1 | Cautionary Tale
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"Miss Akana?" The trash can knocked into the side of Reign's desk. Her dark eyes pulled toward the small bin in her principal's hands. "Mind acting like you enjoy being here?"
"My mother says actors are nothing but failures and frauds." Reign forced a smile. "How was your summer, Principal Duvall?"
"Good." Principal Duvall returned her fake smile, motioning to the trash can with his cast. "Gum?"
"Oh! Would you like one?" Reign asked, fishing the box from her pocket. "It's winter cool breeze."
"Miss Akana." He cleared his throat. "Gum."
Reign spat out the gum and scowled at her principal's wife in the front of the room. "Jesus. You married a tyrant."
"How many times must I tell you my name's not Jesus, Reign." The woman chucked. "You can call me Mrs. Norbury."
"Bore."
A few desks behind the Polynesian teenager, faint giggles floated into her ears. She spared a look over her shoulder and rolled her eyes at her cousin's cheesy grin. Janis was always so pleased to see her getting in trouble.
Little Twat.
"Awe, Princess Royal Reign is all upset her Queen didn't pick her up for school today." Janis pretended to pout. She raised her head, smirking when Reign slowly turned around in her desk. "That's what you get for choosing a friend with sick priorities!"
"Sick priorities?" Reign scoffed. "She broke up with her boring boyfriend and he's my mother fucking neighbor. I don't blame her for wanting space from the man."
"She used him!" Janis laughed. "Just like she uses you!"
"Period." Damian snapped his fingers. "Peeeriod."
"Watch it, you Kurt Hummel wannabe." Reign pointed her newly manicured nail at the boy and narrowed her eyes. "Before I scrap your ass all the way to–"
"Girl, like I wanna be some ragtag white boy." Damian scoffed. "Just because he's gay–"
"You're gay." Reign looked Damian up and down, cocking her head. "And you're into musically inclined white boys with horrible hair care routines."
Damian sucked in a long breath, hand smacking on his check. He raised a finger and held it out to the second member of the Plastics, exhaling slowly.
"I know you did not just hate on baby boy Blaine."
"See? Gay."
"So are youuu." Janis sang smugly when Reign rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. If you watch Glee in this century, you're gay."
"Maybe I watch it for the men." Reign threw her hair over her shoulder and twirled a strand around her finger, smiling at Jazz beside her. "Hey, Jazzi. How was your summer?"
"The straight men?" Damian grabbed his throat and began gagging toward the floor. "Your standards are wack!"
"Who the hell says wack?" Janis squealed in laughter, trying to cover her mouth when their teacher shot her a look.
"Gr-Great. Super great." The basketball player fumbled with his water bottle and dropped it to the floor. "Shit. Sorry!"
"A man with talent and no game." Reign rolled her eyes. "Bore."
"Hope you all had a good summer!" Principal Duvall sent Reign a look as he returned beside her desk, tapping it with his cast. He cleared his throat and smiled at the class. "Mine was pretty good. I worked in my brother-in-law' golf pro shop. Did not make a lot of money, so of course I am back to help shepherd you all into the future."
"Damn." Reign got comfortable in her chair and turned her attention out the window. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the warmth of the sun seeping through the glass.
"May I have everyone's attention, please? Eyes to the front of the room. " Principal Duvall walked toward the front of the room and gave up trying to reel in a few of his wife's more questionable students. "You may have noticed we have a new student joining us today. She just moved here from Kentucky."
Reign glanced toward the student hovering in the front of the room and rolled her eyes. There were plenty of new students around school. What was so important about one strawberry blonde from boring old Kentucky?
"Kenya."
"Kenya." Principal Duvall cleared his throat. "Her name is Caddy."
Reign snorted, quickly covering her nose and looking away when the new girl glanced in her direction.
"It's Cady." The redhead's soft voice interrupted again. She looked more nervous than Julius Steinburg from last year's disaster talent show performance. "Cady Heron."
"My apologies." Principal Duvall nodded to himself. "I will commit that to memory."
"Don't count on it." Reign mumbled, looking back out the window.
A soft smile graced her features when she noticed a familiar blonde sneaking out of class. Here they were at the beginning of the year, and Regina George was already causing mayhem. Reign would have trusted Regina to behave if it weren't for that smirk toying on her lips, eyes continuing to look in the direction of her best friend's homeroom.
"Cady, like the Canadian songstress k.d.lang." Principal Duvall continued to ramble on for some odd reason. "And Heron, like the illegal street drug."
Reign pulled out her phone and typed a quick message to her friend, glancing up a few times to ensure their teacher was too concerned with their newest student. She tucked her phone under her bookbag on the desk and leaned back ever-so-slightly to watch Regina sneak off toward her Jeep without a care in the world.
While Mrs. Norbury was focused on tending to the new student, learning all about her homeschool journey in Kenya, Janis and Damian exchanged a look.
"It's a cautionary tale of fear, lust and pride." Janis sang, threading her needle of yarn through her miniature canvas. "Based on actual events. Where people died."
Janis' head snapped up with a dangerous smirk.
"No one died." Damian winked. "But how far would you go to be popular and hot? Would you resist temptation? No you would not."
Janis leaned up on her desk and pretended to hit her cousin on the back of the head. She rolled her eyes when Reign pridefully smiled out the window when a text returned to her inbox, not waiting even a second to sneak a peek at the message.
"Just admit it sometimes. Mean is what you are. Mean is easier than nice! And though mean can take you far. Maybe this will make you think twice!"
Damina snapped his fingers, rolling them across the desk as Reign suddenly stood up from her assigned seat. He leaned over the bar in the desk toward Janis and shared a look with his best friend, turning to watch Principal Duvall send Reign a stern look as the teenager headed out the classroom door without permission.
"Miss Akana! Let's not do this again this year!"
Reign threw a wave over her shoulder. "I'll bring another doctor's note."
"This is a cautionary tale about corruption and betrayal."
"And getting hit by a bus!"
Janis sighed heavily and looked off toward the door where her cousin disappeared. She returned her attention to her threaded piece, glaring down at the sketch of Reign she was slowly covering in pink, white, and orange.
"You can't buy integrity." Janis sang, meeting Damian's finger with a quick point. "At the mall. It's not for sale."
"Truth." The black boy laughed, snapping his fingers twice and turning his body to face the window. Damian smacked Janis' shoulder and pointed out the window with a sneaky grin. "This is a cautionary–"
Reign rushed out of the school's side doors with a big smile, laughing wildly when her best friend motioned for her to run faster. She took long strides with the help of her longer legs, rushing around the other side of the doorless Jeep.
"Get in, Loser!" Regina shouted. "Fuck! You're slow as hell. What are those long legs even for?"
"To kick your ass, bitch." Reign shoved Regina's shoulder as she climbed into the passenger seat. She rolled her eyes as the blonde winked, throwing her Jeep into drive.
"Taaaale!"