Homecoming pt 5: More Important Problem.

Homecoming. This was becoming DaeRi’s least favorite conversation topic, not that she was even talking to anyone. But everyday as she walked the hallways, feeling the the hopeless-ness of everything, she heard the word “homecoming” over and over again. It didn’t help that people were giving her dirty looks because of the cookie incident. DaeRi just wanted to disappear.

But through all of this DaeRi did not think about not going to the homecoming dance, not even once.

At A.L. High homecoming was really only the dance. They didn’t have a real football team, just a group of guys who played football for the attention, or sometimes for fun, so there was no football game. There was a parade, where each of the clubs decorated a car and drove down main street. And a pep rally, basically all the cheerleaders do all year are pep rallies. There was also spirit day, when everyone dressed up in orange and blue, the color of A.L. High. Then there was the dance, the highlight of the whole week.

And DaeRi was not gonna miss her senior year homecoming dance. Even if she wasn’t queen.

The only problem was that she needed a dress, she had a few dresses from the previous years but no way was she gonna re-wear a dress. For all the previous dances DaeRi had went shopping with Harriette and Tamarai who would buy her a dress, but this year she was off on her own.

It was a week until the dance when DaeRi remembered her “back account”.

When DaeRi was much younger and they had been living in Broad Meadows for two years she heard her mom talking about a bank account and asked her what it was.

“It’s a place where you put all your money to keep it safe,” she had explained.

DaeRi thought that was a pretty good idea, so she went to her room found a box and put all of her money in it. She didn't have much obviously, but over the years she continued to put all the money she got into it until she met Tamarai, which was in sixth grade. She stopped then because she had to spend her money, since she and Tamarai would go out and do stuff that required money.

When She told Tamarai about her “bank account” Tamarai had thought it would be a good idea to hide it and open it later when DaeRi really needed  the money.

And now seemed like a pretty good time.

She remembered they had hid it at the top of her closet, which was now full of old clothes, stuffed animals, other old toys, and basically anything DaeRi’s mom refused to throw out, she was sort of a hoarder.

DaeRi pulled up her desk chair to the closet and stood on it, facing the challenge of uncovering the box that was surely hidden in there somewhere. She then proceeded to dump everything on the floor, until she saw the little shoebox and could pull it out.

She then sat on her penguin rug and opened the box. She frowned at the small amount of bills in it and proceeded to count them out, doubting it would be enough for a suitable dress.

There was around a hundred dollars, not too bad she had to admit. She couldn’t believe her little girl self had just hid this money away.

So she put the money in her purse, left a note for her mom, and ran out the door and all the way to the bus stop. She arrived just as the bus to the mall pulled up.

She took a seat on the bus and started thinking about where to go first. Obviously the high end stores were off the list, she couldn’t afford an extravagant dress. And she didn’t need one either, as it was just homecoming.

Suddenly the person beside her said something, ending with “the playdough cookies?”

DaeRi closed her eyes and tried not to groan before turning to the girl next to her and asking “Hm?”

“You’re the girl who gave out those nasty cookies,” the girl said. The girl had these ridiculously tiny eyes, and a big mouth, and her hair was cut super short. But she wasn’t ugly exactly, just interesting.

“Yeah, so?” DaeRi finally said.

The girl shrugged, “just saying.”

“Well, okay,” DaeRi said, turning away and looking out the window, wishing the bus ride wasn’t as long as she knew it was.

“I’m Shae, by the way,” the girl said.

“DaeRi,” DaeRi said, not looking back at Shae, “as I’m sure you know.”

“Why’d you give out those terrible cookies?” Shae asked.

“It was an accident,” DaeRi said, annoyed, “I was trying to campaign for my friend and I made bad cookies, okay?”

“But how?” Shae asked.

DaeRi glared at Shae and Shae turned a shade of pink and shrank away.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“It was an accident,” DaeRi said, “Salt looks an awful lot like sugar.”

Shae nodded.

Daeri hoped that Shae was done talking to her and looked back out the window. Unfortunately Shae had some more things on her mind.

“You’re friends with Tamarai?” Shae asked.

“Uhm, no I guess,” DaeRi said, “I was.”

Shae looked thoughtful, “So what happened?”

DaeRi could not believe this girl did not already know the whole story, did she live under a rock?

“I did something that Harriette didn’t like, and so she kicked me out of her inner circle and Tamarai is still in the inner circle. So we’re not friends,” DaeRi explained.

