Out of the blue

Chapter 4

As we were walking inside the campus, I was observing how many heads turned because of Liz and V. Naomi and I usually witness many people checking out Liz and V from head to toe. Especially V. It seems to us like they have some kind of x-ray vision in their eyes and they are checking her out and ogling over her. Can't blame them though, she sure is good-looking and hot. She has got the perfect body which any guy would ogle over. And so does Liz. Naomi covers her body up with huge hoodies and her face with huge glasses. She doesn't like the attention. As for me, I guess I barely make any heads turn. I sometimes feel like I am invisible to them. But then I am relieved by that when I hear about all the incidences of stalkers and creepy flirts and unwanted clingy people which they have to face day in and day out. Our high school is like any other high school. It has all kinds of groups. The nerds, geeks, fashionistas, wannabees, dorks, outcasts, and the rich spoilt brats. The one ruling them all is the queen bee. And the queen bee has her minions and followers who devoutly follow each and everything that she says. Her words are like the bible to them. She sure has followers who can do anything for her highness. I am talking about Hope Branch. The queen bee of our high school. The name 'Hope' is ought to bring anticipation, desire, trust. But rather, all I get is utter despair. She walks into the school with her minions as if she is a model and walking down the ramp participating in the fashion show. No doubt many are head over heels for her beauty and the show she puts up every day. But there are quite a few like me who don't care what she does unless it's gossip. The others in those few include my three besties. She is the only daughter of the Mayor of our town. So she is a spoilt brat. No doubt that her parents are rich so they have all the riches to spoil and pamper their baby girl with all kinds of luxury and demands which she makes. Her dad goes around in Rolls Royce. Which is OK, he is a mayor. But she comes to high school in a freaking Mercedes. Rich kids! If she wants something. She gets that thing. No matter what. Her Father Mr. Branch, Prosper is the mayor of our town. Her mother Mrs. Branch, Destinee is a homemaker and helps her husband with all the work and supports him like a doting wife. She is what a definition of a perfect wife would be like in the movies. She is highly influential among the town's people. Her clothes are as per current fashion and she keeps her hair short. When we were kids, Hope used to be in our close-knit circle. We used to be the five fabulous kids. But as we started growing up, Hope started getting selfish and jealous. She had to have everything better than us, more than us and before us. Be it toys, dresses, vacations, or anything. You name it and she had to have it better than us. She wanted us to follow whatever she said and do without asking questions. Then she even started getting jealous as V and Liz started getting attention because of the looks post-puberty. This was the final nail to the coffin. So she split. That is when she found her 2 worshipers aka Sophie and Laura, to accompany her everywhere and obey all her commands. In return even they got all the attention and luxuries which they need. With the number of praises those followers give her for her looks, it feels like she is quite skeptical about her looks and she needs time-to-time compliments. But she behaves like she owns the world and everybody is below her and nobody can ever match her appearances. But out of everything else, she definitively hates me the most and I cannot quite put a finger on the reason 'why?' She always makes it a point to mock and insult me even if I try to maintain a distance and avoid her. While everyone had gone near the locker to put in their stuff and get ready for the lectures, V and I decided to go use the restroom as I had to pee urgently and V had to do a touch-up. After I was done I came out of the stall and was washing my hands when V decided to go pee. This is when Hope walked in with Laura and Sophie trailing behind her. I looked up to see all three looking at me with pure disgust on their face. I looked back down concentrating on washing my hand to avoid any kind of conversation."Uh, this school should consider not to take in dumb people who don't belong here," said one of the minions in a high pitch irritating tone, and the other just gave a shrilling laugh as a response."Would you mind?" said Hope with the hand gesture to indicate me to move away so she could wash her hand. I looked and saw there were three other washbasins which were vacant but she wanted me to move. I decided not to argue and shrugged and moved out to a different washbasin all while she was looking at me still with disgust written all over her face. Just then V came out of the stall and abruptly moved to the washbasin where I was standing previously slightly bumping into Hope and started to wash her hands. Hope and her minions looked at her with a surprised and annoyed look and they continued watching her in horror without uttering a word as though they were speech bound. V looked up at Hope and her minions scanning them from top to bottom with an annoyed look and then turned to me and said "Uh, this school should consider not to take in dumb people who don't belong here."My jaw dropped at that comment from V and so did Laura and Sophie's. Hope on the other hand went back to her calm composure flipped her hair back and replied "You see, my dad is the Mayor of this town and a committee member of this school, so I deserve to be here more than anyone else""Oh really? So is ray's mom, she is a committee member and on top of that Ray represents the school in different inter-school competitions and ensures to bring those trophies, so she is more of an asset to the school than someone who only pays attention to their looks just to make guys drool behind them." By now V had finished washing and drying her hand and she turned to me picking up her bag and said " Ray aren't we getting late, let's go. Don't wanna be late for the first lecture of our first day." Saying this she left the washing and I trailed behind her leaving a very shocked queen bee and her minions back in the washing before they could even think, reply or stop us.We were walking towards the locker when V said "You know you should speak up and not let them insult you like this. I am more pissed off at you than at them. When will you learn to stand for yourself? She has no reasons to treat you like this. She only does that because she knows you won't snap back."I just hung my head low and replied "I don't want any kind of fights in school. You know how it ends right?""That was just one time and she deserved it," said V"But still. I don't want to lose control over my temper at school and be suspended or anything." I replied"OK. Not in school, but outside of school if you need any help, even if it to hide the body after you lose control, know that I have got your back girl." and V winked at me saying this, to which I couldn't help but laugh at that remark. "I know, I have 3 people to help me murder and hide bodies if required"We laughed and made our way to the locker where Liz and Nao were patiently waiting for us. We were stuffing all the extra books inside the locker and just getting ready to turn and head back to our class when we heard few guys gasping and we found out it was Hope and her minions.As she was walking down the corridor aka her ramp. She glances over in our direction as we were just hanging around our locker and talking about our timetable for the day and she gives a grand eye roll and a small grunt as if she saw something lowly. And she went straight into the classroom and sat at her fixed designated place. Her minions followed the same action as their queen bee and followed her inside and took their seats on either side of Hope. "Did she just eye roll at us?" asked Nao"Aha.. and grunted too!" I replied "So typical and predictable," said Liz"Hey maybe she wanted to say 'sorry' but ended up grunting" guessed V"Why? Did she fall on her head?" asked Liz"No, I think the little conversation with V opened her mind for split seconds, and then she made it back to her bitchy self" I replied"What conversation," asked Liz"Oh nothing, we just ran into her in the washroom and she was talking lowly about Ray so I had to intervene and put in some knowledge in her small peanut-sized brain" explained V"Oh! That explains and everything makes sense" Nao exclaimed.We all started laughing making all the passerby look at us weirdly.We did our best to suppress our laughter and went inside the classroom and took our seats as soon as the bell went off indicating the commencement of our 1st lecture.