Love, Scarlett | WATQ WINNER

03 | those arrows

THERE IS ALWAYS that one girl in your high school that has it all. The perfect grades, looks, voice, the perfect life. The specimen of this species in Scarlett's school was a devil in disguise - Nicole. She had it all, she was perfect, not a single hair out of place. She looked like she walked straight out of a Paris fashion show everyday to come to school. She walked the halls with such authority that even the teachers gazed at her in awe.

The girls, of course, envied her, but never did they miss a single update from her on the various social medias. They wanted and tried to be like her, or at least be with her. The guys gawked at her with lust and admiration, but never did they have nerves enough to go upto her.

Looking at her, you would wonder that did she really know about her effect on school or just turned a blind eye, happy with her own little clique. But, Scarlett knew. She knew what Nicole really was.

Scarlett and Nicole had been close as kids, they were neighbours after all. Everyday they used to meet up and play and go about as any other two little girls would. But even then Nicole was influential, and used it to her advantage - to get the playsets that she or Scarlett wanted.

But things changed as they grew up. Nicole slowly discovered the true potential of her prowess and used it relentlessly. She became selfish, discarding Scarlett as a used tissue, climbing the social ladder at a fast pace, no matter how many people she knocked down.

Scarlett didn't mind at first, she was a sweet girl who kept to her own business. But as she saw her friend getting internally wrecked, she intervened. But it was too late, Nicole's head was too high up in the clouds to come down. Scarlett did nothing as Nicole lashed at her for trying to ruin her life. But, that was only the start of it all.

Everytime Scarlett did remotely embarrassing, Nicole and her friends would pounce on her and make it ten times worse. From her clothes to her voice, everything was ridiculed.

But Scarlett didn't retaliate, always hoping that Nicole would change for the better, but sadly it didn't happen.

When Scarlett came back to school after a week of that incident at the hut, Nicole was waiting for her at the locker. Her locker's door spray painted with red, a lazy smirk on Nicole's face.

Nicole had labelled Scarlett as a slut, the former's cronies shrieking with laughter as Nicole talked trash about Scarlett, the latter's face streaming with tears. With one final warning to stay away from Josh, Nicole sauntered off, her friends following her as puppies.

Scarlett didn't come to the cafeteria that day, the library becoming her safe haven. Her only thoughts were, how was all this her fault? Was she not hurt?

Nicole was a bully, a girl so afraid of herself that she would be her own destruction.