A new girl had shown up at school, with a smile on her face and her hair in a poof of coils.
At first, everyone looked at her reluctantly. Most of the students weren’t used to other people dressing differently, and she certainly did, wearing pink and poofy skirts and sparkly stars on her face.
Kids like that usually got bullied. But the new girl, she just stuck her chin up and grinned, and somehow, within the span of a week, she became popular.
Within the span of a week, everyone grew to like her and her bluntness.
Within the span of a week, her personality grew on them.
Within the span of a week, Cherry Glass could observe the school, and get a proper feel for all of the dynamics.
Once she had everything secured, she was sure she’d secure her first goal- take over as queen bee of the school. It wouldn’t be too difficult for a girl like her, wouldn’t it?
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During study hall, she sat at a table with the “popular kids,” where they got crowded by many, many students, all clamoring to get a glimpse of them. What were they? Celebrities?
She tried her best to not think such things, though. To become the most popular queen of the school, one must be likable. She couldn’t be likable if she blurted out the first thing on her mind, could she?
Alas, it ended up happening.
Nobody seemed to mind her rudeness, however, it only seemed to make her popularity soar, so she decided to let her mouth run loose as usual, and still observe as she did so.
Cherry sat with a few other students, Mikaela Crowmore, who was apparently an exorcist, with the prettiest facial features imaginable, and the plain-looking Vesper Solaris, rumored to be the smartest girl in school. There was also a trio of girls with flower names, who mostly talked to Vesper.
All of them intrigued her, but especially Vesper.
See, the new girl was observant, and those brown eyes of hers allowed her to see the truth in anything.
When she looked at Mikaela, or Mika, as some of the students called him, she could tell that his smile was a bit forced, laced with light annoyance sometimes, and he was most certainly hiding something. But, some of his statements were still genuine, like a passing “your hair looks nice,” or “I can’t, I have homework.” He generally still kept his personality when he spoke, and his personality was calm, collected, though a bit indifferent. Well, very indifferent, but she didn’t care much about that.
He was the same as any popular person.
The trio of girls was what anyone expected of a high school clique. Loud, full of gossip, the works.
Yes, everyone was a bit interesting, but not as much as the dark-haired girl Cherry sat next to.
She spent a lot of her time looking at Vesper. If Mika was hiding something, Vesper was hiding everything.
Her smile was uncomfortably forced. All of her statements weren’t genuine, as if she thought through every single little piece of her sentence before speaking, crafting them carefully like she was mixing chemicals.
When she spoke to each person, her way of speaking also changed a bit. Cherry could tell that this girl was also quite observant, though not as observant as her.
Cherry usually saw the truth, and this girl that smiled and sweetly chatted with everyone else, giving them math tips or science help? She was far from the actual girl that was inside Vesper Solaris. Oh, she was basically a completely different person.
The new girl smiled, and crossed her legs as she sat on top of the desk. Oh yes. Vesper Solaris was certainly intriguing.
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A few days later, when Cherry’s popularity had grown even more, she decided to befriend Vesper to learn more about her.
After all, her goal was to become the most popular in the school, the queen bee, essentially. Taking over the school, just as a little warm-up.
While Vesper was intriguing, she was a threat to Cherry’s goal. Those forced smiles and fake laughs got everyone to love her so much, and all the new girl could do was simply speak her mind or react as she truly felt. How were Vesper’s false displays of emotion working so well?
So, after the end of her class, the last one of the day, Cherry sauntered over to Vesper, wearing sweet new overalls and a bunch of cute accessories on top of it, and sat on her desk.
Vesper peered up from the book she was reading with hazel eyes. While everyone was packing up to leave, she stayed put, waiting for the science club. “May I help you?” asked the girl, putting up her facade once again.
“I want to be friends,” Cherry stated, blunt as always. She could never tell a lie, after all, but she could withhold the rest of the truth. And I want to see how you’re so popular so I can… she stopped the thought. She might accidentally say stray thoughts.
Vesper thought about it for a moment, looking over all of the bits of Cherry. Her hair that was dyed pink except for the dark roots, her sparkly makeup with stars over her cheeks, and her outfit that looked like a pastel rainbow unicorn just vomited.
Cherry could see the cogs in her brain turning, and then there she was, putting up those walls.
Then she smiled, and softly laughed. “I thought we were already friends, silly!” There it was again. The oozing falseness, the changing of her personality to fit Cherry’s persona. It was a good effort, she’d give her that. “Would you like to go out to get cake some other day?” she asked innocently.
Cherry was not one to deny the opportunity, so she flashed back a grin. “Of course! I’d love to get to know you better!”
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