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The Crab Cult

A/N I've been feeling shitty lately so here's an equally shitty chapter. This is based on true events, just so you're aware. By the way, this occurs sometime before they uncovered Jade. The song of the day is "Dirty Thoughts" by Chloe Adams. Enjoy!

It's Ariel Garcia, back from a few chapters ago. Nico was determined, ever since that art class, to find the real culprit behind the articles. He searched far and wide throughout our immense school, questioning every student that came within a five foot radius of him. 

Jade bribed me with money to keep my silence. I could expose her, if I really wanted to. That would also expose me, I soon realized. 

Honestly, he assumed we were friends. Just like some kind of silly fanfiction, Nico seemed to be the ambitious protagonist dealing with homophobes in a vast sea of ignorance. While I, the antagonist, was busy trying to lead him away from that homophobic ocean. 

He'd even gone far enough to introduce me to his pretty, perfect boyfriend. Will, he'd told me on the first day we'd met. 

"Nice to meet you," I outstretched my hand to shake his. "Nico talks about you all the time. You seem like a great guy."

"I've heard lots about you, as well," Will claimed, smiling brighter than the sun. "Apparently you're his partner in crime to catch the blog writer."

"Sure am," I declared proudly, although covering up my true personality with a false persona. "Are you willing to help us?"

"Anything for my Neeks." He grabbed Nico's hand in his, enveloping their fingers together. 

I'd learned to manage a poker face while staring at gays. Sure, I was the judgiest person you'd ever encounter, but I knew how to cover it. Homophobia had been in the back of my mind since I first arrived at that school. Diverse kids walked the halls every day, but only few could hide their differences. 

"I just noticed, I haven't asked for your number," Nico handed me a small slip of paper. "Here's mine."

"Oh, I completely forgot about that!" Writing down my number on a separate piece of paper, I handed the slip to him and tapped his number into my phone. "Thanks, now we can get into contact for news. Sweet."

I knew exactly what to do with his number later. 

My fist pounded against Jade's door when I arrived home. She'd gone home early after school to add onto her blog with juicy drama from lunch. 

"Who is it?" She called out. 

"Ariel!" I barked, turning her doorknob swiftly to find my half-sister maniacally taping crab emojis to her wall. "Uh, what's going on here?"

She grimaced, dropping the roll of tape onto her carpet. "My newest project. You like what you see?"

My eyes stared at her crab-covered walls, not a tinge of understanding flowing through my brain. "No, not really."

She growled out a sigh. "Ariel, it's not hard to understand. Close the door before we continue, though. This is secret."

I plopped onto her carpet, sitting criss-cross applesauce. "I'm listening."

She pointed gingerly at the images on her wall. "All we have to do is catch our victims in 4K. We can use my extra phone, because I don't have many contacts on there."

"To do what?" I sputtered. "I don't see how this anything to do with your blog."

"We can start a trend for the school to enjoy," Jade proposed, gesturing towards the crabs. "We anonymously send a crab emoji and an invitation to join the 'crab cult' to random people in our school. I need you to collect numbers for me."

Handing her the slip of paper Nico had given me, she smirked like a devil. "Whose number is this? Please tell me it's that gay, emo kid you're friends with."

I scowled, nodding. "He's not my friend. I'm using him for information. He thinks I'm on his side, calls me his partner in crime."

She sighed lovingly. "If those two boys weren't gay, I'd fall in love with William. He's in my Spanish class. Dios mío, Dios mío."

"Calm down, Casanova," I chuckled, typing Nico's number into her phone. "Let's get this over with. Expose the guy before he can stomp all over our lives."

"I like the sound of that."

We typed Nico's number into her phone, eager to begin the newest addition to her project. I spammed crab emojis to him until he felt forced to respond. 

Who tf is this?

Join the crab cult

The what?

The Crab cult. Join us.

He didn't respond again, much to our surprise. This was going to ruin him, whether he liked it or not. 

"Jade, he's offline again," I told her, setting the phone down on her floor. "Are you sure this is a good idea? If they find out it was us, then-"

"We won't be expelled," Jade promised, turning off her phone. "Ariel, I need you to trust me. When have I ever done things wrong?"

"You know, when you sort of almost exposed our secret over a boy that wasn't even straight," I mumbled, crossing my arms angrily. "I don't think I want to risk this. Maybe we should just force them into a situation that'll get them expelled. I don't want to follow through with this."

"You're just a wimp." Jade flopped onto her bed. "Go away, now. I'm going to be early. Today was tiring. Especially when the teachers got involved with the blog."

Before I left her bedroom, I whipped my head around to face her. "They found out about the blog?"

"Well, of course," Jade snickered. "Laura literally showed the principal in the middle of lunch. I took a video to edit for the blog. She'll be announced the snitch of our school within a day."

"This is serious." My voice cracked with fear. "I don't want to be expelled. That's bad for my records. Yours too."

"I couldn't care less," She spouted. "Go cry about it, if you want. You're the one who agreed to join me."

A/N Honestly I thought this would be a much better idea during my insanity outburst last night, but it's worse than I thought. I send my friends crab emojis on a daily basis to mess with their minds.

Thanks for reading!