Gillian Bishop was triggered. And I say, triggered.
"She gave me six demerit points! I didn't even do anything!" The girl's indignant screech could be heard loud and clear as she furiously down the hallway towards the cafeteria with the rest of the clique.
Hah, you sure about that, Gilly?
Lisa did her best to sound sympathetic, though I could sense she wasn't really sure what to say in response to this. "It's okay, Gilly. Just try not to chalk up any demerit points anymore this year - "
"She gave me detention. DETENTION!" Gillian snapped, "It's going onto my disciplinary record!"
I froze as I listened, my back turned as I folded my blazer as neatly as possible. Since it wasn't compulsory to wear the navy blue blazer all the time in school, I tended to keep it inside whenever I didn't need. This happened to be conducive for me to stall as I stood before the tiny square box of storage that each student was provided, tuning in to the drama in an inconspicuous manner.
"Someone did this. Some snake who I happened to accept into my spam reported me." Gillian growled in an almost-feral manner where I could imagine in my head without even turning as I folded my blazer in slow-mo. Oh crap, the girl was angry. But she'll never know.
I hope!
"You have any idea who it is?" Addison asked. "Did you piss anyone any Mrs Walters stans recently or something?"
"No!" Gillian seethed. "Some two-faced bitch out there is getting bold, I swear to God. Who would like Mrs Walters anyway?! She's freaking annoying, dude."
"Facts. Everyone hates Walters. She's a desperate little wannabe who tries too hard to please all her students, acting like that witch in Hansel and Gretel when she tries to fatten us all up!" Addison stated with a dramatic scoff, "I feel like it's someone you had past beef with."
Erm, nope, she's trying to be nice and Gillian's demeanour is an enemy-making machine.
"Fair," Avery acquiesced, "But you should probably filter out your follower list, remove some people. Maybe 312 is too many followers for a private account."
Gillian made a noise of disgust. "This is so stupid."
I quickly turned and shoved the folded blazer into the locker, shutting it and quietly walking off, hoping that I wouldn't be-
"Yo, Selene!"
Noticed.
Nervously, I put on my trademark innocent smile as the Populars turned to me from their position, most of the members leaned against the wall at the end of the locker hall, their tall, athletic figures slightly intimidating although I wasn't all that much shorter than them - almost as tall, in fact. "Hey! Oh, Gillian, what happened with Lorenzo just now?" I asked as cluelessly as possible, my blur look on display. (It was one of my famous, more notable expressions in Physics.)
Gillian's expression was once again twisted into a snarl as she said simply, "Some telltale bird snitched on me, what else?"
Well, at least you didn't get expelled, Gillian, and I'm sure that's because your parents own a law firm. Probably not best that perfect little Rifton gets sued due to one of your tantrums.
"Oh shit," I grimaced, faking a sympathetic look as Gillian crossed her arms, huffing.
"It's fine," she growled, clearly displeased at the concept of potentially showing weakness. "Haters can stay pressed. When I find out who did this, it's all over for them."
"C'mon, Gillian, it's lunch period. Let's go, or the lunch line is gonna be too long for us to get food. " Lisa said as she grabbed Gillian's arm, dragging her along as the Castle twins followed like the mindless robots they were. Gillian recovered from her momentary shock - no idea whether it was from being dragged along, or the Castle twins following Lisa - to turned around to look at me. "Selene, you want to come with us?"
Whoa, okay, what-
"It's fine, guys, I - "
"It's fine, you can come!" Lisa's face curved with the signature saccharine grin, the kind that she had on every photo in her Instagram feed. "Oh... okay!" I responded as I caught up with them reluctantly, pulling out my purse (which so happened to be a purple Smiggle, how embarrassing for a teenager). What the heck, though? Why are they so eager to sit with me? Unless...
Oh, snap.
No, they couldn't know. I wouldn't allow my game to end so soon - not when everything in my life was finally going well with Natalie down and Gillian in trouble.
I was not their pawn - I was a Queen, ready to outplay them once and for all.
Being with the Populars was certainly different. In fact, it reminded me a lot of the time when we were all new students- when I was still socially acceptable since no one knew the real me. When I believed Natalie was a nice person and tried to befriend her because of that, hanging out around her like a desperate wannabe. When I thought I was actually going to fit in.
