**Officially published as Clique Bait with HarperTeen!**
Payment is usually a part of a basic transaction. You give and then you take. But, at Arlington Preparatory, people take at their leisure. They take their entertainment in the form of humiliat...
I'm so sorry that you knew. Of all the people, I care about what you think the most. You're my best friend. That's why it was so hard to tell you, I was so ashamed. Francis was with Lola, but I still didn't stop him.
I don't want to talk about that now though, it's in the past. What's done is done.
How are you going? Is Arlington missing me?
Mon
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Lola Davenport let out a charming laugh, which trickled through the pores of my skin like some kind of acid.
William slept with her?
Or, the much less stressful alternative. Lola was trying to defend her territory, trying to scare me away from them.
I smiled, mimicking her warm expression, as if she'd just shared a heart-warming complement. I pulled my hands away from hers and shifted them under the table, trying not to break my eye contact with her murky eyes.
"That's good to know," was all I said in return.
Lola's smile cocked to one side as she toyed with the soda bottle in front of her. Her caramel hair hung in loose curls which grazed her cashmere covered shoulders. Her face was round and dimpled, a contrast to Sophie's beside her which was sharp and high cheek-boned.
Something told me Lola was testing my every movement. Was she deciding whether I was worthy of sitting here? Or was she planning an attack already?
I knew the way she treated newcomers. From now on I'd have to watch my back at around every corner.
"This girl's skirt sucks," Li said from nearby. Her ebony locks had fallen in front of her face as she pulled at the waistline of the pleated skirt. "She hasn't even had it tailored."
Li's mother was a Chinese supermodel, passing her structured face on to her daughter, along with her thin frame and height.
"What's her name?" Sophie asked, scrolling through her phone as if she didn't even care for the answer to her question.
"Stephanie Griffith," Maddy said from opposite the girls. "She's a sophomore."
"Let me guess, you girls are going to make her life hell, right?" Francis asked. His short golden hair curled wildly around his face, his long features and structured nose boasting wealthy genes. "You're all so predictable."
Lola laughed. "What would you do, Franky? You're the creative one here."
I looked between Arlington's power couple. It was easy to forget they were even together in the way they acted so casually. And then there was the fact that neither of them seemed to bother whether their affairs were known or not.
