New friends

Chapter 13

Monday finally arrived. The span of time between meeting Katie's new friends and starting to date her crush had felt like months when it all happened in three days.

She didn't want to go back to school. She didn't want people to know about the new relationship. Not that she didn't love Shiro, but she was so afraid of judgement. Her anxiety didn't make it any better either. She knew people would stare and she hated being the center of attention.

Now that she was rolling with a new crowd, "or a crowd at all." she thought to herself, people would notice her and actually pay attention to her. Normally this would be nice but this terrified Katie.

She took a deep breath.

She had started to get more comfortable with her new style and open up more ever since she started talking to people. "Maybe it won't be so bad." She thought trying to calm down.

Keith and Lance decided that since everyone would know soon enough they might as well go 'big'. They walked into the crowded hallway holding hands and not giving a shit about who saw. No one was going to change what they had.

Katie got out of the car with the others in her new outfit handpicked by Allura. She worried herself until she saw Shiro smiling at her. This somehow made everything seem more silly than scary. She just thought "Okay. You know what? Screw this! Who cares what they think. I'm over it." She gained confidence and walked with her new besties. They started to walk into the school and immediately everyone's eyes were on her. She didn't look but she knew people were whispering.

The fact that she didn't know what they were saying gave her an internal panic attack. She would've even liked it better if she knew they were saying bad things than leaving it up to her irrational imagination to conjure up something crazy.

Keith noticed her looking worried slightly behind the 'confidence' and put his hand on her shoulder. "It's alright." He smiled reassuringly. She calmed down a bit and they continued on. The student body was confused. Shiro could catch bits of whispers echoing down the hall.

Who is this girl? I thought she was a loner. She might have math with me? I've never seen her before. What's her name? She's really pretty. How have we noticed her before?

Shiro took Katie's hand and said into her ear "everything's going to be okay." He hugged her goodbye and kissed her head. It made her feel safe, like everything was going to be alright. Gasps erupted from the hallway, mostly from girls who crushed on Shiro. This created even more questions.

Who the hell does she think she is?! Are they dating?! Is he still single?! They're probably dating. He's never done that to anyone before. How can we break them up RIGHT NOW?! We need to figure this out pronto!

The group disbanded for classes.

Katie went to her first period and as soon as she sat down she was bombarded by strangers. A blonde cheerleader she recognized came up to her.

"Hi!" She said sweetly. "Hi." She replied. "So I'm Zoey. What's your name" she asked. "I'm Katie." She said when she was interrupted by another girl. "So are you dating Shiro?" Great. This was it. Clear it up and get rid of rumors now. "Yeah. Yeah we are dating." She said smiling. She looked up to see different expressions.

Zoey seemed happy for the couple while the other girl had a plain look of jealousy on her face. "Sorry I didn't catch your name." Katie asked the clearly distraught girl. "I'm Amber." She said whipping her red hair behind her shoulder.

"So how did you two start even dating huh?" She asked bitterly. "We just started dating this weekend but we've liked each other for a while." She said simply. "Uh huh." Amber rolled her eyes and dragged Zoey away to their seats. Katie already knew that Zoey and Amber were best friends but they've never talked to her before. They were these super popular juniors who ate gossip for breakfast.

Zoey was dragged away by Amber. "I can't believe this! Who does that little nobody thinks he is?!" Amber whispers to her enraged. "I think they'll be a sweet couple. You know, like that stereotypical power couple of the jock and the scholar." She said. "Well I don't like it at all." Amber snapped. "I was this close to getting Shiro at that party when suddenly this chick swoops in and steals him in one weekend?! No. I was too close. Now you're going to help me break them up. Got it?" She said. "I don't know.. they seemed really happy together." Zoey started. "But you're not going to help ME?! Your best friend since middle school?!" Amber said angrily.

Their friendship had always been this way. Amber was the jealous one and Zoey was the one to help her get revenge. Amber really was a good friend most of the time, but she often made Zoey do things to other people that were really mean. She didn't love to, but Amber was all she had.

"Okay. I'll help you." She muttered looking back at Katie who was happily chatting away. She always knew Katie was super smart and didn't deserve anything that was coming to her, but what else could she do?

Katie was talking with some other girls. They all had Zoey's point of view and were really happy for them saying how they would be a great couple and how cute together they were. She glanced over to Amber whisper yelling at Zoey about something. Hopefully that wouldn't come back to by her in the butt.

Amber devised a plan. Zoey would befriend Katie and start hanging out with her gaining her trust. Then Amber would start hanging out with them too allowing herself to get closer to Shiro. Then Zoey would feed 'rumors' that Shiro liked Amber to Katie. Amber would trick Shiro into doing something and Zoey would lead Katie straight into it. Then they would break up for sure and Shiro would be free for the taking.

Amber was proud of herself for her brilliant plan. "This was definitely going to work" she thought deviously. Zoey didn't like this at all. It was meaner than anything Amber had come up with so far. "After class, follow her to her next class and put the plan into action." Amber said to Zoey. She didn't reply.

The bell rang for class to start.

Hey guys. As a reference this is Katie's schedule :
P1- Chemistry with Amber and Zoey
P2-English with Hunk, Lance, and Zoey
P3- Spanish with Lance and Keith
P4- world history with Zoey and Amber
Lunch
P5- Engineering with Hunk
P6- Economics with Keith
P7- Calculus with Shiro and Amber