"Hey Jewel." Poppy popped up out of nowhere.
"Oh gosh. Give me a heart attack won't you?" Juliana smiled as they walked on.
"So did you make up with gerbil yet?"
Juliana was about to reply as they turned the corner to see Jerome handing Mara flowers and giving her a heartfelt hug.
Juliana whipped back around the corner and hid against the wall, her eyes darting around, full of questions and doubts. Sure, they were friends and that was all good and fine, but she wasn't jealous when Jerome would hug Patricia or Amber or someone, but with Mara…it was different. She knew something was there between them that they even denied themselves, and it was probably because she was standing in their way. But she wasn't about to move out of the way.
She saw Poppy walking towards Jerome, and then she herself, went the opposite way in which she'd come, pretending she'd seen absolutely nothing.
At newspaper later, people were volunteering for the position of editor, and when Joy nominated herself, Juliana nodded in her direction to show her approval. Joy had been there first, but Nina took everything from her. So editor would at least be a small piece of her leadership back. But then, of course, Mara came in, and acted all noble, not wanting editor if it was already taken, but she decided to run against Joy. Juliana's face slid into a scowl and she wanted to strangle Mara. Who was she to ruin not one, not two, not three, but four people's lives in some way. Herself, Jerome, Joy, Mick- she had to ruin relationships, opportunities…didn't she get enough when she got class representative? No, obviously not.
Juliana, too angry to stick around for the rest of the meeting, grabbed her stuff, pushed her chair away from the table, got up, and walked out on everyone. And when Mara actually won, Juliana made a loud groan, which caused everyone to snap their heads to and for Mara to stop her winning speech.
"Oh, no. I'm sorry. Please, do go on about the annoying crap you're talking about. Because everyone loves a dictator. " Juliana grabbed her bag and walked to the front of the room. "I'll be doing my articles, but I'll be handing it in when I want to, not because this control freak wants deadlines because it's traditional. Like Joy said, deadlines don't matter anymore because we're online. I'll see you all at the next meeting." Then she spun around and left, Joy smiling. There she went. Juliana was finally growing up enough to realize Mara was one of the worst people to room with in the house, despite her good intentions, she'd caused a lot of messes. And Juliana knew better than to let her relationship spiral out of control because of her. Juliana wasn't about to become another case of Amber.
Who would Mara go after next year? Fabian? Joy tensed, not wanting to think about what she may do to Mara. But she herself was rooting for Juliana, because Juliana and her, well, they deserved to be editor and to keep the guy- not Mara. She didn't. She had Mick, was a bitch, and sent him off. But that gave her no reason to destroy her ex's cousin's relationship too. She acted like the smartest person in the world, when Juliana got the exact same marks as her, but she actually didn't shove it down everyone's throats that she was a smarty-pants.
Everyone could see Mara liked Jerome, and it was unclear who he liked more, but it was almost certain it was Juliana. Juliana hated Mara. She didn't want to fix their friendship. After Mick, she thought they could be okay like they used to be, but she'd be damned if she was about to let the ugliest girl in the house still her guy. She would not a victim of Mara Jaffray. She kept stomping over everyone, whether she meant to or not, Juliana didn't care, she just wished Mara would stop it and drop off the face of the earth. She knew Mara wasn't ugly, but she was thinking it to make herself feel better, and maybe deep down she did feel the other girls in the house were better looking than her, but it didn't matter.
Mara was wearing thin on Juliana's tolerance. If she wanted Jerome, she'd have to go through Juliana and probably all their friends, as everyone loved Juliana, she was like an innocent, a sweetheart, the only difference between her and Mara being that Juliana wasn't a boyfriend stealer. Mara could go fly to Australia and get Mick back, and Jerome was staying with Juliana. Those two had practically been together for years, and Mara wasn't about to come through with a bulldozer and ruin it all. No. This meant war.
Even Eddie agreed Mara was all too much when she was bugging him about not making his deadline. The moment Mara left, Juliana plopped down onto the couch beside him and watched the witch go.
"Great personality, don't you think?" Juliana said in her American accent. Eddie did a double take, then remembered how precisely accurate Juliana's accent was and smiled.
"Yeah, tell me about it. Wicked witch of the west." He snickered and the pair broke out into laughter. She decided Eddie was pretty cool, and they instantly clicked as friends then. She put her hand on his arm to steady herself from how much she was laughing as they both would keep saying mean things about Mara, and laugh even harder.
Jerome was passing by, and saw the contact and grimaced painfully. Eddie was trying to steal his Jillian wasn't he? It would be the American. What did girls find so attractive about boys with the opposite English accent anyway? He silently groaned and walked away. If he went in and said something, Jill would be mad for being overprotective. After all, she was allowing more space between him and Mara, so why should he be a hypocrite? He had to get that gem anyway.
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