yes, that’s mine. Thank you so much!"

I handed it over and nodded, ready to turn back toward home but she stopped me with a squint.

"Uhm, do I know you? You kinda look familiar," she said.

Not this again. I forced a smile, not because I was angry but because I already knew why she recognized me. It was obviously because of my popular stepfather and his interviews and stuff, as a Vaughn that made me recognizable by association.

I scratched my hair awkwardly and pointed behind me.

"Maybe you do. I... live right there," I said.

Her mouth formed a perfect O. "Ohhh. The Vaughn mansion. Wow. I’m not always around, but I know a few things about the Vaughns."

I braced myself.

She grinned. "Richard Vaughn is an obsessed politician. He’s always on the news and I know he has two sons. One is grumpy, the other is lovable. So I have heard."

I burst out laughing so loudly that a bird flew off a nearby branch. That description was painfully accurate. Julian was the grumpy one.

At that moment, she reached out her hand with an easy smile. "I’m Kiera."

I took it, still smiling. "And I’m Catherine. Nice to meet a new face."

"The pleasure." She tilted her head. "So... you’re jogging to clear your mind? That’s what I do when my brain starts acting like an overloaded laptop."

Oh wow. Lucky her. I wished that was my reason.

But I wasn’t ready to admit that I was out here because I wanted to train for a hypothetical two-against-one girl fight.

So I shook my head. "Not really."

"Why then?"

I looked away. "Nothing. It’s... something stupid."

"Ouu. I like stupid," she said immediately. "So tell me because I won’t stop bugging you."

I groaned internally. I had just met her, and she already had that persistent friend energy.

So I inhaled and told her the truth.

"Well," I started slowly, "there are these two girls and... they kind of... bully me."

I expected pity or shock. Instead, she burst into laughter.

"That’s it?" she said between giggles. "Two girls bullying you? Please." She seemed to think I was joking but when she looked at me again and noticed the look on my face, she realized I was being serious.

"I would never have imagined you to be the type to be bullied but trust me, you do not need to stress about them now that I’m around."

I blinked. She flipped her ponytail back with dramatic flair. "I love dealing with girls like that. Trust me, having me around is like having a personal chaos consultant."

I snorted before I could stop myself.

She leaned in, and her eyes brightened with mischief. "So what are their names?"

"Lucy and Sasha." I listed, their names getting myriad angry. "Lucy is currently living with us."

"Ohhh." Her grin widened. "They sound annoying already." Then she lowered her voice. "Finally, I get to have fun in this boring neighborhood."

We shared the most unholy, evil little laugh.

"I’m free tonight," she said suddenly. "Invite me over. We can start planning our revenge."

Revenge. That sounded perfect.

Excitement lit up inside me like fireworks.

"Deal," I said immediately.

She nudged my shoulder, smiling. "Good. By the time I’m done with those girls, they’ll think twice before messing with you again."

Payback time, bitches.

It felt nice to know that I had backup now.