Dear Lover, I Loathe You.

31

Genevieve was pretending to organize her locker while keeping an eye on Amanda. She was talking with the group of cheerleaders near the stairs. She dismissed herself from them and made her way to the bathroom. Genevieve shut her locker and followed her to the bathroom.

She walked in and saw Amanda touching up her lipgloss in the mirror. Amanda saw Genevieve standing behind her through the mirror. "Stalker much?" Amanda said as she continued to touch up her lip gloss. "Why did you do it." Genevieve replied. "What are you talking about?" Amanda asked.

"Bryan. The video. Why did you do it?" Genevieve glared. Amanda turned around and leaned against the counter with her arms crossed. "Do what? Tell your boyfriend that you were cheating on him with the band geek? I did him a favor." Amanda replied. "Ruining my life was doing him a favor?" Genevieve questioned.

"It was the right thing to do." Amanda shrugged. Genevieve glared, "You don't care about the right thing. If you cared about the right thing you wouldn't of back stabbed a friend, stolen her boyfriend, and leaked a fucking tape." Genevieve argued. Amanda rolled her eyes, "You didn't even like him. That's why after your little stunt at formal I told Bryan what was going on. He was so heartbroken and worried about you and he didn't deserve that. So we just showed the school who you really are. A cheater, a liar, and a loser." She shrugged."Who the hell even are you anymore?" Genevieve replied.

Amanda rolled her eyes, "You're just jealous." She replied. Genevieve scoffed, "Jealous of what exactly?" She asked. "It's not my fault you chose the band geek. You had your chance at being popular. You could've been prom queen, we all could've been apart of the in-crowd. But you chose that loser. You made your choice, Genevieve." Amanda replied.

"That's what you think this is? You've been so obsessed with popularity that you expected to live right through me all the fucking time. When are you going to realize that all these idiots peak in high school and their little moment of popularity goes away when they're in the real world?" Genevieve asked. Amanda stayed silent. "I don't care about popularity. I don't care about stupid plastic crowns. I don't care about dating the star quarterback of the fucking football team. None of it matters. You would throw away years of friendship for one little moment of popularity?" Genevieve questioned.

Amanda stepped up to Genevieve's face. "You're just mad you aren't queen bee anymore. No one respects you. The theater club doesn't even listen to you anymore. You're a joke. All you are is a pathetic fucking nerd."

Genevieve stared her down, "Good. I'd rather be a fucking nerd than a pathetic loser who peaked in high school." She replied. Amanda rolled her eyes, "Whatever." She mumbled and left the bathroom. Genevieve pulled out her phone and texted their group chat.

Emergency meeting in the theater room. -G

--

Everyone was confused and talking to one another about what Genevieve's text was about. Genevieve entered the room and everyone's attention immediately went to her. "Genevieve what happened?" Taylor asked. "We need to talk." Genevieve sighed. "What happened?" Ms. Clark asked.

"Evan and Greg have been doing some personal investigating over the video leak and everything going on. Evan traced some things back to Amanda. But after having a group meeting last week we think Bryan and Rachel were also apart of it." Genevieve explained. "Then why is this an emergency?" One student asked.

"Amanda basically admitted to being apart of it. She told Bryan what was going on. They were both in on it. They worked together to basically screw us all over." Genevieve explained. "It's true. Rachel was in on it too. She had given me this stuffed animal she rigged up with a secret camera, I went to look for it and when I opened it up. There was the camera." Taylor added.

"But why would they hurt all of us in the process?" One of the band students asked. "They went after what we cared about most. We think it started off as some shameful embarrassment tactic but in turn it also affected our departments. So now the funding goes to theirs instead of ours and the school is thinking of cutting one of our classes." Taylor explained.

"That's bullshit." One student replied. "Why would Amanda help them? She's one of us." One of the theater students asked. "Was. She was one of us. She isn't anymore." Genevieve replied. "But why?" One student asked. "She's one of them now. She chose popularity. So if throwing us under the bus to get it was her way in...she did it." Genevieve replied.

"But Taylor...you found the camera with that footage?" Mr. Harris asked. Taylor nodded. "Shouldn't you turn that in to the police?" He asked. "I can't." Taylor replied. "Why not?" Ms. Clark asked. "They already suspect it's me because these assholes set it up to look like I sent the video out. If I show up to the police station with the evidence and try to explain my bitch of an ex-girlfriend set me up, she has deniability and she can say she never gave me a thing." Taylor explained.

"Then let's get them back." Greg said. Everyone looked to him confused. "How?" Genevieve asked. "Come on guys we aren't novices when it comes to playing dirty. We did it to each other all the time." Greg added. Everyone looked at one another in silence. "They wanted to embarrass you guys during homecoming right?" Greg asked Taylor and Genevieve. Taylor and Genevieve nodded. "Then it's only fair you ruin the biggest night of the year for them." Greg smirked. "We're listening..." Taylor said waiting for him to elaborate.

"Hannah what did you say when we talked to Taylor about homecoming?" Greg asked. "That homecoming doesn't mean shit and all that matters to the popular kids is Prom?" Hannah replied. Genevieve nodded, "So we embarrass them at prom?" She asked. Greg nodded. "How do we do that?" Taylor asked.

"We can rack up dirt on them." Hannah replied. "My cousin is on the Cheer squad, she already doesn't like them but I think I could get some information from her." She suggested. "That's a start." Evan nodded. "My dad has friends with connections to some investigators that work for the police department, if we could get help proving those three idiots were involved with leaking the video and setting them up we could turn it in and get them arrested during prom in front of everyone." Jaime explained.

Ms. Clark and Mr. Harris looked at one another and back to their students. "Guys, as your teachers we have to tell you this is absolutely immature and irresponsible behavior." Ms. Clark said. Their students all frowned. "But..." Mr. Harris added, "As adults outside of our professions...we're on board."

Their students all smiled. "But we weren't here and we didn't know or hear a damn thing." Ms. Clark added. "Understood. Complete deniability." Taylor nodded. "Bingo." Mr. Harris nodded. The bell rang and everyone gathered their things. "See you tomorrow!" Ms. Clark called out as their students filed out of the classroom.

"They're actually working together." Mr. Harris smiled. "That 'hippie' retreat wasn't such a bad idea after all, was it?" Ms. Clark smirked. "Okay okay, maybe it was a good idea." Mr. Harris chuckled. "You should trust me more. Women are never wrong." Ms. Clark smiled and kissed his cheek.