Just Revenge

Chapter One: Disclaimer

We were not friends. I feel like I need to point that out to begin with. I didn't even really know these kids. I mean, I knew them in the "we do the same activities" way and the "I've had a class with you" way, but I didn't really know most of them. I probably wouldn't have done it if I had. I mean, I'm not a terrible person. Or maybe I am. I don't think of myself as a terrible person, I just made a few bad decisions and let a few things and people get the best of me. But I guess I'll let you decide. Maybe I really am a terrible person, who knows? Maybe I'm the villain of this story. I just wanted to start by letting you know that I didn't mean to be, I didn't start off with bad intentions and I certainly didn't want anyone to get hurt, it just all got out of hand and pretty soon even I couldn't control it anymore. This isn't the story of the kind of pretty, popular girl that's used to having these things happen. I just happened to be a tad bit vengeful and then my innocent little revenge spun way out of control. I really didn't mean it. But I'm getting off track. This isn't where it's all meant to start, this isn't where it started at all.

It actually started somewhere in the middle. With just me and Harper, like it was always meant to be. So, the thing is, long before anyone knew who I was or anything about me really, they knew one thing – don't ask me how – but, they knew that I hated Harper Warren. She hated me too. It was this thing we had going – she was more popular than me, I was smarter than her, she was prettier, I was better liked, she was an actor, I was a techie. But we had so many classes together sophomore year and spent so much time together that our bitchy, petty personalities clashed and the fact that we were both over-competitive and not willing to share finally exploded into this huge feud where we hated each other and would stop at nothing to be better than the other one. It was kind of terrible, but more fun than you'd probably imagine it was.

Well, this whole debacle began when the two of us got cast in the same show. It was the first time I'd ever auditioned for a show, normally I worked behind the scenes, but I wanted a change and figured that since it was just a summer show, it'd be fine to change things up. I was wrong.

Anyways, the two of us got cast as the evil sisters in Shakespeare's King Lear and we were forced to work together for a whole summer – it was kind of an explosive situation. One day, my best friend came up to me with a story that really set me off. Abbi told me about how Harper had been going around to everyone in our troupe and telling them how her character was more important that mine and how I'd only gotten my part because I was type-casted, and my name only came before hers on the playbill because the designer of it liked me better. Now, to be fair, she wasn't 100% wrong – my name came first because, all other things being equal, the guy that designed it liked me better and I was high-key type-casted, but so was she! And our characters were literally the same. They were basically the same person, they just happened to hate each other and besides, my character killed hers and I feel like the winner of the rivalry is obviously more important, right?

Sorry, where was I? Okay...so I don't know what it was about this story on this particular day that set me off so much, but for some reason this was not the thing to say about me that day and I just lost it. It might've been that – since I was still a techie – the actors all treated me weird and wouldn't freaking tell me things even when said things freaking pertained to me! Or it might've been that we'd been going back and forth the last couple of days and I'd had way more than enough of her bullshit for a lifetime, let alone a summer. Whatever it was, I was sick of it. And I decided, right then and there, to end it. All of it. I came up with a plan to defeat Harper Warren once and for all and, not to brag, but it worked. I got exactly what I wanted. I just never thought about what might come next.