"What's the deal with high school stereotypes? I mean, sure, they might be disappearing, but just as fast as they're leaving, they're being replaced by other things. It's the elephant in the room. No one wants to talk about it but it's the reason that we talk and think and act the way we do. You find your clique, you stay with them, and when push comes to shove, you stand up for them. Sure, we don't have your typical 'jocks' or your 'plastics' or your 'Richie Rich' people anymore. Those stereotypes are gone, down the drain. Instead, our generation has the 'Starbucks girls' and the 'player boys' and the 'sports nerds' and the 'e-girls'. Whether it be online or at school, those are our groups and we stick by them. So what happens to those of us who don't fall into those categories? They fall behind and are forgotten. We try not to blame ourselves when in actuality, it really is our fault. We exclude those of us who are different, looking over the things that make them their own person, looking for things that remind us of ourselves and drop those who don't have anything like that. So, it's time to make a change. It's time to change how high school is run. This was another morning though by Jasmine Ender. Thank you!" The girl up front gave an exaggerated bow, standing back up straight and smiling at the class in front of her as she returned to her seat.
Jasmine Ender really was something else. Despite looking like a typical, blonde cheerleader who would be the villain in your typical high school drama, she was nothing of the sort. She was cheerful and always managed to put a smile on her face, no matter the circumstance at hand. It wasn't like her smiles were fake either. They always managed to light up her bright blue eyes, making them shine more than they already did. She wasn't an airhead either, as most people would think after hearing her. She had passed her ACT with a 36 during her first year of taking it and quite easily too. The girl was a genius who had both the brains and the looks to take over the world. And yet, this girl didn't act like that at all. Instead, she focused most of her time on productive things. Acting was one of them and the girl was known for her many lead roles in hit movies. Her morning thoughts were another, where she would just spout whatever random thought she was thinking of that day that seemed to influence those who heard it for even just an hour or so. And last, but not least, she ran a channel online, one that had thousands of people following. Jasmine Ender could do it all.
Kyra Kingsly would be an idiot to not have heard about her. Everyone in town did and Kyra prided herself on being known as a wallflower. Sure, with her looks, it was hard to slip under the radar and her status as a child prodigy didn't help either but once the hype over the case that she solved under her grandfather's watchful eye had hit, she had made a name for herself as Detective Purple Hair. Her hair, white due to the fact that she was born an albino, had shown purple under the camera lighting during her interview and the nickname just stuck. However, she'd become just as famous in their little town as Jasmine Ender and it was all thanks to the Lockwood High Lock-In murder case. She hated attention and so, she had dropped out for the year and was home-schooled. That could only explain how she was the only fourteen-year-old in the sophomore year. After all, she was supposed to be a freshman.
The class clapped for Jasmine's speech but it was obvious that Jasmine had already checked out of the class. Kyra watched her, just like she did with every other person of interest in her life, observing her like it would explain so many things about her. Judging from the way that Jasmine drew different shapes on her desk with her eraser, she probably needed to be doing something all the time. Checking out wouldn't be an issue for Jasmine anyway. Everyone knew that the movie star had just as many brains as beau and Jasmine could pass the class with perfect scores on the final without even batting an eye.
The rest of the class continued just as anyone would expect. Kyra found herself only paying attention to it for the first few minutes before checking out herself. She had learned all of this last year anyway, in between tagging along on the Muller case and the disappearance on Kalin Street case with her grandfather, so the rest of this section was going to be easy. After all, it was just a repeat of what they had all learned last year in Freshman year, the one that she had taken at home instead of her eighth grade classes that she should have been taking. Now, she felt like she was ahead of the rest of the class. They must have forgotten over the course of the summer, in true teenage fashion. The poor fools. The teacher said something about getting into pairs to work on a worksheet and brought Kyra out of her daze. She glanced around the room but soon found it pointless. Even before the teacher told them to get up, everyone already had a partner. It did seem to matter, now did it? She sighed and waited to get up, knowing that it would be better to get her paper when everyone wasn't swarming the teacher like flies around a dead animal. She always ended up alone, didn't she?
