Mean Girls need Love too

The Clique

The noise filling the cafeteria was grating against Skylar's nerves, her temples pulsing in time with the rattling of trays, scraping of chairs and obnoxious laughter echoing from the too-low ceiling.

Iris looked up from scrolling through her phone. "So, the reason Ace calls her 'Muppet' is because she sleeps in a Cookie Monster shirt."

Skylar's fork pierced into her fruit cup with force, a crisp piece of apple crunching while the tines squeaked across the plastic.

"And exactly how does Ace know what she wears to bed?"

"Oh, not that! No, of course not," Iris tittered nervously. "Apparently they're neighbors. He must have seen her through the window or when she took out the trash or when –"

"I get it, Izzy."

Neighbors. What a perfect coincidence.

Nadine played with one of her big, golden earrings, a sure sign that they were heavy and annoying her. She would never actually take them off, though.

"So what? I don't think Ace likes her. 'Muppet' is certainly not something I would call someone I find attractive."

Skylar gave her a look. "He was teasing – flirting with her."

"You know that's just how Ace is," Nadine deflected. "It doesn't mean anything, I once saw him put the moves on Mrs Warren."

"That was a dare."

"So, who says this isn't one as well?"

I do.

Skylar couldn't bring herself to believe Nadine's words when she still remembered the glint in Ace's green eyes as he had moved closer to Lexi, that smile that had only been for Skylar and was now so easily transferred to someone else stretching his full lips ...

"She's new, her shine will wear off in no time," Nadine continued when Skylar didn't answer.

"It's a case of proximity," Iris agreed. "She's close by, so ..."

"What else did you find?"

Iris glanced at her screen, her thumb flicking. "Well, she's not big on social media but I discovered a few things through her Dad's Linkedin and her cousin – who's cute, by the way."

"You really give stalker vibes, Iz," Nadine said with a fake shudder.

Iris simply snickered as if it was a compliment. "Anyway, her Dad's a lecturer and he's currently teaching at Rick Mount College, freshly transferred from Oregon. She's an only child and her Mom died when she was eleven after a long stay in the hospital, though I couldn't find the exact reason. She never had a boyfriend and the only pics she ever posted are completely random. No pets, no vacations, no outfits or even a snap of her food, let alone a selfie. It's like she's stuck in the middle ages."

"Let me see."

Iris handed her phone over and Skylar looked at said random pics: a red, vintage scooter, a cigarette butt surrounded by daisies, a bluebird sitting in a tree shaded against a gray sky and an old colonial house with a crumbling, lemon-green facade.

"Maybe she's one of those wannabe artsy types," Nadine suggested with clear derision.

Skylar handed the phone back and ate a slice of ananas, enduring the stinging fuzz the juice left on her tongue. "Probably."

"Ugh. Well, if she quotes some poetry at Ace we can at least be sure he'll never look at her again."

Before yesterday, Skylar would have agreed with her. Now she wondered if he wouldn't be even more intrigued.