Work

Ashleigh

Kylie liked to set what I like to call, a double standard. She had set rules, and they were strict and all. But the rules only ever applied to everyone else. Never her. She could always veto her rule, claiming she made it up so she didn't have to follow it. I felt like we were back in 1st grade where that bitch on the playground order's everyone around or during clean up time that one kid who would just stand there and supervise everyone clean up. That kid, was Kylie. Only worse.

So today, was one of those days. Where the standard was double. We were sitting at lunch in our normal spot. I was sitting on her right, Shelby her left. Kylie always in the middle of everything. We were pretending to pick at our food, but none of us actually ate during lunch time. Kylie said eating in public would make us look bad. So we just drank our Starbucks and adorably uninterested in our food.

"And then I heard that they got caught by Principle Duvall and now Brady's suspended," Shelby told us leaning forward as if the gossip would remain a secret. But the three of us knew, that with our knowledge of anything nothing could be a secret. Even between the three of us, you told one and the other would know. Thats why I've learned the only way to really keep a secure is to not tell anyone...anyone. Ever. Especially not Kylie. Even if we were besties, she really couldn't be trusted.

Their gossip faded to the back of my mind, as I noticed a girl come into the cafeteria. And I knew, she was the new girl that had been floating around. She was pretty, I guess. Actually, prettier then I wanted to admit. She had dark brown wavy hair, dark skin, and a perfect smile. I could only tell because I had braces in 6th grade so I knew what wonders those things could do. She seemed almost lost, walking around with a confused look on her face.

"Oh look, thats the new girl. Jazmyn Nelson. She like just moved here from California." Shelby explained to us, like we didn't know. Everyone knew who she was, because how pretty she was. That and it was a small school news traveled fast.

Kylie looked in thought for a second, which was never something good. "I wanna meet her," she stated with a finalized nod.

We both looked to her, really really confused. She hated new kids, and usually wanted to start them off with a bad reputation so that they was no competition. Everyone knew what happened to Regina when a new girl had come in, and we all thought Kylie said she would never let that happen. "Do, you want me to call her over or something?" I asked her confused, just to make sure I was getting everything right.

Kylie looked at me annoyed, "Yes, I want you to call her over did I not just say I want to meet her god Ashleigh why are you so slow!" She exclaimed, crossing her arms and staring me down. That was my que to get up, which I did, but not without a dramatic sigh. I was always being sent to do her dirty work.

I walked right up to the new girl, with a fake perfect smile brushing my hair out of my face. "Hey, I'm Ashleigh," I said to her, as she turned to face me with a matching smile.

"I'm Jazmyn," she responded, with less enthusiasm.

I inhaled, "You should come eat lunch with us, my friend Kylie over there wants to meet you," I said back to her, exhaling with another braces fixed grin.

Jazymn smiled, I guess for a new girl this was something exciting, "Yeah, sure." it looked like a failed attempted to hide her excitement.

We walked over, and she took a seat across from us. I sat back down, with a sigh, looking to Kylie for approval. Kylie didn't seem upset, so I could breath again.

"Hi," Kylie started, with a fake sweetness I knew she just mustered. "I'm Kylie, this is Ashleigh and Shelby."

"Jazmyn," she smiled back. The two of them held each others look, as if they had both held respective Queen Bee positions. Werid. It was like they shared some sort of pretty girl bond Shelby and I weren't let in on.

"Well, where are you from. Llke where did you move here from?" she asked with a smile, breaking the exclusive bond thing.

"California."

"That's like totally cool, they must have really hot guys there!"

"Oh yeah, one time I dated this one guy..."

And pretty much the rest of our lunch was spent watching the two of them enjoy each other's company. It was almost weird. I was used to being Kylie's favorite. She only kept Shelby around because she was uber rich and super pretty. But this new girl, she seemed to like a lot. I zoned out, moving my food around on the tray so that it looked like I touched it. But Kylie's no eating rule wasn't the only reason I wasn't touching my food.

Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be pretty and popular. And well, I could never get the later because of the first one. I was always too fat. And my mom would always tell me, "Ashleigh your too fat why can't you be more like your sister!" my sister, being 22 and a model. So it was kinda hard to live up to. So first I tried dieting, because Ryann had dieted. She gave me this like complicated diet to try and I tried it but I failed pretty quickly. And so then mom would yell, "Why can't you diet like your sister!" and then I would cry in my pillow more because I was no Ryann.

So then I just stopped eating, all together. And I would lie to my mom at dinner and say I already ate. I told her I was on this new diet that only let you eat certain times of day and she believed me. I don't know why she never cared to make sure I ate anything, but she never seemed to check. I hated it, and started to feel hungry and sick after a few days. My complexion didn't look so sunny like it usually did. But then I heard words of "I'm so proud of you Ashleigh!" and Ryann came home to visit and i heard, "Ryann can't you be more like your sister she's on this new diet and looks great!"

So I got a spray tan, and tried to play it off. I got prettier, using more and more makeup to cover up my less then perfect face. And then I was pretty, hot maybe. And then I because popular, Kylie met me and we hit it off. She was my best friend, the first time someone seemed to really like me. So this new girl coming in, and taking that away from me, would not happen. No way in hell.

Kylie seemed to have invited her to our sleepover, which we have every friday night. It seemed like something middle schoolers would do, but lets say the sleepover's we had were not for 13 year old eyes. Not like in a creepy girl on girl way, just we gossiped a lot. A lot. And we talked about stuff. Stuff that if I had a little sister, I wouldn't let her listen.

"But, um Kylie she can't come to your sleepover!" I pointed our, which got me 3 sets of eyes looking to me.

"Why?" Shelby asked, looking confused. Not that she usually didn't look confused.

"Well, because we always go to Kylie's house right after cheer, and sometimes we don't go straight there. What if we want to go to the mall we don't want to alter our plans!" I tried to explain, hoping one of them would side with me.

"Well maybe we just don't go to the mall" Kylie countered, crossing her eyes with a smug look. She could sence the jealousy, and somehow that seemed to make her like Jazmyn more. I mean despite the fact she told us this was an exclusive group and that no one could hang out with us unless we all agreed, that seemed to not be the case anymore.

"But I like shopping!" Shelby whined, I was glad she couldn't pick a side.

"I like shopping" Jazymn seemed to say with a smirk, looking me down.

"So she comes with us?" Kylie said back to me with a shrug. It was phrased as a question but I don't think it was.

"No! We go right from cheer and she's not on the team!" I exclaimed back in protest.

"I used to cheer at my old school, I was captain" she bragged proudly.

"So then how about you cheer with us?" Regina never took up cheering, and Kylie decided if she had to do any sport it would be cheerleading. And so Shelby and I got wrapped into it by default.

"But you said," Shelby started, I cut her off.

"But you said we had no more team sports left!" i countered to her with a confident arm cross. I turned to Jazymn," Sorry we have no spots left," Jazymn fakely smiled back to my fake smile. Oh she was good

"Well, now we do," Kylie declared with a smile.

"But..." I trailed.

"But...?" Shelby trailed, still confused.

"Great its settled!" Kylie grinned, turning back to her new bff.

It seemed like yet again I wasn't good enough to grab Kylie's attention, which I admit I was desperate for. I sighed, if I wanted to keep my spot I would have to work for it. But I hated working.