1035 words.
Author's notes: It's a few minutes before midnight, I've technically updated it every other day still, haven't broken the streak yet. I haven't worked on this fic for two days in a row however, and as the holiday that I celebrate grows closer, I think that I'll be putting this fic on hold, at least until Christmas or the New Year's passed. Thanks for sticking around!
"Ew, there's gum under this desk!" Chloe grimaced, quickly removing her hand and staring in disgust at her fingers.
"What's your hand doing under the desk?" Jenna asked.
"Putting my gum there, duh."
The classroom door opened, revealing two blonds and a brunette.
"Um, hey, you might wanna move." The brunette said to her.
"Why?" She leaned her shoulder on her chair.
"This is Regina's desk. She doesn't move desks. See? This is hers." The girl pointed to an 'R.G.' scratched onto the corner of the desk.
"R. G. could stand for anybody, not this Regina loser." Chloe pushed the girl's hand away. "Tell Regina that this is my seat now."
One of the blondes stomped towards her, heels clicking loudly against the floor.
"Look." She said, her hand making a loud impact on top of the desk. "Either you move desks, or you deeply regret it."
"And you'll do what? Stick your gum on the desk again?" Chloe scoffed.
"Let's see how you like my gum when it's stuck in your hair." The blonde's nostrils flared.
"Oh, Regina." Chloe said, faking sympathy. "Class is starting. You'd better sit down."
Regina's eyes widened, a scowl evident on her face. She marched her way to the back of the classroom and pulled out a bejeweled nail file and immediately started scratching her initials into the top of it. Chloe smirked with satisfaction as she could feel the pure spite radiate off of Regina, former queen bee of Northshore. Only a few days and she managed to top her. This school would answer to her in only a matter of weeks.
"Miss Smith, this isn't your class." The teacher shook their head.
"It's not?"
"No, your class is down the hall and on your left."
"Oh..." Karen nodded her head, understanding.
"Your other left."
"Wow, your psychic." Karen said.
"No, I just go through this every day."
"You must have like, ESPN." Karen stared in awe.
"Get to class, Karen, please."
"Ok." Karen waved stiffly. "Bye."
"Right." The teacher sighed. "And now, we're going to be covering the Revolutionary War. Strap in folks. No Damian, you can not put Hamilton on the speakers."
Chloe glanced behind her to see the theatre nerd she had met the first day put his hand down and slump sadly.
"I wore the hoodie and everything." He said in despair, pulling tightly on the drawstrings and making his hood close around his face.
"Now, we start in 1775, the beginning of a long war."
"Where does Christopher Jackson come in?" Damian called from the back.
"George Washington." The teacher corrected him, sounding full of regret. "Christopher Jackson did not lead the war. The musical is not as historically accurate as some would have you think."
Damian gasped loudly, clutching at his draw strings. "I'm so sorry, Lin-Manuel Miranda." He said quietly.
"If I don't have any more interruptions, could we please continue?"
Chloe blanked for most of the lesson. After hanging around Christine for so long, she was stuck with little tunes dancing around in her head rent free whenever 1776, 1780, 1781, 1789, and 1800 were stated in a regular sentence. Curse catchy show tune melodies! She shook a fist in her mind.
By the end of the lesson, the recurring echoes of Wait for it were still tumbling around up there.
"Thoughts about history class?" Jenna asked, typing in her phone.
"Snooze." Chloe waved her hand.
"'Snooze'." Jenna repeated, pressing enter on her keypad. "Right."
Chloe's phone pinged, a new update from Jenna's account.
"Post it on your story too and tag me." Chloe said. "I don't want to copy you."
"No plagiarism." Jenna agreed.
"Only on homework and interviews." Chloe said.
"Yeah—Wait, what?"
"Nothing." Chloe shrugged. "Not that important. What's our next class?"
"Math." Jenna rolled her eyes. "The only math I want to do is clearance shopping."
"It's not horrible, but it's not exciting." Chloe said, adding the tagged story to her own. "I could be doing more exciting things than finding out the area of a triangle of all things."
"For sure." Jenna agreed, putting up a peace sign as Chloe snapped a picture of them.
"What's the trending hashtags today?" Chloe asked.
"Right now it's anime and TrueSelfie." Jenna said.
"Ugh, really? Well, school is as true as one can go with the filters nowadays. I guess I won't but out the blotch on your face for now."
"Don't forget the flyaways." Jenna said.
"Not the flyaways." Chloe groaned. "Whatever. It's a quick selfie. I can get better ones today on the stairs with nicer lighting."
"The hat is definitely adding at least 200 likes."
"It better. This thing is itchy. And I'm pretty sure it's adding two pimple patches later on my forehead."
"Cat ears are popular, the hat's gotta add a cute factor."
"The new algorithm is trash." Chloe stuck her tongue out. "I'm not getting enough reach. I've dropped about 27% of my usual reach."
"Ooh, I like the hat. It's so fetch!" The brunette from earlier passed by the two girls.
"Is she mocking me?" Chloe asked.
"What's fetch?" Jenna asked, looking it up on Urban Dictionary.
"Only one result?"
"'British slang for 'awesome' or 'amazing'. Example: Have you seen that new sweater vest? It's so fetch!'." Jenna read.
"Huh. Must be one of those really underground terms. We could use it."
"Fetch sounds like a dog trick, though." Jenna's nose wrinkled.
"Everything sounds like a dog trick at this point." Chloe sighed.
"A really complicated one."
"That's why I don't like TikTok."
"Brooke sure seems to thrive there."
"Yeah, and I have no clue how." Chloe huffed. "If it were just up to looks I would have gotten way more attention, but it has to do with a user's algorithm and more common likes, and it's just annoying."
"She does storytimes or whatever. Almost no one thinks the more popular ones are true, but that's because Squips are so unbelievable."
"Surprised the illegal distributors haven't tried to take them down."
"I'm sure the dark web is easier to track than TikTok of all things."
"True. If I can't figure out TikTok, then why would electronic drug dealers know how to?" Chloe asked.
YOU ARE READING
Be More Mean
FanfictionWhen some of the Middleborough High School students signed up for an exchange class with Evanston High School for their senior year, they weren't expecting much. But then they hear the story of Cady Heron and the Plastics, and hit it off well with t...
