Is it better to be a Beta?

1.6

"Adrian, you know him?" Maddy asks, her voice trembling and eyes red as she holds back her own humiliated anger and tears back. After all, she was fresh out of high school. How could she suddenly bear listening to this barrage of disparaging remarks aimed at her almost out of nowhere? Yes she was impulsive and made a bet with him after some provocation but the things he said afterwards were really too much!

This pitiful image really hit the final nail on the coffin.

Drake! Lanzoni! Is! A! Dead! Man!

Jia Hyson immediately retracts his hand from Drake's shoulder and takes a step back, shaking the hand that touched Drake like he'd just touched something so extremely dirty he was unwilling to even wipe it off his clothes. "I thought I did," he sneers, "but I guess I was mistaken."

"Adrian, wait, I-"

"Come on Mads," Jia Hyson dodges Drake's weak attempt to grab him, going around him like he had the plague as he holds his sister's hand. "We should probably head upstairs now."

"En," Maddy gave him a watery but happy smile, finally comforted. Pointedly they both ignore the male lead as they walk past him hand-in-hand.

"Adrian! Adrian I didn't mean it! I-"

"Ah, did you hear that Adrian?" Maddy asks scornfully, already feeling much better now that her brother is by her side. "Sounded like something loud and full of himself."

"Try to block it out Mads," Jia Hyson smiles gently before throwing Drake a brief mocking look as he adds derisively, "Us homely people shouldn't try listen to those two-faced ghosts lest we get taken in by their lies."

They didn't bother to waste time around this scum male any longer and quickly went upstairs to the indoor balcony. This allows contestants that aren't competing at the moment to watch those that are. Generally they will cheer for the people they like and comment about what's happening down there and what they would have done themselves.

As they climbed up the stairs they both missed the confused, ashamed and heartbroken expression on a certain male lead's face.

Once ten minutes had passed, anyone still lingering was sent upstairs and filming resumed with the pale-faced individuals in black aprons standing in front of the podium awaiting their elimination challenge. Jia Hyson spent most of the time chatting with Maddy and surprisingly the womanizer Daniel Green who was very friendly and insightful.

The elimination challenge wasn't too hard since it was only the first day, but that didn't mean it wasn't cruel. Six plates of six different dishes featuring eggs in ninety minutes. And they only had fifteen minutes of the pantry before it was closed off. Half of them were going home.

"Thank god I don't have to do that," Jia Hyson sighs, "I wouldn't be able to remember the things I would need for two recipes much less six."

Maddy laughs, "I remember once you tried to make a cake and forgot which step you were on, then you just dumped everything in and skipped right to the third last step."

"Oh-ho?" Daniel chortles, "Is that true Adrian?"

Jia Hyson flushes. That was the time he told Bebe not to help him because he was very confident in his cooking skills helping him out when his memory couldn't. It turned out this doesn't apply to the precise chemistry that was baking. "That, that was ages ago."

Maddy nudges him on the ribs with a sly wink toward an amused Daniel, "Sure, if you call last Monday 'ages ago'!"

"You brat!" Adrian chuckles, ruffling her hair affectionately as she squeals.