"Want to work with me?" Surprised, Kyra looked over to the seat next to her. And then, her surprise disappeared. Given the girl's unpredictable behavior, she should haven't been surprised to see Jasmine standing there like she was waiting for permission to sit next to her. Expect, she never got it. She just smiled at Kyra and sat down in the desk next to her, moving it over so the desks were connected and laid the worksheet down in front of her. "Awesome! I always manage to have either get everyone wanting to work with me or no one does. It's annoying really. It's nice to be able to ask someone for once." She smiled at her and Kyra noticed the light pink pencil in her hand. Jasmine had a thing for light colors, most likely pastels. It probably meant that the girl had a childish attitude. Great. "You're Kyra, right? Kyra Kingsly? I'm Jasmine. You can call me Jas if you want, though! Of course, only if you want too. Or you can leave it at Jasmine. You just can't call me Jassy. There's only one person who's allowed to call me Jassy. You are Kyra Kingsly, right? Like, I'm ninety-nine percent positive because who hasn't heard of our very own Detective Purple hair but just to make sure."
Oh great, Kyra thought to herself quietly, leaning her head on her hand as she listened to Jasmine talk. She's a talker. Though, she supposed that if she was in Jasmine's position, world-famous and too smart for school and yet, still attending to do something to fill the space, she'd be eager to talk to people too. She couldn't blame her, but it didn't mean that she had to like it. Deciding to herself that Jasmine would do enough talking for the both of them, Kyra just nodded her head and brushed her white hair over her shoulder. She was already feeling like she was going to regret this.
"You're not much of a talker? Oh well. That's fine with me. I'm sure I'll be able to talk enough for the both of us." Jasmine giggled and shrugged her shoulders, tapping her pencil to the page in front of her. "I mean, I already do that for the rest of my friends so I guess it's not that much of a surprise?" Kyra blinked. She knew that Jasmine probably meant nothing by it but the placement of other friends made it seem like Jasmine thought that the two of them were friends. Since when did she agree to this? "I love your name, by the way! It's so pretty! It's K-Y-R-A, right? Or do you spell it with another letter? Sorry, I'm a bit of an airhead at times." Kyra sighed and just nodded her head, allowing Jasmine to figure out what she was agreeing to on her own. Kyra didn't want to appear annoyed because that would be rude, but it seemed like Jasmine was going to be a bit of a handful. That much was obvious. Jasmine smiled at her and wrote their names down on the paper. This was going to be a long class period.
Kyra figured that the period bell couldn't come fast enough and once it rang, she was more than excited to put her things in her bag. It wasn't that she didn't like Jasmine or anything but she was certainly a handful that Kyra wasn't expecting. She placed her English books in her back and slung it over her shoulder, ready to leave for her next class. However, Jasmine stopped her with a call of her name before Kyra could even leave her desk. Confused, Kyra looked over at her, pressing the button closed on her glove again. What could Jasmine possibly want now?
"I'll see you there!" Jasmine said as she slipped a folded piece of paper over to the girl. Kyra took the paper, confused, and gave Jasmine a small tilt of her head as if silently asking her to elaborate more. The two of them didn't have another class as far as Kyra was concerned and since it was the second week of school, she would know by now. So what could Jasmine possibly be talking about and why did she look like she already knew where it was going to be?
"Where am I seeing you?" Kyra asked, brushing a strand of white hair behind her ear. Jasmine giggled, covering her smile with her name, and doing a poor job of hiding it by the way, before standing up with her backpack over her shoulder. She shifted the bag slightly before brushing off her clothes. She was taking her sweet time and Kyra wasn't sure how she felt about this. She could have looked down at the paper and figured it out but at this point, she knew how to get the information that she needed.
