When I Joined the Dork Side

Chapter Three

James POV - This will not be an often thing, just occasionally throughout the story.

I hated Alice Priceton and her little gang of dressed up Barbie dolls. From the first day of freshman year they terrorized us persistently. Whether it was Chris giving wedgies in the change room, the football team flushing whirlies or the Skinny Rich Bitch Three that would do anything and everything to cause us public humiliation. We couldn't escape. Just this morning Alice and her entourage got a stoner to knock me in the groin. Even if it wasn't their original intentions (probably too much air in their heads to think up that idea) they loved when it happened anyway. The sound of their heels click-clacking down the hallway made me want to voluntarily barf in all three of their Louis Vuitton purses.

But in second period, things got weird. Really weird. It didn't look like Alice wanted to be there any more than we wanted her but when she knew how to fix that code... It didn't add up. There was something I was missing and I had the itching feeling she was hiding something. Something that could break her; something that would make a perfect entree to my revenge...

I was sick of being teased, humiliated and pranked. It was time to make her squirm.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

We sat at our table in the cafeteria. Next to the garbage can and the rotting trash that the janitors didn't take out over the break. Rodger sat beside me, already digging into his plate of curly fries. I kept my eyes on Alice's table, observing her little laughs and pecks at her boyfriend. How carefree and lovely it must be to be popular. And then an idea flickered on in my brain and I whipped out my computer.

"Dude, what the hell? You look like you want to kill somebody." Maisy said while nuzzling Aaron's neck. Since last week when they officially announced they were a couple they haven't been able to take their hands off of each other. I had to see enough PDA in this hellhole and now my friends!? What is the world succumbing to!

"There's something I need to find." I was vague, already consumed with ideas on how to execute my plan. I logged onto the school board's website and signed in using our principals password (it's a long story how that happened but, really, everyone knows '1234!newpuppy' is not a secure password ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU LEAVE IT ON A STICKY NOTE ON YOUR DESK. Is the world made entirely of idiots??

I viewed the list of seniors until I found Alice's name. I couldn't believe I hadn't tried this earlier! Clicking on her report cards first, I scrolled through her marks and teacher comments from the past few years. Rodger leaned in, taking note of what I was doing.

"Holy shit." He exclaimed catching the attention of a few nearby tables. We waited until they turned back to their food, disinterested with us, before staring at the screen. She was a bloody straight A student with over an 90 average. She was definitely no slacker or bubble head. Ashley poked her head around the table to see what we were looking at. She looked as shocked about this new revelation as the rest of us. She moved around to where we were sitting to get a better look.

I felt bad for Ashley. She was a sweet girl, both her and Maisy were. But her face was covered in red spots and acne scars. I didn't care, I thought she was awesome, cool and confident but the girls - girls like Alice - tortured kids like Ashley. Making them feel less than, ugly and a failure for something that shouldn't matter and they couldn't help.

Exiting off of Alice's report cards and GPA scores, I began to scroll through her transcripts and elementary and middle school years. She did science camp, math camp, business and literature workshops as well as a coding course (explaining what had happened this morning) over the Summers.

"There's no way that's her. Are you sure you didn't click on someone else?" Rodger said as befuddled by this as any of us.

I stared at the popular table again; watching her facial expressions and gestures as she ate lunch. Jeff had his hand snaked around her still, squeezing her ass every couple of minutes. She leaned into him, a light smile playing on her lips.

It didn't add up.

Not one bit.

Perhaps Rodger was right. This girl on the computer screen wasn't her. It was a fake, a glitch, a copy, a mistake. It had to be. It couldn't have been anything but false.

"Why don't you open that." Ashley pointed to a download button on the upper right hand corner. Before I could talk myself out of it and worry about the repercussions if someone were to find confidential files on my laptop, I clicked on it.

It took half a minute to download and then a picture of Alice's Grad picture popped up in a new window. She looked perfect. Her caramel brown hair was straightened and loosely tousled into voluminous waves. She had her signature pink lip balm coating her lips and the rest of her makeup flawlessly in place. Aaron let out a low whistle and I casted him a piercing glare.

I clicked on the screen again and came across her junior high photo. Then her Sophomore and Freshman. All as perfect as the last.

"Well, I guess that settles it. She's really smart and doesn't want anyone to know about it." Ashley said sliding off of the bench, no longer excited.

I was pressing 'off' on my laptop when something bizarre flooded the screen. "ALICE PRICETON - EIGHTH GRADE PICTURE DAY" above an image of a girl who could not possibly be Alice.

She had large black glasses, acne covering her forehead, chin and cheeks, bright red braces and was donning an Attack On Titan anime tee. I felt my mind sift through the pieces, putting together the puzzle. Alice Priceton was not the person she pretended to be.

"Holy...." Rodger let out, not even having the capacity to swear. Under normal circumstances we wouldn't have been cruel. Unlike the plastics we saw more in a person than a face and good hand-eye coordination. But this was different. This was Alice Priceton, the Queen Bee and ruler of Tunerstein High.

All I could do was laugh.

Laugh because I finally understood what Alice was hiding under her layers of foundation and eight-inch heels.

Laugh because I finally had something over the group that had made everyone else's lives miserable.

Laugh because I finally had leverage and a revenge plan.