Posing as Popular | On Hold

Chapter 4

Lydia Han gasped as she neared Crestwood High, and had to swerve to avoid crashing into another girl's car.

"Hey, watch it," the girl snapped, cutting Lydia off. Lydia grimace. It wouldn't bode well for her mission to be hated by the entire student body on the first day. Lydia parked on the other side of the lot and hoped that the girl was a loner. Then she picked up her purse, opened the car door, and sashayed out.

"Hey, new girl!" Lydia jumped and turned. A gum-snapping junior with balayage hair tied up in a bun nodded at her. The girl was the perfect representation of a bad girl - ripped jeans, gold chain belt, boxy tee with some graphic on it.

"Are you Cara?" She asked.

"Are you my guide?" Lydia replied. The girl nodded, impressed.

"Yeah, I'm Marcy. Let's go."

Lydia let herself be led into the secretary's office, where she left to speak for herself.

"Um, hi, I'm Lydia - er, loving - this school so far." Lydia scrambled to fix her slip-up. Thankfully, the secretary didn't seem to notice.

"Cara Lydia Sapphire?"

"That's me," Lydia squeaked.

"Great, I see you've met Marcy already. Your locker combination is 5-15-25, your schedule is in your locker."

"Oh, uh, thanks." Lydia hurried out of the office. Marcy took her to her locker, then dropped her off with her teacher at homeroom.

"Hi Cara," her teacher said, making Lydia jump.

"Oh, hi, Ms, uh,"

"Sherman. Welcome to my homeroom! Why don't you take a seat next to Chaise?"

Lydia turned and groaned. Chaise, who had her perfectly manicured hand up in the air, was the same girl she'd nearly crashed into that morning. And to make matters worse, she was part of Mei's clique. Just great.

"Hi Cara!" Chaise said as Lydia sat down. Then as soon as Ms. Sherman turned away, she shot Lydia a fierce glare.

"You nearly scratched my new pearl white," she complained. It took Lydia a few seconds to realize she was talking about her shiny pearl white car.

"Sorry?" Lydia muttered. Chaise turned away and huffed.

A few seconds later, Mei entered the room. Lydia knew she had to get to her before Chaise did.

"Hi Mei!" She called. Mei shot her a strange look and took the seat that Lydia had purposely left open between her and Chaise.

"Um, hi, do I know you?" She asked. "You're the new girl, right?" She turned around quickly to say hi to Chaise, then focused her attention back on Lydia.

"Yes, you do! Remember?" Lydia put on a big, fake smile and in her best singing voice began, "Ooh Camp Skyfall, we're all Skyfall girls! Ooh..."
"Stop, that's enough." Mei held out a hand, wincing. "What cabin were you in?"

"Um, I think I was in Silver Sky," Lydia said.

"Really?" Mei asked dubiously. "I was in Silver Sky. I don't seem to remember you."

"Oh, well then I was probably in Silver Falls," Lydia improvised.

"Oh, yeah, that was all the way across camp." Mei laughed. "No wonder we never ran into each other. They were so set on keeping the cabins isolated."

"Yeah." Lydia chuckled nervously.

"Um, Mei?" Chaise coughed. "Mei?"

"Talk later," Mei whispered to Lydia, then turned to Chaise.

"Yes, Chai," she sing-songed, but she pronounced it "Shay" instead. Chaise shot Lydia another ice-cold glare and started talking with Mei.