“She can’t stay mad at your forever,” Tamarai reasoned. Tamarai and DaeRi were sitting on DaeRi’s bedroom floor enjoying one of the last days of summer break. Usually DaeRi was excited for school to come back but this year wasn’t looking so bright.
“I still don’t understand what I did wrong,” DaeRi huffed.
They were talking about Harriette, who had cut DaeRi out of her life after the beach party incident. Harriette had thrown a private beach party at her beach house, which DaeRi assumed meant it was exclusively for populars, and as far she was concerned Fedora and her friends were not populars. So when Fedora, Sacia, Bryan, and AeGuk showed up to the beach house DaeRi made, what you could call, a scene. She might have told Harriette that she didn’t deserve to be popular because obviously she had the worst taste in friends, and she might have also said that if she liked losers like them so much she should just join them. And everyone around them might have heard this tirade and given her nasty looks.
So the bottom line is that DaeRi was a little rude to Harriette and her loser friends. And she hadn’t apologised.
Tamarai was silent for a while before hesitantly saying, “Really?”
“Yeah,” DaeRi said, “I simply said a few true things. Her friends are losers. And she should be too.”
Tamarai winced.
“Please don’t tell me you’re still on her side,” DaeRi said
“I’m not on any side,” Tamarai said, “I just want you guys to make up so I won’t have to spend my senior year split between you guys.”
“I’m your best friend,” DaeRi said, “why would you even think about staying by Harriette’s side?”
“She’s my sister,” Tamarai said.
DaeRi shrugged, “so?”
“And it’s not like she’s the one being rude,” Tamarai said, looking off to the side.
“So now you’re saying I’m rude?” DaeRi asked.
“Well...” Tamarai said, still not looking at DaeRi, “you kind of were. Harriette invited Fedora and told her she could bring friends, and then you kind of just yelled at them. For just showing up. Plus they graduated a year ago, so no one but you still cared.”
“AeGuk just graduated,” DaeRi reminded her, “and of course other people cared.”
“DaeRi, you’re the only person who cared,” Tamarai said, finally looking at her.
“They’re losers!” DaeRi said.
“Were losers,” Tamarai corrected her, “before they graduated and left A.L. High. Now they’re college students which makes them a bit cooler.”
DaeRi laughed, “Fedora will never be cool.”
Tamarai sighed, “whatever, the point is you made an unnecessary scene and everyone kind of think you’re crazy now.”
“Do they really?” DaeRi asked, looking worried now.
Tamarai shrugged, “kind of.”
DaeRi hid her face in her hands, “no no no,” she muttered.
Tamarai frowned, “are you okay?”
Daeri shook her head, still hiding her face as she said, “I’m ruined.”
“Like I said,” Tamarai said, “she can't hate you forever.”
“If people think I’m crazy then she doesn’t have a choice,” DaeRi said. “If she continues to hang out with me people will think she’s crazy, and she’ll lose her popularity. It’s already standing in a bad place.”
Tamarai was silent, Daeri had a point but Tamarai wasn't ready to admit that Harriette would make such a popularity driven decision about friendship. That was something DaeRi would do. But that also brought up the fact that Harriette had already been upset with DaeRi for a while and probably would take this chance to drop her with everyone supporting her.
Daeri looked up from her hands and took a deep breath, “okay. I’m gonna have to get through this somehow.”
Tamarai nodded.
“And I will, I will show Harriette and everyone else that I am not crazy,” DaeRi said.
Tamarai grinned, “yeah! How are you gonna do it?”
Daeri shrugged, she’ll figure it out somehow.
---
Harriette felt better knowing she was entering her junior year without DaeRi. She had been annoyed with DaeRi’s power hungry ways for a while, and personally thought popularity was not about the people she hung out with. Which obviously sounded pretty hypocritical since she pretended to hate Fedora just so she could be popular, but that was before. To get popular you need to hang out with the right people, to stay popular you need to continue to act popular no matter what. If you act like you’re popular, everyone else will just follow along.
So Harriette was excited for school, but one thing was out of place. She now needed a third friend. Everyone knows that to be popular you need two lesser popular friends. Lackys. But Harriette didn’t like that word so she just said friends.
She hoped she only needed one, and that Tamarai was gonna stay by her side even though DaeRi was her best friend. Best friend or not DaeRi was a mess, Harriette hoped that Tamarai could see that.
Harriette supposed she would just take a freshman under her wing, she could be her legacy. Follow in her footsteps once she graduated.
“Hey, so you’re really not friends with DaeRi anymore?” Fedora asked her a few days before Fedora was heading back to college.
Harriette nodded, “yep.”
“Wow,” Fedora said, grinning. “That’s great, she may be AeGuk’s little sister but she’s a spawn of the devil. I can’t even see how they’re related.”
They were hanging out in Harriette’s room waiting for Collin to come home so they could go see a movie. Harriette kept glancing at the clock, wondering what was taking Collin so long. He was at an art class, he had been taking classes all summer and today was his last one. So maybe they were doing something special and that was why he was late.
“Stop looking at the clock,” Fedora said, “He’s not that late.”
Harriette frowned, “He is usually back by now.”
“Well, he’s a little late on his last day, no big deal,” Fedora said, “if I was late I bet you wouldn’t worry this much.”
“Fedora,” Harriette said. “You’re always late. I would be worried if you were on time”
Fedora looked thoughtful then nodded, “you’re right.”
Finally Collin appeared in the doorway, “hey, I’m sorry I’m late”
“Finally!” Harriette said, jumping up from the bed and running over to him.
“Did you just apologize for being ten minutes late?” Fedora asked.
Collin shrugged, “it was the last class, so it ran a little late.”
“It’s alright,” Harriette said, holding his hand, “let’s go.”
Fedora rolled her eyes, “I bet if he was an hour late you would say it was alright.”
Harriette shot her a look then smiled at Collin, “yeah, probably, because everything Collin does is alright. It’s impossible to be mad at him.”
Fedora laughed, “Oh my god. Alright, let’s go we’re gonna be late.”
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