𝐆𝐋𝐔𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 || #𝟏

Chapter 2

I'd recognise her anywhere. Even if she'd disguised herself with some wacky horrible looking dye job.

It's Alexis.

-- ------ --

I'm the first to break eye contact with her, I really don't want to talk to her. I really don't. Part of me does, but another part in my logical side of my brain is telling me to run away and not talk to her.

I don't want to get looped into a blackhole with her, because girls like her are manipulative, cunning and toxic.

Another part of my brain tells me to follow my heart and give her another chance. And my heart? It's telling me to get the heck inside because it's pouring and it's windy.

I just realised I've been staring at everyone while I'm still outside. God dammit.

I trudge towards the light and the warmth with bustling students inside clamouring for spaces near the heaters, or girls queuing up in line to use the air dryers in the bathrooms to dry themselves off. Teachers comfortably roaming the halls with hot glasses of coffee in their hands, and the janitor sadly moping away all the water that had been brought in.

"Jasmine," an enthusiastic voice says, roping me into a hug.

"Lorelei!" I quickly say, gasping for air. As I budge even more, her arms become more determined to Choke me to death.

I look around past her shoulder and I can see the rest of my friends huddled behind her, chatting away about some girl. I can't make out what they're saying over the loud crowd of students screaming away about how their summer break was or how bad the weather is. The girl I saw earlier crying about her cardboard cutout? Yeah, she's here, completely blowing up on her friend.

Lorelei finally lets me go, looking at me with her blue eyes. "I missed you so much! I can't believe we're finally here, it's a shame that Tina can't be here, or Maddy. Isn't it?"

"I don't think Maddy wants to be here," Lilac adds in from the back of the huddle. "Hey Jas, cool to have you here."

"Did you guys see Alexis up there? She's totally changed!" I say, looking back up to a girl who I did not recognise. She's laughing away with her new friend group, and nothing about her connects to the girl I knew five years ago.

"I still don't like her," Lilac sniffs. "She was mean."

"She hated me," Emily adds in too. Her voice is squeaky and I can barely see her with Lilac overshadowing her.

"I didn't like her then, but she seems alright now." Lilliana adds in, her light brown hair billowing out under her shoulders.

"Woah, when did your hair get so long?" Lorelei asks, "How did you keep it so healthy?"

"I grew it over the summer," Lilliana started. "I used essential oils to keep it healthy, and I also used some weird conditioner my mum gave me. I dunno, it was kinda weird. And it smells horrible, so don't think about doing it."

"So the after effects aren't worth it?" Lilac assumes, "Your hair looks so clean and healthy!"

"So does mine!" Emily fights back.

There's an awkward pause and we all start laughing hysterically, all except for Emily. She's looking at us confusingly with her grey eyes, twirling around her tangly caramel coloured hair. She isn't the first time Emily has gotten overly jealous for no complete reason.

"What's so funny? I don't get it..." She accusingly says, looking to Lorelei for an explanation.

Emily's a bit... Uptight is what you can call it.

She's one of those girls that take everything seriously. Sometimes I wish that she could be me and I could be her because I think my mum would love to have a daughter like her. A daughter that doesn't have a life. Okay, that's a little harsh. I mean, Emily has lots of redeemable qualities - she loves cats, and likes to read...

Okay, sorry, those aren't redeemable qualities at all. 

She slides her glasses further up her nose as she continues cluelessly staring at us.

"Let's just get to class." I say, trying to get her off the subject.

Emily starts grinning widely as we all walk off to room 409. It's supposed to be the huge red door that sticks out in the hallway, judging from what Lilliana's older sister says. It's supposed to be the music room, because no one ever takes a music class here so they've voluntarily given it up for other purposes.

"Maybe we should join a club while we're here," Lorelei excitedly says. "Maybe Glee club, or chess club, or maybe we can do a sport! Maybe debating o-"

"The only option that sounds appealing to me is chess club," Emily boredly says. "I can't waste my time on useless clubs like glee or any sports. It's not like I'm going to become a professional athlete when I grow up."

"Debating club sounds interesting," I quip up as we walk. "It sounds cool, and my mum wants me to be a lawyer. It'll be good practise."

"Do they have any other clubs like a science club or something?" Emily drawls, "Most of the clubs at school are useless anyways."

Lilliana, Lilac, Lorelei and I all show knowing looks. The only way we can get Emily to join a club is if she wants to be in it, and she doesn't want to be in any club. Seriously, a couple of years ago Emily joined a choir at school and got kicked out and it's scarred her ever since. Nobody knows exactly why, or how she was kicked out - but it was traumatising enough that Emily doesn't join a club unless she's a professional at it.

Well, she does want to be in chess club. I guess... Can anybody even play chess? I still can't remember how bishops are supposed to move. The only thing I know is that pawns can move one, or two spaces and... Yeah, that's it...

No one in our friend group even likes chess. Nobody else even knows how to play chess. One time Lilliana and Emily got into a heated argument about queens and kings. Apparently Lilliana thought that the king and the queen should have equal rights and Emily raged at her - she flipped the chess board over and stomped on several chess pieces.

Yeah, we're pretty dumb individuals, aren't we?

Lilac pushes open the bright red door and we all take our seats in the back. None of us except for Emily are academic, even though according to the jobs we want we should be smart.

For example, Lilliana wants to be a surgeon in a kids hospital. Lorelei wants to be an engineer. The type of engineer that blows stuff up. The dangerous kind. I'm actually a little scared of her, she loves to blow up our creations in Minecraft - so we all banned her from joining our worlds but she logged on her younger brother's account and I truly feel like she's an arsonist in the making.

Lilac wants to be a model, so I don't think she really has the passion to drive hard in school. In her exams last year she got 52%. 52%. 

And then there's me. Jasmine. A kid who has no idea on what to do in life, or how to handle anything in life.

I'm not going to say I'm dumb, because I'm not. But the only reason why I try at school is because of my steaming ill-tempered mother. My dad doesn't really care on what score I get in school, he just wants me to pass my finals with stellar marks.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" Comes a silky familiar voice. I spin my head around instantly and Alexis comes into my view. Grinning from ear to ear, tucking loose strands of her lustrous hair behind her ears.