Masked Girls

02. THE QUEEN AND THE BACKWARD PAWN

With the current scenario before me, I forced a small smile on my face - it probably looked like a grimace or something because I had no idea how to control my facial muscles, but whatever - and gave the Populars a small, polite wave. It would've been a great time for me to suddenly develop supernatural abilities like they always did in shows and books so that I could yeet the Populars into the next dimension -

"Hey, Selene! How was your holiday?"

Oh my God, she decided to talk to me. About my holidays. Why is she talking to me?! Why is she even talking to me -  

Ah, of course. She had to maintain her reputation for being the outgoing and friendly golden child, while inserting a few subtle jabs in compliments the way concubines always did in those ancient Chinese period dramas Grandma played on repeat when we visited her house. Those shows were quite entertaining. 

But subtle, hidden insults in real life? Not so much, especially since I would be roasted on a grill if I ever tried one of those lines on the most popular student of the school.

"Oh! Hey, Natalie!" I said, forcing the most realistic smile I could muster onto my childish-as-heck face. However, taking my general faking skills into account, it probably didn't serve the intended purpose. "It was good, yeah!"

Natalie smiled back - but there was something in that look, those bright emerald eyes of hers that seemed to burn with a myriad of hidden emotions and dark intentions. It was probably my vivid imagination caused by serious trust issues, but that birch was probably mocking me internally, thinking something along the lines of, "Oh, look at that poor thing with no friends!"

Either that, or working out a plan in that clever brain of hers to destroy my social life - again - once I said something wrong.

My eyes darted to witness the other girls who were a part of Natalie's train - her clique members were clearly thinking the same as myself as they, the royal court of nobility, waited for Natalie to be done talking to a peasant like myself.

Natalie smiled serenely in response as I gripped my Chemistry textbook tighter to my chest. "Neat. You're in Mr Lynch's Physics Class, right? See you then!" With that, the girl strutted off, her clique following closely behind like the loyal lap dogs they were, each one smiling at me faked smiles in the name of being refined young ladies— but the fakest one that I could see right through was Gillian Bishop's.

Since the beginning of our time in Rifton, I could tell that the track-and-field sportsgirl had it out for me. Gillian never seemed to dig the idea of having me around in the school. Why she didn't exactly, I would probably never know, but what I did know was that the bichacho played an extremely active part in talking shit about me once Natalie the Almighty decided she didn't like me at all. After all, it was a win-win for her. Help to screw over the social life of childish chess geek and secure a permanent position as second-in-command of the Queen Bee? Of course she'd do it.

On the other hand, the other core member of what I called the Tyrannical Trio was less of a vicious, toxic snake but as close as anyone in Rifton got to being an airhead. Annalisa Knight was known for her shopaholic ways, flexing her dance skills and having good taste in the perfect OOTDs for her Instagram feed. However, that didn't make me forget how she'd tagged along and helped to spread rumours of my shortcomings all over the school either.

As I watched Natalie's honey blonde ponytail swish in the air, I walked off with my books, muttering, "真是一个笑里藏刀的狐狸精! [what a fox vixen, hiding a dagger in her smile!] "

"Sorry, were you talking to me?"

I whirled around to face a pair of bewildered sky blue eyes. Avery Castle was the identical twin of Addison Castle, and both were part of the Populars. She was one of the less problematic people one could meet in such a school - but she was one of them and that was that.