Chapter 11

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Never underestimate the power of female intuition.

Token's eyes woke up to the sight of her neatly fit room with cracks around the wall. Trying to replicate the dream from before into her memory to figure out what was going on and assuming her mother got her back home safe and sound was too much for her head at the moment.

Worse, she checked her phone to see just how bad the fight affected her. Two days had passed. A quick use of the camera app showed that the bandages and gauze around her cheeks, chest, and some parts of her arm was enough to prove she needed the extra day.

Token forced herself off the bed and went over to her desk. Photos of the mother and daughter, her and Gene, Zhang and Celin with her, and one with both her parents. She slid her finger on the face of her late dad, another person she wished she could've helped.

Before she could linger on that more, she noticed a hill of homework and notes next to them.

Her mom walked into the room. Both of them getting up at five am in the morning was nothing new.

"Huh, the nurse said you'd need a few days. You sure you don't want to rest a bit more?"

She touched herself all over. The pain lingered but wasn't overwhelming. "I think I'm good." She checked her phone and while Zhang had sent her several texts, the lack of any from Gene lowered her mood. Her attention went back to her mother. "Where did all of that come from?"

"Oh, Celin brought it over."

She sprung up. "He did?" A funny look from the older Verse left her looking away. "I mean, how considerate. It looks like a lot, hope he didn't hurt himself to bring it."

Tulip's mother had a curious smile on her face. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

"I, well," attempting to misdirect her mother's ability to figure her out, "well Celin, Zhang, Gene, the four of us are in the same class now."

"Ah, good, good. It was so nice to see him again and Zhang. Why did you and Gene stop hanging out with those two anyway, the four of you were so close."

Token spent the next couple of minutes explaining Gene's semi-convoluted popularity strategy: stringing along one guy to present herself as undesirable and attract a plethora of men, form a plan to disrupt the Alphabets's reign over the school and her sanity, use her best friend to keep up in school to focus on her petty ambition.

"That doesn't matter, just invite them over. Well, at least when I get that bonus and we could put this house back in order. Couldn't she just compete with the other rich blonde girl for Instagram followers or something?"

"Mom, Alpha probably doesn't care and neither do I. Only famous people and influencers use Insta for stuff like that, pretty sure everyone else just posts to post."

"Huh, I swear some girl got really popular doing that. Or was it Tik Tok?"

"Yeah, by stealing another black girl's dances."

"Ah, Bring it On!"

"I'm pretty sure Gene has wanted to punch her face in for the longest time."

"No, not that. It's a movie that came out just a few years before you were born. A white girl finds out her cheerleading team was stealing routines from a team of black cheerleaders."

"And got away with it?"

Tulip shook her head. "She went through a lot, but ultimately decided to do the right thing and come up with her own cheer. They came in second but they earned her respect. They just don't make those movies like they used to."

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