The cafeteria was filled with students. Some were chit-chatting. Some grabbing their lunch and some clicking selfies as if they had just entered the Met Gala and were red carpet ready.
Alex and his friends were part of those who were both eating and gossiping. Jessi joined them too. All of them exchanged a few words before engaging in personal conversations. For a millisecond, the thought of Claire and the incident from a few days back, crossed Alex's mind. He instantly shrugged that thought off his shoulders. he wanted to — had to — focus on what was in front of him. Jessi. Alex was swooning over her. Her face, her smile, the way her eyes rolled when she didn't like something, the way she grinned sheepishly as she became shy.
'I think i like her,' he thought.
Alex was slowly falling for Jessi. And as for her, she fell for him the second she saw him. At that moment they were all in peace.
But Princeton High was a devil's own hell. Where there is a devil there is no peace.
A girl entered the cafeteria, looking messed up from head to toe. Red cheek, bleeding hand, dishevelled hair, you name it. All the gasps didn't bother her. She looked lost. She was lost.
Even Alex and his friends started speculating about what could have possibly happened to her. She looked beaten up. Perhaps she was. Then, Alex recognized her. "Isn't she Areum, from the student council?" he asked.
"Yes...," Jessi replied. "Do you guys know she's the second council member to be messed with?"
Everyone's eyes turned towards her. Their looks indicated her to explain further. "Today, the vice president got banished from the council... forever. Didn't you guys hear?" Jessi looked at how clueless all of them were, and so, she continued. "She offended someone from the authorities and broke some rule, did you guys really not hear about it?"
"Then if Nailea broke a rule and got banished, and Areum's all messed up, does that mean they were in it together?" Antony asked while suggesting another theory.
"O.M.G. is she out of her mind?! She's sitting in Claire's place!" Amelia gasped, along with many others present there in the cafeteria.
Just then, another person entered the cafeteria, quietening everyone. It was Claire. Everyone tensed up. Some were worried about what she would do to Areum once she saw her. Claire had a pale, gloomy face, and walked slower than usual. Collecting her tray from the lunch lady, she went to her reserved table. And when she was several steps away from her desired table, Areum caught her eyes.
Claire froze for a few seconds; not enough to be noticed but she froze. Her mind was filled with racing thoughts. She argued with herself in her mind, whether she should cut Areum some slack or make her regret sitting there.
An eery silence made its way into the room. Claire saw everyone staring at her from the corner of her eyes. It seemed as if they were waiting to see the scene unfold in front of them. The thought of everyone not taking her seriously crossed her mind. So, she decided to act. 'I don't have their love anyways. If I can't have that, I want their fear.'
She scoffed and rolled her eyes. Walking up to Areum, she slowly hovered over the poor girl who just wanted to eat peacefully.
Areum looked up at whoever cast a shadow on her. When she saw Claire, her eyes widened. The feeling of fear returned.
"You again?" Claire asked, acting annoyed.
Areum stood up in a flash in order to apologize, but it was too late. Claire kept her tray on the table and stepped closer to Areum. She pushed the already beaten-up girl so hard that her back hit the wall. Areum wasn't ready for the hit. How could anyone ever be ready for such violence? her tray fell along with her.
Due to this commotion, even the attention of those who were uninterested was caught.
"I-I'm sorry.... I didn't realise it was your table," Areum winced in pain. Her state trapped Clair in an unending pool of guilt. But because Claire had an act to keep up, she turned around with angry eyes. She slammed the tabletop with her hand, to catch everyone's heed on her.
The bang was really loud and because of it, even the most feeble whispers stopped. Claire announced wrathfully, "THIS table is mine and only mine. No one! And I mean it. No one is allowed to sit here. Even when I'm not here!"
A reign of terror spread across the room. Not a single person spoke, except Claire. "If anyone does, there'll be no escape from the hell your life will turn into! Mark my words! Y'all." Claire pointed her finger at everyone. After warning them all, she sat down on her seat calmly and began eating like she hadn't just terrorised a whole room full of students.
Everyone was shocked and scared. They went back to doing whatever they were doing before Claire's entrance.
Alex was staggered. He had never seen someone as savage as Claire. She was the apt definition of evil. She always caused malicious damage. Even the sight of her dark, malevolent eyes sickened him. He was disgusted by the fact that he knew such a loathsome person.
