"True friendship is not about being inseparable, It is being inseparable and nothing changes."
Eleanor Jackson walked up the concrete stairs of her High School. It was the first day of her senior year and she was definitely looking forward to it.
"Eleanor!" she heard a familiar, feminine voice call out to her as she reached the top of the staircase. She looked up to see her best friend, Marinella Piere, and her chocolate coloured eyes lit up with excitement. She hadn't seen Marinella all summer because she had been away to Paris with her parents on vacation.
"Hey Marie!" she called out as the two young girls exchanged hugs.
"Hi!" Marinella responded as soon as she let go of Eleanor.
"Oh my God! You look so much older girl. And you dyed your hair! Why didn't you tell me this!?"
"Because Ellie," Marinella explained, "I wanted to surprise you."
"Well, mission accomplished!" Eleanor said as she put a couple of her notebooks into her locker.
"Ellie and Marie!" two diferent voices called out at the same time and for the second time for the morning, Eleanor turned to see who was beckoning to her.
"Blaire! Lia!" she exclaimed as she jumped into her other two favourite companions' arms, Cornelia Rodriguez and Blaire Anderson.
"Jesus Ellie! Are you trying to kill us now or something!" Cornelia asked jokingly.
"What do you expect? I haven't seen you guys for like so freaking long!"
"You knew we were just kidding! We missed you a lot too Els!" Blaire said.
"Is it me, or did you guys grow over the summer?" Eleanor asked.
"I guess everyone grew, even you yourself," Marinella spoke up.
Just then a group of freshmen girls walked passed them. Eleanor, always a charming person, smiled at one of the girls. But in return, she received a cold glare from the child as the girl continued to walk away.
Blaire, who seemed to have noticed the tension between her friend and the unknown freshman and her best friend asked, "Okay... so what's that all about?"
"Beats me!" Eleanor declared as she shrugged her shoulders, "I've never seen that girl before in all my life."
"So what's that chica's problem with you?" Cornelia asked using her Hispanic terms, being that both her parents came from Mexico.
"Like I said, I don't know that 'chica'. Maybe she was on a competing team at a championship or something. All I know, she seems to dislike me strongly."
"Well then go talk to her or ask her what's going on," Marinella said motioning to Eleanor to looked behind her. Eleanor smiled inwardly at her friend's suggestion. Marinella was always one to try fix things with everyone.
Eleanor turned around, her back bracing her locker, to see the teen talking to her other friends who surrounded her.
"She seems like the queen-bee type if you ask me," Blaire simply stated.
"Well no one asked you!" Marinella said harshly.
Eleanor was taken back at her friend's outburst. She knew Marinella never behaved that way. As mentioned before, she was always peaceful. Well unless something was up and that fact left her wondering what really took place that summer.
"Marinella, why don't you shove that attitude up your--" Blaire started.
"Ladies!" Eleanor finally spoke up, cutting Blaire off mid-sentence, "What has gotten into you two!? Is there something anyone wants to tell me about?"
"No! There's nothing to say," Marinella responded quickly. Eleanor looked at Blaire.
"Like she said Ellie, its nothing," echoed Blaire crossing her arms.
"Well, if you guys don't want to talk about it, there is nothing I can do. Can we just all focus on "miss-thing' over there?"
"Yeah, I agree with Els. You guys need to forget about what happened over the summer and move on," added Cornelia.
"Forget about what happened over the summer?" thought Eleanor. Now she knew something was most definitely going on, and she knew just who to squeeze out the information from, Cornelia.
"Well okay then. Let's go talk to her and figure out what her story is," Blaire said storming past Eleanor.
Cornelia and Eleanor exchanged looks and Cornelia flashed her an exasperated smile as she mouthed, "I have no idea." Eleanor smiled wryly as she knew that since Cornelia didn't know, she might never find out what happened.
"Whatever...one problem at time!"
Soon all the girls had assembled around the freshmen.
"Ummm...hi?" The girl asked in an annoying, highpitched voice.
"Hi. Is there some kind of misunderstanding between the two of us that I'm not aware of. Eleanor said using her best 'grown'up' voice.
"Misunderstanding? No. There's never been a misunderstanding because I understand everything that goes on in this school fully," the younger girl answered back, sass dripping from her voice.
"Oh? How so?" Blaire inquired.
"It's really quite simple actually. I already 'understand' that you girls are a bunch of sluts who whore yourself around to every Tom, DICK and Harry."
"Excuse me!? Who do you think you are that you can come into OUR school and accuse us of such frivolous things?" Eleanor said, her face beginning to get really red.
"I'm Jacqueline Rose and I do and say as I please!" Jacqueline declared as she balled her fist besides her petite body and twisted her face into an unpleasant scowl.
"Rose? As in Autumn Rose?" Blaire asked.
"Yes, that's right. My sister is Autumn Rose and she has educated me with certain knowledge."
Silence fell over all the girls for a brief second. Jacqueline had momentarily rendered Eleanor, Blaire, Cornelia and Marinella silent. They were all taken back at the fact that the girl who was standing in front of them was related to Autumn.
Autumn Rose was also a senior at Van Buren High School. If anyone matched Jacqueline's description from just now, it would be Autumn. She was the living, breathing definition of the word 'slut'.
"No wonder. It's only Autumn who would go around telling people those....lies!" said Marinella.
"Listen here, little girl! I don't know who the hell you think you're talking to, but I know that if you say another word against me or my friends, I will honestly gut you like a fish!" Cornelia said as she pushed herself into Jacqueline's face, fist balled.
"Whatever! You've already taken up way too much of my time." Jacqueline slammed her locker and walked away to join her friends who had walked away earlier.
"That girl is nothing but trouble, just like her sister," Blaire said, her eyes trained on Jacqueline's back.
"I know right. That girl was this close to getting gutted l--"
"Like a fish! We know Cornelia, we heard you. You do know that killing someone is illegal in this country and you can't get off the hook as easily like in Mexico?" Marinella asked causing the girls to chuckle.
"Whatever chica!" Cornelia said as she playfully rolled her eyes.
The bell rang signalling that the girls had about five minutes left to get to their first individual classes for the semester.
They each ran in different directions and said their goodbyes.
"See you guys in the cafeteria!" Eleanor said as she sprinted down the hallways.
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