"Great. Here comes the Royal Snob Calvalcade." El muttered.
I pivoted my head to where my best friend El was glancing.
She was right, there they were, crossing the parking lot to the school entrance.
I caught Ava's eyes roll and give me a annoyed sigh. Seriously? She has no right to be annoyed at me. She's the one who threw our friendship away quicker than a white purse after Labor Day.
My fists clenched as I watched them deliberately slip in line behind us.
Ava, hottest girl in school, cheerleader, probably prom queen hanging over her jock boyfriend, Dax. Surrounded by the most popular group of rich and coolest kids in school. Who I, Cassie Phillips, famous YouTuber, once was a member.
I hiked up my bookbag as I squeezed through the metal frame of the open double doors into the hallway. Our shoes clapped against the scuffed tile floor. I stiffened as I heard a familiar cackle of laughter at my heels.
"Hey Cassie! Eat any good dog food lately? Woof! Woof!" Jackson teased. Jackson, the court Jester of the monarchy. He was an All-State wrestling champion. Even when we were friends, I considered him disgusting and rude. His life was centered around burping contests and making jokes at other kids' expense hoping for a laugh from the rest of the group. Unfortunately for me I was the butt of his daily jokes for the last two years.
Jackson proceeded to wrap his meaty fingers around his throat and make gagging noises, a direct reference to my YouTube incident that literally ruined my entire high school life.
There was a collective roar of laughter among the Royals as they passed us. I felt my face grow red. I kept silent, keeping my gaze ahead of me, not giving them the satisfaction that they embarrassed me. I tried hard to ignore them but I felt the embarrassment go through me.
"Shut up, Jackson!" Ella snarled. She gave Jackson a hard glare, "Seriously? Way to keep up with current events. That only happened about two years ago!"
El leaned against me. She had been there through my countless hours of tears, standing up for hundreds of cruel jokes and endless hours of angry workouts with me on the elliptical.
Ava rolled her crystal blue eyes over her shoulder to El and sneered, showing her support for her royal foot soldier. She ran her fingers through her long platinum blonde hair, and flicked it up. It tumbled over her shoulders and down her back as she turned and faced forward again. I had known her long enough to know exactly what that meant. It was her way of saying FU to us without words.
My eyes welled up and fists clenched around my purse strap. My face burned with a mixture of embarrassment and anger at the gesture. I know I shouldn't let them get to me, but it's hard not to.
Maybe two less days at school would be easier than two days at Vidcon. Hopefully strangers will be nicer about my Youtube disaster than my peers.
I had been the butt of a million of their jokes and it made no sense because, as a Freshman, Ava, was the one who sought me out, requesting my presence in her popular group, of course, right after she found out I was a popular YouTuber.
"Jerk!" Ella snapped at Jackson. She raised both her hands and gave double middle fingers to Jackson's diminishing back as the group increased their distance ahead of us.
I choked back my tears from his stale joke.
"What a brainless Neanderthal!" Ella huffed. "Ignore him, Cassie. He's a miserable person, with no life!" El leered forward and raised her voice for Jackson to hear, but she pretty much just shouted in kid's ear in front of us, who cupped their ear and glared at us over their shoulder.
El draped one arm over my shoulder and leaned into me.
"Just think Cass. You're going to be at Vidcon tomorrow! Far from here and meeting lots of hot guys." El grinned and wiggled eyebrows.
I avoided El's eyes by staring down at the cracked asphalt. I hoped to have skirted around this conversation all together, I had been dodging it for months, but I knew El had been dying to talk about it. She loved YouTubing and was always supportive of my Family's YouTube channel.
"Not really." I grumbled. "I don't want to go, I still need to pack, and my dad is filming a video with the twins tonight." I sighed. I hated it. Youtubing had been the source of all the pain and humiliation in my high school life. All because of one stupid video.
That's all it was, one dumb video two years ago and the entire world laughs at me. I was the naive little girl who unknowingly picked a dog food flavored jelly bean in a blind Jelly bean contest. I gagged, threw up in the trash can as the camera continued to roll. My clueless dad, thinking it was cute, posted it and by the next day, everyone at school saw it. Ever since, it seemed everyone had a joke to make to me about it.
"But you're going to meet Jordan Rand! He's so cute! You are so lucky, Cass!" El bubbled. She pulled her hand from my shoulder and clasped her hands together and stared wistfully into the open sky with star-filled eyes, as if she was envisioning his face hovering over her.
"Meet him?" I scowled at the thought. "I haven't even seen this kid and frankly I don't care to." This kid came along after I vowed to stay away from YouTube, so I've never seen him, nor did I care to. It was disgusting the way the boys idolized him, and the girls drooled over him. Even worse, his list of idol worshipers included El, my little twin brothers, and my dad.
I stopped in front of my locker and slid the backpack and purse off my shoulder, lying them on the faux granite floor. I spun the combination dial, jerked the handle and the door rattled open. El stopped behind me and firmly pointed at me.
"You have to get me his autograph!" She demanded.
"I will." I reluctantly appeased. "Well, the boys will." I corrected, "There is no way that I'm going near that kid this weekend. I'm going to try and steer clear of the convention floor completely if I possibly can. My parents can force me to go, but they can't force me to participate, or at least I'll try to hold them off until Sunday."
Just the mere image of a gloating YouTube guy with a bright white cheesy smile and a line of pathetic teenage girls waiting for his autograph made me nauseous. Seeing it in person might make me repeat my jelly bean episode.
"You're the best, Cassie!" El exclaimed satisfied. She began to walk away in the direction of her locker. "I can't wait to frame his autograph! OMG, you have to tell me if he smells as good as he looks!"
"That's gross!" I pivoted my head in her direction and crinkled my nose at her creepy comment, "I might get his autograph, but I'm not going to smell him for you."
To say El was obsessed with this Rand kid was probably an understatement and I really wasn't looking forward to meeting him or attending the convention.
I took out a few notebooks and slammed the locker door. Just in time for the warning bell to echo through the halls.
"Shoot!" I exclaimed. My heart sped up at the sound. I speedily stuffed the books into my backpack.
"See you later Cas." El said.
Ella wrapped her fingers around my arm and gave me a quick squeeze as she walked passed me.
"Just remember, it won't be long until we're out of here!"
"One more day is too long." I muttered, mostly to myself. But being reminded of how close to graduation we were cheered me up.
I envisioned fresh new faces and a lush green campus filled my head along with the hope of a new start where no one knew me, or to at least hold them off for a while until they found out about my family's YouTube channel.
I shuffled off toward my homeroom, weaving through throng of students. I ducked into homeroom considering the upcoming trip to Vidcon. I had no idea how the fans of the family Youtube channel will react to me, but I had no choice, I was going to find out.
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