"Why, the Rejects Club, of course!" With that, Jasmine turned and left, leaving Kyra standing in the back of the room by herself. Confused, she opened the paper and read the contents. A flyer for the Rejects Club, hosted by Mark Nijer and Jasmine Ender herself. Kyra smiled a bit to herself, shoving the paper into her bag and leaving for her next class. Jasmine Ender was definitely interesting. That was a sure fact.
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"You think she's in trouble?" The question drew the raven-haired female's attention. She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and looked over to where her acquaintance was pointing. Indeed, there was a girl who looked as if the senior she was talking to was being a little more than friendly. They could do something about it but honestly, she didn't really care all that much. She shrugged her shoulders and brushed her ebony hair over her pale shoulder, making sure that the low, curled pigtail sat the right way on the front of her dress. She turned back to face the boy, a fellow classmate, who had been the one to bring up the topic in the first place.
"It's not a big deal. I'm sure she can deal with it on her own." A tap on the assignment in front of her acquaintance reminded him of why they were there and he sighed, turning back to face her again. Cleopatra Blackheart was known for her apathetic attitude, after all. Everything about her screamed that she had a disinterest in the world around her, even if it was due to stereotypes. Her dark clothes, though covered in lace and with enough petticoats to make it look like she were a living porcelain doll, screamed goth in a style that was only known as Gothic Lolita. Her black, curly hair was often pulled up into childish hairstyles, like space buns or pigtails, but it was like a decoy, the childish nature used to distract everyone from her pessimistic attitude and antagonistic personality. If life were a TV show, she would be the rival teenager to the show's main protagonist.
But she wasn't. Instead, she was here, supposedly working on a school assignment with Markus Nijer. Mark, as everyone knew him by, was a fairly average kid, who didn't seem to draw attention to himself much, unlike his current companion. It wasn't like he faded into the background or anything, though his ever-present hoodies and jeans didn't seem to help much, but he didn't seem like the type of person who'd be the main protagonist in anything other than a high school anime. And yet, it didn't seem to stop him from constantly being brought to everyone's attention. After all, he was Jasmine Ender's best friend, as everyone knew, and he was known for his kind and caring personality. It was no surprise that he would be worried about the girl in the hallway, whether he knew her or now.
Long story short, he and Cleopatra were complete opposites and it was a wonder that someone the school figured was so villainous was even associating with the school's gold-star child at all.
"But she seems so familiar... What if he-" Mark started to say, watching the interaction between the girl and the senior some more, but when he directed his gaze back to Cleopatra and saw her glare, he shut up and didn't finish whatever he was going to say. He hadn't been the subject of it before but he knew that crossing Cleopatra could result in some unwanted social issues. She had a way of getting people to do whatever she wanted without even lifting a finger and no one knew how she did it. "-Yeah, okay. I'll think about it later. So, the assignment?" Cleopatra shrugged her shoulders slightly, standing up from the table and setting her book down.
"I don't care how you do it," She replied, smoothing out her dress and checking over it to make sure that there were no wrinkles in her outfit. Mark gave her a confused look, tilting his head like he didn't understand what she had just said. Cleopatra glanced up at him and rolled his eyes. Oh, the poor innocent boy didn't understand. Did she really have to hold his hand this whole time? "Do I have to spell it out for you? Honestly, I don't care how you do the assignment. I have much better things to occupy my time."
"But we're supposed to do..." Mark said softly, rubbing the back of his neck. Cleopatra could only scoff at that. He didn't seem to understand what she was capable of. If she wanted, she could make his high school experience awful but she didn't really want to do that right now. Sure, while she knew no one was quite fond of her, she knew that she could get many people to do whatever she wanted. After all, if she had learned anything from Lockwood Middle school, it was how to rule the school.