“Oh,” Shae said, smiling slightly, “Harriette? Gosh, I just lost my friend to her too!”

DaeRi looked back at Shae, now interested, “How?”

“Ella, that’s one of them, was obsessed with her and wanted to be her best friend,” Shae said, “and I guess she is now, along with Mariah, my other friend, and the only one I really liked. Ella was a bit rough around the edges, but Mariah was nice. But now Mariah only talks to me in the morning, because they’re so busy spending the rest of the day with Harriette.”

Mariah and Ella, DaeRi’s replacements.

“Oh,” Was all DaeRi said, what else was there to say? Then she realised that this Shae girl just might be useful to her. Another girl who had lost her friends to Harriette? Surely Shae must feel some resentment towards her. DaeRi needed some friend who didn’t like Harriette. Well she need friends period, but if they didn’t like Harriette, that was a plus.

Shae didn’t say anything else for the rest of the ride, until they both got off on the same stop.

“What are you doing at the mall?” Shae asked.

“Dress shopping,” DaeRi said.

Shae slowly smiled, “Me too.”

“I’m guessing you want to come along?” DaeRi asked.

Shae shrugged, “if you’re okay with it?.”

Daeri grinned, this girl was the perfect lacky!

“Of course, come on!” DaeRi said.

And they headed into the mall together.

--

After a day of shopping with Shae, DaeRi learned a few things about her new friend. Shae had had a best friend until he ditched her for the drama geeks. She wasn't very confident and she could go on long spiels and not even care if DaeRi was interested, only to apologise profusely afterwards. And then look like she regretted apologising.

She wasn’t too bad.

DaeRi also managed to find herself a moderately okay dress, it was a dark turquoise A-line dress with a ridiculously poofy skirt that was covered in sparkles. It looked like the night sky, which DaeRi appreciated. Plus is had little slits at on the side of the waist, making it just a little sexy. DaeRi thought it wasn’t too bad considering she had a budget.

Shae ended up getting a short flowy lilac dress, very grecian inspired. It was really pretty, and DaeRi hoped that Shae wouldn’t overshadow her with such a gorgeous dress. It helped that Shae wasn’t very attractive and had the body of a ten year old boy. At least that is what DaeRi thought.

After shopping they ate at the food court and DaeRi saw Harriette, Tamarai and those replacements waiting in line at Starbucks. DaeRi took this as an opportunity to show them that she was making new friends.

She pulled Shae over to Starbucks, claiming that she had been craving a pumpkin latte.

As they stepped into line, right behind Harriette and her friends, Tamarai looked back at them, her mouth shaping into a small O.

“Hi,” DaeRi said.

Harriette looked back at them and frowned, “DaeRi.”

“Shae!” one of the replacements said.

“Mariah,” Shae said, smiling.

Oh yeah, Shae had said her friends had been stolen by Harriette.

“You’re hanging out with DaeRi?” the other replacement said. DaeRi had not known that they were twins, and they looked completely identical. The only difference was Mariah had her hair long wavy hair pulled into a ponytail and the other girl had her’s cut into a bob. It was a little jarring.

“We just met on the bus,” Shae said.

“Well, ditch her,” The short haired twin said, crossing her arms. DaeRi couldn’t help but gape at this girl, she had never ever talked to her a day in her life but here she was telling her new found friend to ditch her?

“Uhm, hello I’m right here?” DaeRi said.

“So?” The girl said.

“I don’t even know your name,” Daeri said, “and you think you can tell my friend to ditch me?”

“My name is Ella,” she said, smiling innocently, “And if Shae knows what’s good for her she would ditch you.”

Then Ella turned back to Shae, “You do know that this girl was kicked from the inner circle, right?”

Shae nodded slowly, “She told me on the bus.”

“And you still came here with her?” Ella scoffed.

“Yeah, she seemed nice,” Shae shrugged.

“Well, she’s not,” Harriette said.

Everyone turned to look at Harriette, who had been quiet up until then.

“I’m not that hungry anymore,” Harriette said, “Let’s go.”

And with that Harriette walked away. Without even a last glance at DaeRi.

Ella followed quickly, but not before telling Shae one more time that she should ditch DaeRi. Then Mariah followed, casting a sympathetic glance back at Shae. And lastly Tamarai was standing there, looking back and forth between Harriette’s retreating back and DaeRi.

“I’m sorry,” Tamarai said, quickly, before running off to catch up with Harriette.

