Beyond the lies

Chapter 13

"I still don't know how to help you Tanya, with Marco or the other girls."

The older girl scoffed, "I'm the principal's daughter! The other girls won't dare to try and go against me." 

Reeds. That's why the name was familiar to her.

Tanya looked at her pleadingly, "at some point can you at least try to bring me up to him, please?"

They stopped outside the big double doors, the scent of today's lunch wafting through.

"Ok, I'll try...no promises though."

For the first time, the other girl gave a joyful smile and nodded.

"Wait! What if other girls try and come to me as well?"

"Did you just forget me saying that I'm the principal's daughter? They won't even look at you if I tell them."

Finally, they arrived.

"Alright then, I'll try. I need to go now."

Tanya's smiled and waved as she headed in a different direction, "bye Sophie!"

"It's- never mind." 

She headed over to Vera and Elias who were already sat down.

"What took you so long?"

"It's a long story..."

Vera chuckled and Elias simply nodded and took another bite of his sandwich. 

"Where are the others?"

Elias answered, "Nicole's got a drama rehearsal for the next school play and Martin's got extra football practice for a match."

Her eyes widened slightly, "Nicole's in a play?"

Vera cut in, "yeah! She's got quite a big role too considering she's not one of the older years."

"Wow...I never knew. And I'm surprised Martin's on the football team."

Elias nodded, "I know. It's weird how full of energy people can be all day long."

Her female friend laughed nervously, "I don't think that was why she was surprised Eli."

"Where's Owen?"

Perhaps there was a new, undiscovered side to him that she had yet to find out too.

"Oh, he's in detention for pulling a prank on some English teacher in the middle of a test."

Of course he did...

Vera huffed, "honestly it was a stupid move on his part. He should've just revised!"

"I don't know about that," Elias said as he finished the last bit of his food, "but it technically worked. At least he didn't do the test."

"No," Vera agreed with a straight face, "and now he's probably gonna fail that subject."

He shrugged.

The rest of the day continued as normal and Sofia fortunately found that there were no more surprises waiting for her, or so she thought. The bell had just rung, signalling the end of the school day and she made her way to the parking lot as usual.

What she hadn't expected was to be standing there waiting for the twins to show up for ten minutes. Digging into her blazer pockets to find her phone, she realised she had somehow left it in her locker. She felt like an idiot and turned back to go get it.

That was the plan until she felt a hand grip her shoulder. The girl turned to find a stunning girl leaned over, panting as if she had ran a marathon.

"You're...Sofia...right?"

She nodded and looked the other over. She was a bit shorter than her and had cropped black hair and dark eyes. Sofia gave her another minute to collect her breath, curious to know why she had come after her.

"I'm so sorry for bring late!"

"I don't know what you're talking about?"

"Didn't Rocco tell you, I'm taking you home today. He and Marco have to stay behind for extra lessons."

"I wasn't informed."

"I could've sworn that he said he'd message you though."

Sofia narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"I accidentally left my phone in my locker, I need to get it and check for any messages before leaving with you first."

The other girl smiled, "of course! Let's go."

The younger girl walked ahead and Rocco's friend tried her best to make light-talk.

"Soo, I heard you like music?"

"Yes."

"That's nice!"

"...What's your name?"

"I'm Aliyah, I'm also a senior."

The conversation dimmed down again and they quickly reached Sofia's locker.

Turns out Rocco had indeed messaged her near the end of school. She tried to call Luca, however found the call went straight to voicemail. 

He must be busy. Oh well.

"Sorry for doubting you Aliyah, turns out your right. He did leave a message."

Aliyah shook her head furiously, "don't be silly! But why was your phone in here in the first place?"

"I put it there since we had a test right after lunch, I thought I did take it once that was over though."

"Mistakes can happen!" She checked her own phone and gasped and the time, "we should hurry Sofia, it's getting quite late."

About ten minutes later, Aliyah was calmly driving them away when a question formed in the girl's head.

"By the way, what's your relation with Rocco, from the way you spoke earlier you sounded close."

The older girl bit her lip in apprehension, "why do you ask?"

"I've just never seen you around him before, that's all."

Aliyah forced a laugh, "it's kind of risky for us to be seen together."

"Why?"

"Well, maybe because I'm secretly dating him."

"...oh."

That told her all she needed to know to confirm her theory.

"Aliyah, can you please pull over to the side for a bit."

The other complied and turned to Sofia with a confused expression, "what's wrong?"

"I hope you know my family's quite a powerful one."

"Erm yeah I suppose."

"So you know that messing with them is never a good thing right?"

"Sofia what's this all about?" Aliyah only looked more bewildered as Sofia leaned in, her eyes emotionless and fixated only on her.

"Picking a fight or even threatening them is enough for your life to be basically over, you know that right?"

"What? Of course I know that, why are you saying-"

"So why did you lie about dating Rocco? Who actually are you, Aliyah?"