"I don't care how you do the assignment," Cleopatra repeated, emphasizing each word a little bit so that he knew how serious she was about this. "I decided to work with you because I thought that you were even just a little bit interesting. Do not prove my judgment wrong." Mark fell quiet, stopping whatever protest he was about to come up with wherever it was and his gaze dropped to the assignment in front of him. Cleopatra gave him a sickly sweet smile, almost out of character for her to do, and picked up her book, tucking it under her arm as she did so. "Have a phenomenal day, Markus. I shall see you tomorrow." She turned on her heels, about to leave, but Mark called her name, stopping her dead in her tracks. Annoyed, she turned back to face him. What more could he possibly want from her? If he was going to whine more about their assignment, her judgment was going to be proven wrong. Oh well, that wasn't the first time what had happened. "What do you want?" A little venom in her words. No point in hiding her annoyance, right?
"Um, well..." Mark started to say, fiddling with the paper in his hands. His face started to turn a shade of red and Cleopatra swore that if this was just a ploy to confess his love to her or whatever, he was going to be so dead after school there wouldn't even be a body for the funeral. "I'll... Well, I'll see you later." Mark shoved the papers at her and ran off, leaving her to catch the papers before they fell to the floor. Glancing up, she noticed he had left his backpack. Oh well, he'd be back for it soon. Yet, he didn't leave her their assignment. It was still laying on the table. So, what could the paper possibly be? Glancing down at the paper she sighed. A flyer for a club. She didn't do people, let alone clubs. What was he thinking?
"'You are invited to join the school's first and only Rejects Club!'" Cleopatra read the title of the page out loud. The words were in a bright annoying font and she had a feeling that this was just another one of Jasmine Ender's schemes. However, she continued to read on. 'If you are receiving this paper from either me, Jasmine Ender, or my partner-in-crime, Mark Nijer, then congrats! You have been noted as a lonely social outcast and we are super excited to see you every day at 3 after school in the guidance counselor's room! Feel free to stop in and join on any day that you feel comfortable with but I got a feeling I'll be seeing you sometime this year, even if you don't believe it. XOXO, Jasmine Ender.'
"Lonely social outcast? Please," Cleopatra scoffed, throwing away the paper in the closest trash can to her. She had no need for a club like that. Definitely one of Jasmine's schemes, something that she started every once in a while. "Those two just keep getting more and more interesting, I will say that." Cleopatra was about to leave the cafeteria but hesitated, looking back at the table she had been sitting with Mark. His backpack laid there like a forgotten child's toy. Against her own odds, she reached out and grabbed it.
She'd return it to him at the club. But there was no way that she would ever join that thing. Not in a million lives.
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"This is going to be so much fun, oh my gosh!" Jasmine squealed as Mark entered the room. Mark laughed at her as he shut the door behind him before walking over to sit down while they waited for the rest of the members. So far, their Rejects Club only had six members, not including the new people that they had invited today. Since it had only started two weeks ago, it wasn't much of a surprise that it was so small but it also invite-only so that meant expanding it was much harder than a normal club. That's why they were hoping to expand the club with these new members. More members meant that they could plan more fun things for them to do. "I invited Kyra Kingsly to come today. You know, Detective Purple Hair? I think she'll be a great addition! Did you invite anyone new today?"
"I think I might have gotten Cleopatra Blackheart to come," Mark replied as he jumped up on the desk to sit next to her, watching the door as two of their members walked in together. Jasmine giggled and leaned back on her head, smiling happily. Cleopatra was going to be a part of their club, she knew that for a fact. Once you got an invite, you came to the club. It was as simple as that. Jasmine knew that much. It had worked for the rest of its members. Eventually, they had to come. Their curiosity, their loneliness, or something else entirely would get them running over to the club, looking for shelter even if they didn't know it themselves. That was the whole point of the club, after all.
"Ooh! Cleopatra! I can't believe that I didn't think of her before. Nice one!" Jasmine laughed a bit, kicking her feet back and forth on the desk.
