**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...
Ugh, I just threw up a little in my mouth. Lola and Will? Gross. To think he was the better one out of all of them. I knew he had his drawbacks, I thought it was just picking up a lot of girls. But maybe there was more to it.
Wait - so let me get this straight - Will told you? So you're speaking? This is new! Tell me more. I hope he's ditched level one, please tell me he isn't hanging around them anymore. Please.
Love, Mon
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The mall was a fifteen-minute drive from school, twenty minutes in the heavy traffic. I arrived early after figuring it wasn't worth heading back in the opposite direction to go home and change. Instead, I roamed past the shops, pausing at a cafe to pick up an afternoon coffee. While I was waiting for my order, my eyes skimmed over the magazine rack and found today's paper.
Curiously, I strolled over and picked it up, flicking through the thin pages to find the financial section. As I'd expected, half of a page was taken up by an all too familiar article, my eyes drawn to the picture of two smiling businessmen.
Davenport Senior had his hand gripped onto Greene Senior's shoulder. Lola and Francis's fathers, happily presenting their latest figures. It had been two years since their businesses merged and created one of the most influential financial insurance companies of this period. It was no surprise their children were locked together. After all, they couldn't have a break up taint their alliance.
Coffee in hand, I met Maddy outside of a Victoria's Secret store. She was waiting, leaning against the wall in thigh-high boots and her plaid school skirt, her black hair raised in a high ponytail and her face dimpling as she smiled in greeting.
"Hey, Chloe. Thanks so much for meeting me!" she said. Unexpectedly, she wrapped her arms around me in an extravagant hug, barely managing to not spill my coffee.
"Thanks for asking me to come along," I said, even though I knew I was a last resort.
"So do you have something to wear?" she asked, not hesitating to start strutting down the mall with me in tow, her attention turned towards the windows of the extravagant designer branches.
"No, nothing in particular," I said honestly. "Not yet at least."
"Well that's perfect," she said, flashing me her teeth in a glamorous grin. "We can both find something."
We ducked into a small boutique, one hidden away in a corner. Despite its small entrance, its interior was large and inviting, spaciously decorated with different items of expensive looking clothing. Upon recognizing Maddy, the clerk stood from where she'd been knelt by a shoe rack and embraced her in a hug.
