Human

Melody: The Plan

It all started one Monday morning. Brooke and her "clique" had been walking through the halls like they were the queens of the school.

Layla, who had been by my locker talking to me, had fallen face flat on the ground. It turns out Brooke tripped her again! Brooke had been on top of her, kicking her book bag aside. Her heels were sharp enough to make rips in her book bag, and with that they laughed.

Anger boiled inside of me. I'm pretty sure they could see my face go red.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" I began. "WHY DO YOU HAVE TO TREAT LAYLA LIKE THIS? YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO ACT THIS WAY!"

Brooke gave me a sudden death glare.

"Maybe because she's a loser? Take a chill pill, Mel. Oh, and you might wanna watch your attitude, or else you'll get in trouble."

I gritted my teeth. "Why you-" I couldn't finish... The girls had already stormed off to their next classes.

I grabbed Layla's book bag and helped her up.

"Are you okay, Layla? I'm so sorry about them, nothing they say is right about you. They're the losers here."

"I-I'm fine. I don't know what I'm going to do about my bag, though." She managed to say. I could see the tears beginning to form in her eyes.

I picked up her bag off the floor and began to put the books bag in, as was she. She gave me a faint smile. "Thank you so much, Melody."

I gave her a warm smile and nodded as we walked off to our next class.

School soon ended and we walked to the bus loop. There stood Brooke, gesturing me to come see her. I wasn't sure what to do at first, but I slowly, yet nervously walked up to her.

I tried to hold back my fear. I swallowed the lump in my throat and raised my eyebrow at her. I know it wasn't like me to be nervous around Brooke, but I had a feeling this wasn't going to be pretty.

"Listen up Mel, and listen good. We may have kicked you out of our group-"

I stopped her mid sentence. I was the one who had left the group!

"Actually I-"

"Save it, Mel. You still made me a promise, and that you have to keep. You said that you would pretend to be friends with Layla, so I could be more popular than I already am. The reason I gave you this mission, is so people would feel sympathetic towards me losing a friend, which would be you, and I could get more attention. I knew something was up with her when I first saw her. I knew she was desperate to fit in..."

I stopped listening after that. My mind was focused on what she had just said. Layla was most certainly not desperate! If anyone was desperate, it was Brooke.

And that's when I punched her...

right in the mouth.