"Did you really invite Cleopatra Blackheart?" A new voice asked as a brunette female made her way over to the desk where Mark and Jasmine were talking. She was known as Sasha Conan and she had been one of the first members that had been invited to join the Rejects Club and ever since day one, Mark and Jasmine knew that she was a wonderful addition to their club. Sasha was always smiling, constantly laughing, and almost always in a good mood, making her almost as much of a positive force as Jasmine was. At first glance, people would wonder why she was even in such a club in the first place, since she was always trying to make someone smile, but after observing her last year, Mark and Jasmine had come to the conclusion that Sasha needed this club just as much as the next person there. Sasha was one of the best singers in the school and while she had friends in her upper choirs, most people figured that she was a snob and didn't want to interact with them. So, Sasha became a social outcast. And Mark and Jasmine's first member for the Rejects Club.
"Don't forget Kyra Kingsly. We invited her today too. I think they'll be lots of fun to have here," Jasmine replied, flashing Sasha one of her signature smiles. Sasha smiled back but it was clear that she was trying hard not to wince at the news. She looked like she was worried about the news and rightfully so. After all, everyone who associated with Cleopatra Blackheart ended up in some sort of trouble so what would make this different?
"Are you sure you made a smart decision?" Sasha asked, leaning against the desk that Jasmine and Mark were currently sitting on together. She flicked a long strand of brown hair over her shoulder as her green eyes focused on the pair in front of her. "I mean, this is Cleopatra that we're talking about. She's not... Well, I mean, she isn't the nicest person in the school at all. And she's a bit of a loner, isn't she? I don't really think she would like it here anyway."
"Well, we invited Anthony and he showed up, Sasha. And he wasn't so bad, was he?" Mark said with a shrug of his shoulders. He was quick to jump to Cleopatra's defense. After all, he had invited her so she was his responsibility now.
Anthony Baltomore decided to walk in as they spoke, momentarily drawing their attention. Truth be told, Anthony was the first person that Mark and Jasmine had come up with when they were planning their club out but since the boy had such a huge ego problem, he had only just joined two days ago. Anthony stuck out like a sore thumb in their school, just like Cleopatra did, but that was because of his professional attire. Anthony always looked like he was dressed up for a business meeting, even if that was far from what was happening. Paired with his black-rimmed glasses, Anthony gave off the impression that he was a stuck-up rich kid, which wasn't far from the truth. Anthony had to have been the richest kid in the entire state at the very least. Not only did he come from a rich family but he also ran his own successful business. The rich kid snob stereotype summed Anthony's personality up accurately so at first, Mark had been hesitant to let him join but under Jasmine's promise of the club softening him up, he had received an invite like the rest of the members.
"Okay, you have a fair point," Sasha replied, nodding her head. "I don't know if you can get any worse than Anthony Baltomore."
"You certainly can and her name is Cleopatra Blackheart," A new voice chimed in as they walked through the door, not too long after Anthony's entrance. Sasha laughed a little before turning and looking over at the speaker.
"Just because Cleopatra gambled you out of your lunch money Freshman year does not mean that she's a literal demon from hell, Leo," Sasha replied. Jasmine and Mark's chuckling did not help the boy out at all either. Leo Hansen rolled his sky blue eyes, brushing his orangish-red hair out of his face. Honestly, it was hard to tell if he was joking or not. Since he was known for his jokester personality, it was hard to tell when Leo was actually being serious. That was actually why Leo was here in the first place. Like Sasha, at first glance, he looked like he didn't belong. However, when people looked closer like Mark and Jasmine did, they would notice that it was his jokester personality that pushed people away as fast as it brought them in. While he was known for his jokes, that was all he was to everyone else. And so, he ended up like Jasmine, friendly to everyone but didn't have many, if any, real friends. So, it only made sense for Mark to invite him to the club.
That was when the last member of their little Rejects Club decided to show up. The club only consisted of six members and that last member was known as Isabelle Emily and she was an aspiring author. Isa was an online novelist and was pretty serious about her work. However, once the students at school figured out that she wrote books and posted them online, she had been immediately shunned. Most people figured that she wrote weird or porn books, though no one cared enough to actually look into it. And so Jasmine did and what she found was that not only were they wrong about Isa but she also was a brilliant author. That was why they were quick to add Isa to their little group of misfits. Isa typically hid in the corner of the room most days, typing away on her computer, no doubt coming up with another brand new and amazing chapter for her current book. Which is exactly where she headed right away once she stepped foot into the room.
