Viral Post

Melinda, Rosie, and their two other friends were peacefully waiting for their food to be served in a restaurant when Melinda suddenly said, "Oh my gosh, did you guys see this?"

"See what?" Amira, a second-year architecture student, said while raising an eyebrow. She's Rosie and Melinda's classmate.

Melinda turned her phone toward them, her eyes widening. Rosie snatched her phone and looked at the screen with a bored expression. But then her expression changed when she realized what Melinda was showing them.

"Maxene?" she blurted out.

Annie, Amira's twin sister, took Melinda's phone from Rosie to see what was on the screen and uttered, "The new girl?"

"What about her?" Amira asked confusedly.

"She's on Jared's photography page!" Annie answered. Jared is a student at Royale University who's a multimedia arts student. The thing is, Jared only captures pictures of students, whom he acknowledges as being among the prettiest in the university. And since he is famous on social media, a lot of people see his work. Currently, Maxene's picture has hundreds of thousands of likes, comments, and shares on social media.

"It's not just a picture. He's supporting her candidacy. Look, he took pictures of her in the campaign!" Melinda said as she pointed to her phone screen.

Amira's eyes widened as she swiped the photos. "She's friends with Zeke?" she exclaimed, covering her mouth with her palms.

"Not just Zeke, but my Dennis too? I can't believe this!" Annie responded in annoyance. Dennis is her ultimate crush, which is why she's jealous upon seeing his photo with Maxene.

Melinda turned to Rosie with a worried expression and stated, "This is not good, Rosie. She's going to take your position in the socialite!"

"It's just pictures," Rosie answered briefly, trying to keep her cool but boiling inside. She didn't expect that Maxene would get so much attention. Well, no one can deny that she's beautiful, and even Rosie can see that.

"Are you serious, Rosie? Look, they were saying good things about her. Students from the university want her to be the new vice president," Annie remarked as she showed Rosie the screen of her phone.

Rosie's brows furrowed upon reading the comments. "How could this happen?" she pondered to herself as she slowly clenched her fist. She read the comments and saw students from different schools commenting good things about her; it turns out she's known to be a kind and helpful student. It was as if everyone wanted her to win instead of Rosie.

"We must do something, Rosie. We need to put an end to this!" Melinda demanded with a fierce look on her face.

"Yeah, we can't let her take the VP position. She's not even as good as you!" Amira responded.

"Just seeing her photos with Dennis makes me hate her already without even meeting her," Annie stated, crossing her arms in annoyance.

Rosie smiled at them confidently and said, "Don't worry guys. I have a plan. After this, she wouldn't even be able to show her face in the entire university."

The three looked at each other and smirked upon hearing what Rosie said. As expected of Rosie, she wouldn't let anyone take her position, especially no one.

—

Maxene grinned as she read the comments on the post that Jared posted on his page. All of the pictures he took turned out great. He looked at Jared, who was sitting in front of her, and smiled.

"Thank you so much for this, Jared," she said. "This is a great help for my candidacy."

Jared chuckled and replied, "Nah, it's a win-win situation for me. First, I was able to take good photos because of you. Second, you increased the engagement of my page. The reaction of my followers was even better than when I posted Rosie's pictures back then. Although I am not shocked because you are indeed beautiful and kind."

Besides Maxene, there was Lianey, who's still browsing the comments with a smile. "Oh, my. The comments keep on growing! Gosh."

"It was a good thing I decided to take a picture of you on the first day of the campaign. Best decision in my life," Jared remarked and took a sip of his coffee. They were currently in a coffee shop hanging out together because Maxene wanted to personally thank him.

Maxene never asked him to do this, so she was really surprised when he posted her photos online. She only found out about it from Lianey.

However, it is true that a lot of Jared's followers reacted positively to her photos, but some of them were actually just dummy accounts that Maxene asked Crow to do for her. The reason there were a lot of positive comments about her so-called old schoolmates was because of Crow.

When Maxene found out about the post, she immediately contacted Crow to do the job. She couldn't let the opportunity go. Maxene thought that if she ever had to cheat the election, she might as well make it look like she has a lot of supporters so it wouldn't be suspicious. This event made her rethink. She realized that she could use social media to easily manipulate things.

And now that she's getting attention, she thought that Rosie might do something to stop that. If she's right, Maxene has to prevent or counter it. It's either Rosie or her dogs.

Meanwhile, Lianey suddenly screamed out of excitement, which caught Maxene and Jared's attention.

"What is it?" Maxene inquired.

Lianey looked at her and said, "Look! Dennis shared the post. Read the caption!"

Maxene read the shared post and saw Dennis caption saying:

"I've met a lot of students in the Royale, but Maxene is one of the kindest and most humble! As a varsity student, it was really hard to keep up with academics. I had to balance practice and studying. With Maxene's help, I was able to catch up. She led our group so well that we got the highest grade! A good future leader right here. She'd be the best VP ever if she'd be elected."

Maxene couldn't help but grin upon reading his caption. Her plan worked, and now she's being recognized. Since Dennis is famous too, there were a lot of people commenting on his post too.

"You should create a social media account, Maxene," Jared advised her.

"Yeah, you should do that! I bet you'll have a lot of followers!" Lianey seconded. Maxene told them that she doesn't have any social media accounts, which is why they couldn't tag her. A lot of people were asking for her account name too.

Maxene sighed and smiled. "Alright, I'll do that later."

'Come one, just do it now," Lianey insisted.

"But I'm too lazy," Maxene said, taking a sip of her coffee.

Lianey rolled her eyes and replied, "Fine. I'll do it myself. I'll just send you the password. Give me your email."

"Okay, if you insist," Maxene uttered with a chuckle. It's true that she's too lazy to do it because she's still planning her next move. She needs another plan just in case the other fails. This way, she'd be two steps ahead of everyone.

—

At the same time, Nathan saw Jared's post and showed it to Ridger, who was busy writing down his school plans, including his homework and projects. They were currently at Nathan's house hanging out together, but it seems like Ridger's mind was still occupied by schoolwork.

"What's that?" Ridger asked without looking at his phone.

"At least try to look at it, bro," Nathan replied.

Ridger sighed and grabbed Nathan's phone, but his expression changed when he saw Maxene's face.

"Why was Jared taking her pictures?" he blurted out.

Nathan shrugged and responded, "Why not? He's a photographer."

"Uh, yeah, you're right."

"Plus, Maxene's pretty, don't you think?" Nathan said, grinning at him, making Ridger frown.

"Do you like her?" Ridger asked.

"Bruh, seriously? You didn't even get the point of why I'm showing you this, and the first thing you asked was why Jared took her photos. Geez," Nathan replied and heaved a deep sigh.

"Just tell me; I'm busy," Ridger responded monotonously.

"It seems like we might get a lead here," Nathan uttered, taking Ridger's attention instantly.

"What? How?" Ridger replied almost immediately.

"Can't you see the thousands of comments? A lot of students were claiming they were her schoolmates," Nathan stated, showing him the screen again.

Ridger's face became serious, and he said, "You're right. This might be helpful."

The two exchanged glances and nodded at each other as they started to work on their investigation.

–

End of chapter 18