Thanks for all the reviews, girlies. Keep 'em coming. :)


"Oh, and before I forget, let me pass out your schedules," Ms. Fields said breathlessly as she made her way over to her desk to pick up the afore-mentioned stack of papers. Fly-away hairs had come loose from her frizzy red hair, and she'd already managed to spill a spot of coffee on her knee-length jean skirt. From what Claire could gather, her new homeroom teacher wasn't exactly the most organized and clean-cut person around.

Ms. Fields wandered around the room, reading off names so that the schedule-owners could identify themselves. "Claire Lee-ons?"

"It's Lyons," Claire corrected meekly as she took her schedule. She looked on in envy as several of the kids around her discreetly pulled out cell phones to compare schedules with their friends via text messaging. Curse her parents for not letting her have a phone until her sixteenth birthday. Ms. Fields went on to answer any questions anybody might have about their schedules, and five minutes later the bell rang and they were dismissed from class. Claire gathered up her stuff and made her way over to the first floor snack machines, the meeting place she and her friends had designated.

Mandy was already there, feeding a dollar in the machine and buying a bag of gummy worms. She ripped it open and grabbed a handful before offering some to Claire. Sharing a bag of gummies was a daily ritual between the group of friends, and Claire happily accepted. A moment later Sarah and Sari showed up. Sarah was seething and Sari was trying to comfort her. Mandy wordlessly held out the bag of gummies, but Sarah shook her head angrily.

"What's up?" Claire asked.

"That new girl completely dissed Sarah during homeroom," Sari whispered, her cerulean eyes wide.

"Well, did you say anything to instigate it?" Claire asked, surprised at this turn of events. Massie might have given her the cold shoulder this morning, but she still didn't seem the type to randomly lash out at someone.

"Whose side are you on?" Sarah snapped.

"Yours, of course," Claire said quickly.

"Fine." Sarah was quiet for a few moments before speaking up again. "I might have told her that the girls around here didn't like rich, snobby, private school girls."

"Ohhh, no you didn't!" Mandy exclaimed.

"And then she accused me of being jealous. And made fun of my shoes," Sarah recounted.

"That's not so bad," Claire put in.

"It wouldn't have been, except that she PUBLICLY HUMILIATED me in front of the entire class." Sarah tossed her dirty blonde waves over her shoulder in determination. "Massie Block is so going down."

Before any of them could say anything else, the two minute warning bell rang, and they bade each other quick goodbyes before heading off to their various classes. As Claire entered her first period class and took a seat in one of the vacant desks, she couldn't help but think that Sarah might have deserved what she had been dealt. Not that Claire would ever say that to Sarah's face.

-xo-

At lunch, Massie sat at the same exact empty table she had sat at that morning. This time, however, an assortment of wannabes and clingers-on had joined her. It was clear that the story of Massie's public put-down of Sarah had gotten around the school, and now everyone wanted to kiss Massie's butt.

"It was so cool how you shut that girl down when she tried to insult you!" A blonde dressed in head-to-toe Aeropostale gushed as she put her tray down beside Massie's.

"Yeah, you completely turned it around so that she was the one being dissed," another girl added.

Claire and her friends looked on from Table #17 as Massie soaked up the attention.

"Can you believe this? Everyone's made it out like Massie's the poor little new girl, and I'm some kind of bully!" Sarah fumed, stabbing her brownie repeatedly with her fork.

"Don't worry, Sarah, I'm sure everyone will forget all about it in a few days," Sari reassured her.

"Oh, they'll forget about it," Sarah agreed. "Because I'm going to be giving them something new to talk about."

"And how do you plan to do that?" Claire asked her warily.

Sarah's lips turned up in a devious smile. "You'll find out soon enough."