"Don't you love how we're only talking about Cleopatra and yet, she's not the only person that's been invited today. Hello! You're forgetting about Kyra," Jasmine said, directing their attention from the door and back to the conversation at hand. To be fair, it was also going to be an interesting conversation, since Kyra was equally as interesting as Cleopatra. In fact, Kyra Kingsly was so interesting that she was the first person that Jasmine didn't have full confidence in when it came to joining the club. Every other person they had invited had Jasmine's full trust in the fact that they would come. However, when it came to Kyra, that trust started to fade. It wasn't that she didn't think that Kyra could benefit from the club. Jasmine knew that Kyra was one of the people who needed it the most. She just figured that Kyra wouldn't give them a second thought. And that bothered Jasmine to no end.
"You do mean Kyra Kingsly, right?" Leo asked, shrugging his shoulders. "Because she's in my math class. Always quiet. Haven't heard her say a thing so far. And yet, she seems to know just about everything. I'm not doubting that she could be interesting but I do have to ask. Why her?" Jasmine smiled, shaking her head a bit with a shrug.
"What else would I invite her for? Kyra just seems like she needs a friend. And that's what this club is all about, isn't it?" Jasmine's answer sounded basic and borderline cheesy, but that was the truth. That was the same reason that they were here, after all. To judge Kyra for it would be judging themselves.
After that, the conversation about the new invites ceased and everyone went about their own ways, as their normal club meetings went. Jasmine and Sasha stuck up a conversation about their current jobs, talking about all the interesting things that had been going on while Mark and Leo went over to Anthony, entrapping the poor boy into a conversation. Though, eventually, Jasmine and Sasha ran out of things to say and so, Sasha went over to check up on Isa, and Jasmine rested back on the desk, supporting herself up with her hands. Mark smiled at her, walking over again once he saw that she was alone. Jumping back up on the desk, he copied her, resting back on his hands and swinging his feet.
"You look like you've got something else to say. So what is it, Missy?" Mark asked with a small laugh. Jasmine smirked, kicking her feet back and forth a bit before responding.
"That depends. Is it something that you want to hear, my good sir?" Jasmine replied with a small giggle. Mark froze for a second, a playfully shocked look covering his face as he looked over at his best friend. Mark and Jasmine had known each other for years and so even though they had grown out of their make-believe game phase, the nicknames that they had come up with had stuck around. Their game, which consisted of the two of them and one other, meant just as much to them as their friendship did and was just as important to their lives now as it had been when they were actively playing it.
"Why yes, I do believe it is. What else do you have to say, Jas?" Mark asked, the shocked look disappearing from his face just as quickly as it appeared before being replaced with a smile. Jasmine smiled back and shrugged her shoulders, downplaying whatever her surprise was despite knowing that it would make Mark excited.
"You'll see. I invited one other person to the club today and I know that they'll be coming in today. For a fact," Jasmine said with a small laugh. Mark let out a small groan and chuckled, kicking Jasmine's leg playfully with his own.
"Come on, Missy! You know how much I hate surprises."
"Imma count this as revenge for those movie tickets, so no."
"Jasmine!"
Jasmine laughed but before she could respond, the door opened and the room fell painfully silent. They knew that all their members were here and the guidance counselor was never in the room after school so that could only mean one thing. A new member was here. Turning to see who was at the door, the room seemed to hold its breath. Because at that door, was the one person that Jasmine had almost no confidence in. Kyra Kingsly was here.
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Kyra glanced around the room, assessing all of the people that were in there. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting but this certainly wasn't it. There were a few people that she recognized but her knowledge stopped at Jasmine and Leo. The rest of the people there seemed just a foreign as her native language. Recognizable on sight but too unclear to know anything. Kyra almost felt like she was in shock. She wasn't sure what brought her here. The paper hadn't been all that convincing but it had gotten under her skin after that. Maybe it really had just piqued her interest and she just felt the need to check it out to put her mind at ease.