Well, seems like I was just way too far from even being a fake friend.
Whatever it was, people noticed when Gillian and Lisa stepped into the cafeteria - before long, they were waving and conversing with random students and Popular wannabes that were trying to keep it subtle. Of course, everyone knew what they were up to but never said a thing unless behind closed doors. It was only in private that dirty secrets and terrible thoughts were quietly spilt from dainty lips.
In the past, I would strike up an awkward conversation with one of them, causing negative exposure to the public eye, but I was unable to deal with social interaction at such a juncture where I could potentially be slaughtered. I had to tread carefully - and that meant saying less. After all, what was that about "anything you say may be used against you"?
Yes, it meant I was to become a blank slate, a boring piece of paper, a monotonous creature with the emotional range of a cold metal teaspoon and all that - but it was safe and predictable. It was better than being tainted and deemed unfixable.
Finally, we were all settled down at the Populars' regular table at the cafeteria, the same white bowls set before each person. Even when it came to food in cliques, it seemed to be integral that one did not differ in food options compared to the others.
"So what will your Mom say?" The redhead asked as she stuffed a piece of broccoli into her mouth. Gillian stabbed some lettuce angrily, seething, "Probably take away my phone and ground me, some shit like usual. But I'll just weasel my way into her hiding spots, and she's probably too busy to notice. She remembers for max three days and that's it."
Oh, Mommy issues. Tea, sis.
"Yeah, continue with the s-word, kid. Lorenzo would roast your ass - more demerit points, perhaps?" Addison drawled casually, pulling out her iPhone with a blue glittery case. "Shush, Addy," Gillian muttered - but we all knew it was in a playful sense. Cliques all had their own unspoken criterion - and in the Populars, being able to adapt to social cues was extremely important, aside from the other necessary talents.
Once again, it was another thing that I sucked ass at.
As conversation topics changed, I continued my tactic - speaking when spoken to and behaving like a 'good Rifton Girl'- which seemed to work. Somehow, I could sense something had changed. Whenever Gillian and Lisa had a differing view, the Castle twins seemed to be siding with the redhead and not the haughty brunette - meaning my plan had worked.
Gillian, despite her relentless struggles for power against Lisa, was failing - she had been forced into a corner where from which she was no longer able to dominate. Her tiara had tumbled into the hands of a new dictatress for good, all because of her trouble with school discipline. It had become official - Gillian Bishop was trouble.
Thus, I decided to make a detour from depositing my bowl in the collection bin to the cafeteria toilet where Gillian had asked Lisa to accompany her to.
The plethora of posters tacked outside the toilet meant a good excuse in case I was caught eavesdropping. As I stared at statistics about bullying (ha) that few ever bothered to read, I strained my ears to listen to what seemed to be juicy drama. Thank goodness the walls weren't really soundproof.
"Do you think it could be her?" I heard the brunette ask.
"I don't think so." Compared to Gillian's shrill, angsty voice, Lisa was cool as a cucumber. "She seems to be more aware nowadays - guess she did figure out how to not be an embarrassment. She doesn't look like the type to expose people. Natalie, on the other hand - "
"What about that bitch?"
"She might've assumed you sent the video on purpose; maybe this is her way of getting back at you."
Oh, not the type? You'll be surprised...
I stepped back a little, reading something about saving the environment as I listened in. It was a clear struggle for power, with hidden anger and frustrations towards each other veiled behind a discussion about who was threatening Gillian's power - which so happened to be part of the context too, since whatever you did affected your clique's good name. Cliques were all like mini Riftons.
"Uh, but I didn't?!" The brunette's voice was suddenly shrill, deviating greatly from her normally low tone. "And it doesn't make sense. I already blocked Natalie on every one of my accounts, Annalisa."
Lisa's voice returned - tinted with a streak of anger and assertion, probably due to her full name being used. "Well, Reyna's a possibility, too. Ever since Natalie targeted her, she's probably been bearing a grudge."
Whoa. Reyna was one of their targets? No wonder she became a drifter. It was unfortunate for Reyna to have to go through the same thing as me.
