“Another day,” Ophelia muttered, shutting her locker door. As she turned to head to class, she bumped into Tiffani. “Hey,” she greeted the blonde girl.

“You think you’re so smart, what you did yesterday,” Tiffani snapped. “You think you’re better than me?”

“No!”

“Just because AJ likes you better!” Tiffani added, a combination of fury and grief on her face.

“I haven’t done anything to make him like me.”


“I don’t know why any guy would like you anyway, always wearing black and enough black eyeliner and eye shadow to make it look like you were punched. What’s wrong, Ophelia? Halloween can’t come fast enough?”

“You’re not thinking rationally, Tiffani,” Ophelia said patiently, stepping around her.

Tiffani was not about to let this go so easily. She followed Ophelia, saying, “You’re weird, and so is that boy-girl you’re dating. What, couldn’t decide what you liked better, so you figured you’d get the best of both worlds?”

Ophelia whipped around, her eyes narrowed with rage. “You leave Cy out of this,” she said sharply.

“Then stop making AJ like you!”

“I’m not making him do anything! What, Tiffani, you want me to disfigure myself, chop my hair off, cut up my face?” Ophelia cried out, frustrated. “Would that make you happy? Would that placate you enough to where you’ll leave me alone?”

Their argument had drawn attention from the other people in the hallway, who stared silently at the arguing pair. Tiffani looked around at the others, then at Ophelia, and said, “Actually, that would make me happy.”


A knock at Grant’s office door made him look up from the papers he was grading. “Office hours start at 11,” he called out.

Jade popped her head in. “You have any aspirin or anything like that?” she asked. “I have the start of a headache.”

“Yeah,” Grant replied, tossing her a bottle that he produced from a desk drawer. Jade opened the package, took two pills out, and dry-swallowed them.

“That’s bad for you, you know,” Grant remarked. “I heard it does bad things to your stomach lining or something, swallowing them without water.”

Jade shrugged. “I’ll survive. Not like I do that every day.”

“Still kind of risky.”

“Eh, I guess. So, Grant, I wanted to talk to you.”

“About what?”

“I’m worried about Valo. She’s been looking pretty bad.”

“You’re not telling me anything new. She’s going to make a doctor’s appointment soon to get checked out.”

Jade thought for a moment, then said, “You think maybe she’s pregnant?”

Grant raised an eyebrow at her, then replied quietly, “Trust me, that’s not the reason why she‘s looking sick. There‘s no way she could be pregnant.”

“What, that careful, or…?”

“I don’t see how any of that is your concern. Don’t you have a class to teach in a few minutes, Jade?” Grant said sharply.

“Yeah, good point. I’ll see you later, then,” Jade responded cheerily.

“Yeah, sure.”


AJ was so absorbed in the magazine article, he did not see the angry-looking girl striding over. She stared silently at him for a few seconds, then yanked the magazine out of his hands.

“Hey, what gives?” AJ snapped. The girl responded by whacking him on the head with the magazine. “What was that for?”

“Look,” Emily snapped, tossing the magazine onto the table. “I’m getting sick of this. Ophelia and Tiffani are still fighting.”

“Yeah?”

“About you. Tiffani is convinced Ophelia’s trying to steal you away from her.”

“Tiffani broke up with me.”

Emily let out an exasperated sigh. “You realize if those two get into a fist-fight, it’ll be your fault.”

“How so?”

“Because you didn’t do anything to prevent it, and you knew that it was about you. You need to set the record straight, and soon, before one of them ends up getting killed.”

“No one’s going to kill anyone,” AJ replied, rolling his eyes.

“If you stand back and do nothing, I’ll hate you, Tiffani will hate you, and Ophelia will hate you!” Emily snapped. “I know you’re not the dumb jock you like to pretend you are; it’s time to act like an adult.”

“Yeah? What do you expect me to say? ‘No, Tiffani, I chose to get a crush on Ophelia; she didn’t force me into it.’ Is that it?”

Emily rolled her eyes. “You think this is so funny, huh? If you just stand there and do nothing, forget about me simply hating you; I’ll freaking disown you.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“You just go on thinking that, and you’ll find out for yourself.”