A week into the new school year Harriette found herself with two candidates for her new friend. Ella and Mariah, they were twins just like her and Collin, and they were very pretty, seemed to be very nice and not too obsessed with popularity.
So one day Harriette invited them to sit with her at lunch and of course the graciously accepted.
“Tamarai, this is Ella and Mariah, the girl’s I told you about,” Harriette said as they sat down at the table.
“Hi,” Tamarai said, with a bright smile. Harriette was proud of her, when Harriette had first told her about Ella and Mariah Tamarai had frowned and yet again went on about how she should forgive DaeRi. Honestly Harriette was getting tired of talking about DaeRi with Tamarai. She hoped that her new friends would show Tamarai that she was serious about not forgiving DaeRi.
“Hello,” Ella said, “Nice to finally meet you.”
“Same,” Tamarai said, but Harriette could tell she didn’t mean it..
--
Earlier that morning Tamarai was talking on the phone with DaeRi as she got ready. DaeRi was still mad at her for not talking to her at school, but she needed someone to vent to.
“It’s been a week!” DaeRi said through the phone.
“I know,” Tamarai said, “I really thought she would forgive you, but now I’m not sure. She say’s she’s gonna invite some new girls to sit with us.”
“No, no, no,” DaeRi said, “This cannot be happening, already replacing me?”
“Sorry,” Tamarai said.
“I always dreamed about my senior year and now it’s ruined,” DaeRi said, she said this almost every time they talked.
Tamarai herself wished she could focus on the fact that it was her senior year and enjoy it, but with all this drama between DaeRi and Harriette it felt like she couldn’t enjoy it. She just wanted Harriette to forgive DaeRi so they could get on with their lives.
But now since it didn’t look like that would happen she just wanted DaeRi to stop caring, but that wasn’t gonna happen either.
Her year was looking very bleak.
--
After the first days things got easier for Shae. Everyday she met up with Mariah at their lockers and Mariah would ask how her day went and how her sister was. Then they would walk to homeroom together, sit together and talk some more. It was easy talking to Mariah because Shae didn’t really have to say anything, there was no silence because Mariah talked a lot. Kind of like Matt.
Speaking of Matt she only saw him once after the first day, he was with his drama friends, as always, in the cafeteria during lunch, which was the only thing they shared. At the time he had waved to her and she, being unprepared, simply ignored him and went to her table.
He didn’t wave at her again.
The first week Shae sat with Ella and Mariah at lunch, and listened as Ella talked about her encounters with Harriette. Harriette was the most popular girl in school, everyone loved her. Especially Ella, who seemed to worship her.
“Today we talked about shopping,” Ella would say, “She totally shops at the same stores I do!”
Shae didn’t know how she felt about Ella.
Not that she had to worry, because a week later they were sitting with Harriette and she was sitting alone. She hoped that Matt didn’t see her pitifully reading during lunch all alone. At least when she was with Ella and Mariah it looked like she had friends.
Mariah apologized to Shae profusely the day after they sat with Harriette.
“She invited us, and we couldn’t say no,” Mariah explained.
“It’s okay, really,” Shae said, though she didn’t understand why they couldn’t give her the heads up before lunch when she saw for herself that her only two friends had ditched her.
“Maybe she’ll let you sit with us too,” Mariah said.
Shae doubted that, and she wasn’t quite sure if she wanted to sit with them anyway. Sitting with Harriette meant everyone looked at you, it meant a crowd of people listening to your every word.
It was weird actually that being popular made you so important.
---
DaeRi hated that she had to sit at a table all alone outside of the Popular circle. It was painful to watch everyone pass her, giving her looks full of sympathy or disdain. But no one sat with her.
She really had believed that Harriette would forgive her quickly but after a week of sitting alone at lunch DaeRi realised she really needed to take action. First step was finding new friends, make it seem like she was moving on.
So at lunch she watched the people pass her and wondered who was fit for her, and that’s when she saw the inseparable Heather and Tracy. It wasn’t a secret that they wanted to be popular, they sat on the outside of the popular circle but acted like it was the center. No one liked them much ever since Heather spread a rumour about Harriette a few years ago.
DaeRi thought they seemed good for her, they wanted to be popular like her and they hurt Harriette in some way, like DaeRi had. But maybe it wasn’t the best idea to befriend other outcasts.
But would anyone else give her a chance? Probably not.
So she picked up her lunch and moved to their tables, which they shared with the Drama Geeks. They weren’t drama geeks at all but they always sat with them at lunch for some reason.
Everyone stared at DaeRi as she sat down.
“Hi,” DaeRi said, ignoring the drama geeks and directing her “hi” at Tracy and Heather.
“Uhm, hey?” Heather said. Tracy just stared.
“It’s okay if I sit here, right?” DaeRi asked.
Heather laughed, “sure. If you think we’re popular enough for you.”
DaeRi resisted the urge to pick up her lunch and leave, or throw it at Heather, and smiled.
“Gosh, I don’t think I’m popular enough for myself,” DaeRi said, she didn’t even know what she meant by that but it sounded right in her head.
Tracy shrugged and Heather stared at her, obviously confused.
DaeRi was second guessing her choice.
“Look, I’m not gonna sit by myself for my whole senior year, okay?” DaeRi said.
