Ranked

Chapter 2

ELLIE

I pulled into my parking spot, relishing the fact that there were only a few other cars in the lot. I always get to school early. Growing up, my parents always said that to show up early is to be on time, and to show up on time is to be late.

I swung my book bag over my shoulder as I got out of my car, freeing the tendrils of hair that had been trapped beneath the straps of my bag. Before I put my keys away, I held them up over my shoulder and pressed the lock button until I heard the "beep!" signaling that it was locked properly.

I made my way through the empty halls to the library, where I usually studied before school. I was only studying for about 30 minutes before the doors to the library slammed open and loud voices drifted in.

I risked a glance up at Mrs. Todds, the elderly librarian with warm eyes. Her normally warm eyes were narrowed in a glare towards the doorway. The voices got closer and Skye and Sedona walked into my line of vision.

Mrs. Todd's glare vanished as soon as she saw Skye and Sedona. I was in the library often, which meant that my friends were too. For that reason, Mrs. Todds really liked all of us.

"Skye! I was going to call you down later. But good thing you're here now!" Mrs. Todds beamed at Skye. As Mrs. Todds walked to her office behind the front desk, I saw the smile vanish off of Skye's face.

"Damn you, Sedona. I told you we should've waited to come here," Skye scowled at her.

"What are you talking about Skye?" Sedona asked incredulously, wondering why Skye's mood had soured so quickly. I was wondering the same thing.

"I could've gotten called out of class by Mrs. Todds but now..." She trailed off and I laughed from the corner table of the library, shaking my head at her.

Before Skye could reprimand me, Mrs. Todds came back which prompted Skye's megawatt smile to return to her face. It was a wonder how Kallie was the actress of our group instead of Skye.

"Here are the new editions of Cosmopolitan and Vogue," Mrs. Todds smiled as she handed Skye the magazines, which were still in their plastic wrap.

"Thanks so much, Mrs. Todds," Skye gushed.

"No problem, Skye. Oh! Before I forget, where's that Peyton?" Mrs. Todds looked between Skye and Sedona, as if Peyton were hiding from her.

"She's in the newspaper room," Sedona said, sharing a glance with Skye, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

"Oh. I wanted to have a few words with her about getting some copies of the school's newspapers in here, as well as the hallways," Mrs. Todds said.

"She would love that!" Skye exclaimed as her hand flew to her phone, no doubt wanting to text Peyton.

"Yeah, we will definitely tell her to stop by later!" Sedona said while Skye nodded. Skye began to chat to Mrs. Todds while Sedona walked toward me, her heels echoing in the silent library.

"You ready to go? There's five minutes until homeroom," Sedona said, glancing at the expensive watch on her wrist.

My eyes widened as I heard this. I had completely lost track of time. Sedona took it upon herself to stuff my textbooks into my bag as I scrambled to organize my papers and neatly put them in my binder.

As we walked by the front desk, we basically had to pull Skye away from Mrs. Todds because she was rambling about new magazines that the school should subscribe to. When we finally pried her out the door and waved goodbye to Mrs. Todds, we had about 3 minutes until homeroom.

Skye, Sedona, and I walked into homeroom, just as the bell rang, which caused me to huff. Did I mention that I hate to be late, or almost late for that matter?

Each class after that passed rather quickly, to my relief. Before I knew it, it was time for lunch.

I took my time getting to lunch, meaning that I was the last one to our table. I wedged myself in between Skye and Sedona as I placed my bag underneath the table.

"Well guys, looks like we won't have to fill out that missing person report anyway," Kallie said, letting out an overdramatic sigh.

"Yeah almost being late twice in one day? Next thing you know, she'll be skipping school," Jordana said, joining in on the joke.

"Well hello to you guys too," I said playfully, looking around at each of them. "Oh Peyt, Mrs. Todds wanted to talk to you today," I blurted as my eyes landed on her.

Peyton gave me a questioning glance, to which I just shrugged innocently and gave her a mischievous smile. She then got up from the table to gather her things, telling us that she would see us later as she breezily left the cafeteria.

The rest of lunch was filled with mindless chatter. Like the rest of the day, lunch was uneventful and went by too quickly. Tuesday followed the same pattern.

Wednesday was different though. As I walked into lunch on Wednesday, I could feel the excitement in the air.

"Did I miss something?" I asked tentatively as I sat in between Skye and Sedona, my respective spot.

"Poor El!" Jordana exclaimed, looking genuinely upset.

"Why poor me?" I asked, starting to worry.

"Oh just the fact that you won't know what to do with your life for the next two days," Skye spoke up, a playful smirk on her face.

"We have school," I dead panned, not understanding what was going on.

"No we don't. Principal Cohen had a meeting with the district and due to the hurricane, we have Thursday and Friday off," Kallie chirped in a singsong voice.

"Okay, so what's our plan?" I asked, swiping a french fry from Sedona's plate as she glared at me.

"We are going to a party. And yes, you're included in we," Skye said smugly.

"Oh," I said in a small voice, suddenly understanding why Jordana had said "poor" me. I had a bad experience at a party during my freshman year and ever since then, I try to avoid them at all costs.

Trust me, I like to have fun just as much as the next person. Just because I spend a large amount of time studying doesn't mean I don't like to go out or have fun.

But it's hard to avoid going to parties, especially when you're friends with Skye. She made the parties in Miami look like a small get-together. My friends must have sensed my hesitance.

"Please, Ellie?" Skye begged, taking my hands into hers and squeezed them gently.

"It'll be fun. We'll all stick together," Peyton said, taking a bite from her sandwich.

"Come on, El. It's our senior year.. We'll all be going our separate ways soon," Kallie said sadly, giving me her puppy-dog eyes and sticking out her bottom lip. I rolled my eyes at the drama queen of the group.

But even I knew I couldn't argue on that one. I took a dramatic pause that was so long, even Kallie was impressed- and it's seriously hard to impress Kallie when it comes to acting things.

"Ok. I'm in," I said, glancing around the table at my beaming friends. Skye squealed before telling us to meet at her house to get ready together.