ABC

Chapter 1

The girls may not know what's waiting for them, but one thing is certain: neither of them is willing to cave. Not even if the price is as high as three hours worth of detention.

They all stare blankly at a fixed, unprecised point in the empty and unwelcoming room, occasionally being forced to put their heads down upon being shot ice-cold daggers. After all, what they did must be something serious. Like in damaging the whole school's reputation.

Covering the statue of the school's founder in red and blue paint was only one of the many ludicrous acts they all did in order to protest against the growing loss of sense by a cruel, almost tyrannical man otherwise known as the Principal.

Let's also count the food fight in the canteen, with the Principal and his substitute being involved as they got covered in spaghetti, meatballs and tomato salsa. Plus, the canteen was a huge mess, with chairs and tables scattered all over the place and stains everywhere. What's worse, no-one even bothered to clean up.

Let's also not forget the bug invasion in the school's corridors. Dozens of cockroaches appearing from the middle of nowhere and turning the girls' toilets into hell; butterflies flying everywhere; ants making it impossible for everyone to have lunch in peace.

There's more and more, but the most embarrassing thing to the school's reputation is definitely when some girls decided to air a video in front of the entire school where two fellow students, one of them being son to a teacher and the other one being the Mayor's niece, making out and playing erotic games.

As they played the video, everyone was literally shocked, not at the content of the video itself or at who appeared on it, but at who actually spread it online, not even thinking of the consequences. Knowing they've always and they'll always be shunned, they wanted their ultimate payback.

Still, their plan ended up in failure and the primary consequence of what they did is, inevitably, detention. The next step, however, could be an even harsher punisment such as expulsion. It even looks like these girls don't give a damn about their education anymore. They only want to get out of that hellhole.

They're fed up with nice, dainty girls coming from wealthy or well-being families being treated like royalty or being granted every sort of privileges. What's worse, this happens accordingly to the rest of the student body, all while they're considered even lower than pieces of scum.

So, regardless of what punishment they have to face, they'll earn their ultimate payback. And their fellows might either want to cave to what they say or do, or else they'll be in deep trouble.

***

Principal Byer is staring sternly at the five girls, probably engaging in a glare fight with them; however, his strategy, while it seemed to pay off for the first ten to fifteen minutes, is no longer working. The girls are studying every single move of his, searching for his weaknesses and waiting for his next move, hoping that it'll be a faux pas.

He stands from his desk, slowly approaching theirs and making sure that they're not taking their eyes off of him. Any distraction could be fatal and lead to a reprimand of epic proportions. After all, Byer's mission of turning their lives into hell has been always clear since freshman year.

The girls all have their arms crossed and their glares pointed at the man who could be minutes away from depriving them of an education unless they turn into goody-two-shoes midges like he wants. This is not what they want; furthermore, they have a reputation, and they must do anything they can to preserve it.

The glare battle seems to come to an end when he approaches a desk, where one of the girls, a brunette whose coal black hair is collected in a high ponytail and has a lateral fringe, is sitting. She frowns and curls her lips, disgusted at his attitude. He's doing whatever is in his power to make her lose her sanity.

"Ashleigh." As he pronounces her name, her sense of disgust is growing even stronger inside her. The girl, whose name is indeed Ashleigh, is barely restraining herself from standing up, grabbing that horrid man's jacket and tearing apart after threatening to strangle him. 'He'd deserve it. He's only a jerk.'

"Have you got an idea of why you're here, young lady?" The devious smile plastered on Byer's face fades away in a barely noticeable way as Ashleigh throws ice-cold daggers at him. If it were for her, she'd love to see him buried underground, it doesn't matter if dead or alive.

She only mutters an unconvinced "yes", not wanting to hear another of his reprimands on how a model student should behave. She is not a good girl and she'll never be one, she knows that. So, why is he trying to change her ways forcefully? What is his bargain, should he accomplish this absurd mission, for it?

Ashleigh tries to push away those questions lured into her mind, but to no avail; hence, she looks down at her wooden desk, covered in ink stains, scissor cut signs and writings in pencil. Most of those consist of offensive insults towards Byer or other students. The best part, anyway, is that they come straight from her.

She feels proud of her little masterpiece on that school desk. She isn't like the majority of the other students, an insensitive teachers' darling and a pleaser. If someone wants to earn her respect, they have to do so the hard way.

Yet, she knows she can't count on anyone, not even the four girls who are here with her for detention, although they all did what they did together. Lainie Dozler, for example, used to take part in pageant contests under her mother's pressure; still, seeing herself constantly in the bottom placements made her want to get her payback on all those dainty little bitches.

Presliett Perito endured years of mockery because of her low grades and her messy looks; teachers never had any hope in her and neither did her parents, which prompted her to only talk to them if asked to and mostly to berate them.

And then, here are best friends Breyer Bialecki and Leighann Breazeale: they are always sticking close to each other, never addressing to anyone else unless they want to beat them up or belittle them.

Ashleigh perfectly knows that, if she wants to survive these last hellish months of high school, she has to start trust the other four girls in this room, from now.