The Bad Girl, The Bullet & The New Beginning (on-going)

7 ~ Do You Trust Me?

When Lila walked into school the next day, she felt every pair of eyes on her the moment she stepped through the door. She smirked to herself as she strutted down the hallway, leaving a trail of whispers, points and frantic conversations in her wake. She assumed it was just the news of her detention and connection with everyone's favourite bad boy, Vic Jarvis, that was fuelling their gossip. Or perhaps even an account of her fight with Jessica had reached the Larson High rumour mill – not that it was even a real fight, she could've done a lot worse if she'd wanted to.

It was only when she got to her locker and overheard a snippet of what one girl was saying to her friend in a conspiratorial voice that she found out the real reason for their stares.

"She did what?" her friend hissed. "Back up, say that again."

"Look, I just heard it from Cara like ten minutes ago. She's got the whole story. But yeah, apparently she slept with him," the first girl reported, shaking her head like a disappointed parent.

"But she's only been here one day!" the other girl gasped. "Just goes to show. At first I thought she seemed kinda cool but now she just sounds like a bitch."

At this, Lila couldn't listen to any more without saying something. She slammed her locker and marched over to the girls with purpose.

"Um, excuse me? Hi, I'm Lila, the new girl and apparently the resident bitch here," she said in an overly bright tone. The two girls froze with embarrassment at having been caught gossiping about her. "I just wanted to know, given that you seem to be the expert on this, who I've slept with?"

There was a pause as the girls stared at her in shock, unable to form any words. Lila raised an eyebrow at them as if to prompt an answer out of one of them. They exchanged a fearful look before one of them finally spoke up.

"I...I just heard it...everyone's talking..." she stuttered nervously.

"About what?" Lila challenged. The girl looked even more terrified and Lila could only roll her eyes at how pathetically non-confrontational everyone at this school was. "Look, I'm not gonna punch you or anything. Just tell me what everyone's saying."

"Apparently you slept with Isaac Johansson," the other girl blurted out, unable to take the tension any longer. Lila's eyebrows shot up.

"Oh, did I now?" she asked, with a mixture of anger and amusement. "And who's been saying this?"

"We heard from Cara."

"And where did Cara hear it from?"

"She said she heard it from Jessica. She was at the lake last night and said...well, that you and he had left early to...you know," the girl explained uncomfortably. Lila let out a humourless laugh.

"Of course she'd say that," Lila muttered to herself, starting to walk away but then suddenly remembering something. "Oh, and by the way," she said, turning back to the two girls, whose every muscle visibly tensed finding themselves under her gaze again, "I can sleep with whoever I want and that doesn't make me a bitch. So grow up."

And with that, she flicked her hair over her shoulder and began her witch hunt for the girl who was quickly becoming her arch rival in this town. She shook her head, thinking to herself how naïve Jessica must be to think she could beat Lila at her own game. Lila was new to the town, she had nothing to lose – no friends to disappoint, no reputation to uphold, and at the end of the year she could just pack her stuff and head back home like nothing had happened. Whereas for Jessica, on the other hand, it wouldn't take much for her to fall from grace in the Lake Larson social scene – just a little bit of work from Lila could make all that happen. Lucky for her, Lila didn't exactly enjoy ruining people's social lives on a whim.