Now that she was actually here, Kyra didn't know how she felt, if she was feeling anything at all.
Jasmine was quick to recover from the club's original shock. Were they really that surprised to see Kyra?" "Hey! Kyra! I'm so glad that you could join us today!" Jasmine said with a smile, leaning forward from her seat on the desk. "Mark and I were beginning to wonder if you had ended up getting caught up in something else. As much as we would have loved to have you here, we totally get that you have other duties to attend too." Kyra's gaze jumped left at the slightest movement, focusing on the boy who had to be Mark. Mark gave her a smile as he jumped off the table. He gave her a wave though Kyra chose not to return that. According to the pamphlet, he was the one that was running the club with Jasmine. Mark seemed like he was a nice guy at first glance but then again, so did a registered murderer.
"I guess you could say that you caught my attention then," Kyra replied, returning her gaze back over to Jasmine. That was probably the first time anyone in that room had heard her speak before. It wasn't like Kyra did it often. "I suppose I was just a little curious." Jasmine smiled and nodded her head.
"That's my job! I mean, it got you here, didn't it?" Jasmine replied with a small laugh. Kyra didn't respond at first. Now that she was here, Kyra wasn't sure if she wanted to be here any longer. She had seen what the club was like and it looked like that it wasn't much. It really was just six high school students messing around in the guidance counselor's room after school for an hour. If this was all that it was, it seemed like it was going to be a huge waste of Kyra's valuable time. And on top of that, she didn't like the way that the club made her heart race and her brain kick into panic mode. Still, it would be really rude to walk out of the room now that she was here. She knew that she couldn't just leave the room now and risk hurting their feelings, so she'd survive it for a bit. Just for today and then she'd never have to come back. She could live through her racing heart just until then, couldn't she? After all, she had made no commitment to this little club. She had no reason to come back at all.
"I guess I'll stay for a little bit," Kyra said slowly, cautiously letting her backpack slide down her shoulder and onto the floor the best she could without making too much noise. Jasmine giggled excitedly and clapped her hands together once. Another girl, one that Kyra didn't recognize, cheered excitedly and bounced up and down from where she was sitting. Kyra sighed. It was almost as if she was here for their entertainment or something like that from the way that they were acting.
The cheering girl was quick to introduce herself first, almost like if she didn't, she would be forgotten or something like that. "Hey! I'm Sasha Conan! It's so wonderful to finally meet you, Kyra! Jasmine and Leo had so many nice things to say about you! I'm super excited that you're here." Kyra nodded her head at Sasha's words. Some of that seemed to be a lie but it was the only evidence that she had to go off of at the moment.
"Anthony Baltomore," Was all the blonde boy on the couch said before going back to his tablet. Kyra glanced over at him, recognizing him before he even said his name. Anthony was a Baltomore. No wonder he looked familiar.
"I'm Isabelle Emily but everyone just calls me Isa," The girl with the curly brown hair in the corner said. By the time that Kyra looked over at her, Isa had already gone back to her computer, typing away at whatever she had been doing before on there. Kyra didn't recognize Isa at all so she didn't pay too much attention to her just yet.
"I'm sure you already know me but Leo Hanson." Kyra's eyes jumped over at Leo as he spoke. She definitely already knew him. He was in her third-period math class. Three seats down and two to the right. He had gotten detention last Friday for screwing around in class and trying to get everyone to laugh at him. Or something like that. It had been a pointless math class so Kyra had barely paid attention to it.
"Obviously, you already know me," Jasmine said with a smile. She pointed over to Mark, who was still next to her, with little finger guns. Mark rolled his eyes at his companion, causing Jasmine to laugh a little bit in return. They seemed to be quite the pair.
"My name is Mark Nijer. You have no idea how excited to have you here with us, Kyra," Mark said reassuringly. Was he trying to convince her to stay? Kyra wasn't sure. She didn't shift exactly, she never did, but she did brush her white braid over her shoulder with her black-gloved hand, trying to take a few deep breaths in to calm her racing heart.
