"Well, we can't say we didn't succeed in what we came here to do," Hedley said as he and Peyton walked down the halls.
"Why not?" said Peyton.
"As far as we know, everyone here thinks we're exchange students from England," said Hedley.
"Since when was that a bad thing?" said Peyton. "As far as I can tell, we did have some exchange students at Hogwarts last year."
"Yeah, I know," said Hedley. "It's one thing to be an exchange student, and it’s another thing to have exchange students. I never thought we'd be one."
"And now we are," said Peyton, "but the question is how everyone's going to see us. It's already bad enough that Cassidy owns the school, but I'm seeing too many stereotypical high school cliques to know that this place is real."
"Now that I completely understand," said Hedley as two students approached them. One of them said, "Hi, you must be the new students. My name is Anna Harrington, and I'm the eyes and ears of the school. Now if you come with me, I'll take you to the cafeteria, as it's lunch time."
"Is it just me or is this place way too normal?" said Peyton.
"You're right, Peyton," said Hedley. "This place is far too normal. I mean, just look at all these groups of people sitting in the cafeteria!"
They both stared at the cafeteria, which was filled to the brim with students. Most of them were sitting with their own kind, not talking to the other students in the other groups. "It's just like that bad episode of that one TV show Dudley likes to watch," said Hedley. "Is no one allowed to interact with each other or anything like that, or is this Cassidy's doing?
"You could say that," said Anna, "but I'm going to warn you right now: you need to be careful of where you sit in this cafeteria."
"Why are you telling us this?" said Peyton.
"Because it's crucial that you know how we have everyone here," said Anna. "Here, we got your freshmen, the army brats, the geniuses, the gamers, the stereotypical Asian nerds, the sports players, the fake black rappers, the girls who like to eat, the gay dudes, the wannabes, the band geeks, the best friends that you're going to make in this universe, and the worst. Beware of the Sirens."
"And who are the Sirens, might I ask?" said Hedley.
"The Sirens are three of the worst girls in the school, next to Cassidy, that is," said Nicholas Floyd. "Let me give you the rundown on them: the first girl you'll meet is Kirsten Prince, one of the dumbest girls in the school."
"She asked me how to spell the word ugly," said Anna, "and she doesn't even know what ugly is."
"Next up is Sophia Levine," said Nicholas. "She's rich, as her dad invented the bottled soda water."
"Sophia’s always up in everyone else's business," said Anna.
"That's why her head is so messed up," said Nicholas. "It's full of secrets!"
"But the worst of them is Kayla Spencer," said Anna. "If you ask me, she's the devil in human form. Don't let her fool you. She may look like your typical selfish back-stabbing bitch, but in reality, she's ten times worse."
"She's like the queen bee of the school," said Nicholas, "if she ever gets the chance to take the crown away from Cassidy, that is."
"Yeah, and if she can't do that, she's the head bitch. She's like the biggest star of the school. The other two are just her little helpers," said Anna.
"Well, that's nice and all," said Peyton, "but that doesn't help me when I want to find out who she is."
"Are you kidding?" said Selena Williams. "How do I begin to explain Kayla Spencer?"
"That girl is flawless," said Phoebe Hunt.
"I heard that she owns five Prada purses and two pairs of Dolce & Gabana sunglasses," said Grace Young.
"I heard that it takes three hours for her to do her hair," said Poppy Fraser.
"I heard that she's a pop singer in Turkmenistan," said Madison Berry.
"I heard that she once shook hands with Chris Hemsworth at a concert," said Maria Murphy.
"And he told her that she was great," said Josephine Turner.
"This one time in band camp last year, she punched me in the face," said Jamie McCarthy. "It was awesome!"
"Okay, can we just knock it off?" said Peyton. "None of your descriptions about her are helping us. I can't see that someone like her is real to begin with!"
Just then, the Sirens in question entered the room. Everyone turned to stare at them as Nicholas said, "Uh-oh, here they come! We better be careful!"
"Why do we need to be careful?" said Hedley as the girls turn to stare at the group.
"Well well well," said Kayla as she and the other girls approached the group, "what do we have here? New students? Well, I'm sorry they chose to come here so early in the year."
"I take it you're Kayla Spencer," said Peyton.
"How did you find out about me?" said Kayla.
"Well," said Peyton, "everybody's telling me about you, which makes me wonder, are you some kind of Queen Bee around here or something like that because if you are..."
"Like who the heck are you?" said Sophia.
