SUNNYVALE

(2) WE MET, AND NOW WE FUCKING DRINK

Quickly enough, the girl next to Tierna - a comical individual called Emily Sonnett - introduces the newcomer to everybody before the actual meeting began:

The girl with the flawless curly hair is called Christen Press: she comes from a poor family of 5 children in the southern part of Westside, and has to align two jobs outside of school in order to help her parents pay the rent after her father, Cody, went to prison for aggraved robbery. Next to her, the small fiery Black girl, is named Crystal Dunn ; quite immediately, Emily warned Tierna about her, because size does not, in fact, matter. Crystal was the muscles of the band, and if she was a terrible student and employee, she was a loyal friend. Then, the small brunette was Kelley O'hara, daughter of a renowned local drug dealer (her mother) who unofficially ruled Westside's drug gangs. And, finally, the tall blonde who just advanced to the so-called stage prepared by putting two table glued to each other is Becky Sauerbrunn, their actual teenage leader.

Although being highly confused by the reason of this meeting, Tierna did not dare to ask much more from Emily : the girl herself had her own messed up life, but hadn't mentioned it just yet.

Either way, when Becky Sauerbrunn speaks, everybody grows silent:

"Good evening, Westsiders (the small crowd make a very distinctive noise, which is a sort of shortened haka sound). Before we start, let's make a warm welcome to our newest recruit: Tierna Davidson!"

As she points toward Tierna, the latter feels all eyes on her. Tobin, from the corner of her eye, realises her sister's stress and starts applauding, followed by her friends, and soon the whole room is applauding her. 

Emily gives her a friendly and encouraging tap on the back, before the attention shifts to Becky again, who continues on a much graver tone:

"As you all know, the education board of Sunnyvale has decided to make budgetary cuts yet again, meaning that they intend to cut budgets in the West so that the East can develop other infrastructures. This now endangers our very own high school, that might be destroyed during the school year, meaning that us Westsiders would have to cross the border and go to Eastside High..."

"Hell no!" the girl named Kelley yells, getting up all at once. 

"This is bullshit I'm telling y'all" Crystal then adds, shaking her head.

It takes a few seconds for Becky to regain the audience's attention. When she finally manages to do so, she just declares:

"This is unacceptable, and we, the youth of Westside, won't let that happen! We cannot let them take away our education and make us go to another high school where we won't be welcomed and will be belittled: this won't stand! I propose we go and protest in front of the school tomorrow morning, till the cops kick us out. Who's with me?"

An incredible roar comes out of the crowd, as Tierna remains still, observing the young girls getting together and planning chaos. Somehow, although she was not used to such behaviour, she felt like she belonged. So, when Emily got up, she does the same, and starts applauding. She meets Tobin's gaze, and the older girl seems quite content. 

After a few minutes, Kelley gets on top of a table and yells:

"We met, and now we fucking drink !"

Another roar raises, as the woman holding the bar takes bottles out - visibly free, which amazes Tierna - as well as a ton of shot glasses.

As everybody else rushes to the bar, Emily turns to Tierna.

"Welcome to the West, bitch!"

"Thank you?" Tierna hesitantly responds, before getting handed a drink by Emily.

After getting their glasses together and drinking them bottoms up, the blonde adds:

"Oh and, Davidson, you can call me Sonnett."

Tierna nods, and soon she is drinking many more drinks bottoms up, melting into the huge crowd of rebellious teenagers.

So, if this is the West, then I'm fucking staying, she thinks to herself, starting to chant with the others.

***

"So" Tierna starts, quite drunk, "what is it about those Eastsiders that you hate so much ? I mean, they can't be all bad, right?"

Emily bursts into laughter.

Near them, a big table with Tobin and her friends gathered around it: immediately, some of the girls were looking Tierna's way.

Megan - the purple-haired girl - just smirks and responds:

"Just wait and see, newbie: they're all rotten to the bone"

"They never in a million years would be on our side, Tee" Christen continues, calmly and sobrietively giving thoughtful explanations. As Crystal next to her nods, she continues: "We tried socialising, but those bourgeois spoiled kids think they're so much better than us : they don't deserve our patience if they first decided to declare war on us."

"Furthermore" Kelley adds, almost spitting her drink everywhere, "they're all pricks."

The girls laugh, as Tierna frowns. 

"Hey, new girl" Crystal then says, staring at the brunette with confusion, "tell me: where the hell do you come from? I mean, I heard you're Tobs' sister, how come we haven't seen you before today?"

"I lived with my mother in Atlanta" Tierna declares, staring around to see if Tobin was there - and she was, and was listening carefully. Sighing, the younger girl adds: "Tobin and I share a father. So, when my mom died in a car crash last week, coming here was the only option - but I'm kinda glad I did."

There is a moment of silence, as everybody is processing Tierna's cold tone when talking about an incident that deprived her from her mother only one week ago - the look of indifference in her eyes were just announcing a deeply rooted denial. 

After a moment, Tobin raises her glass, before announcing:

"Well, welcome Baby T, and now let's drink before the war begins!"

Everybody cheer louder, as Tierna drinks her glass bottoms up. Next to her, Sonnett is laughing her ass off: visibly, the perspective of going to war with the Eastside was sort of a long-awaited event that Tierna couldn't quite grasp yet.

But for now, the reunion turned into a party, and the brunette couldn't help but fall in love with the looks of the Westside...