Learn to Fly

Chapter 4: Panic

CONTENT WARNING: This chapter contains mention of self-harm. Proceed with caution.

The pics are Zack and Jocelyn.

~

Monday, November 12th.

Amanda has actually managed to get herself into a group. I've been trying to come up with an explanation as to how she did it, but no matter how hard I think, I just can't figure out how she did it. This is a part of her plan to become popular and make a name for herself at Maple Ridge. I still don't care about popularity. I don't want to be a part of her plan, I never wanted to be involved in the first place, but I'm forced to tag along anyway.

I'm not exactly sure what to call the group, but it seems to mostly consist of Preps. Four girls act as the leaders, two of them are juniors and the other two are seniors. They're all obviously rich, with their perfectly put-together outfits, expensive-smelling perfume and flawless makeup. Amanda fits in with them perfectly. With my own baggy clothes, cheap body sprays and almost no makeup, I feel extremely out of place around them.

They're big on helping out around the school. Decorating the hallways for the holidays, donating to food drives, little acts of service like that. I've got a really strong feeling that it's all a facade, though. They all act like they're sweet, innocent little angels who would never dream of hurting anyone, when in reality, they're cruel and vicious bitches who wouldn't hesitate to backstab one of their friends should it benefit them in some way.

Amanda's first major project for the group is to decorate the faculty lounge for some Thanksgiving get-together the teachers are having after school today. She begs me to help her as we walk to Lunch. She's under the impression that the girls have given her a job designed to be difficult for someone to do on their own so they can laugh at her and watch her embarrass herself. Truth be told, I don't want to help her, but I know she'll throw a giant hissy fit if I say no. It's not like I have anything important to do after school anyway. I can just tell my parents I went over to her house to study. I've always been curious about what the lounge looks like. I've heard a lot of rumors...

As it turns out, the rumors are nothing more than a small room with white walls, gray carpeting and a faint smell of cleaning supplies, coffee and cigarettes, even though it's illegal for both students and teachers to smoke on school grounds. I guess the teachers need to catch a break from all the stress somehow. Office chairs surround an old beat-up table with papers scattered along the surface. One wall has a large bulletin board that looks like it hasn't been cleared off in decades. I snoop around for a bit, most of the file cabinets are locked. Nothing of interest to be found. How boring. There's not even any sort of secret files on the students. Hmm, they probably keep those in the principal's office.

I have to make a centerpiece out of fake maple leaves, ribbon, and thin copper wire. Amanda's setting the table and hanging up little plastic leaves and orange and yellow streamers. She rambles on about her classes and grades while I struggle with the leaves. Amanda seems to notice that I'm having problems and helps me untangle the wire. We switch jobs. She gathers a bunch of leaves in one hand, twists the wire around the stem, and hides the wire with the ribbon. It looks better than whatever mess I would've created. I hurry to finish setting the table.

"So, what do you think?" Amanda inquires, a wide smile on her face.

"The decorations came out nice. I think we did pretty good." I say, taking one last look at the table to make sure everything looks okay.

Amanda shakes her head and smiles. "No, not that. I mean, what do you think about the group? Can you believe they actually let us join? It feels unreal. Sabrina's been so sweet to me, she texts me all the time." She walks around the table and straightens the forks I just set down. "You'll probably think I'm really dramatic for this, but I was so upset last month, I was really thinking about switching to cyber. But now I have a group of great friends, I've got straight A's in all of my classes, and everything's perfect!"