“Of course you are,” DaeRi mumbled to herself, before turning away and heading towards the the exit with Shae quickly following behind.

“That was intense,” Shae said.

“Shut up,” DaeRi said.

And Shae didn't say another word the whole ride home.

homecoming pt4: After the Cookie Incident.

So DaeRi’s first plan bombed, and she wasn’t sure whether to continue with the whole campaign plan or not. It didn’t seem like it would help her, but if she stopped then everyone would know she was only doing it to get on Harriette’s good side.

The whole ride home, on the bus because she had no ride since she used to ride home with Harriette’s mom, she thought it over again and again. Riding the bus was a pain, so it encourage her to keep on trying. She couldn’t just give up. She just needed a better plan.

When she arrived home, to an empty house as her mom was working late lately, she went straight to her room to think where she does her best thinking, on her floor. Her floor was her favorite place in the house.

When they first moved in years ago her mom said she could buy one thing for her new room and she picked out an extremely fluffy rug in the shape of a penguins head. It was old now and the white was more yellow, but she loved it all the same.

She got her iPod, put on her favorite thinking playlist and sat down right in the middle of her rug. She had a small room, which just enough space for a bed, a desk, and a closet. Her bed was against the floor length window, which her desk right next to the foot of it. The closet was on the third wall, with the door on the fourth wall.

Her second favorite part of her room was the walls, her mom and AeGuk had painted them light blue color, and then DaeRi had insisted that they paint the wall next to her bed, the one with the window, a midnight blue so it would feel like sleeping outside. And they did.

Now sitting in penguin rug, though, she wasn’t thinking about that. She was thinking about ways to win back her popularity. She needed to think of the ultimate good deed that would get her back on Harriette’s good side.

And just as she was contemplating that her phone rang and she rolled her eyes. The only person who called her was her mom, usually to tell her she was gonna be late because she got an extra job and had to take it, or to ask her if she would please check if the rice cooker was on.

She answered her phone prepared for either of those situations and instead heard Tamarai’s familiar voice.

“Hi,” Tamarai said.

“Oh, Tamarai,” DaeRi said, even though she tried not to let it show she did miss Tamarai. Tamarai was always the best listener and always had some helpful advice to give, usually something she heard her mom say before and Mrs. Brown was probably the wisest person in Broad Meadows.

“Thanks for trying to campaign for me,” Tamarai said, “I’m sorry the cookies came out bad.”

“So you don’t think I did it on purpose, then?” DaeRi said, as this had passed her mind a few times since her talk with Thomas earlier. If Thomas thought she was that much of a monster, why wouldn’t Tamarai?

“What? Of course not,” Tamarai said, “You would never do something like that, especially if you wanted to become popular again.”

“Right?” Daeri said, “This guy totally thought I did earlier, though.”

“Who?” Tamarai asked.

“This Thomas guy,” DaeRi said.

“Oh, yeah, I know him,” Tamarai said, “Brown wavy hair, almost curly, and weird green eyes?”

“Yeah, that’s him,” DaeRi said.

“Yeah he’s our junior photographer,” Tamarai said, “For the newspaper.”

Newspaper. Due to her miserable start of the year DaeRi had forgotten to sign up, now she wished she had. Two times a week to show everyone that she wasn’t that bad? Sounded like a good idea.

“Can you maybe get me in?” DaeRi asked.

“What? The newspaper committee?” Tamarai asked.

“Yes,” DaeRi said, “I forgot to sign up.”

“I guess I could try,” Tamarai said. Then DaeRi heard a voice in the background, the familiar childish voice of Harriette. She seriously sounded like a five year old.

“I gotta go,” Tamarai said quickly, “Talk to you later.”

“Bye,” DaeRi said quickly just as Tamarai hung up.

The call left her wondering why she had dumped Tamarai in the first place, it was awfully nice to have someone to talk to.

--

Tamarai had to admit that it was nice not having to worry about DaeRi, even though she did miss her.

But the weeks they had stop talking where probably the best weeks of her senior year so far, the newspaper committee started up again and she was getting close to the cute editor, and she suspected that he was gonna ask her to homecoming. Plus Harriette’s new friends Ella and Mariah were actually kind of fun, Ella was a little harsh on the edges, like DaeRi was, to be honest, but Mariah was sweet and liked stupid jokes. Sometimes she reminded herself she should feel bad having so much fun with DaeRi’s replacements but really, she didn’t mind.

