Class of '19 (A Steps School AU)

5 - So what?

Faye's point of view
The first day of being friends with Lee, Lisa and Claire had been going great since the fight at break until us three girls made it to the PE changing rooms after lunch.
"Oh look, it's Tozer, the nerd and the new girl." Sneered Cara across the room.
"No 'boyfriend' this afternoon?" Chloe asked, doing mocking quotation marks with her fingers around the word boyfriend.
The other girls I'd called my friends laughed, and I decided I'd rather join Lisa in her usual corner with a few of the girls she usually worked with in PE. I tried to ignore the other girls' comments, but it was hard. Something deep down inside of me was moved by the fact this is what me and my so called friends had been doing to Lisa for the last year, and the only reason they knew so much about her was because of me. Because instead of honouring what we'd had I'd decided to betray her to the popular girls. I was honestly jealous of her ability to push that aside and gradually forgive me.
I bit the inside of my lip, I couldn't let them see they were getting a reaction out of me because that was what they wanted. They wanted me to slip up and tell them to shut up because then it gave them something to laugh about later. I wouldn't give them that pleasure.
I tied my hair up using the little mirror I kept in my blazer pocket and quickly got changed. The school's new PE kit was awful. It was sports weight material which was mostly black but on each side of each item was a green strip. On most of us the skort (a weird mashing together of shorts with a skirt on top) didn't fit properly and where most year 8 girls haven't been through puberty properly yet the tops made you look flat chested as anything. I'd rather wear anything else than the PE kit, as would most people who weren't in the group I'd just left. My old friends considered the PE kit a great way to try and flirt with boys and would often pull their skort up as high as they could but I'd never particularly felt comfortable doing that.

"Right girls, today set 1 will be playing tag rugby and set 2 will be playing hockey." Mrs Myers announced. "Urmmm where's that new girl erhm... Clarabella isn't it?"
Claire put her hand up. "I'm here miss."
"Lovely, can you come here, and your erh buddies too if they're here." Mrs Myers replied.
So Claire, Lisa and I ended up stood at the front of the changing room.
"Ah Lisa, you're set 2 aren't you? And Faye you're definitely set 1. Would you rather play hockey or tag rugby Claire?" Mrs Myers asked.
Both Lisa and I nodded.
"I'd rather play hockey." Claire said shyly, aware that most of the girls in the class were looking at her.
 I was really hoping that what came next was Mrs Myers telling me to go with Lisa and Claire but I wasn't holding out much hope.
"Great, you can go with Lisa and Faye you can go with your normal group. I may move you in time though, it says on your record you're particularly sporty." Mrs Myers replied.
I glanced round at the group of popular girls I'd just fallen out with and gulped, most of them were in set 1 with me and I really couldn't bare being with them for the next 40 minutes. But I had to try and pretend I was fine with it.

I made it all of two minutes into the lesson before the teasing from my old friends began. I'd known it was coming, it wasn't a surprise but it was annoying.
"Oh aren't you sad your boyfriend isn't one of this sappy lot?" Cara asked me when the lower set boys were sent to join us.
Chloe laughed. "No, I think she's sad because her girlfriends are in the other PE group."
The other popular girls laughed and I realised how alone I was. There were only three other girls in the group that didn't fit into Cara and Chloe's group, my old group, but one of them had a habit of beating people up, one was scared of me and the third one was from the opposing dance school to me (so to cut a long story short we weren't keen on each other either). I groaned, but I needed to go through with this lesson, both as punishment for what I did to Lisa after we'd fought and as a way of me realising what I'd put her through. I'd known so much about her when I'd become one of the popular girls, and I hadn't realised it until it had been almost too late, they had tried to use me as a weapon against her because of that fact. They'd tried to use me to break her completely. To push her either into submission or to her final breaking point, they hadn't cared which. And I'd been dumb, ignorant and full enough of desire to be a popular girl with them that I'd gone along with it. It made my blood boil just thinking about it and I knew then that if anyone pushed me hard enough during this lesson I'd react badly. I stared at my feet and tried to make myself inconspicuous in hope that would make the other girls ignore me. For a while it worked, that is until the teacher called for us to line up to be put onto teams.
"You really traded down you know that right?" Melody said as she lined up next to me. "In a few years you could have had your pick of any boy you wanted in the school but now you've thrown that away. And for what Faye, for some baby friends of yours? For a nerd, a boy you've torn away from his own friends and a new girl. They're worthless in comparison." She was still staring past the teacher, staring at the top set boys. She hadn't even glanced at me.
I couldn't take it, I looked up and faced up to her. "No. They're not worthless, they care about me. They know the real me, not the pointless clone you guys wanted me to be to fit in with you. Until last year, Lisa and Lee, they'd been by my side for as long as I can remember. Defended me, looked out for me all the shit you guys don't actually do for one another. And they want to be my friend again, and Claire wants to be too, unlike you guys who don't give a shit about me. And neither do any of those stupid boys. They'll collect you lot just like... like... stamps." I replied.
"God you're suddenly all full of confidence." Melody said with a grin. I knew I'd given her what they all wanted but if she said one more thing she was going to get a whole lot more than she bargained for. "Also is that what little nerds 'r' us does? Collects stamps? Feels like the boring sort of shit she'd do thinking about it. And you know where I got that from? From what you told us about her."
That was the final straw. I shut out all the popular girl instincts, all the dancer instincts I had on physical confrontation, I went against every one and just focused on the one self defence lesson I'd ever had. The one lesson Lee had given me. "The weak spots are the best places to aim. The best is the nose or between the legs." I balled my fists, and aimed for her nose. I missed and ended up punching her cheek but it still had an effect. She yelled in pain and I bit back a grin, ignoring the mild pain that spread through my hand.