"Her? Like real," Gillian scoffed, "She's one of the most annoying people in the school. Even Avery has more personality than her. I-"
"Hey, there's only ten minutes left. I'm going to go buy fruit juice."
With the sound of footsteps approaching, I was about to turn and run when a hand aided in my escape, pulling me towards the end of the Delightful Drinks (if there was one thing Rifton was bad at, it would be making up cafeteria stall names) queue that so happened to belong to Avery Castle, AKA the twin with the blonde french braid and part of the topic of Gillian and Lisa's heated discussion.
Well, snap.
She gave me a knowing look as she smiled, looking up to the two girls as they stepped out to the canteen, perfect smiles on their faces as if they hadn't just engaged in any form of heated discussion, as if Lisa hadn't brushed Gillian off in a moment of power.
"Hey, guys, can you help me buy iced coffee? Thanks!" Lisa dumped the note in my hand conveniently - and just left. What was I, her personal slave?
So that was how it was gonna be?
As they trotted off, Avery turned to me with a whisper, baby blue eyes locking with my own. "You were eavesdropping on them? Spill the tea, sis!"
Whoa, whoa, hold up honey, but what the actual-
My expression was enough to probe an explanation. "What, you thought I was going to rat you out? Hey, Addy never tells me anything about the underlying drama that goes on between those two and I always have trouble finding out. They're such experts at covering up," Avery assured, excitement clearly coursing through her veins as the prospect of finally discovering information truly hit her. I knew the feeling well enough; I'd been experiencing it a lot more lately. "Come on, spill!"
With that, I quietly revealed what I'd heard - not like it was anything that crucial that I couldn't reveal, plus making a member of the Populars with a solid position mad wasn't the wisest thing to do at twelve noon. "... And, uh... " I decided to add in the shade that Gillian had thrown at Avery, "She said that you didn't have a personality."
Avery - somewhat surprisingly - merely scoffed. "Of course. Anything else?"
I blinked. "You're not - you know that she thinks that of you?"
"Yeah, they all do. I'm the boring one in the entire friend group," She rolled her eyes, sky blues filled with nonchalance, letting out a dry laugh to brush it off as a joke.
Without thought, I blurted out, "Why do you hang out with them if you know they call you things behind your back?" Instantly, I realised that I'd done another typical Social Life Screw-up™.
Selene, what the hell, you dumb piece of -
At that carelessly tactless question, Avery's eyes narrowed as she looked me straight in the eye. "I'm sure you know why. After what happened with you last year, you should know why."
Oh snap.
Despite the dread that surged through me and the repeated curse words flooding my brain, I managed to get a single response out to face this deadly encounter.
"Yeah."
Just one word - and Avery plastered her smile back on as we moved forward in the queue. "Okay - and Selene, as far as they're concerned, this conversation didn't happen."
Oh boy. I'd always thought of the Castle twins as the devoted followers, the pathetic wannabes that managed to weasel their way in. But now I was seeing the truth behind the younger Castle twin. She wasn't truly part of the Populars, obeying every whim and fancy of the higher ups for the sake of power. She only desired something that every other teenager wanted - to fit in, to belong - even if it came at the cost of her individual rights.
She had bowed to the mercy of the hierarchy.
She'd succumbed like a coward - I wanted to feel sorry for her, but I just couldn't. I couldn't respect someone who was sitting up there with the leading clique, holding back their true selves for the sake of social acceptance.
All that restriction, all that forced interaction - it had to be suffocating.
If anything, Avery's words reminded me of the very purpose of what I had recently begun. First, the video to expose Natalie and kill her reputation. The screenshots sent to punish Gillian for hurting Mrs Walters because she was an obnoxious little brat.
Annalisa Knight may have been the boy-crazy, basic Instagram airhead - but she was third-in-command. She was still a threat.
After paying for the drinks, We headed back to the seats, distributing the cups. As I settled down and sipped, feeling the burst of refreshing orange pulp in between my teeth, I eyed the redhead as she chattered on with Gillian and Addison.
With a personality like hers, there was bound to be dirt everywhere - I just had to do a little more sleuthing to figure out where to dig.
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