Cat's Eye (Lukadrien)

Volume 2, Chapter 6

Chloe is stressed. It's the girl's weekly mall trip, and she's just got a text from an unknown number signed by a goddamn black cat emoji with a Bee Emoji after it. So she's going to have to figure out a good excuse to deal with Chat, but she's so tired.

First of all, she was up late last night, learning to use a new power which involved multitasking thousands of perspectives and orders. She did it, sure, but she is knackered. Normally, she makes sure she gets a good, regular nights sleep with her Korean face mask regime (as recommended by Lila). See, when Lila had moved back to France, she'd been very outward about her international lifestyle and Italian heritage from her mother's side. It had been a real surprise when in a moment of vulnerability, Lila shared her Korean heritage.

A week after Lila had first arrived, Chloe came back from her family vacation, and had spotted the flair of someone who knew the meaning of poise. She'd offered Lila to sit with her, Sabrina and Kagami. Since Chloe was, and is, the Queen of Francois Dupont, Lila would have been a fool not to accept the offer. So, obviously, she did. Seamlessly, Lila had incorporated herself into the dynamic of the Thrones (the name assigned to the group of girls). Lila had turned out to be a real chameleon, unlike the others. Incorporating Sabrina as a Throne had been difficult work, but Chloe will never deny how invaluable it was. Kagami had been a lot of work, in a very different way. But Lila, she had been no hassle at all. She'd watched what was expected, and feel in line. Chloe didn't even have to prune any unfortunate personality traits out. At the time, she'd been glad. Less work for her. Now though, reflecting as she's grown, her old ways of thinking fill her with a little bit of unease.

See, there's a reason they're called the Thrones. Each wields a power over a portion of the school. In order to be a Throne, you have to have power.

There are multiple ways of dividing the school demographics. First, by gender. All the Thrones were girls, of course. In a school hierarchy, girls always are able exert more power. It's far harder earned than the boys with power, but put to use far more effectively, with a much greater reach. See, a 'popular' boy is usually a confident athlete, attractive and wealthy. They exert power over most of the girls, and their sports mates. The rest of their power is weak, and trickled down. They are relevant but not powerful. Therefore, Chloe has never yet seen a boy with the potential to be a Throne. Other than Adrien, but that's another mess entirely.

Secondly, by cliques.

See, you can't build a group of power based on the most powerful people from each friendship group. It would simply not work. By building that group, taking the head of each friend group, you remove their power. You just end up creating another friend group, not a power structure. That wasn't what Chloe had been looking for, when she'd come into High School.

You can build a friend group that maintains power, however, if you take the heads of each clique, rather than each friendship group. What's the difference? Everything. People associate one another with their hobbies, their interest and personalities. They form groups, associated as cliques around subjects. Friendships are either based around a mutual common interest (like sport), and are therefore in the sports clique. Or, friendship groups exist outside of mutual interests, but each member will have an interest, and therefore is involved in a clique.

For example, when Chloe had first picked Sabrina up as a project, she hadn't thought the girl was anything particularly special. She was smart, and studied hard. Not something everyone had, but a fairly common trait. At the time, Chloe had compared it to picking up a particularly nice-looking pebble, with the intent to polish it to a diamond. Look at Sabrina now. With Chloe's help, she is stunning. With Chloe's pushing, she is top of the class. Always. Admired by all the nerds, both for being a beautiful and popular as well as for her tremendous academic achievement. No study group can be organised without her knowing. No school journal article is published without her overview. That is the Throne that Chloe has painstakingly cultivated Sabrina into. Chloe ignores the pangs as she wonders whether she and Sabrina are really friends, or just figureheads of power in a hierarchy of Chloe's own construction