Frankly My Dear, All's Fair in Love and War

19: Betrayal Among Blondes

Cassie knew something bad was brewing the moment she stepped into school. People were staring at their phones. A lot. Giggles were shared, slaps were thrown here and there. Some people even started to mingle with others they wouldn't otherwise talk to. It felt like pandemonium, and it felt even more so because Cassie had no idea what was happening.

Worse, they made it a point to not look at her. The only reason it happened was because: A: she had magically turned into a very unmanageable sight on the duration between her morning shower to her short drive to school. Or B, aka the more realistic approach: They were talking about her.

When it came to gossip, she needed to find Lucas. She deposited her bag to her locker and followed the loudest laughter at school. Sure enough, she found Lucas laughing and talking in exagerrated animated manner, girls and boys both flocked around him.

"-and you know what she said after I did it? 'I should have gone with the bigger guy'."

Laughter erupted, but when Lucas's eyes caught Cassie, he held up his hand and made an elaborate excuse to withdraw himself from the crowd. He high-fived a few guys as he made his way over to Cassie.

"Don't tell me that one of your attempts to find a beard is the reason why everyone is acting so weird today," Cassie said in lieu of 'hi'.

"A hello would be nice, but I guess you like getting straight into the point," Lucas said. "So I don't know if you notice, but people are looking at you today."

Cassie knew, and that exactly what was worrying her. "They don't look at me when they know I will notice."

To make a point, Cassie turned her head to the right. Just like that, the eyes that had been staring into the right side of her head magically disappeared into a sea of people. When she turned her head to the left, the same thing happened, but the invisible eyes started frolicking around her right side of peripheral vision. "See?"

"Fascinating," Lucas smirked. "Anyway, I assume you were blocked from seeing the original article, then."

Cassie was about to ask for more context, but Lucas dragged her out. They found a relatively deserted hallways and Lucas made sure that nobody was following them before he showed Cassie's his phone.

"Just," he withdrew his phone just as Cassie was reaching for it. "Don't touch anything aside from the page I'm showing you."

Cassie nodded. It was an optimum rule, anyway. Never swipe at another person's phone, when s/he had so willingly trusted it to you.

Cassie held Lucas's lifeline, thumbs out of course, and the page on the screen was the school's gossip page's instagram story. She knew she followed the Puke Some Grape's page since ages ago, but the instastory had never appeared on her page as she scrolled mindlessly yesterday.

The first page was a simple bait:

"Know a real case of an ugly duckling turned swan?"

She swiped to the next story, and there it was, in full glory. The most unflattering photo of herself, two years ago. Cassie was at her fattest then, with oily hair and chubby cheeks that almost swallowed her eyes. She was in the middle of tripping over her own foot, and by the looks of it, falling. Cassie didn't even remember when or where it happened. But she knew she sometimes tripped. It was normal. Everybody had done it at least once in their lifetimes.

None of them had ever gotten the honor of getting photographed when they were being their clumsiest self.

The next slide was a wicked comment. 'Remember this girl? No? Me too. It's understandable.'