When I stepped into New Hopewell High that next day, all heads turned to me. And not in the usual worship-y, I-wanna-hit-that, she's-so-beautiful-its-captivating-like way. This time, their eyes were exuding terror and trepidation.
With an iced vanilla latte in hand, I made my way down the corridor with furrowed eyebrows. The walk was seemingly long, considering everyone's gaze was fixed on me. I had wondered if it was the bags under my eyes that was enticing so much attention, since I had not gotten much sleep the night before. I spent the early hours tossing and turning, wondering what the heck had happened between Hunter and I.
It didn't help that my mother had ripped the covers from me earlier than usual that day, giving me an earful because I forgot to book my hair appointment for Prom. I think she said that I was not taking it seriously enough or something like that. It's hard to hear when you have a pillow over your face and a throbbing headache.
"Hey y'all," I strutted to the back of the class, where our seats for AP Biology were. The sound of my suede Loubs tapping against the ground filled the unusually quiet room. The glances of the few worn out early-birds left the teacher, who was scribbling something about the human anatomy on the board, and followed me.
"Why is everyone looking at us? I mean, like more than usual..." I whispered to them as I dropped my books on the desk. Instead of responding, Sophie's eyes travelled to the ground.
"Babe, can you give us a sec?" Riley turned to Finn, who had his arm draped around her, and kissed him goodbye with a worried expression.
"What is it?" I shook my head, causing my curls to bounce up. I wasn't one that liked a build-up, sketchy things made me anxious.
"Apparently we sexually assaulted Ava Jones," Riley rolled her eyes in a mocking manner.
"What?" I chuckled in disbelief, "Are you serious? Is this why people are acting so weird?"
"'Yes, everyone is talking about it," Sophie said under gritted teeth, her arms crossed.
"That's ridiculous!" I leaned back on my chair in incredulity. The thought that people actually believed we had somehow assaulted Ava was absurd to me. Laughable really.
"I know, right? They make it sound like we gang-banged her," Tessa added as she sat up, arrant vexation in her eyes.
"That's nonsense," I stated with quiet despair as I sipped my coffee, "Should we be worried?"
"Maybe. I bet that word is gonna get around to the principal by lunchtime," Sophie breathed out, looking out the window to the pouring rain, wet mud, and grey clouds.
"Well, it's not like we are some kind of perverts. We just wanted her shirt since Ava purposely spilled her drink over yours!" Tessa snapped, attracting even more looks from students who were trying to eavesdrop, "You know, she is lucky you didn't make her pay for the shirt."
"So we have nothing to be scared of, right?" Riley's eyes darted from Tessa to Sophie and then stopped at me, awaiting my answer.
"I guess not, we did nothing wrong. It's not like he can suspend us, they have no proof," I shrugged and watched the doorway as a string of jocks entered the classroom.
"Yeah, and if they do, we'll sue Ava Jones for damages and defamation of character," Tessa flipped open her textbook proudly, acting as if her family being reputable for taking people to court was some kind of badge of honour.
I noticed Matt was amongst the juice-head football players and immediately stood up. "I'll be right back," I announced to my friends and stomped my way to Matt's seat.
"Where were you last night?" I roared, annoyance laced through every word.
"Why do you care?" he scoffed, surprised at how upset I was, " Did you look for me?"
"No," I sniffed, refusing to give him the satisfaction of knowing I did, "I just didn't see you there, that's all."
"Okay, Aspen," he widened his eyes, and then returned to the excessively detailed Bio textbook that was displayed on his desk.
"Did you hear?" I shut the heavy cover, reverting his attention back to me.
"About us having ana-" he began but I cut him off, shaking my head, "I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm pretty late when it comes to rumours. Football players usually communicate through grunts."
I tilted my head to the side, unimpressed, my hands still on my hips.
"Oh, but was it about how you made Mallory Garcia starve herself? Because I did hear a couple guys in the locker room talking about that."
"No," I answered sharply, "And I didn't make her do anything. This time it's about some nobody freshmen who claims my friends and I 'sexually harassed' her."
"And, did you?" Matt raised an eyebrow, unperturbedly, as if he was accustomed to pretty girls committing sexual offences.
"What? No. If I wanted some action I'd..." I glanced around the room, searching for a familiar yet bang-able face, "come to you."
"Good to know," Matt offered me a ribald smirk, "I'm available for 'some action' whenever you need me."
"Hypothetically speaking," I squinted at him as a cheerleader crawled onto his lap, "And it looks like you already get enough, anyways."
I returned to my seat with a downhearted sigh. I felt completely guileless when it came to Matt Sommers. I thought that he might've actually liked me, but who was I kidding? I could not believe I fell under his lure like the many other girls at my high school had. Matt would charm them into bed with him, and poof, the next morning they wouldn't hear a word from him ever again.
