The Original Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 0.50)

“About Jasmine?”

“Yeah!” Mandy sent me a blinding smile, bleached teeth and all. “We did it for you.”

Wait.

“What?” I asked, turning to face my sister. “What do you mean she did it for me?”

“Please.” Mandy rolled her eyes, clutching her books tightly. “We’ve been getting sick and tired of Sasha. She’s such a bitch to you.”

“And I can take care of myself,” I retorted, a little irritated.

“What’s gotten into you? I mean, we thought you’d be happy. Sasha’s been on your back since last week. Now, her and Amber have suddenly become ‘friends.’ Please,” she said in disgust, “Amber pisses me off sometimes.”

“Amber,” I stated in disbelief, “you’re best friend Amber?”

“You’re my sister. Amber shouldn’t bring friends in the group who are going dump all over you,” she explained matter-of-factly, unaware at how pissed I was getting.

“Excuse me?” I drawled slowly. Mandy looked up at me and her eyes widened in surprise.

“Uh?” She paused, uncertain which way to tread.

“Do me a favor and stop putting me in the middle of your issues with Jasmine and Amber. You and Jasmine pulled that stunt because the two of you didn’t like Sasha. Sasha was becoming too buddy-buddy with Amber, and you and Jasmine were threatened. That’s why the two of you did what you did. Not because of me. We both know I can take care of myself,” I finished tensely.

Fuck that.

“But we did do it for y—”

“No, you didn’t!” I cried out, slamming my locker shut, uncaring that we had an audience. “If you were going to do anything for me, it’d be to drop friends like Amber and Jasmine. Jasmine screwed Devon for a year,” I ignored her flinch, “a year, Mandy! And Amber knew about it—they all knew about it.”

“What?” Mandy gasped.

“But no, instead you’re willing to sacrifice having good friends so you can be popular.”

“Who knew about it?”

“Take a wild guess!” I shouted. “When you’re popular, you gotta expect you’ll be the last to know shit. Especially about your cheating boyfriend—who’s going to cheat again. And you know it. Every time you’re off at some cheerleader camp or student council conference, you’re always going to wonder.”

“And you have such stellar friends,” Mandy retorted, wanting to hurt me.

I fell silent. Oh yeah, I knew exactly how stellar my friends were. Friends who’d lied to me, fucked me over. Yeah, I had great friends.

“Trust me, I am fully aware of how fucked up my friends are,” I said hoarsely, turning to storm off. I stopped short, seeing everyone—everyone—frozen in place, listening to us. Fuck, I even saw our psych teacher in the hallway, looking at us.

“Miss Matthews,” she spoke up, coming to stand in front of us, “I think you and your sister will be meeting with me tomorrow after class.”

Oh…shit.

Some of Mandy’s friends came up and hugged her, walking away with her, a few of them glaring at me over their shoulders.

Whatever.

I was the one telling the truth. I was just calling it how it is, not putting on some show. With my newfound wisdom, I wasn’t about to let anyone get into place to stab me in the back.

Screw that.

Sighing, I turned back to my locker, realizing I forgot to grab my bag with

my keys. As I opened the pocket, I saw Tray’s keys were still inside. I’d forgotten to give them back. Grabbing them, I pulled my bag out and shut it. I walked down his hallway, seeing a lot of students that I could swear didn’t even go to our school; however, I was the new student—one that isolated herself at that.