Masked Girls

15. THREE DOWN

Well, well, I thought as I pulled out Google Docs on my laptop, if dear Lisa still hasn't done her work -

Only to see that the ownership of the document was no longer under my name, but Jesslyn Woods, meaning Lisa had submitted it. I quickly clicked to see what she'd written - and surprisingly, she'd dumped whole chunks of words at 11:45pm. Birch probably wrote it on a separate document. 

But guess what was worse?

Said chunks actually made sense - no, they were even kind of good.

Well screw you, Lisa. You made my ass panic for three days over whether you'd submit on time. And you somehow managed to write with more flowery language than I have and - 

I narrowed my eyes when I noticed the paragraphs I'd written.

Something... something was not quite the same with it... which meant Lisa had edited my work. Without my permission.

What the hell - what was she getting at? Trying to claim my work as hers?!

Good thing I'd already spoken to Ms Woods. At least she'd know the real tea and who the snake was.

I hope. 

No, she'd probably interpret it as kind darling Lisa trying to improve my essay to make up for her procrastination, leaving me to be an anxious clown emoji. 

Wasn't I just Boo Boo the Fool? Again?

I stood up with a huff, shutting my laptop as I climbed out of the picnic table, looking around at the garden-ish courtyard directly outside the study area. It was eight in the morning, with the cold breeze swaying the autumn tree branches. The insects and birds chirped at moderate intervals, not too loudly, not too frequently - just nice and melodic, just another beautiful morning at a scenic little corner of the perfect, prestigious Rifton Girls' High.

No, it wasn't one of those situations described in books where everything looked miserable because I was unhappy and annoyed. It was a nice morning, and I felt grateful for it, yes. Yet, appreciating the small things never took away the bad things.

In case anyone was wondering, I wasn't depressed, or at least, I didn't think so. I 'got out of bed' just fine and I did still experience feelings of happiness when I should. I was somewhat unmotivated at times, but that was mostly due to me paling in comparison to everyone else and the demon of procrastination.

I just felt empty. 

Not sad empty, of course - it was just that I wasn't doing anything meaningful with my life by letting time pass, thinking the next milestone would somehow be better when it just turned out to be the same old people and the same old BS all over again.

From another perspective, perhaps it was just me who hadn't been seizing enough opportunities for the past year. Maybe, it was right to start grabbing onto the strings of fate, like I had with Natalie and Gillian. I'd had my fun, and I'd achieved my goal of putting them in their place. So far, things had turned out decently. 

What was another Lisa Knight to me? Natalie and Gillian were the stronger pieces on the chessboard, and yet they had slipped up. If this was a year of careless blunders, all I had to do was wait and watch.