Rivalry

East Land Prep. 10:50 A.M.

                  

"The news is going crazy with my dad's affair revelation." Ashley says the moment Angela steps out of the Italian 3 classroom. "And Alex has finally decided to grace me with his call, right in the middle of class." Ashley rolls her eyes. "I, of course, didn't answer. Serves him right for ignoring my calls."

""He's probably so confuse right now." Angela propounds as they walk down the stairs.

"Well, he wouldn't have been had he bothered to pick up any of my calls." Ashley tells her grumpily. "I mean, I get that he's busy filming and stuff but he could've at the very least called me back."

Angela nods in agreement, placing a supportive arm around Ashey. "Pay him back with the same coin then."

Ashley smiles at Angela. "Oh I will."

They exit the Art Building and walk across the courtyard towards the Junior Building, passing the freshman that are making their way to the cafeteria.

"So, apparently it was Emma who posted the video up on YouTube, and it's longer than the one they showed in the news." Angela informs Ashley, who stares blankly ahead. "I got the name of it if you wanna watch it."

"Watch it for what?" Ashley glances at Angela. "I'm not going to give Emma the satisfaction of knowing I watched her video. Besides, it was obvious it was Emma, Angie. Who else would've gone through the effort of combining all those videos?"

Angela titters, "No one."

"Exactly." Ashley opens the door to their building. "I would've been more surprise if it hadn't been her." They sidestep a classmate as they walk down the hall to their locker. "Emma is so predictable it's getting boring."

"I agree." Angela asserts as she works on fixing her blue and green high-waisted skirt that managed to get stuck to the heel of her sandal. "Hey Kels."

"Hey." Kelly hugs her book closer to her chest.

"What you do?" Angela looks up from her skirt at Ashley's words and eyes Kelly, who is flushed and starring at them with wide eyes.

"What did you do Kelly?" Angela prods, her eyes too wide as she looks apprehensively at Kelly.

"Um..." Kelly bites her lip. "I, um, toldTylertogetalifeaftershestartedcrackingjokesaboutMr. Lopez'saffair." Kelly's words come out jumbled together, causing both brunettes to stare at her in confusion and ask her to repeat herself. Kelly sighs and more calmly says, "I told Tyler to get a life after she started cracking jokes about Mr. Lopez's affair."

Angela and Ashley look at each other before bursting out smiles. "Nice one Kelly."

"Yeah, thank you for sticking up for my family." Ashley begins. "However, this time around, it's best if we don't feed the green monsters."

"You didn't hear what she was saying." Kelly contests as Angela and Ashley begin to open their lockers. "It wasn't very nice."

"Of course it wasn't." Angela looks at Kelly from around her locker door. "She's a Fabulous Clique member now. They take pride in saying things to piss us – The HotChikas – off."

"So you're saying I should just ignore them?" Kelly stares at them incredulously.

"Sometimes," Ashley closes her locker and turns to Kelly. "We must choose which battles to fight and which ones to ignore. This one it's best left alone." At Kelly's confuse appearance, Ashley adds, "I don't care what they're saying about my dad. He had an affair, cheated on my mom and had a child. A child he chose to keep a secret from his two other children, the ones that thought the absolute world of him. He deserves everything that is said about him."

"But he's your dad." Kelly stares between Ashley and Angela.

Ashley shrugs and looks over at Angela. "How would you react if it were you Kelly? What if what was happening to Ashley were happening to you? And don't say it would never happen to me because that completely invalidates what I am asking you to do."

As Kelly thinks, Angela closes her locker, balancing her Environmental Science book in her arms.

"I wouldn't not care about what people are saying about my dad." Kelly finally says. "No matter how pissed off I am at him. Just because I am not happy with him, doesn't mean I would let others degrade him as a human being."

"He asked for it."

"Did he?" Kelly asks as the bell rings. "Do you even know under what conditions he and Sarah met? How the affair even started in the first place? Of course you don't, because you don't ask questions. You just do things without thinking them through."

"I always think about what I do." Ashley says through gritted teeth and Angela glances around, stepping next to Ashley to ensure that none of the walking students gets a hint of the interaction taking place.

"Only the parts that concern you. Not the parts that concern others." Kelly answers. "There's a little girl in your house right now wishing she could hang out with her big sister. But you don't care about that. You don't care about the fright that you gave your dad by running away. You only care about yourself and your feeling and making sure no one even catching a hint of them." Ashley and Angela are both taken aback at Kelly's words. "I know there are things in life, situations we go through that we never want to talk about to others, especially if they weren't there for it. I'm not asking you to let me into your world. And I know everyone is allowed to keep their secrets. But when you let your past define your future, what are you really aiming for?"

"Ladies!" All three girls turn around to face Sally Gullings, the hall monitor for the Junior Hall. "The bell rang five minutes ago." The three girls glance at each other. "Well, come on. Let's go to class."

The girls walk away from their lockers and down the hall, separating at the intersection; Angela and Ashley make a left while Kelly makes right.

                  

©2015-2016 Astrix Star. All Rights Reserved.

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***Uh-uh, Ashley clearly hit a nerve with Kelly right there.

What do you think about what Kelly is saying? Do you agree or disagree?

let me know below...

Thanks for reading!

Much Love,

Astrix*