OCD

Girl's Bathroom

Wednesday, September 12th

7:56 am

Nikki sighed, placing her hand onto her barely-there hips and studied herself in the bathroom's full-length mirror. What a bore, she thought, frowning glumly. And to add to her discomfort, it was raining. Sure, she wasn't like the other girls at school who ran around screaming, "Ewh, my hair! Ehmagod, I have to call enter French or Italian name here for an after school appointment! This is a total drab!" And then their friends would agree in chorus adding, "Totally!"

Of course, Nikki wasn't exactly concerned with her hair (though it was barely wet, still glistened in that it's-so-silky-and-shiny-but-not-oily way, and fell into soft curls on her shoulders), but it was actually her outfit. She wasn't exactly sure if her white Milly crochet baby-doll top made her look skinnier or fatter or worse, flatter. Her black Bermuda shorts emphasized her long legs—score one for her, Nikki thought silently. Her red Lori patent sandals added a splash of color and matched well with the patent red headband which pushed back her also brownish-red curls.

Yup, Nikki was pulling a Massie. She was actually caring about what other people thought about her appearance. But last night when she was updating her blog, she decided that if she was going to survive here, she was going to have to make some friends. And she was not settling for some random, no-name D-list group. Now that she didn't have anything to do with Cam, she could be friends with The Pretty Committee, couldn't she? Plus, she was pretty sure that Claire was okay with her by now.

Random girls were passing in and out of the bathroom, shoving her aside for final lip-gloss checks or checking to see if they had (gasp, Gawd forbid) mascara clumps. She finally had enough. She turned to the girl who had just shoved her and twirled her around with one finger. "Excuse me?" Nikki asked.

"Wha-at?" The girl whined, pouting. "I was just reapplying my lip-gloss!" She protested. "You've been hogging that mirror for over four minutes."

Nikki ignored her. She was only asking for her opinion. She looked like a wannabe, wearing the exact same outfit Alicia was wearing the day before. "Does this look alright?" Nikki asked, motioning towards her outfit.

The blonde scrunched up her nose, her glossy lips turned down in a frown. "I guess, but it's too frilly for my taste. Or Alicia Rivera's taste. Because, like, Alicia and I have, like, the exact same taste. You know? We both just luh-v Ralph and anything totally clean cut!"

"What about Massie's taste?" Nikki hesitated to ask, but did so anyways.

"Massie's taste?" The girl repeated, tilting her head and seriously thinking for a minute. "It's cute, I guess, if you're trying to impress Massie. But ever since Alicia tried to start her own clique last year, I was hoping to get in. You know? And now her clique is like, gone, but if she ever makes a clique again, I'm hoping to be apart of it. I'm way prettier than Olivia, don't you think?"

"Who?" Nikki squinted.

"Nev-uh-mind!" The girl huffed. "You're ahb-viously an outsider."

"Uh, yeah." Nikki awkwardly agreed. "I guess I'm an outsider."

But not for long.

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Cam peeked with his blue eye down the hall. His dark bangs covered the other while he searched if the coast was clear. "Derrick, let's go."

"Go?" Derrick scrunched together his eyebrows. "Go where? Go OUT? Ha—"

"No!" Cam glared at him. "Massie is standing there alone without the rest of her group which is so rare and now's your chance. You said you wanted my help with Massie when you called me after school and since obviously Nikki and I have no chance what-so-ever—"

"Not my fault that all the guys kept on bringing up Claire. Kemp started it." Derrick protested, shoving his hands into the pockets of his tan cargo shorts.

"So if Kemp started looking under girl's skirts and takes pictures with his phone—which he already does—would you also follow along?" Cam shot Derrick an incredulous look.

"Wait, he does?" Derrick asked, his eyes widening. "Dude! He's never shown me the pictures. Hold on!" Derrick quickly said, whipping out his cell phone and quickly dialing Kemp's number. "Yo, KEMP! You got to send me those pictures! NOW!"

"Derrick…" Cam muttered.

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"So let me get this straight, you want to talk to me?" Massie peered at Nikki, looking a bit suspicious. Alicia, Kristen, and Dylan mhmm-ed in agreement. Claire just stood there frowning, looking at the floor.

"Well, the reason why you guys weren't exactly friendly to me was because of Cam, right? And I am so over liking that boy. I don't even want anything to do with him," Nikki explained. "So I just thought it would be the mature, bigger person thing to do to get things sorted out properly."

"Well, you do make a point," Massie sighed. This Nikki girl hit a sore spot. If she continued being mean to this girl, wouldn't that make her immature? And the last thing Massie Block was is immature. She felt as though she had no choice but to agree. "Fine, but you're not a GLU yet."

"Glue?" Nikki raised an eyebrow.

Massie rolled her eyes, clearly annoyed by Nikki's lack-of-knowledge. Even though Massie clearly detested this girl and wanted to ruin her, she couldn't help but feel a bit worried. Even though she sometimes pretended to be, Massie was no Duh-livia. She was smart and she knew to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. "Girls. Like. Us." Massie said slowly, half-expecting Nikki to not comprehend.

"Oh, cool, love the code words," Nikki blinked.

Massie inhaled deeply. She knew that if she didn't let Nikki into her clique, then Nikki would go on and ruin everything. She would become popular because, just look at her. She was prettier than Alicia, probably wittier than Massie, and she got along with the guys. Girls would be flocking her to ask her for advice. The only way to make sure she wasn't that cool was to make her apart of Massie's posse. That way, people would take one glance at Nikki and think, oh another Massie slave instead of thinking who is that new girl and why is she getting along so well with the guys?

"Fuh-ine," Massie sneered. "You're officially apart of us."

"WHAT?" Alicia blurted out, her jaw dropping.

"Oh shut it," Massie rolled her eyes, using her hand to clench Alicia's jaw shut. She turned back to Nikki and narrowed her eyes. "There are only two rules of being a Pretty Committee member."

"Rules?" Kristen looked confused. "There are rules?"

"Yes," Massie hissed. She turned back to Nikki. "Don't ever embarrass our name, ever."

"The other one?" Nikki waited patiently.

"Don't you dare try to take my alpha spot or overthrow me," Massie murmured threateningly so Alicia and the others couldn't hear.

"I swear I won't," Nikki said, holding up her pinky.

Massie eyed the girl's chipped black nail polish. "And you'll have to clean that." She said. Massie felt as though she was having a déjà vu. Pinky to pinky. Alpha to alpha. It reminded her so much of the promise that she and Skye had.

So was Nikki a potential Skye?