Jeanette's POV:
She vowed to herself, and indirectly to us, that she would make our lives a living hell. And, believe me, she really lived up to her pledge. Day after day street performing became bittersweet. It was sweet to get a lot of money to keep us going everyday, but it was bitter to have to see Lady Diane there everyday, and fearing that something bad would happen to us that day.
What she did to us was harmless at first; a few squirm-inducing glares during our performances here and there, and an occasional loud 'Boo!' to discourage us. But when she saw that we were immune to these things and were no longer fazed by them, she decided to kick it up a notch.
She began attempting to throw vegetables at us when no one was looking, then when someone saw one of us get hit, she would start to pamper us and act like she was innocent and trying to help us. When people saw her 'helping' us, they would go over to her and praise her, then she would slowly divert our audience to herself, and perform for them.
But it was okay because people started to talk about us to others, and brought their friends along to watch us, so we always had a crowd surrounding us, giving us money anyway.
Lady Diane got extremely annoyed with this, and finally realised that her ways to make our audience reduce, disappear and divert to her were ineffective and pointless, so she started to attack us personally instead.
Since no one really payed attention to her (apart from the occasional sideways glance at her rather odd choice of clothing) she was able to steal our lunch, and take away some of our entertainment that we would usually use whilst on our break. This, of course, didn't really effect us since most of the things that she took from us were easily replaceable anyway. In fact, some of our things needed an upgrade anyway so,really, she helped to quicken that process.
We made it clear that we didn't give a toss what she did to us, and that nothing terrible could happen to us when we were almost constantly surrounded by a crowd and the three if us where together.
So...Lady Diane went extreme.
I truly don't know up to this day what possessed her to do the thing I am about to tell you about, but it was absolute madness in every way.
She...she started bringing a knife with her everyday.
At first we had no idea what was going to happen, and we were terrified because if there was anyone who she hated and wanted to injure the most, it most definitely would have been us.
And we were proven right. She attempted to slice through our skin.
She tried to cut Ellie's calves, but got her ankle instead.
She tried to stab Brittany's heart, but got her upper arm instead.
She tried to stab through my stomach, but got my lower arm instead.
This, of course, terrified us and made us feel totally unsafe, even with the crowd surrounding us. So, even though we really didn't want to, we had to tell Ms.Miller. She would've found out about it anyway because of our scars and and Brittany's and my partially ripped clothes.
She almost fainted when he heard the news. And, honestly, she had every reason to be worried. As a result at her attempt to protect us, she banned us from performing for a month.
We tried to reason with her, saying that we were alright, really, but she wouldn't budge. At all.
So for two weeks we lived off the money that we'd earned. It lasted us quite well. But then it started to run low again and all of us, even Ms.Miller, knew that we had to go out to earn some money again.
So, she sent us out again. The first day we went back, we were horrified. There was a large crowd surrounding Lady Diane, and they were showering her with money. This usually happened to US.
The problem was not the crowd, or the fact that they were giving her money, it was that whenever they gave out money once, they were NOT willing to do it again.
Even so, we still decided to perform. To get ourselves some attention, we sang
Bang Bang.
After the crowd saw our return after two weeks, they ran over to us and practically left Lady Diane in the dust, cheered and clapped and gave us so much money!
We continued to perform and sing and things went really well for us. We were overjoyed that we were really loved by the crowd; so much that they even missed us when we were gone!
But our happiness was short lived. Lady Diane was NOT happy that we were back. To be honest, it's only fair that we were back---imagine how much money she would have received during our two-week absence?
After our last song, we sat down, as usual, to have our lunch break. We were talking and really happy about the outcome of things.
As I was drinking, Ellie eating and Britt brushing down her skirt, a dark shadow loomed over us. We could have bet all the money that we'd just earned and won to guess who it was.
We looked up simultaneously and, to no surprise, it was Lady Diane.
She grinned sadistically.
"I thought you screeching rodents were gone...for good. Were my warnings not GOOD enough?" She growled through gritted teeth, still grinning.
"Oh, you're 'warnings' were clear. We just decided not to listen to them." Brittany said smoothly with a sweet but dangerous smile. Eleanor and I looked at each other in shock, then looked back at Lady Diane for her reaction.
She sucked air in through her teeth and grimaced, still keeping her cool.
"Now...you see...that's where the problem is...you HAVE to take my warnings, or very bad things will happen to you all." She waved her finger in our faces and laughed in a bittersweet way, if that's even possible.
I cleared her throat, tired of this absolute nonsense. This was getting incredibly ridiculous!
"Now...YOU see...that's were our problem is...you really have no are or are in place to tell us what to do. You are not our legal parent or guardian, nor are you the police so, technically, we can do what we want. And if street performing is what we want---no need---to do, then legally we're allowed to do," I said in a reasoning voice, trying to calm everyone down and reason with Lady Diane.
Everyone stared at me in shock. Probably because I was usually the quiet one who trembled and avoided eye contact. But I looked her dead in the eye as I said so.
"You are going to regret the living day or days---whatever--- that you ear-irritating...repulsive...vulgar ...roadkill RATS were born." Her voice got higher and louder with every word.
"And I will destroy you. Don't forget that. And don't think I'll let you off either." She laughed in a way that sent inward shivers down my spine.
And with that, she spun around dramatically, floor-long coat swinging in our faces and all, and walked off.
As we stood there in stunned silence, I began to wonder what she meant by
"And don't think I'll let you off either."
Was she taking a break? Or did she just want us to live in fear and misery like the pure psychotic woman she was? We were still yet to find out.
It was our first day back in two weeks and this was what we were welcomed with. A friendly handshake would have been much nicer, to be honest.
~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~*~~~*
Omg.
Guys it's been so long and I don't even know how to apologise right now, like I'm literally so sorry.
I've not only had writer's block but I've also had a lot going on.
But that's no excuse for my prolonged absence. I feel so bad cuz I've now realised how many of you actually like this book so far. But anyways, here's this chapter and I really hope you enjoyed it because I am trying to make it not too long but at the same time get the backstory done and over with because I really want to get onto our fave ships😜. I know I've said this before but the backstory really should be over soon, and I'm so sorry for making it so long, I hope it's interesting enough for you guys so far, you deserve so much better than a lousy update timeline and a boring book.
Well I hope you liked it anyway 😅
Anyways I hope you enjoy my book so far!
ENOUGH WITH MY RAMBLING BYE GUYSSSS❤️❤️
~JeanetteOladimeji💜