Prom Night

iv. downfall

CH 4

MAYA WESTBROOK had never been popular. Sure, she was friendly enough with people in her classes, sharing worksheet answers and passing last night's homework here and there, but it's not like everyone knew who she was. She had a small circle of friends, people she had mostly met her freshman year. And sure, she wasn't super close with them and spent many lunches in the library studying or eating by herself on the bleachers (sometimes accompanied by her friend Xochitl), but she was happy. She was on the yearbook club and the track team, tutored kids after school, and babysat on the weekends. She sometimes met up with Maggie and Duncan at the bowling alley where Alex worked, and occasionally snuck out of the hotel they were staying at with Cinthya whenever they had a track meeting in another town. She had a life. A nice, normal life. Free of tormentors.

Of course, even in her happy days, Maya had known who Peter and his posse were. They, of course, were popular. They were the three golden boys, all handsome and nice, rich and charismatic. It didn't help that Peter was on the football team, debate team, and the junior class president--not very athletic but was clearly on track to being president or something; Gus was on the track team, lacrosse team, wrestling, and class Vice President--very sporty on top of being the class clown, too; and Tommy was on the swim team, yearbook club, and homecoming committee--and would on many occasions give girls free tickets to the dance. They were very sought after, whether by those trying to be their friends or those trying to date them.

Admittedly, Maya had been one of them. She was, after all, on the track team with Gus and the yearbook club with Tommy. And, as stated before, Maya was known for being nice, always having an endless supply of extra pencils, always willing to share her gum, always willing to whisper the answer to a teacher's question, always willing to slide you her worksheets. Especially to the charismatic likes of Gus and Tommy. And maybe that had been her downfall.

She shared classes with Peter, of course. They were both smart, always tying for the top spot in their class in middle school, always competing for who read the most books. Until they got to high school and Peter had to work twice as hard, only to lose the top spot to Maya Westbrook, no longer tying with her. Maya, who seemed to smile at everyone and who always smelt like vanilla and who never once had a friendly conversation with him despite a few pathetic attempts on his part, even though he sometimes caught Gus and Tommy talking with her, easily laughing with Tommy or warming up with Gus. Even though he was the first one to welcome her when she moved in the seventh grade, despite occasionally making small talk with her when she didn't have any friends, despite being the most popular, it was like he didn't even exist to her.

Ultimately, that had been her downfall.

hi, hello. it's been a while. like a whole year and two months. oops.

im finally beginning to have inspiration for this book again, and i realized it's because i edited chapters 1-3, so you should probably reread them because i did change a few crucial parts of the story.

and if you're confused by this chapter, that's okay. it's mostly for some backstory because i feel like we need it? yeah, we definitely need it. it will all eventually make sense, though. hopefully.

anyways, if you read this and were disappointed by how short it was, first of all, aww <3. second of all, im already working on the next chapter. patience, we're both gonna need it.

thank you for reading. dont forget to vote if you liked, and comment any qs, critiques or theories you have? idk, but anything is always welcome.

till next time. (hopefully sooner than a year.)

- ckatlitt