Lifeline

Chapter 1

“Hi guys!” I chirped, jumping on Celeste’s back once I had arrived in the cafeteria.

The group of girls sitting at the long yellow table replied with equally enthusiastic voices. I knew better though – they don’t really care if I turn up for lunch or not. Celeste, one of the blondes in my ‘clique’ seemed to hold back a roll of her eyes as she waved, putting on a fake smile as she greeted me.These girls never waited for me for lunch, they would all gather together and then head off, laughing and chattering about something which I wouldn’t know.

When I have council meeting, they won’t even bother to ask me what I would like to have for lunch. I see other council member’s friends waiting outside the council room for them, sandwiches in their hands for them. Honestly, I would prefer having these type of friends but they don’t ever approach me. I guess I’m too intimidating. Or maybe, the crowd I hang around, is the intimidating ones.

I held back a sigh as I tried to find an empty spot which I could squeeze into, but the long table didn’t seem so long after all. All eight girls sat on the benches, eating and chattering noisily, none of them paying attention to me. I stared at the three blondes, four brunettes and one pink-haired. The blondes were Celeste, Victoria and Sierra. The brunettes were Lydia, Aimee, Hebe and Shelby. The pink-haired was the one and only Athena.

“Hey, you alright?” Athena poked my rib cage and gave me a curious glance. I nodded, snapping out of my daze and I gave her a small smile. “Yeah, I’m fine, just thinking about council stuff,” I smoothly lied before looking somewhere else.

Athena was that kind of person who would ask you if you’re okay every now and then, but if you do crack and tell her what’s wrong, you can expect the whole cohort to know about it the day after and you won’t even know that she was the one who leaked your secret.

A couple of freshmen boys pass by and they waved enthusiastically at me, I returned with a small smile. You’d expect the ‘popular’ crowd to sit with the hot guys, but we don’t. The popular girls and the popular guys are divided into two completely different tables. I once tried to talk to one of them because of a project, but Celeste held me back and whispered nasty nothings into my ear. Apparently, it was something about how ‘two-popular-cliques-cannot-coexist’.

“Oh yeah, Cherith!” Victoria cried, tugging on my blonde hair to get my attention. “Congratulations for getting the student council president!” She shouted loudly on purpose, gaining the attention of all of the students.

God damn it, nobody was supposed to know about that until a month later. How did she even know?

Celeste’s eyes were filled with confusion before it quickly turned into a sly look. “Oh yes, congratulations Cher!” She dragged my nickname out as she stepped onto the table, pulling me onto the table along with her.

“Yay for Cherith!” The other six girls screamed, hopping onto the long yellow table to join us. This commotion had the whole cafeteria screaming and clapping, shouts of congratulations echoing from the crowd. I put on a genuine smile and bowed lightly, mouthing a ‘thanks’ before ushering the girls off the table.

As I stepped down from the table with the help of the girls, I caught a glimpse of the five-men-group – the popular boys, storm out of the cafeteria. I mentally rolled my eyes. Celeste can be such a cunning witch. What else can she do to beat them? What is there to beat anyway?

School soon ended but it was far from over for me. I had another council meeting and this one is supposed to last for at least three hours. We have to brainstorm on how to fundraise for our school’s annual fundraiser. It seems simple, but honestly, it’s not. You can’t imagine how much bullshit we have to go through and how many idiotic, narrow minded teachers we have to convince.