Tamarai started feeling a bit like DaeRi was doing okay without her, sure she was still eating alone and she didn’t seem to be feeling anymore upbeat, but she didn’t look too bad.

Then the whole cookie incident happened and she saw just how much DaeRi still wanted to be popular, and watching her sulk her way out of the cafeteria afterwards made Tamarai feel bad. She felt bad that her plan had failed, because Tamarai was sure that it was indeed just a big plan and that DaeRi had not actually felt any sort of actually want to help Tamarai win homecoming queen.

So Tamarai called her, mostly to apologise about her failed plan, but somehow there conversation segwayed into talking about Thomas, some guy on the newspaper committee, and DaeRi asked her to help her get back into the newspaper committee. And then Harriette was in her room, wanting to talk about Homecoming dresses. Tamarai told her she was talking to the cute editor.

Tamarai wanted to be friends with DaeRi but it was just too complicated.

Homecoming pt3: The Goodies Showdown.

The next day Honey, Lexi, and Layla were standing in the doorway to the cafeteria handing out lollipops with tags on them that said “Don’t be a sucker, vote Honey Bell for homecoming queen!”

When DaeRi passed through, carrying her tray of cookies, they looked at her curiously and offered her a lollipop.

“What’s the tray?” Honey asked after DaeRi refused the lollipop.

“It’s a secret,” DaeRi said.

Honey gave her a look, but shrugged and said, “have a good day.”

DaeRi went to her table and set down her tray, placed her purse and lunch on the table then headed over to Harriette’s table, stopping by the other tables on the way handing them each a cookie and saying, “Vote Tamarai for homecoming queen, please!” It was all so cheerful.

But when she reached the popular table she found that it was covered with cookies, cupcakes, and chocolate bars that said “Vote for Tamarai, the best in A.L. High!” It was ridiculously cute.

“Uhm.” Tamarai said when she noticed DaeRi approaching.

DaeRi said nothing at first, she didn’t know why she was so shocked. Duh Tamarai was gonna campaign for herself, and duh it was gonna be better than DaeRi’s lame attempt.

But Daeri reminded herself that it was the thought that count and said “hi!”

“Want a cookie, cupcake or chocolate bar?” Harriette asked.

“I’m good,” DaeRi said, smiling sweetly, “I’m actually handing out cookies myself.”

“For what?” Harriette asked.

“For Tamarai,” DaeRi said.

“You’re campaigning for Tamarai?” Harriette asked incredulously.

“Yep,” DaeRi said.

“Why?” Tamarai asked, looking confused.

“To show that I care about you,” DaeRi said, “And since I‘m not nominated, you should win.”

Now Harriette rolled her eyes and looked at DaeRi, “so it’s only because you’re not nominated? Don’t tell me you think that something as small as campaigning for Tamarai, just because you weren’t nominated, is going to get me to forgive you. Now, if you were nominated and campaigned for Tamarai than maybe I would forgive you.”

DaeRi said nothing, she was shocked to say the least. Here she was campaigning for her ex best friend to win something she had always wanted to win, instead of sitting around and being bitter, and Harriette was finding way to call her out on it.

“Thank you,” Tamarai said, breaking the silence. Then someone tapped DaeRi on the shoulder.

“These cookies are terrible,” the girl said as soon as DaeRi turned around.

“They taste like play dough,” another guy said.

DaeRi frowned, “huh? What does play dough taste like?”

“Like this,” another girl said holding out the half eaten cookie in her hand. DaeRi took the cookie and took a bite and spit it right out, and kind of on the first girl. It tasted like salt!

“Ew, what the-” DaeRi said. She tried to think back to making the cookies the other night and remembered taking out the sugar. At least she had thought it was the sugar.

Oh.

She remembered, all of the stuff in her house was labeled in Korean, she didn't know what half the stuff in her house was. When she got the sugar she just took the first thing she saw that resembled sugar.

“Oh, sorry,” DaeRi shrugged. “It was an accident.”

“Didn’t you try them before you brought them in?” The guy said. The first girl had stomped away in disgust after DaeRi accidentally spit the cookie on her, but there was a crowd forming now. All of them wanting to know why she handed out salty cookies. And Harriette, being the strategic girl she is, offered them the goodies she had on display. Reminding each of them to vote for Tamarai.

Which thankfully distracted them long enough for DaeRi to make an escape. She couldn’t believe just how bad that had went. Why couldn’t anything go right for her?

