𝐆𝐋𝐔𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 || #𝟏

Chapter 38

"No it's fine," I dismiss. "Plus, apparently we're confronting each other after school with our friend groups."

Claudia nods her head, "I'll tell everybody else at the lunch table. You should go get some ice on that," she motions towards my cheek. I smile, thanking her for her assistance. 

-- ------ --

My friend group, Claudia, and I wait outside the school. Slowly, Alexis and her posse emerge from the school building. All of her friends look like they're ready to fight a war, while we look like we're confused. Well, everyone except for Claudia. She looks like she wants to murder Alexis. Her hands are in a claw position, and it seems that during her last class she actually sharpened her nails. I have to remind her to not look so intimidating.

"Anyways, continuing off from what happened earlier..." Alexis starts, her hands on her hips. "Does anybody care to tell Jasmine why they hate her so much?"

"I'll go first," Lilliana volunteers, stepping forward. "First off, I hate how you treat everything as a joke. You don't care about your friends, or family. You only think about yourself."

"That's not true," Jolene says, speaking up. "And last time I checked, aren't you and your friends the ones who constantly bullied me?"

"Didn't you try to get Jasmine suspended?" Emily added in, Lorelei nodding her head.

"Didn't you physically assault my sister today?" Claudia scowls.

"Wait, you slapped her?" Angel asks, and it seems she isn't the only one surprised about this. Her whole friend group gasps, looking at Alexis. "You never told us this!"

Alexis seems bored. "Yeah, I didn't tell you. Is it that big of a deal?"

Lilac shrugs, obviously not caring. "I thought we came here to discuss Jasmine, and give her a wakeup call. Why aren't we doing that then?"

"She's not the one that needs a wakeup call," Lorelei grits. "You are, everybody in your friend group needs one."

Alexis looks at me, slightly smiling: "I guess you really are hiding behind your friends, aren't you?"

As much as I hated to admit it, Alexis was right. I was hiding behind all of them, and as I stepped forward to fight her protests, Claudia pulled me back. Claudia steps forward, and pulls out her law book. I can already tell that this isn't going to go well, and that Claudia will end up embarrassing herself.

"Why don't we settle this as a court case?" Claudia suggests, "we can get... Jolene, you can be the judge."

"She's obviously going to be biased!" Elena protests, "that's not fair!"

"I promise I will not be biased," Jolene swears, holding up her hand. But then, adding in quietly after, "I will be biased." Then, raising her voice again, "Claudia can be defending Jasmine while... Alexis can be the prosecutor, or whatever. Alexis, deliver your opening statement."

"First off," Alexis starts, "how well do you know Jasmine? I've known her for almost eleven years, and she's definitely not the girl that you think she is. On paper, she seems like a normal girl. Nice, if you're pushing it... But deep inside, I think we all know what a lie that is. She's manipulative, she hides behind other people to defend her. Do you really want somebody like that as your friend?"

I'm going to admit it, Alexis is actually not bad at this. I guess this is a pro of having a mum that's a fantastic lawyer. However, Claudia does not seem fazed, as she steps up.

"You may have known Jasmine for almost eleven years, but I've known her all my life. I know what type of candy she hates, I know that she loves dogs, and most importantly of all - I know that she's a great person. You say that letting her friends defend her is a cowardly act, but instead, I view it in a different way... She doesn't want us to defend her, she doesn't tell us to defend her either. In fact, if it wasn't for us, she'd let you and your cronies have their way and let you walk over her. Do you want to know why we defend her? It's because we genuinely like her, we want to be around her. Unlike your friends who are only with you because they're scared of you."

Angel shuffles around uncomfortably at the last line, fumbling around with her fingers. Alexis sees this, and glares at her, then turns back to Claudia.

"Well as it turns out," she huffs, "you got better at being a lawyer."

"ORDER!" Jolene screams. She is enjoying this way too much, "do not speak out of turn. Okay, bring up your witnesses."

Alexis shoves Lilac forward, who scowls at her. Lilac breathes, then fixes on the most serious face that she can muster. "Jasmine is stupid, she has no common sense. I don't like her, she's annoying, she constantly insults her friends. If you can't see that, you're blind."

Lilac, you just insulted... Nevermind.

"Alright, this is all wrong," Jolene interrupts. "You're meant to ask the witness questions, not have the witness give out an opening statement."

Alexis groans, and turns to Lilac. "What's the worst thing that Jasmine has ever done to you?"

"Probably when she was having a birthday sleepover with all of our friends, and I was actually the only one who was sleeping over."

"Objection!" Claudia cries out, "hearsay."

"Sustained," Jolene immediately says. "There is no concrete evidence that this event actually took place, and even if it did, how would it be in Jasmine's control that it happened?"

Lilac grunts, and returns to the back of the group. Claudia yells out about how she's the one cowering behind her friends now, and Alexis starts fuming.

"Jasmine is stupid!" She cries.

Jolene, Emily and Lorelei start yelling at Alexis' friend group, while everybody in Alexis' friend group starts yelling back at them. The commotion and noise is enough to disturb the cafeteria ladies, as they burst out the doors to see what had just happened.

"What's going on?" Katheryne jeers, "we were peacefully cleaning the kitchen and we heard all this commotion. What's happening?"

"This is a small matter, meant for the students to deal with," Alexis simpers. Katheryne gets mad at Alexis for being passive-aggressive.

The thing that really sets her off is when Iris loudly whispers to Heather, "I'm going to hope she doesn't go on a vegan rampage again."

Katheryne yells at the top of her lungs about how she's ashamed that we aren't vegan yet, but looks at me with a thumbs up. "ALL OF YOU SHOULD GO VEGAN! FOLLOW JASMINE, WHO BECAME VEGAN TODAY! HAPPY VEGAN DECLARATION DAY!"

Everybody stares at her in astonishment. Then, one by one, we all make a run for it as Belle brings out a food trolley.