𝐁𝐀𝐆𝐒 | 𝐉𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐌𝐈'𝐈𝐊𝐄

eleven.

eden sat alone on the bleachers, watching regina strut around the stage in her spring fling queen sash, aaron in tow beside her. she glanced down at her phone, she hadn't seen janis or damian when she was trying to find a place to sit in the bleachers which was maybe for the better. she was trying to give janis space after all. it had only been a week, yet to eden it felt like forever. she'd had no contact with janis except for when eden would catch the other girl staring at her and even then janis always tore her eyes away.

she turned her attention back to regina just as the sprinklers on the field switched on. a collective gasp shot through the bleachers, eden turned to see a figure ducking down from the electrical box. she subtly moved to look under the bleachers, not that anyone was paying attention to her. everyone was too busy staring at a now drenched regina on the field. she watched janis rush out from under the bleachers, damian and cady in tow with her as all three of them burst into quiet and mostly contained laughter just under where the entire student body stood watching for regina's reaction. eden rolled her eyes and pulled her focus back to the scene unfolding before her.

regina flipped her hair back as a collective gasp went around the bleachers. "woah."it was only 11:00am and eden had already rolled her eyes far too many times to count but everyone's enthusiasm towards regina flaunting around was enough to make her want to rip her hair out. everyone had pulled their phones out, snapping pictures of the girl as the supervising teachers tried to contain the commotion around them.

mr duvall cleared the field, muttering something about technical faults with the sprinklers but regina had decided to just go with what was happening, posing for peoples cameras like she was royalty. eden joined the people that had decided to listen to mr duvall and trudged back into the school.

"did you see that?" one student asked another, flashing her phone in the other's face. "i wish i looked like that." eden resisted the urge to roll her eyes. she wondered if janis was nearby, listening in on how her first sabotage plan had quite obviously failed. and then she pushed that thought away, she didn't want anything to do with it which meant not wondering whether everything janis done to regina was a success or a fail.

✭

that afternoon, half of the student body was walking around with mascara dragged down their eyes and their hair slicked back. eden would've said 'i told you so' to janis but she wasn't that petty. instead she sat next to cady who shot her a guilty look as if by setting the sprinklers off, she'd betrayed her. "it's been a week," janis groaned, eden keeping her head on her french worksheet. "all we've done is helped regina set a new trend and given her a tub of lard that didn't even do anything." eden frowned at that, she didn't want any involvement but she did want to know about the lard. "and revive the wet look," damian chipped in.

"so what next?" janis asked. "we need something that doesn't backfire on us." cady glanced towards eden who was doing a really great job of ignoring them. "maybe we shouldn't talk about this right now," she said. eden heard janis scoff and tried to ignore the way it made her heart sink. madame park coughed pointedly towards the three, janis trailed off mid sentence as cady turned back to the front of the class. "sorry," cady muttered. at first eden had thought it was directed towards their french teacher until she realised her eyes were trained on her. "please stop apologising," eden sighed. "you have nothing to apologise for." she looked around her. "except for making people think the wet look needs to be a thing."

eden heard damian let out a laugh from behind her, janis looking unimpressed by the entire thing. "if you don't want to be involved, why do you have an opinion on any of this?" she asked, gritting her teeth while simultaneously ignoring the look damian gave her. "hey remember when i told you that you'd never win against regina?" eden gestured around her. "guess what?" janis scowled at her, she wasn't even planning on telling janis her plan was already backfiring on her but it had been yet another long week of janis' little quips. janis opened her mouth to respond at the same time that madame park's attention pulled to them, damian coughed in the most unsubtle manner eden had ever seen but it was enough to make her turn back around, their french teacher practically scowling at both eden and cady.

the woman went back to her laptop but eden didn't turn back, she had been trying to not respond to janis' little digs or her overall extremely petty behaviour but it was getting more and more difficult. it would be far easier to just ignore her and that's what eden was planning to do. this had been the longest both girls had gone without talking to each other but if janis wanted to ignore eden's existence, eden could match her energy. if there was one thing she was good at, it was hiding her true feelings, especially when it came to janis.

she could feel janis' eyes on her and the way damian and cady were exchanging looks, neither of them knowing what to do. "bitch," she heard janis mutter under her breath at the same time that damian shushed her. she waited until she was sure that janis had resumed her worksheet before she swung around to mouth 'sorry' at damian who just smiled gently at her in response.

"thanks for not saying anything," cady said quietly so she didn't start anything up between janis and eden again. "about what?" eden asked, acting like she was deep in thought about the french verbs in front of her until madame park had passed them and moved back to the next row. "about the sprinklers," cady shrugged. "you could've told mr duvall." eden shook her head. "you're my friends," she sighed. "and also the no involvement thing extends to me pretending like i don't know anything about this." cady laughed a little before going back to her worksheet.

when the bell rang to signal the end of class, eden watched as janis waited by the door for damian. her and cady were deep in conversation, janis nudging cady playfully as she laughed at something she had said. eden stuffed her textbook into her bag and resisted the urge to fire the book straight at janis' head. she felt damian's hands on her shoulders as he turned her around to face him. "you ok?" he asked gently. "you know i'm really trying to give her space," she said. "but all she's done is be snarky at any chance she gets."

"she thinks you don't care about her," damian lowered his voice. "and you've been pretty snarky too." eden ignored the second part of that statement. "is she insane?" eden crossed her arms. "all i ever do is look out for her." damian sighed. "i know," he replied. "and because i know you like her, it's easier for me to see your side." eden frowned at him. "from her side you just look like someone that blows a fuse every time regina's name is mentioned," he continued. "she thinks that you're jealous of cady because you want in with the plastics which she will come to her senses about but you just need to give it a minute." eden could see janis gesturing for damian to join them. "go," she waved him off. "you're ok?" he asked. "because i can stick around if you want to talk."

"i'm fine," she promised. he squeezed her shoulder softly before making his way over to janis and cady. eden tried her best not to watch the three of them go.  a pang of jealousy shot through her but she couldn't be mad at cady or janis no matter how hard she tried. after all, it wasn't cady's fault that she was eden's replacement.