At her table she gathered her stuff up and was prepared to go when the guy from earlier suddenly appeared next to her.

She jumped back and glared at him, “you scared me.”

“Did you make the play dough cookies on purpose?” he asked.

DaeRi stared at him, shocked that he would make an assumption like that. She vaguely recognised him, but wasn’t sure how. He had soft brown curls that hung around his face, a bit too long for DaeRi’s taste, and exotic looking green eyes.

“No,” she finally said, “Why would I do that?”

“To make people not vote for Tamarai,” he said, “Hand out disgusting cookies that say Tamarai on them, make it look like you’re campaigning for her, and then people eat the cookies think that Tamarai had something to do with the cookies and vote for Honey instead. Simple.”

“Wow,” DaeRi said, “I hadn't’ even thought of doing something that evil. Tamarai’s my friend, why would I do that?”

“She’s not your friend anymore,” He pointed out, “The last time I checked you were kicked out of the ‘popular’ circle.”

He said “popular” with just a hint of sarcasm.

“Whatever,” DaeRi said, “I didn’t make the cookies bad on purpose, you can blame my mom for labeling everything in a language no one but her understands.”

“Hm,” He said looking at her thoughtfully, “Okay, I believe you.”

DaeRi glared at him, again, and finished gathering her stuff. “Not that it mattered to me. I don’t even know who you are.”

“Thomas, or Thom for short,” He said holding out his hand.

DaeRi looked at his hand and laughed cynically, “nice to meet you but I gotta go.”

Her voice was laced with sarcasm.

He shrugged and dropped his hand, “talk to you later.”

“Hopefully not,” DaeRi said, shooting him one last glare and walking away.

Homecoming pt2: Campaigning for Queen

After a lot of thinking DaeRi knew what she had to do. It wouldn’t get her homecoming queen, but it might help her get popular enough to win prom queen at the end of the year, which was ultimately her end goal. She was going to campaign for Tamarai, help her get homecoming queen. Then it would look like she cared so much for her old best friend that she would give up on the homecoming queen title and help Tamarai instead.

It was genius, at least DaeRi thought it was.

When Homecoming queen nominations came around it wasn’t a surprise to hear that Tamarai was nominated. Tamarai’s biggest competition was Honey Bell, but Daeri didn’t really think Honey stood a chance.

Now the only question was, how does one actually campaign for someone?

Well she learned quickly enough as only a day after the nominations were announced she found, littering the walls, posters with Honey’s face on them surrounding by hearts and lips saying “Don’t be a sucker, vote Honey bell for homecoming queen!”. Which was kind of sounded a bit rude to DaeRi.

But it did remind DaeRi that the first step to campaigning was posters. But the problem with posters was that DaeRi had little to no money, which meant she couldn’t make the fancy posters that Honey had hanging around and she couldn’t ask her mom for money for something that she would surely call superficial. Not only that, but she would also have to explain homecoming to her mom, and probably why she wasn’t nominated herself, which she did not want to get into with her mom.

So she had to think of something more creative, which is why she found herself in her kitchen on Wednesday night surrounded by what she thought she would need to make cookies. She had her iPod, which was a gift from Harriette a while back, and it was open to a recipe for sugar cookies with frosting. Her idea was to make simple sugar cookies and decorate them with Tamarai’s name, and then pass them out the next day. She had seen other people do this before, like Fedora a few years back when she miraculously won homecoming queen.

She followed the recipe carefully and waited the ten minutes it took for them to cook and was taking the cookies out of the oven when her mom walked into the kitchen.

She looked around and asked, “what are you doing?” in Korean, of course.

“Making cookies,” DaeRi said setting the tray of cookie on the counter.

“Why?” her mom asked, still speaking Korean.

“For Tamarai,” DaeRi said, not bothering to explain anything else. “And can you please speak English?”

“Is she okay?” her mom asked, finally speaking English.

“Yes, I’m just making her cookies,” DaeRi said, picking up her iPod and checking how long she was supposed to let them sit, which was ten minutes. Now she had to make the frosting.

Her mom was silent as she watched her make frosting, again following the directions carefully.

“Hey, do we have any food coloring?” she asked her mom.

Her mom paused then shook her head, “no.”

“Oh,” DaeRi said. Now what was she gonna do? She couldn’t write Tamarai on white cookies with white frosting. She needed orange, the school color. Than she remembered the orange juice in the fridge, maybe that would work?