All his friends never expected Claire to be so brutal. Especially Cole. he started getting mixed feelings about her. He didn't want to dislike or be scared of her. Not without knowing her. Sure, he knew who she was. But it was knowledge on a surface level. he wanted to know her. her soul and mind precisely. Cole wasn't ready to think of her as a bully just yet.
Jessi, on the other hand, was amused. Charmed by Claire's drastic change. From a frail, bullied girl, to this utterly bestial bully that Claire had now become. Jessi had to admit that she was a little scared.
She was rather anxious about her true intentions getting revealed. She knew that to achieve her goal, she would have to make Alex — the only person brave enough to stand up to Claire — hate Claire. He was indeed Jessi's way to the throne she had longed for. She couldn't lose him to Claire. Not now. Because over her ulterior motive, she had fallen for him. Having him would be the same as hitting two birds with one stone. How could she possibly let him go?
A snap in front of her eyes broke Jessi's reverie. She looked at everyone with confusion and they stared right back at her with the same expression. "What happened?" she asked.
"Umm... we've been calling you since the last minute. Anything wrong?"
"Oh sorry, I was just thinking about how much more cruel Claire has become," she smiled sheepishly. Though, internally, she was smiling widely at how she was turning her cards against Claire.
"What do you mean?" Cole asked.
"We were good friends in middle school, Claire and I. But one day she changed completely, I don't even know why. And she started bullying me," Jessi frowned, acting hurt. She might have overdone it by choking up a bit. But in her experience, a little drama went a long way.
Cole couldn't believe what she was saying. He didn't want to accept the statement to be true. He didn't want to accept that Claire had turned so evil for no reason.
.....
"Let's go eat now," Vernon said cheerfully. All the friends were wandering about in the mall after having a fun time in the bowling alley. They were all hanging out. It was what friends did.
Settling down in the food court, Antony and Troy decided to volunteer for ordering everyone's meals.
Once their chatter calmed down, Alex looked at Jessi and asked, "Could you please explain what exactly happened between you and Claire? It's so confusing and unsettling."
his question caught everyone's attention and they too looked at Jessi, eager to hear what she had to say.
"Yeah, we wanna know too."
Jessi was off guard. She had to come up with a story and she had to be quick. "She was a new student when I first met her in seventh grade," she halted and looked at her hands that fiddled with the hem of her skirt, "She looked so lost, I figured I'd help her..... And then we became best friends over a really short span of time."
They all leaned in ardently, waiting for her to continue.
"We went to a party one day, and you know kids in their early teens, exploring everything. She had way too much to drink. And she used to drive then."
"What?! How'd she even get a license?"
"What can't money get?" Jessi answered. "She left early and the next day, she took me to the rooftop of our school. We went there for emergencies. And she told me that she..."
"That she what?" Alex had lost his patience.
"That she drove over someone while driving."
The others gasped. Shocked and terrified; eyes wide open. They expected anything but that.
"What did you do then?" Having his mind blown didn't stop Alex from getting to the bottom of this.
"I didn't tell anyone a word. All I did was tell her that I didn't want to be her friend anymore. I mean, what else could I have done? I was scared but I was also her best friend. I couldn't turn her in, but I couldn't stay and let her pull me into the mess as well. But she didn't take that well. That's when she turned against me."
"No wonder she's so aggressive now," Bethany remarked.
Cole could not accept any of it. He didn't believe that Claire; Claire of all people, killed someone. He refused to.
Alex, on the other hand, believed it all. Every word that came out of Jessi's mouth. He was infuriated. Because Claire lied. She had said that she wasn't on good terms with Jessi because Jessi played the victim card. But the actual person that turned out to be using the 'victim card' was Claire.
The one bit of consideration for Claire that had been born in his heart vanished into thin air. the old rage returned.
Jessi grinned at her companions. She successfully poisoned Alex against her enemy. She was, once again two steps away from the throne.
'Betray and conquer,' she remembered the words she said to herself the last time she did this.
Claire and Jessi weren't friends anymore. But before they weren't, Claire had confided in her. Claire had believed that Jessi would keep their promise of friendship. Even in enmity.
Of all the things Claire had learnt about Jessi during their friendship, she missed out on the fact that integrity was never Jessi's strong suit. That, unlike her, Jessi wasn't one to honor secrets once they meant nothing to each other.
Jessi had again tainted their friendship that was once sacred.
And one could only hope Alex knew of this.
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