Cliques: Janis Sarkisian x Reader

n i n e

The next Monday was hard. I kept finding myself looking at Regina and feeling the sudden urge to strangle her, knowing what she did to Janis. I now understood why I always saw Janis giving her dirty looks, or why I always heard her complaining or making fun of her.

Not only that, but I kept thinking about Janis. The way I laid across her lap on the couch during the sleepover. The calming feelings I felt around her. The emptiness I felt when I wasn't around her. The way her smile reached her eyes when she smiled so contently. The prickling sensation I felt as she braided my hair. How I awoke to see her sprawled beside me, looking serene and beautiful all the same. Even worse, though, was the moment that I realized, I may have been catching feelings for her. No, I thought. She was my best friend. Maybe this was just how best friends felt about each other. But something in my gut told me it wasn't.

I spotted Cady walking down the hallway in a shirt and skirt beside the Plastics. During the sleepover, we had determined that Cady would join the Plastics, act like one of them, and sabotage them from the inside. We hadn't decided exactly what we were going to do yet, but we knew it was going to be good. Cady smiled, sending me a tiny wave that the other Plastics couldn't see. I smiled back at her, sticking a hand up in a greeting gesture. On the other hand, I glared as cold-heartedly as I possibly could at Regina, my heart full of anger at the sight of her. However, Regina turned her look towards me. She looked at me with an unkind sort of confusion. Her eyes narrowed partially, lifting her eyebrows in a challenging way. I looked away, trying to find Janis and Damian in the crowd. I didn't feel like facing confrontation right now, no matter the infuriation. Although I still couldn't help the burning thought of slapping her across the heavily painted cheeks she wore as flashes of her glare appeared in my mind.

"Are you guys going to the Halloween Party?" I asked Janis and Damian, approaching them minutes later. News had circled the school about a Halloween Party at some guy's house this weekend, and somehow, I had ended up with an invitation. Normally I wasn't one for parties, I never had been, but if Janis and Damian were going, I wouldn't want to miss out on it.

"What? Oh, no. Damian and I usually binge sucky horror movies all night." Janis said.

"You say that until the jumpscares," Damian said, a smirk pulling at his face.

Janis elbowed him. "I don't get scared." She said defensively.

"Yeah Damian, she has a dignity to keep." I smiled, earning a glare from her. Playful, unlike the kind Regina George had sent me minutes ago, however similar in ways I could not bring myself to describe.

"Anyway," she continued. "Halloween Parties are just an excuse for girls to wear lingerie and get drunk." This surprised me. I had seen stuff like this in the movies of course, but I never thought anyone would actually be able to get away with leaving the house in something so revealing. My parents never would've let me do that myself. Then again, I thought, my parents were very strict on any item like that.

"Oh. Well, I got invited to one." I replied.

Janis laughed in response. "Seriously? By who?" Her surprise somewhat offended me, but I pushed that feeling away, knowing she didn't mean it harshly. Anyway, the boys at this school didn't really notice the minor students in the school nearly as much as they paid attention to students like Regina George and Gretchen Wieners.

"Um, I think it was some guy named Jason," I replied, recalling the pasty face and backwards cap of the brunette who had slipped me an invitation earlier that day, coupled with a few horrible pick up lines and sexual jokes, which I was sure he thought were attractive.

"Ah, that Jason." She rolled her eyes, her lips going thin. I noticed the dark red lipstick she was wearing, and the way it brought out her facial features in a way only beautiful things could be shown. Her eyes were deep and thoughtful against the dark green background blend of pearly eyeshadows.

"I thought he was going out with Gretchen Wieners." Damian wondered aloud, cutting off my admiration for the girl ahead of me.

"He was, but then he cheated on her with Taylor Wedell." Janis said.

"Well aren't you up to date on the school drama?" I teased, playfully shoving her.

"Shut up." She groaned, a smile pricking at her facial features.

"I think Cady told me he hit on her on her second day of school." I input. "He's kind of a man whore." I muttered, directing my attention to the ground.

"Are you going?" Janis asked.

"What?" I lifted my head back up in an instant, drawn to her solemn voice.

"To the party."

"Oh, um, I don't know. I don't think so. It's not really my thing."

"Cool, you should come hang out with us." Damian nodded as Janis said these words.

I smiled. "That sounds like a much better idea." I thought about spending another weekend with Janis and Damian. It almost felt like paradise.

"Guys!" Cady was approaching us. Apparently, she had disbanded from the Plastics. Unsurprising as it was, since she shared French with us next class, the ecstatic look on her face couldn't keep the surprise away from my face. "I got asked to a party." Her smile filled her eyes, completely gleeful and shocked.

"The Halloween Party?" I asked.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" She did the cute gesture she always did when she was excited, lifting herself up on the toe of her shoe.

"I got invited too."

"Oh! Cool! Are you going?"

"No, I don't think so," I said. "Jason asked me. That doesn't really sound ideal to me." I laughed slightly, thinking about Jason asking me to go to a party with him.

"You'll never guess who asked me." Cady's smile grew wider, a blush spreading across her face. "Aaron."

"As in THE Aaron Samuels?" Janis asked.

"The one and only." A dazy look was spread upon her face. She was most likely day-dreaming about the situation. I looked over at Janis. She was smirking knowingly, rolling her eyes.

At the sleepover, Cady had revealed her huge crush on a senior from her calculus class, Aaron Samuels. However, Aaron was Regina's ex, and so she wasn't allowed to express her liking towards him around the Plastics. So, the past two days, she had decided on calling me for hours upon hours to day-dream about him. His hair, his eyes, his smile. She dreamed about anything she could get her hands on.

"Are YOU going?" I turned the question around on her.

"I think so. I really want to. Besides, Regina seems really set on going, so I don't think I really have a choice." She laughed.

"You should do it," Janis said.

"Really? Okay!" Cady said in a daze, still with glee in her tone.

And there birthed Cady's incessant excitement about going to the party. She reminded me of Cinderella once she was given the chance to go to the ball and dance with her prince. Only it was a high school Halloween party and her prince was a senior from her math class. She never stopped talking about how excited she was. Every day she droned on about her costume, and how she and her mom had been working all week, and she thought she was really going to impress Aaron, and she hoped he'd like it. Then, she would get into the nervousness that maybe he wouldn't like it, and then what if he didn't like her. I would spend about thirty minutes convincing her of how amazing she was, and how if Aaron didn't like her, he was an idiot. Then, Cady would go back to talking about her costume, which she had so deviously planned to surprise us with after the party rather than telling us beforehand.

"(y/n)!" I heard my mom yell.

I got out of my bed reluctantly. My mom didn't like when I yelled back, which I had learned the hard way, getting grounded for a week only being five. I walked into my kitchen to see my mom smiling, holding a Walmart shopping bag.

"Yes?" I asked.

"I got you a halo!" She replied, excitedly.

"What?"

"Because I thought, since you're going over to your friend Janis' house on Saturday, and since it's Halloween, you should have a costume. So, I got you a halo!"

"A halo's not a costume mom." I smiled, questioningly. "But thank you," And I took the halo.