Kelpie

Chapter 1: Bus Ride Home

🚧 This story is under construction. 🚧

The bus ride home seemed far longer than usual with Elsie and her friends on board. It was in this moment that Jessica greatly regretted not yet attempting to acquire her driver's license.

Just a couple of years before, Jessica had graduated from a lengthy schooling that stuck her in the same vicinity as Elsie's prissy clan. They had been your classic group of school bullies. Appearing as polite, popular, and academically well-achieved kids in the presence of their parents and teachers. But behind that farse, they were just blatantly cruel and conniving. Seemingly to exist primarily to torment other peers close to their age who did not fit up to their standards, or those they deemed a challenge to their authority.

Jessica, being everything that Elsie wasn't, was singled out as a regular victim.

You would think, with years passing, maturity would start to blossom. Perhaps the harsh reality of adulthood would gnaw at the errors of their ways. But not for Elsie. Or her group of friends, which had thus far remained as the same flock of girls Elsie had gathered for herself through high school. Admittedly Jessica hadn't changed much either since graduating. And being on the polar opposite of the social spectrum, still residing in the same town, had kept her an occasional target of taunting.

Despite being seated at the very back of the bus, Elsie and her friends were prominent and so loud that Jessica found it difficult to ignore their senseless conversing. Jessica had her earbuds in, with her favourite heavy metal band playing, but dared not raise the volume to drown them out and draw attention to herself. The girls chatted and giggled loudly among each other. The topic changed so frequently that surely it would be hard for anyone to keep track of what they were talking about.

Jessica thought it unusual that they would even consider using public transport. After all, Elsie loved to drive about the neighbourhood obnoxiously in her bright red, new model jeep.
Maybe, even with her sheriff daddy mopping up after her, all the speeding and parking fines had finally accumulated too much?
Jessica grinned to herself. That idea was incredibly satisfying. Even if it did mean their paths needed to cross.

Hoping to avoid eye contact, Jessica took another discreet glance at her nemesis. Elsie truly hadn't changed at all since finishing school, even in her appearance. Her hairstyle, fashion choice and makeup were still worn exactly the same. She even wore the same shiny silver necklace with a blue raven charm, delicately hanging around her petite neck.
As always, she gave off a dominating, overbearingly confident vibe that caused Jessica's teeth to clench in distaste.

Elsie's hand waved expressively as she bragged on and the stooges she chose to surround her reacted excitedly. Jessica could not recall the name of the other three girls with her, but they were all just sheep really anyway. Each of them mimicked the other, sacrificing the idea of originality, to desperately fit into the charade of popularity. Between them, they dressed in a nauseating rainbow of pastel colours. Their blonde hair was tied up into ponytails and modified with streaked highlights of colour, low-hanging sweaters, dainty jewellery, expensive mobile phones, and perfectly painted nails. Each of them wore shorts with barely enough material to be considered so, but undoubtedly cost three times as much as Jessica's full-length jeans. Apparently, the chilly weather was irrelevant as far as fashion was concerned.
The multiple, high-end store-brand bags bundled at their feet suggested they had surely spent the full day, or at least the majority of it, at the shopping mall which was located in the next town over. 

Eventually, Elsie noticed Jessica's existence and whispered something to the girl sitting to the left of her. She snorted and laughed as Jessica turned away and pushed the button for the next stop.
She honestly was not in the mood for a confrontation right now.