"How do you do it?" "Do what?" I turn to Lauren with a slightly tilted head. We sat in the cafeteria and ate our salads, like almost every day. "Keep your grades up, while having a new boy toy every weekend and never missing a party. I hardly ever see you study." I look at my salad again and just shrug. "Talent, I guess. I never study, I just pay attention in class. And it doesn't hurt to read a book every once in a while." I look up at her with a smirk on my face. She shoots me a death glare, but before she could say anything else, Shane appears next to us. "So practice after school, right? The head cheerleaders have to be there, or else no one else will come." We turn to him and sigh simultaneously. He's always more concerned than he should be. "It was pretty much our idea, so why shouldn't be go there?" I said and Shane looks at Lauren. "Well, your sister said, that I shouldn't count on it that you'll make it today." Lauren rolls her eyes and glares over to Amy, who sits on the other end of the cafeteria. "Stepsister. As if I could share genes with her, I mean look at her." She's right, they are the complete opposite. Lauren is the perfect sweet girl from next door, always in cute dresses and sophisticated outfits when she's not wearing a cheerleader uniform. Amy on the other hand, dresses like a dirty punk and is the school's troublemaker and almost in detention every day. "And what does she know? I mean how does she even know that we have practice after school?" I sigh while I continue to focus on my salad again. "Maybe her mom told her." I say nonchalant and Lauren straightens up a bit. "Yeah, that must be it. But they hardly ever talk?" In this exact moment Lauren's phone starts to ring. "Hello? … Yeah … no she didn't … no I can't … I can't … I have practice … no it's not more important than family … no … but dad … fine." Lauren hangs up and glares once more at Amy and clenches her fist. Suddenly she stands up and walks over to her with a furious expression on her face. Amy on the other hand looks quite amused. Shane and I quickly follow her, to prevent mayor damage. "What the actual fuck, Amy?!" Lauren almost screams at her and Amy just looks over to Liam, her friend for trouble, and starts to laugh. "I'm sorry, can I help you?" She says with a smug smirk on her face. Seriously, how can people look like that and find any friends? On the other hand, Amy has no friends besides Liam. "Why the hell didn't you tell me that the fucking engagement dinner was tonight? Farrah told you days ago! Weeks maybe!" Amy just chuckles as she looks up at Lauren who almost shakes from anger. "Sorry, I didn't know I was obliged to tell you." Lauren took a few breaths before she continues. "Farrah fucking told you to tell me. Nobody told me! My dad just called me and was surprised that I didn't know!" Amy stands up with a calm expression on her face and stands so close to Lauren that their faces are only inches apart. "Maybe if you would spend more time at home than with your donkey of a boyfriend you would've known. I'm gonna go now." Donkey of a boyfriend? Wooow, what a harsh comment. I roll my eyes, I make better comebacks than that. On the other hand. Amy was never really mean to Lauren, maybe because she tries to get along with her? Who knows. "So, I can't make it to practice today, Karma has to do it without me. I'm so sorry." Her look is sincere, but you can still see the anger in her eyes. I look over to Shane as he rolls his eyes in despair. I look back to Lauren with a bit more pity in my expression than I intended. "It's fine, I can do that, and don't worry Shane there will be enough people." I start to walk to the exit, because if my time management is still on point it should ring about … now. I was right, the bell for the next period just rang as I exit the cafeteria. "Oh and trust me," I continue turning around to Shane who, of course, followed me, "I will make them attend practice." I turn on my heel and walk to my next period. Advanced chemistry. Oddly enough, I have that class with Amy. I never took her for the smart kind, but that might be because of her reputation and the fact, that she almost never attends any classes. Today must be my lucky day, because when I enter the classroom there she sits. I'm pretty fascinated by her nature. She looks nice, her features and everything are beautiful. But on the other hand, her clothes and her actions say otherwise. I don't really dig her clothes, I mean, yeah, they're somewhat fashionable. But only if we live in the 90s, grunge is not the go-to-style anymore. All the seats are already taken so I walk over to sit next to her. I bet everybody else is just scared of her, again something that I don't quite get. Yes, she can be mean, but most of the time she is rather quiet. "Hey, I guess you're my new lab partner." I actually smile at her while sitting down next to her. She has her head leaned on her hand while her elbow sits on the table. She turns her head to look at me with a raised eyebrow but says nothing. "So, it's nice to see you in this class every once in a while." She sighs and leans back, trying her death-stare on me, but I keep my smile up. "What do you want Asscroft?" I chuckle a bit. Sure, the wordplay was off and pretty lame, but at least she tried. "My name is Ashcroft." She rolls her eyes. I love how everybody thinks I'm too stupid to get jokes it always makes my day. "Seriously, just because you're friends with my stupid ass stepsister doesn't mean you need to talk to me. So just fuck off and leave me alone." She crosses her arms and fixes her eyes on the teacher who just walked in.