She got the orange juice and poured a little into her frosting then quickly stirred it. It was orange. DaeRi grinned. How resourceful of her, she thought.

“But does it taste good?” she asked herself. She dipped a spoon into the frosting and took a taste, not too bad. A little weird, but not bad.

She knew what to do next, she had seen other people do it before. She got a sandwich bag and proceeded to spoon some of the orange frosting into it, than she cut a corner off and she had a piping bag.

“You are not too bad in the kitchen,” her mom said, before turning around and going back into the living room, where she was undoubtedly watching one of her Korean dramas she was so obsessed with.

Her mom didn’t compliment her much, AeGuk had always been her favorite, so even just a little thing like “You’re not too bad in the kitchen,” made DaeRi smile.

It had been ten minutes, DaeRi assumed, so she went on to decorate the cookies. Which she thought she did a pretty good job on. They said Tamarai’s name in nice neat script, DaeRi felt proud of her always neat handwriting, and she dotted each I with a heart. They were adorable.

Seeing that it was already way too late DaeRi quickly covered the cookies with plastic wrap and went to sleep, dreaming about one day being popular again. A dream that felt so close.

--

Meanwhile at another house the day that the nominations were announced, Tamarai, Harriette, and Collin sat on Harriette bed in a circle brainstorming on campaign ideas. Even though everyone had thought Tamarai would win, Tamarai still felt a happy shock about being nominated. The thought of actually being homecoming queen was just too much, so she was immersing herself in campaigning to distract herself.

“Posters, of course,” Harriette said, “And Collin can design them! And we’ll make cookies, or those chocolate bars that you can get anything written on. Which do you think is better, Tamarai?”

Tamarai shrugged, “Both?”

Harriette grinned, “Genius! You can design the posters, right Collin?”

Collin looked unsure, “I don’t really know how?”

“I was thinking we’d put it together on the computer and then have it printed.” Harriette said.

“But wouldn’t it be cuter, and more original, if we had a drawing on it?” Tamarai said.

Harriette paused and slowly smiled, “yes! A drawing of you! Oh, please Collin!”

Collin looked unsure again but shrugged and nodded, “sure.”

Harriette hugged him, almost knocking him off the bed, “Thanks!”

“Anything for you,” Collin said.

Harriette grinned, then turned back to Tamarai, “so what should your slogan be?”

Tamarai stopped and thought about it. This was the hardest part, how did people think of slogans?

“What rhymes with Tamarai?” Collin said.

“Cry, die, fly, high, pie...” Harriette saide.

“Bye, tie, guy, dry, fry,...” Tamarai said.

“What about more than one syllable words?” Collin asked.

Harriette looked at her phone, probably searching for words that rhyme with Tamarai. Suddenly she stopped, grinned and looked up at her friends.

“Vote Tamarai, the best in A.L. High,” Harriette said in a sing songy voice.

“That’s cute,” Tamarai said.

“It sounds a bit conceited but it’s good,” Collins aid.

“It’s a homecoming queen campaign,” Harriette said, “it’s supposed to be conceited.”

They all laughed. It wasn’t long before their mom popped her head through the door and told them it was time to get to sleep, and of course they did. Because no one disobeyed Mrs. Brown.

Homecoming pt 1

There it was, the orange and blue flyer, sitting on the bulletin board announcing that Homecoming was only a few weeks away.

DaeRi resisted the urge to rip it off the wall. Once upon a time she she was excited for her senior year Homecoming dance, but that was when she thought she had a chance at homecoming queen and now she knows she does not.

She heard people approach from the back and heard the familiar voice of her once best friend Tamarai, yes she was not her best friend anymore. She couldn’t get over that Tamarai had basically pulled an Harriette and dumped her in school, and she was not gonna forgive and she was tired of letting Tamarai think she could be on both sides when she couldn’t.

“Look,” DaeRi heard Tamarai say, to Harriette she assumed.

“Oh, homecoming. I’m excited,” Harriette, DaeRi guessed right, said.

“Who do you think’ll win homecoming queen?” Tamarai asked.

“Oh, you, totally,” Harriette said.

DaeRi bit her lip to stop herself from screaming and making a scene. Tamarai, homecoming queen??? No!

“Oh, you think?” Tamarai said, and DaeRi couldn’t believe she actually sounded excited. DaeRi had told her during the summer just how excited she was about probably being homecoming queen this year, and here she was being happy that DaeRi’s dreams were being ripped apart.

