Sweet Surrender

Chapter 5

The rain was coming down hard outside. The lights in the gym had been flickering a few minutes before, but the back-up generators to the school  had turned on, ensuring  that  after-school activities didn't get canceled. 

Being a cheerleader meant that Alana had to stay late every day until the big homecoming game on Friday, for  Nikki had been in a bad mood all week. She should have been, that bitch. 

Nikki and Alana had been best friends when they were younger, but when they went to high school, Alana had moved down the social ladder and Nikki had moved up. 

Every time that Alana tried to talk to her, she had been laughed at and discarded with a wave by Nikki. 

Eventually, Alana had caught the eye of James and had vaulted to an outstanding number 2 on the social ladder, but Nikki still reigned supreme. 

Her and Alana had still smiled at each other  and pretended to get along, but there was always a tense undercurrent. 

Now though, it was a full fledged war. Last Friday night, Alana had walked into a party at Andrew Hastings' house to find her boyfriend in a bedroom with her enemy straddling her lap. 

Alana had totally flipped her shit, snapping a picture and giving James a black eye that he couldn't successfully hide. 

Now, it was Monday, and Alana had been sitting on the photo, mulling over what to do with it. 

She had set James's and Nikki's texts on silent, as they had been texting her non-stop all weekend. 

As she warmed up, ignoring the pair of eyes that were Nikki's that were fixated on her from the front of the group, she thought about what to do with the photo. She could obviously do nothing. That would be the smarter and more rational thing to do. The old Alana would have just sat back and quietly broken-up with James and silently fumed at Nikki. That wasn't the new Alana though. 

She had been considering sending the photo to the grade's biggest gossip: Kayla Matthews. That would ensure that she could spread the misery around to everybody, but she wasn't sure that she was ready to be that girl. 

As Nikki called time, all of the girls jogged back into the locker room and began to change. Alana and Nikki both lived in the same neighborhood, so neither girl had to change in order to go home because it was only a short walk through the cold. 

As Alana passed Nikki, Nikki grabbed her shoulder and turned Alana so that she could face her. 

"Hey, um, Alana?" Nikki asked in a voice that dripped with fake honey, "Can I talk to you quickly?" 

"No, you can't," Alana answered, venom in her tone. 

"Fine. Then I'll walk with you,"  Nikki answered and followed Alana back into the gym towards the side exit. 

As soon as they were out of sight of the other girls, Nikki hissed, "So do you have the photo still?" 

Alana nodded. "Yes, I do." 

"And what are you going to do with it?" 

"Send it." 

"You can't do that! You'll look like a fool in front of the whole school!" 

"But at least you'll look like a fool with me," Alana answered. 

Nikki, seeing this was one battle she couldn't win, turned around with a huff and muttered, "You'll pay, you bitch."