While our wonderful Ms Brothers does her lecture on biochemistry and what our next project will be about I pull out a phone and send a text message to the squad about how everybody who doesn't attend extra practice without a good reason will be kicked off. Amy looks over to me, again with this raised eyebrow. She always looks at me that way, like I disgust her or something. "You know that we're not allowed to text during class." I tilt my head to one side and crack a smile. "Since when do you care about the rules in this school?" She turns her head to the front again and taps her pen on the table. "I don't, but I figured that the perfect-straight-A-good-girl would." Cute, she tries to make fun of me. "Well, I'm not that good of a girl then, am I?" I wink at her when she turns her head to me again and listen to the rest of the lecture.
When the bell rings Amy gets up and looks at me while I pack my things. "So, what about tomorrow at 4pm at Starbucks?" I look at her confused and she points at the board. "The project, dumbass. I want to get it done, so tomorrow?" She's actually interested to finish a school project? Wow, that's new to me. Or well, she is in an AP class, so she must be interested in chemistry, right? I just shrug as an answer and walk away from her. I don't even have to turn around to know that she's frowning and pointing a finger after me. I can't help but smile, I love situations like that.
During practice Shane keeps complaining about how Lauren should be there and explain the lifts so that my group formations would make any sense. Lauren and I split the work equally and since she's not there we can't do any new lifts, which I find really annoying, but I can't change it. And somehow I can't concentrate, I feel like someone is watching us, but every time I look around, no one is there. I never feel paranoid without a reason. I dismiss the feeling eventually as false, but something tells me that I wasn't wrong. We go through some old routines and try to make them better. After an hour I decide that we did enough, mainly because I had enough of those people. I love being a cheerleader, but I hate those people. I know that I'm considered popular and that I should be happy for any attention, but I just dislike people. Sometimes I wish I could be the nerd I'm on the inside and hide in my room the whole day. But that's not how I work, I guess.
After practice I walk to my locker to get some of my books to study tonight. The moment I open it, a piece of paper falls from it. What is that? It's folded in half and when I open it, I see it's a letter.

Dear Karma

I really don't know why I'm writing is, or if I will ever give this to you, but I need to get something
off my chest. I don't even know how long I kept this in me, but I can't do this anymore. When you look at me, which is mostly accidentally, makes my heart skip a beat. You know, with these eyes that pierce right through my soul. I know you have your on and off flings and every week a new boytoy, but I seriously think I can put up with them and you are worth the competition. You are the Juliet to my Romeo, and if you'd disappear from my life, it would be worthless. The way you move, the way you talk, I don't know what it is about you, but everything makes me lose my grip. I saw you in the school's musical and let me tell you, you're flawlessly talented with your voice, I could listen to your angel-like tunes for the rest of my life. And don't let me start about your artistic behavior, I don't think there is anything that you can't do. Please don't think you're worthless, because your parents are more obsessed over Zen than you. I know that's something that bothers you. But trust me, you are perfect. You take my breath away. And that's not easy.

A silent author and admirer.

I start to frown. Who is this person? Is he a stalker? I never told anybody that my parents always obsess over Zen. Not even Lauren. How does this person know that? I put the letter in my bag and shut my locker. I look around the halls, but there is nobody to be seen. Maybe the feeling I had in the gym was that guy who wrote this letter.