The room was silent for a few agonizing seconds until Kyra realized that they were waiting for her to stay something. Did they want her to introduce herself? But they already knew her name. So why? "Kyra Kingsly." Her voice was steady and calm, just as it always was, but she knew that her eyes were betraying her at this moment. Still, no one said anything. What more did they want from her?
"Flash round?" Sasha asked, tilting her head and looking over in Jasmine's direction. Kyra blinked, confused. Flash round? What on earth was flash round? It sounded like some hip way of asking someone to a shootout, though those didn't happen anymore. Jasmine giggled at her confusion and turned back to face Sasha, quickly coming to Kyra's aid by saying; "I don't think Kyra knows what flash round is, Sas. We'll just have to flash her and she'll catch on." At her words, Leo started to chuckle and once Jasmine realized why he was laughing, she groaned and threw a pencil at him. Kyra sighed softly. They were all so immature. She couldn't wait for her life to go back to normal tomorrow.
"You ready for flash around, Kyra?" Jasmine asked, turning back to Kyra with a small giggle. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees and folding her hands together, making her even with Mark. While this flash round sounded really pointless, Kyra let her curiosity get the best of her and she found herself giving a small nod. This was going to be interesting. She had no idea what she was getting herself into now.
"Alright, we'll start off easy. What's your birthday?" Jasmine asked.
"I don't like to tell," Kyra replied, slightly confused.
"Your age?" It was Mark who asked her a question this time. It looked like they were going to alternate.
"I'm fourteen?" Kyra replied. This was going to be interesting for sure.
"Passions and hobbies?"
"I'm a detective?"
"That's obvious. Anyway, favorite subject?"
"Um... probably psychology."
"Ooh! Interesting! Favorite clothing style?"
"No bias?"
"That's fine. Favorite foods?"
"No bias?"
"That's boring! Favorite movie?"
"I think the last time I watched a movie was when I was seven."
"You're kidding! Okay, how about favorite book?"
"Sherlock Holmes?"
"No, duh, Mark. You should have figured that. What's your favorite place you've been, Kyra?"
Mark and Jasmine continued to ask Kyra questions for the next minute, alternating between the two of them. Kyra answered them to the best of her ability but there were a lot of questions that she honestly didn't know the answer to herself. Jasmine and Mark didn't seem to mind though. They just continued to ask her questions until they were satisfied and finished. By the end of it, she was one hundred percent more confused than she had been before she entered and almost regretted stepping through that door in the first place but she kept herself together. She wouldn't be coming back the next day so what was the point of making a big deal of it? It wasn't like she didn't already know that Jasmine and Mark were interesting people.
"You know, Kyra, you have a fascinating personality. I completely get why you're a social outcast," Jasmine said with a smile. Kyra sighed, not even offended by it at this point. Jasmine had no filter and that was something that she had learned after spending five minutes with the blonde-haired girl. Jasmine didn't mean to be mean or anything like that, but she didn't seem to process her words before she said them. She wasn't very nice when it came to her analysis, and her preppy tone seemed to betray her words. Though, there was Mark, who seemed to be her stabilizer, since he smacked her on the leg fairly hard. Jasmine whined and gave a half-hearted attempt to hit him back before continuing what she was saying. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to sound rude. I was just saying that everything about you makes a lot of sense. That's why I'm glad we got you to at least visit us here."
"What Jasmine is trying to say, underneath all that harshness, is that we're thrilled you're here," Mark said, finishing up what Jasmine was trying to say for her. "And we're really hoping that you do decide to stay. We want to give you the chance that we offer everyone here at the club." That caught Kyra's attention. She raised an eyebrow, her curiosity piqued.
"And what exactly is it that you offer?" Kyra asked, her voice a little more quiet than she meant it to sound but she made up for it by subconsciously crossing her arms over her chest. Mark smiled brightly at her.
"How about some real friends?"