“Whatever,” Tracy said, “Sit wherever you like.”
Heather nodded then took out her phone and started looking through it. Completely ignoring DaeRi.
DaeRi sighed, this wasn’t working. These girls wanted nothing to do with her. She couldn’t believe these loser girls were acting like they could be picky about their friends.
She contemplated her other choices, sitting alone or finding someone else. She looked around the cafeteria. Lexi and Honey were probably stupid enough to let her sit with them. But Lexi was at the beach party and was one of the unfriendly faces after DaeRi’s scene.
DaeRi couldn’t believe that this was her life now. Last year anyone would have wanted her to sit with her.
She couldn’t believe it, but she wouldn’t be surprised if Tracy and Heather were higher on the popularity scale than her.
---
Back at the popular table Harriette was telling Ella and Mariah about how Collin had entered a piece of art in “an art thing” and won first place. She told everyone she saw this, she was very proud of him.
Ella couldn’t keep her eyes off of Collin, after only a week of knowing him she was sure she was in love with him. His gorgeous deep blue eyes, his perfect lips, slightly chubby cheeks that made him look so much younger than he was. Ella was convince he was perfect. And it didn’t help that he was so genuinely nice to everyone.
And as Harriette told them about his win he was blushing and shrugging it off as if it was nothing, so he was modest too. But all Ella could think was that he was so cute when he blushed.
Every time he even glanced her way she felt her heart explode. She was in deep.
“That’s amazing,” she said, which earned her a shy smile from Collin. She almost fainted.
Harriette was silent for a while, and Ella didn’t catch the look she was giving her because her eyes were glued on Collin who was now looking at Harriette with a confused looked on his face. He was so cute.
“So what do you guys do?” Harriette said, sounding oddly flat.
“We dance,” Mariah said.
“Oh, really?” Harriette said, “What kind?”
“Ballet,” Mariah said. Ella watched Collin’s face for a reaction but he was still staring at Harriette.
“Yeah, we’ve been dancing since we were four,” Ella said, still watching Collin. Again no reaction.
“Oh, cute,” Harriette said. “My friend once tried ballet, but it wasn’t her thing. She’s done just about every type of dance, she liked hip hop and jazz the best.”
“Nice,” Mariah said, “Does she go here?”
“Nah, she’s in her second year of college,” Harriette said, “at Harvard.”
“Oh, wow,” Mariah said.
“Yep, she’s very smart,” Harriette said, “She was valedictorian.”
“How come she danced so much and isn’t actually pursuing it?” Ella said, finally taking her eyes off of Collin and looking at Harriette. She was taken aback again by how similar they looked, they had the same eyes, the same lips, the same chubby cheeks. But somehow Harriette looked like a girl and Collin looked like a boy.
Harriette shrugged, “She wanted to be a lawyer.”
“That’s nice,” Mariah said.
“What do you want to be?” Ella asked.
Harriette frowned, “I’m not sure.”
“Oh,” Ella said, “isn’t it around the time you figure that out, junior year?”
Harriette shrugged and looked at Collin as if asking him for help, “I don’t know.”
“Not everyone knows what they want to do at the same time,” Collin said, “And anyway, she still has a whole year to decide before applying to college. That is if she decides to go to college right after school.”
Ella nodded, his voice was so smooth.
Harriette was beaming at Collin and Ella wondered why the girl was so obsessed with her brother. She’s not nearly that obsessed with Mariah, so it’s not just that they’re twins.
“Speaking of what we do,” Ella said slowly, “What do you do?”
“I cheer,” Harriette said.
“Oh,” Ella said, Trying not to laugh. Of course the most popular girl was a cheerleader, what else could she be?
“That’s nice,” Mariah said. Ella had to admit, she wished she could be as nice as her sister, Mariah always had something nice to say.
“Yeah, IDK if i’m gonna do it this year though,” Harriette said, “But it’s kind of expected of me isn’t it?”
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,” Collin said.
“Of course,” Harriette said.
“I understand,” Ella said, “The pressure of being popular.”
“Oh?” Harriette said, “Were you popular at your old school?”
“Oh, of course,” Ella said, “We had so many friends.”
“Why’d you leave?” Harriette said, looking genuinely confused.
“All girl private school, boring,” Ella said, dragging out the word boring.
“But why would you leave all your friends?” Harriette asked.
“That’s what I asked her,” Mariah said.
“Oh,” Harriette said, “so she made the decision on her own.”
“Just because we’re twins doesn't mean we have to do everything together,” Ella said, “She made the choice to follow me completely on her own.”
Mariah shrugged, “I guess, I just didn't want to leave Ella. She’s my best friend.”
Harriette grinned, “Of course. That’s sweet.”
Ella frowned, why did everyone always think Mariah was so sweet. Okay, Ella knew why, because Mariah was so sweet. But still people always seemed to like her better. Ella happened to know that their friends always talked about her behind her back. They said she was too shallow. And fake. Which was the worst, every time she did something “sweet” they all called her fake. Like what did they want from her?
Then the bell rang and Harriette looked all upset to have to go to class and Ella wondered if Harriette was fake.
No, Harriette always looked so genuine.
But she could have been a good actor.
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