"I, Aspen Henderson, am the reigning Queen Bee of New Hopewell High, and I hereby declare that there will be no more cliques, no more popular crowds, no more nerds, geeks, or outcasts. From here on out, there will be no more high school supremacy."...
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Gone are the days that I didn't spend every waking moment worrying about becoming Prom Queen. The thought of the dance gave me so much anxiety, I could literally feel my stomach turning. I doubted that I would be able to enjoy myself at the party, so I needed to execute my mission as fast as possible. My plan was to find Matt, flirt with him, and see if it went anywhere. Even though it would make the butt rumours worse, I couldn't take the anticipation anymore
We could already see where the party was from about a mile away. The lake was beautifully lit up with colourful lanterns and there was electric music pumping, surely annoying the owners of nearby cabins. The minute we arrived at the party, I already had lost Riley to the masses and Sophie to some boy who pulled her away. I grabbed myself a solo cup and poured some light beer into it. I stood awkwardly on the side of a tree with a very sober Tessa, who was still asking me about Caden.
"I'm gonna go look for Matt," I whispered into her ear over the loud music and she shook her head in response. I made my way through the crowd of rowdy teenagers, searching for Matt. It was especially difficult to find him, considering every couple seconds some empty-headed popular kid from another school in the district would stop me to chat about witless things like hairspray and lipgloss.
I ambled over to one of the football players, in hopes that he could help me. "Hey, do you know where Matt is?" I asked in my slow breathy voice and slid a hand onto his shoulder, a trick I learned from Sophie.
A spark went through the jock's eyes when he realized it was me. "Yeah, I think he went that way," he pointed as I bit my lip and dizzily blinked my eyelashes like Penelope did.
"Thanks," I slid a piece of my hair onto my shoulder and gave him one last seductive look. I could feel his eyes on me as I walked away. I headed straight to the beer pong table, figuring he must be there, but I had no luck. I strolled by the riverside, my boots kicking leaves every step I took.
I was about to accept that Matt was, more likely than not, hooking up with some tipsy girl in the bushes somewhere, when I saw a figure lurking in the shadows. It was sitting by the end of the dock with a drink in hand. A small flush of hope rushed through me as I stepped onto the wooden pier and walked towards it.
"Matt?" I approached it, only for it to look back at me with shiny hazel eyes, "Oh, I thought you were someone else, sorry."
The figure was not Matt Sommers, it was, in fact, Hunter Elingsworth.
"No, it's okay," his voice spoke back gently, "I'd actually like it if you would sit with me."
I froze for a second, wondering why in the world he would want that. My throat started to swell up as he glared at me. Not knowing what to do or say, I sat next to him.
"Beautiful night, isn't it?" Hunter's legs dangled off the wooden dock, his eyes meeting the dark green water.
"Yeah," I twitched my lips and moved my tense shoulders. I felt so strained around him, a contrast to what I was used to. Generally, I was so comfortable around guys and felt like I could easily manipulate them. I had what they wanted after all. I held all the power. But with Hunter... I felt like he wasn't chasing after me, it wasn't one-sided. I actually had something to lose.
