Prom Queen

Chapter fourteen: Lily O'Brien

"To the 55th annual Portland Academy of the Arts prom! We are now ready to announce our King and Queen. Is everyone ready?"
Everybody cheers, letting Principal Hawthorn know that they are, in fact, ready.
"Let's start with our male nominees, shall we?"
She calls up the male nominees. All idiots. Finally she announces that John Macintosh is prom King this year, as usual. Next, she calls up the female nominees.
"And now for our female nominees, we have Lily O Brien, Zoe Adams, Veronica Pattiricci, and Marie Norberry! Come on up!"
There are cheers as we head up the stairs onto the stage. We line up, and the principal begins speaking again.
"This year, it was quite a close tie for our prom queen, but one winning vote showed us our queen. Shes the talented extraordinaire, Zoe Adams!"
She calls Zoe up, and hands her the crown along with the bouquet of roses. My whole world slows down, and I feel the anger rising up again. What's happening to my life? We walk off the stage and I mutter to Veronica that I have to use the restroom. I push my way through the crowd and slam into the women's restroom. There are two girls in there applying lipstick who suddenly turn to me, and we are staring at each other until I finally yell,
"Get out!"
They both look stunned, and they hurry out. I take deep breaths and lean on the counter. I feel the anger rising up in me, and it's making my brain blur and my body shake. I can't think. I try to think that's it's ok, but it's not. She's taking everything from me. Everything. I finally feel like I have a hold on myself when Veronica busts in and asks,
"Lily whats going on? Are you ok?"
Thats when I break.
"No! No I'm not ok, dammit! That girl, that thing, is taking everything from me! First the award that everybody knows was supposed to be mine, and now she's taken prom queen from me. What is even happening in my life Veronica-"
She cuts me off and says,
"That's what this is about? Prom queen? Lily there will be another one next year-"
"NO! No there won't be, and you wanna know why? Because she's after everything that I have and have ever achieved. She's taking everything from me, including you! You're siding with her now? Really? I can't believe you."
"Lily you need to calm down-"
"I will not calm down and you will not tell me what to do! She thinks that she can just take me down and get away with it? Well I'll tell you, she has clearly underestimated me. She may have won the battle, but I will win this war and end it once and for all. She's going down, Veronica."
Fear crosses her face, and I try and push past her to get to the door, but she won't let me pass.
She pleads with me to think about what I am doing, but the only thing guiding me right now is pure rage. I can't wrestle myself from her grasp, so I grab one of my heels and smack her across the face with it, leaving a deep gash on her cheek. She lets go with a scream and I pull her into a stall.
"Anybody asks about this, Zoe did this. You tell anybody what really happened here, and you're going down too. Don't think I won't hesitate to take you down with her."
I push past her and exit the bathroom. I pull out my phone and text Zoe to meet me in the garages, and I head into the school lab. I start digging through everything until I find what im looking for: A scalpel.