Can't Compete

eight

ELLA WAS IN the middle of rearranging her locker when Lily leaned on a random locker beside her.

"El, I'm going away this weekend," she stated.

Concentrating on her locker, Ella absentmindedly replied, "Mhmm."

"El, are you even lis—"

Lily's attention seemed to be drawn to something else behind Ella. She thought it was new eye candy for Lily to gawk at, but was wrong when she looked up to see Lily's eyes had narrowed.

"So this is where all the lockers are." The female voice began.

Turning around to see who it was that was speaking, Ella's mouth tilted upwards into a small, knowing smirk. It was a female — Dorcas, Ella thought her name was — who looked like the Walmart version of Lily; with the exact same red locks and green eyes. They both had the same pale complexion and the only thing that differed was the size of their nose, lips and body.

One would think they were related or such.

"That's the Elites," Dorcas whispered to the tall brunette standing beside her. "Stay away from them. They will make your life miserable. The Queen is the blonde one. She's so blunt and intimidating. Everyone knows it's best not to try talking to her unless you like the feeling of rejection.

"The one next to her is her best friend, Lily Parker. That girl is pure evil. She once set my textbooks on fire. Satan's daughter, I'm telling you. And, there are two other guys in their group.

"Ash Fernandez and Christian Lloyd. Ash is a snake. He gets what he wants and does anything he wants practically. He's an arrogant dickhead but seems to only be nice to his girlfriend, Ella. And, Christian... well, he's dangerous. We'll just leave it at that."

"Oh, okay," the brunette murmured, intaking the information given to her.

Lily bit out, aggravated, "Dork thinks we don't have ears."

"Did you set her textbooks on fire?" Ella looked at Lily with a small amused smile.

"It's not my fault paper burns. It was unintentional, and I suck at chemistry so she had it coming when she decided to sit next to my lab table."

"Aren't dorks meant to be smart? What's she doing in your class?"

Lily stone-faced Ella. "I know you didn't just insult me like that, but beats me. I bet she got the teacher to change her class to mine. She's so obsessed with me, like she even looks like me!"

"That's not her fault," Ella blankly stated. Lily mumbled something Ella didn't catch, so she diverted the topic. "The brunette must be new."

"Oh, yeah. I heard from the school staff that there's someone who transferred from Louisiana on a scholarship."

"Scholarship?"

"I know, right? There's only one scholarship student in every grade and she was the one who had been offered to come here. Only took her half the damn senior year to finally accept the damn scholar." Lily gossiped while playing with her manicured fingers. Then further commented, "With legs like that, she could have been a commercial model or something. Too bad she's poor."

"Well, she must be smart if she's here on a scholarship." Ella reasoned.

"Has a pretty face too. It kinda gives me angelic vibes, you know?" Lily stated, before raising an eyebrow. "I think I should play the role I was given. Satan's daughter ruins angels, doesn't she?"

Ella gave Lily an incredulous look. "Satan doesn't have a daughter. It's a figure of speech, so don't do anything stupid."

"Me? Stupid? You and I were cut from the same cloth." She grinned.

"Funny. Just do whatever, I'm going to end up cleaning up your mess anyways."

"It's alright. I'll bother Ash if it gets to that," Lily said, patting Ella's shoulder.

Ella carefully eyed Lily, knowing her boredom would result in her coming up with something imaginative.

Whenever Lily decided to torment another student, she would easily get away with her actions if it was under the school's jurisdiction. But if the police were to get involved, Ashton and Ella would step in with their connections to have whatever offence Lily received dropped and wiped from her record, which also included paying off the paparazzi if they were to catch her denting her picture-perfect 'it girl' reputation.

Lily tensed as soon as she brought up Ashton's name and retracted her hand.

"You heard." Ella linked together.

She slowly nodded. "I don't get why, though. You were so in love with him."

"Things change."

"You—"

Ella cut her off. "If you're going to say something about cheating on Ashton, don't. You've been playing with Christian for two years,"

"But we weren't dating,"

"Okay, leading him on is any better?"

"... Ash's really hurt."

Ella pretended that she didn't care as she remained nonchalant and closed her locker door shut, thankful that the first school bell rang. "I have AP Calculus."

Giving Lily one last look, she headed in the opposite direction.

Sometimes, Ella wondered if she and Ashton were to be pitted against each other, whose side Lily would take. Lily was considered Ella's best friend but Ashton's confidant, similar to Ella and Christian's relationship.

Christian thought of Ella as his little sister that he would take a bullet for, but was also and foremost Ashton's right-hand man. She wasn't sure who he would pick either. And apart from the Elites, Ella didn't talk to anyone else.

Heck, she barely spoke to her parents if it wasn't for keeping up with social events.

Did I really have anyone?

As the bell rang to indicate it was time for dismissal, Ella went to her locker to retrieve her library loaned Spanish textbooks for home study. However, she trod on something much more interesting and found herself listening in on a conversation.

"I'll give you a ride. Come on,"

Ella could be blindfolded, drugged and still be able to recognise his voice.

"It's okay, I can walk." A soft female voice replied.

"I insist, querida." Ashton softly urged once again.

Ella almost choked on her spit at the fact that he was being nice to someone who wasn't her. Better yet, being nice to get his way. Even with Ella, he would bribe her with sex or sway her with his words to get her to obey.

Heavy footfall was heard until they became faint, giving Ella a safe indication that she could now turn around to examine the pair.

From the back of the female's profile, she looked like that new scholarship student, but Ella wasn't completely sure. What she was sure of was how her heart was feeling. It felt like it had been physically stabbed ten times repeatedly in the same spot.

Not once in their relationship did Ashton ever call her 'querida', or anything equivalent in Spanish. She was beginning to regret becoming fluent with the language.

After all, innocence is bliss. The bliss of not being able to translate what he said; He desired her. His darling.