He was the definition of a fuckboy, collecting virgins and naive girls like pennies, and then flaunting his victories to the rest of the football team. I refused to be a penny; I was a damn hundred dollar bill.
I spent the rest of first period ferociously jotting down notes. My grip was so hard on the pen that the ink bled through to the next page. I was even sniffling at one point due to my rage. I couldn't stop thinking about Penelope, Matt, Hunter, and now Ava... if I didn't already have enough problems.
In my transition to next period, I noticed that the whispering hadn't died down as much as I would've liked. Tessa, Riley, Sophie, and I, normally didn't mind the weird looks and hushed muttering, but it was different knowing people were talking about us sexually assaulting someone like we were some type of sick criminals. It left a bad taste in our mouths.
"What are you looking at?!" Tessa snapped at an unsuspecting sophomore, who backed up onto her locker with a gasp. It was no surprise Tess was the first one to lose it, she was the one with a temper. Her bitch fit, though, only drew more attention.
"What are you all looking at?! We didn't do anything to anyone!" she proclaimed with a fist resting on her right hip. The stunned students froze as their bulged eyes latched onto Tessa. The intensity in the room climbed from a 7 to a straight up 15.
"So why doesn't everyone mind their own fucking beeswax?" Tessa leaned forward and screamed, her veins sticking out from under her throat.
I shot Riley an agitated look, signalling her to do something before Tessa truly lost it on everyone who was unfortunate enough to be standing in that corridor.
"Come on, Tess. We are going to be late for class," Riley pulled on her arm, tight enough to let Tessa know that she should cut it out.
"Okay," Tessa shot the sophomore one last death stare, and then proceeded to her classroom.
Much to my dismay, my next class was Philosophy. Not that the study of our existence didn't interest me, I found it rather fascinating. I wasn't looking forward to it since a bunch of seniors took that class, two of those seniors being Penelope and Matt.
Under the circumstances, the class passed rather quickly. The teacher gave a boring lecture so at least I didn't have to hear Penelope's whiny voice for an hour. And even though I kept glancing over at Matt, who had the same cheerleader from that morning on top of him, every few seconds, I restrained from going over there, pushing the whore off his lap, and giving him a piece of my mind. Luckily, Sophie was also in that class, and she made the period tolerable.
Before I knew it, I was already at my usual seat at the cafeteria with an untouched Chinese chicken salad in front of me. I picked up my fork and looked around with a sigh, I was becoming immune to the stares. One person's, though, irritated me beyond belief, and that stare belonged to Penelope's campaign poster. That thing was haunting me. It didn't matter what angle I sat at, it always felt like her green eyes were focused on me.
With a grunt, I climbed out of my chair and ripped the poster from the wall. I crushed it into a paper ball and threw it at the ground before returning to my seat. My friends watched me in shock, silently inspecting me.
"Aspen, are you okay?" Sophie spoke up cautiously, with her lips pursed, legs crossed, and hesitancy in her brown eyes.
"No, I'm not okay! Those posters are on my last nerve. Every class I am in, every corridor I walk down, I have to see her wearing that stupid crown, foreshadowing her victory when it's not even a fair fight," I bit the sides of my jaw, making my already prominent cheekbones even more so, "It's like she is teasing me that she can campaign and I can't because I wasn't nominated."
"Just relax. Who cares if you don't win this year, anyway? You are a junior, you will still get one more shot next year," Riley lifted a shoulder as she chugged what was left of her red bull.
"I'll tell you who cares, my mother. This is like the Oscars to the Hendersons, and she doesn't want to be humiliated," I explained as they listened heedfully, "She is counting on me to win Prom Queen. I mean, she spent thousands of dollars on my dress. I have to win, I can't let her down."
"You should stop worrying about what your mom thinks so much," Tessa sniffed, tugging on a strand of shiny brown hair.
"Easy for you to say, you don't have a mom," I muttered under my breath as I stabbed lettuce with the plastic fork. With a mouthful of leaves, I looked up at my friends who had expressions of sheer disbelief on their faces. Realizing the impact of the words I'd just spoken, I put the fork down. "I'm sorry, Tess. I'm under so much stress that..."
"It's okay, I get it. You have a lot on your plate. I know you didn't mean it," Tessa's eyes began to water, staring into the distance, "Oh my god, Caden is here! I'm going to go talk to him." Tessa ran off after her potential ex-boyfriend and she was over my comment just like that.