"I'm Peyton Hanner," said Peyton, "and I'm an exchange student from Hogwarts..."
"Hogwarts, Florida, right?" Kayla rudely blurted out. "Because that's like the only place I know."
"You could say that," said Peyton.
"Well, let me ask you something," said Kirsten as she stared at Peyton. "If you're from Florida, why is your skin white?"
"Oh my God, Kirsten," said Sophia, "you can't just go around asking people why their skin is white!"
"Well, excuse me for being curious!" Kirsten shouted back.
"So let me get this straight," said Kayla. "Why don't I know you?"
"Because I went to a boarding school," said Peyton. "You know, a school where they send orphans away with because they don't have parents and they live there while attending school..."
"I know what a boarding school is," said Kayla. "So this is your first time being in a public high school? Oh my God. Shut up. Shut up!"
"I didn't say anything," said Peyton.
On the other side of the cafeteria, Cassidy and her two minions Dulce Howard and Azalea George watched the whole thing take place. "Look at what we have here," said Cassidy. "The new girl's attempting to cozy up to the Sirens. Doesn't she know how terrible they are?"
"I know," said Dulce, "and it's too bad though, because I heard that Kayla Spenser's trying to run for prom queen once again. Didn't she learn from last year's mistake?"
"She never learns anything," said Azalea.
"This time, we're going to crush her the way she should have been crushed two years ago," said Cassidy. "And we can't afford to have any slip ups. You two know what to do."
Little did the girls realize that Hedley was listening to their conversation the whole time. By the time he realized what was happening, it would be too late for him and Peyton...
"You need to be careful of who you associate with around here, because nobody here will forgive you if you're caught with the wrong people," said Anna.
Several hours earlier, Peyton met the Sirens, a trio of girls who were so popular, not even Cassidy could intimidate them. Having said that, she did, in the form of dirty tricks she played on them to force them to know their place.
"So you're telling me that everybody thinks that the Sirens are just flat-out bad news?" said Peyton.
"Better them than Cassidy," said Nicholas. "That girl's messed up in the head. I mean, I don't know who she is or where she came from, but she came here and started messing with the social hierarchy."
"It's so sad," said Anna. "And the worst thing is, though, she'll be doing this to us until the day we graduate."
"So what are we going to do about it?" said Peyton. "It's not like we can't rise up and defeat her."
She didn't see the smiles that came from Kayla's face. Kayla, Kirsten, and Sophia had trailed the new trio and overheard their plot to take out Cassidy Newman. "I heard you're plotting to take her down," said Kayla. "You've hardly been in this school for two seconds and already you're plotting against her. That's awesome, even for me."
"What do you know about Cassidy?" said Peyton.
"Oh, I can write you a laundry list of all the things she is," said Kirsten. "She's rude, she's cruel, and she doesn't care about anything that people say. I mean, that girl's like a total crab."
"Don't forget about last year, when she dumped a bucket full of chicken noodle soup all over Kayla's head at the spring dance," said Sophia. "It was embarrassing."
"You're telling me that Cassidy dumped soup on Kayla?" said Peyton. "What’s wrong with her? Is she that messed up in the head? Doesn't she know that with all the pain, hunger, and diseases in the world, she doesn't have a better use for her time than dumping chicken soup on the heads of girls who are better than her? Oh my God, I feel like I'm in a nuthouse!"
The other girls laughed as hard as they dared, but Anna and Nicholas glared at them. Before anyone else could respond, a rude boy pushed Anna, saying, "Nice shirt, Anna. Where did you steal it from?"
"Your gay uncle!" Anna shot back at him.
"Oh, burn!" said Nicholas.
"Well, while we love to stay and chat with you, we have more important things to do," said Kayla. "Don't forget on Wednesdays, we wear green."
"What are you talking about?" said Peyton.
"Oh, you'll find out soon enough," said Kayla. "Let's go girls."
As the Sirens walked away, Anna said, "you better be careful, Peyton. Those girls are on to you. It will only be a matter of time before you act just like them."
"Yeah right," said Payton. "Like that'll ever happen."688Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWA2RMbc6UB
Just then, she saw a familiar girl standing in a corner next to another girl, or more like blocking her from Cassidy. Is that Jacquel she thought as she saw the girl slap Cassidy across her face and push aside her minions. Then she guided the other girl away from the scene. Is that her?688Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9kVMtzxMna
Peyton ran down the hall in search of Hedley; she needed to tell him about Jacquel right away.
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