Thankfully by the time she had turned around and was completely planning to tell Tamarai just what she thought about her being homecoming queen, Tamarai and Harriette were already on there way down the hall.

DaeRi took a deep breath and stopped herself from following them. She watched as they met up with Collin and headed towards the cafeteria. Even though it was lunch and she hadn’t even eaten breakfast, the last thing she wanted to do was go into that cafeteria and try get through another long lunch period by herself.

She didn’t understand how other unpopular people did it, how did they make it through school without going crazy or breaking down, which DaeRi felt like doing just then.

They had friends, that’s how they did it, Daeri thought as she watched a group of people she didn’t even know walk into the cafeteria. Those people were losers, no one cared about them but they had each other. And DaeRi had no one, because she was more than just a loser, more than just unpopular, she was a grade A outcast. She didn’t think there was a single person in the school who didn’t hate her, or at least thought she was a snob.

But not going to lunch would be like the ultimate sign that she lost, that they had won and that she was sucumbing to being an outcast for the rest of her high school life. No, she had to go in the cafeteria whether she wanted to or not.

So she followed the crowd into the cafeteria, glad that she had a packed lunch and she didn’t have to brave the lines, and head over to her usual table, on the outskirts of the cafeteria. Just walking over there hurt.

Suddenly she stopped, why was she sitting all the way out here anyway? It wasn’t like she was banned from the inner circle, or at least closer than she had been sitting. She looked over the cafeteria and watched the crowd of people and she saw a few tables that hadn’t been taken yet, the people who usually sat there must be getting their food or just late. What would happen if she sat there?

She felt like everyone was watching her as she walked towards the center and took a seat at the table where Lexi and her friends usually sat. DaeRi knew Lexi and she was relatively nice, and not too obsessed with popularity. Sure she had been at the beach when DaeRi had caused the scene that had caused her to be practically banished from the popular circle, so she probably didn’t like DaeRi much, but maybe she wouldn’t tell her to leave.

Lexi’s table also just happened to be one of the closer ones to Harriette’s, and DaeRi saw Tamarai noticed her and look shocked. DaeRi smiled to herself and opened her lunch, why hadn’t she thought of this sooner?

“Uhm, this is our table?” and there was Honey Bell, Lexi’s cousin and best friend. DaeRi looked up and tried to look as innocent as possible. There stood Lexi, Honey, and Layla. They were like the second tier populars, Lexi was once a cheerleader but quit a few years ago and joined track instead. Normally that kind of thing would cause her to fall lower on the popularity scale but no, she held onto her popularity and even got more popular. And by hanging out with Lexi, Honey and Layla were also second tier populars.

“Yeah, it is, isn't it?” DaeRi said, continuing to keep up her innocent act.

“And you’re sitting at it,” Honey continued.

DaeRi nodded, as if they were the ones being dumb.

“Did we invite you?” Honey said, looking at Lexi.

“Nope,” Lexi said slowly, she was obviously thinking about what was the right thing to do in this situation.

“Is it okay if I sit here?” DaeRi said, “It’s gotten terribly lonely at my old table and no one else will let me sit with them.”

Who could resist a sobs story?

Lexi looked torn and Honey and Layla were just waiting for her to say something. Finally Lexi just shrugged and set her food down.

“No, you can’t,” Lexi said, “I’m sorry about you being lonely and all, but you can’t pretend to just forget how rude you were at the beach party. You’re gonna have to actually show that you’ve changed, you can’t just pretend you did.”

DaeRi tried so hard not to yell or call Lexi some rude names as she gathered her food and stood up. She wasn’t gonna argue, arguing would only lead to a fight and fights were not good for DaeRi.

She could practically feel the stares follow her as she went back to the outer circle and to the table she had been sitting at the whole year so far. She could almost cry, if she wasn’t so angry. Mostly she was mad at herself for letting this happen, for letting her temper get the best of her. But at the same time she was angry at everyone else for making such a big deal about it!

She didn’t understand, it’s not like she was the first person to tell people to leave a party. If any other losers appeared at any other party that would have been expected, sure maybe DaeRi had been a little more mean than was called for but still. She was just doing what would have been expected of her if it had been a few years back and the same people appeared at a popular party.

And now she had to find a way to show everyone thats he had changed, or at least make them think that. It was the only way she could get back the homecoming queen title.