Pretty Girls

Three

It was our normal Friday night, we were lying on her bed talking about the craziest things.
"Ohh my God Nela really? Are you even allowed to say that kinda stuff to teachers in high school?"
"Not sure, but they don't seem to care, he didn't."
"What did your sweetheart say? Did he laugh, smile, look at you???"
"Hehe, I guess you could say that."
"Why haven't you told me his name? Is it like a secret?"
"I'd prefer to tell you when it's official." Penelope added,with a smile.
"Ugh, hopefully soon."
"Hopefully." She responded, her smile fading away.

***

"We're going shopping with the majors after school today. You're coming right?"
Marjorie, another member of the minors asked me.

"Yeah, of course I am, it should be fun!" I replied, trying to seem as excited as I could be. But I really wasn't all that cheery.
"How cool is it that Armoni convinced them to take us with them?"
"Pretty cool,"  I said, clearly not as excited as she was.
"Hey," she continued when she heard my reaction,
"It's going to be fun." She said it, though I didn't believe it.

We had just finished buying our clothes at Forever 21 and were in the food court, tables together just talking, when a familiar girl walked by.

"Oh hey," I spoke up, "That's Rhea, she's in my history class."

"She's a pathetic loser who shouldn't even be here," Jessica, the leader of the majors spoke up, and we fell dead silent. She stood up and walked up to Rhea.

"What are you doing here? Leave, and take your cheap clothes with you you lowlife lagging piece of-"

"I'm sick of you talking to me like that, you have no right to say all that crap because at the end of the day you're just a no good spoiled brat you-" Rhea had cut her off and apparently Jessica wasn't so happy, she interrupted her back but not with words, but her left hand connected to Rhea's face, as she fell down on the floor.

What? I pushed back from the table, then looked around to see that for some reason I was the only one who was shocked.

If that wasn't enough, she took the bags of clothing that Rhea had just bought and dumped them into the fountain in the middle of the court.

Wait...

Out of nowhere, all of both groups got up and made two parallel lines, each group on each side. Jessica stood Rhea up and pushed her through the lines, and they started teasing her, pushing her and beating her up. I froze in my seat, more than half of me confused, the other part partially scared to death.

I knew these girls were bad, but they were this bad?

"Savannah," Armoni called to me, "You're missing out on all the fun here." But I didn't answer. I sat in fear as my eyes darted from them to the security and I saw them sitting there, watching, not willing to do anything about it.
When Rhea reached the end,the last person from both sides carried her out of the mall, the group's joining, leaving me there, watching them fade with fear blazing through me, leaving me without the slightest clue as to what just happened.

*

That next week of school, she didn't attend class, and the announcements came on for once since the first day.

"Sadly, this isn't a good morning today. We've received information that a fellow student was found dead at the ditch near our school. She had appeared to have committed suicide. Thoughts and prayers for her, R.I.P Rhea Tucker."

Rhea? I hadn't seen her since.. 
No. No this can't be real.

My heart started beating rapidly, I turned to Miranda, and as she noticed my staring, put her index finger to her lips and whispered

"Shhhhhhhh..."

***