Break-Up Club ⓄⓃⒸ ②⓪②① ✅

10

"Are you sure about this?" I asked Indy and Raja, who both strutted quickly down the hall like supermodels. I was usually confident about my walk, but they practically ran, and I had to jog to keep up with them. 

"Damn, you people need to chill on the coffee in the mornings," I said with a huff after we stopped in front of the door to the drama teacher's room. 

Mr. Carson was an odd man. A few months ago, he had found out that his wife, the gym coach, had been cheating on him... with a student. Needless to say, he had somewhat of a mid-life crisis and was doing what he called 'focusing on himself.' 

Indy looked at the rest of us for assurance, and she took a deep breath before shaking out her nerves, quite literally, and knocking on the door. 

A few moments later, the pine door swung open to reveal a slightly-gruff, spiry-figured man, and all at once, Indy started up. 

"Ah! Mr. Carson! I'm dying, here!" Indy dramatically exclaimed as she threw herself onto the chair in front of the man's desk. He sighed, rolling his eyes as he shut the door after eyeing us suspiciously as we too came into the room. 

"What now, Indrani? Another lead-role crisis? Do you want the lead to the musical we're doing next year too?" he asked as he shook his head, sitting down in his chair and resuming eating his snack, which happened to be a mini-feast. 

My eyes narrowed as I glanced at his eyes, noticing they were rimmed red. I happened to glance at Raja, who shared a confirming smirk. Man, this girl was truly terrifying. 

"No, Mr. Carson, it's serious! My boyfriend Logan and I are having relationship problems, and we need your help!" she cried out, reaching for Mr. Carson's arm across the table, but he (intelligently) kept it hidden and out of reach. 

"And this is my problem because...?" 

"Because I'm pregnant!" My eyes went wide at this, and I stepped forward, opening my mouth to speak, but Indy kicked my leg, and I winced, sitting down in the chair beside her as I rubbed my shin. 

"Okay, so maybe I'm not pregnant, but if I was, would you be comfortable with knowing that one of your theater babies might end up the next Fantine?" Mr. Carson snorted at this as he kept ravaging his assortment of snacks on his desk. 

"Fantine's life was brutal. You're merely experiencing a break-up," he said, ignoring her. She narrowed her eyes, huffing as she got out of the chair, shrugging as she met Raja by the door again. I followed her, expecting Raja to open the door and let us out of the room. 

Instead, she shook her head, refusing to accept the failure, as she clomped over to the man's desk and slammed her two hands down on either side. 

"Listen, you old perv. I know you light up in the boy's bathroom when you think no one's looking, and I've got proof to expose you. I don't think you'd want the daughter of one of the assistant principals to show her daddy picture evidence, now would you?" she asked in a sweet tone. The man's eyes quivered like a bird's wings, the blue turning frigid and terrified.

"Are you threatening me?" he asked. She shifted her arms off of his desk, resting all of her weight on one foot and cocking her hip, her tight blue jeans moving with her. 

"Depends on what you'll say to sponsoring our club for couple's therapy... the Make-Up Club," she added, giving him a famous 'Raja' smile, her brilliant white teeth flashing. Mr. Carson's fingers circled his temple before he snapped up, glancing at Raja, then the rest of us before nodding, slowly. 

Indy did a celebratory dance with her fingers... and somehow, her hand slipped into mine. I moved to jerk away, but I relaxed as Mr. Carson spotted us. 

"I see that your relationship problems have sorted themselves out. Now, if you'll excuse me," he trailed off, gesturing to his computer. Raja folded her hands together as she thanked him with a tight-lipped smile, and we left his office. 

As soon as the door was secured behind us, Indy turned to Raja. 

"How could you blackmail Mr. Carson?" she asked, a worried expression on her face, different than the one she projected inside the office.

Raja rolled her eyes, slinging her arm around her shoulder. 

I tsked at Raja, and she swung her other arm around me. I said, "Geez, Raja, that was intense, even for you."

She pointedly looked at me and booped my nose with a giggle. "Oh, please, don't act like you didn't love it. Besides, you two seemed to be eye-banging each other in there when we got Mr. Carson to agree." 

I gagged. "As if. Indy's way too 'horny for Shakespeare' to be concerned about me and my perfect bod," I said, flaunting my toned legs. Indy scoffed as she threw Raja's arm off of her and adjusted her purple tee from last year's production of Hamlet. 

"I thought you told me not to say those two words together?" she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest to block out the white lettering of the shirt. 

"Yeah, I told you not to say that. I never said anything about myself. I'll catch you both later. I'm going to skip with the team for a bonding exercise," I said, but before I could make a clean getaway, Raja stopped me with a hand on my arm, her magenta acrylic nails digging into my flesh.

"And where are you going that's more important than calculus, Hoppy?" she asked. Hoppy was the incredibly annoying nickname that Raja thought to bestow upon me when I flew off the trampoline after jumping too high and crashed into a tree. Oddly enough, the cast and the killer pain wasn't the worst thing to come out of that incident.

"Don't call me that, Miss-Too-Cool-For-Me," I smarmily replied and mimicked her with a hand puppet. She stopped me in the center of the hall, giving Indy the opportunity to slip into her first period with a mic drop exit. I sighed as Raja grabbed my shoulders and turned me to look at her. 

"You really must have something other than that. I mean, you've known me since kindergarten!" she exclaimed, then sighed. "If my class ends and you haven't come up with a better insult, I'm disowning you as my friend. And... if you are going to skip, remember our rule."

"Don't get caught," we said together, and we both burst into laughter. It felt good to hear her laugh again. It was like my whole world had righted itself, and my best friend was back.

"As if you could go two minutes without talking to me. I mean, who else would listen to your non-stop prattle?" With that, she smacked my arm, shooting me one last grin before ducking into her history class.

Right as I prepped my announcement to the team and my escape, I saw a familiar figure striding toward me. I groaned and pushed my hair back, knowing there was no escape now.

"Mr. Shulman, I see that you are still loitering the halls like a wastrel," Mr. Turner, everyone's most hated English teacher, noted as he stopped pacing before me. I turned to face him and gave him an appreciative smile that really meant 'I want to defenestrate myself before I hear another word come out of your mouth.'

"Well? Aren't you getting to class?"

"Yes, sir," I mumbled, and I followed him into his classroom. 

Even as a semi-decent student, English was one of those subjects that I understood the least. As soon as they added seemingly meaningless things that could be said in a few words, I checked out. Raja, however, was a shining star in every subject, so much so that she took AP Literature as a sophomore. 

I entered the room behind Mr. Turner, and when I was seated at my desk, I read the board, grinning to myself. It was my lucky day—a free period, which meant I had time to plan the next victim of the 'Make-Up Club.' Maybe this would work out after all.

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A/N: I can't believe there's only three more days until the deadline. It feels like we just started lmao

Anywho, I'm planning something huge for the next few chapters, so keep reading and eat your vegetables, kids.  

Word count- 19,644