But the few seconds before that, I could see how betrayed she felt. When we were younger, Tessa would show me pictures of her mother and talk about her all the time. She was a beautiful lady, and Tessa's resemblance to her was uncanny. Tessa trusted me with all of that. But the insensitive words just rolled off my tongued before I could stop them. I barely even thought before I spoke, making snarky remarks was almost second nature.
"What do you think his excuse will be now?" Riley shook her head in objection, watching Tessa and Caden argue across the canteen, "How about 'Sorry, babe. I got caught up in another girl's panties'."
We chuckled at the sorrowful truth. It didn't matter how many times Tessa was cheated on or got her heart broken, she always had hope for her next relationship. Although it was sweet, in a way, it was also very sad since my friends and I were the ones left to pick up the pieces.
"Anyways, I was thinking about the whole entire Ava Jones situation..." Sophie leaned in closer, her blonde curls falling in front of her.
"What about it?" I tugged down on my dress, making sure I wasn't showing more than I intended to.
Sophie tightened her shoulders, "Don't you think it was a little... I don't know, mean?"
"What? No," I responded without an ounce of skepticism.
"I will be the first one to say that my A-cup comment was pushing it," Riley confessed and then adjusted her fishtail braids.
"Guys, you heard what Tess said. We didn't even make Ava pay for the shirt, we just wanted hers," I crossed my arms in rebut, "Our reaction seemed perfectly reasonable."
"Yeah, but you know Tessa. She can make sticking a giant gummy bear up your butt seem rational," Riley pointed out with a pout, crossing one of her Adidas over another.
"Who do you think told everyone about it, anyway?" my grey eyes searched the crowds with a bleak look in them.
Sophie let out a sigh, "I don't know. Ava, Penelope, Maddox Foerstner...?"
Hearing that name made me shudder. Maddox Foerstner was the one and only person the popular crew of New Hopewell High actually feared. They've had a long-standing feud with her for the last three years. As much as we hated to admit it, Maddox was pretty, pretty enough to be Queen Bee, even. Her father was extremely wealthy and, let me tell you, her nauseatingly preppy clothes certainly reflected that.
But the reason she wasn't one of us, was because she was on some ego trip and thought she was somehow superior to the high school hierarchy. Maddox ran the school newspaper, the Blue & Gold, and would publish inflammatory articles about the popular kids. She was an absolute bitch to everyone and constantly pushed our buttons. The worst part was that we couldn't do anything about it.
The reason why: her father was on Clemson University's athletic board. So if she whispered anything about the football players to her daddy, their chance at a professional career in sports would be dunzo. You would be surprised how many people at my school cared about football... I personally didn't, but I kept hushed like they did to avoid bad blood.
"Speak of the devil," Riley said underneath a forced cough, causing Sophie and I to look behind us.
"Well, well. Isn't it the Queen Bee and her little workers?" Maddox narrowed her green eyes at us with a conceited smirk.
"We are not her workers, we are her friends," Riley snapped, "Not that you'd know."
"Really? Because yesterday in the bathroom, it kind of sounded like you were doing Aspen's dirty work," she declared with immense self-satisfaction, "Yeah, you heard that right. I was there. You might want to check the stalls before you sexually assault someone."
"So you are the one who told the entire student body?" I flew onto my feet to be face to face with her, "Do you have some kind of death wish?"
"To the contrary," she blinked her lashes at me with a half-smile, "The only death I wish upon is of your family's reign over New Hopewell High."
"Excuse me?" I took a confident step closer, "You are clearly unaware of how much power my family has in this community or you wouldn't be saying this in front of me, you wouldn't dare. I am the Queen Bee and I-"
"-I'm so tired of all this Queen Bee bullshit. It's actually sickening what you have done with your supposed 'power'. You gave a girl an eating disorder, you sexually assaulted another one..."
"It's not my fault I was born with it," I jerked my hip to the right, noticing some of the students began to pay attention.
"Maybe not, but what you do with it is on you," Maddox lifted her brows, provoking me, "So drop the victim facade and stop being such a bitch to everyone."
Maddox was a case that was previously deemed unsolvable, so I had no idea why she didn't want to continue exchanging venomous stares and throwing jabs at each other, but instead force us to solve the problem that was Maddox Foerstner. If I were her, I would've been as quiet as a little mouse, because if you ended up pushing us too far, we'd find a way to push back, no matter who your father was.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the students were excitedly anticipating my response. "Listen, no one talks to me that way." I approached her, anger beaming out of my eyes, "So I'm going to give you two choices, either say you are sorry or I'm going to ruin your effing life."
Maddox's mischievous smile grew brighter as she leaned forward into a bow, "My apologies, your majesty."
My jaw hung open as she strolled away in complacency.
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Thank you so freakinggg much for reading! Please vote and comment if you enjoyed this chapter. ~Tevy