The List

by Willow Breeze the first

It happens every September- THE LIST is posted all over school. Two girls are picked from each grade. One is named the prettiest, one the ugliest. The girls chosen become the centre of attention, each reacting differently to the experience. This year's victims Monika, Felicity, Felka, Madeline, Alice, Francine, Julchen and Elizaveta struggle with the judgement of their peers.

1. Prologue

The List

FRESHMEN

Ugliest:

MONIKA BEILSCHMIDT

Otherwise know as Manika

Prettiest:

FELICITY VARGAS

Bonus points for overcoming family genetics

SOPHOMORES

Ugliest:

FELKA ŁUKASIEWICZ

Fake nails, Fake hair, Fake personality, Fake boyfriend

Prettiest:

MADELINE WILLIAMS

The girl next door has never looked better.

JUNIORS

Ugliest:

ALICE KIRKLAND

Being smart doesn't excuse being ugly inside and out.

Prettiest:

FRANCINE BONNEFOY

Who doesn't like a pretty French girl, non?

SENIORS

Ugliest:

JULCHEN BEILSCHMIDT

How does it feel, being on the other side of the coin?

Prettiest:

ELIZAVETA HÉDERVÁRY

Clearly the best makeover in the history of H.E.T.A Highschool.

Signed: The Author 2017

For as long as anyone can remember, the students of Mount H.E.T.A. High have arrived at school on the last Monday in September to find a list naming the prettiest and the ugliest girl in each grade.

This year was no different.

Roughly four hundred copies of the list were hanging in various locations around the school. One was stuck above the urinal in first-floor bathroom, several covered the notice board detailing the musical, one was tucked between pamphlets for dating violence and depression in the nurse's office. The List was affixed to locker doors, inside classroom desks, stuck to bathroom doors. It was everywhere.

The bottom corner of each copy had been stamped by an embossing stamp, leaving behind the scar of Mount H.E.T.A. High rendered as a line drawing before the science labs were added. This stamp had graced every graduation diploma before it was stolen from the principle's office decades ago. It was now a piece of mythic contraband used to discourage mimics or fakes.

No one knew for sure who writes the list each year, or how the responsibility is passed along, but secrecy had not impended the tradition if anything the anonymity made The List absolute, impartial, unbiased.

And so, with each new list, the labels reduce the female populace down to three clear groups.

Prettiest.

Ugliest.

And everyone else.

This morning, before the bell, every girl will learn if her name is on the list or not.

The ones who aren't wonder, jealously, pityingly, what the experience would be like.

The eight girls who are chosen won't have a choice.