Previously on Secret Life of the Influencers...
Massie: u + pierre = PC on top !
"They crashed the bonfire on Saturday!" Another student said.
"I'm not going to give you detention, because I don't want you to miss College and Career Prep after school."
Josh nodded and gestured down the corridor with a grin on his face. "I'll walk with you."
"This is Josh—pretty cool dude, met him in guitar."
"Dyl, I need to win student body president."
"Five, six, seven, eight!"
"Get off my field!" He shouted with an angry face and balled up fist. "You're wasting my time!"
Josh held his hands up in the air, "Don't say anything else! I don't want to know!"
"Did you steal somebody's phone?"
"Cam left it on the bench when he was in here crying with his friends."
Briarwood-Octavian Prep
Auditorium
Friday September 10th
8:33 AM
Massie Block stood with the rest of the cheerleaders behind the curtain as they waited to be called on stage to perform. She should've been excited—she was put in the front for almost eighty percent of the routine. The performance was her debut, and once she was announced as a candidate for student body president there was no doubt in her mind that everyone would be watching her every move from here on out. But she wasn't excited.
Dylan told Massie all about what happened between her and Cam over the summer. Once Claire and Kristen left, she decided to get into shape and began running around the track every other day. Cam had been running on the same day as her, and offered to help her get better at running. They became close friends, almost best friends, and met on the field for the fourth of July after Kendra Block's day party ended. They snuck off with two bottles of wine from the event, met up on the field with snacks and a laptop to watch movies on, and then one thing led to another.
Massie held back a gag.
"You okay?" Claire asked, noticing a sour look on the brunette's face.
Massie nodded quickly and pointed to Charlie, "I'm listening."
They were about to find out who their co-captain was.
"Your co-captain for the year, is someone who I can tell put in the hours of practice to perfect the routine," Charlie looked at each individual girl as to not make it obvious who she had chosen, "and who I believe will be an amazing leader." She held out a flat hand towards Massie.
Massie gasped. It was her!
Suddenly, the excitement that had been missing a few moments ago made an appearance. Her toes curled with pride, her head high.
Massie had gotten exactly what she wanted—co-captain of the cheerleaders. Winning student body president was going to be a breeze now. Massie smirked to herself when she realized Charlie had unknowingly helped her competition, all Massie had to do now was beat her.
"Claire Lyons!"
"What?" Massie screeched under the cheers and 'congratulations' that dispersed through the group. She balled up her fist and clenched her jaw so tight that her teeth grew sore.
Massie watched Claire thank Charlie over and over before allowing herself to be engulfed by hugs from the rest of the new and old cheerleaders—even Dylan was congratulating Claire. Alicia appeared by Massie's side.
"It's okay," she said, "student body president is way more important than co-captain. Trust me no one will care who the co-captain is."
Massie snarled and flipped her hair. "Whatever." She examined her manicure quickly. "If I really wanted to be co-captain, I would be. I so don't care."
She made her way to Claire with Alicia right behind her before plastering a fake smile on her face. "Congrats Claire!" Massie cheered with a slow golf clap.
Suddenly, Claire's excitement disappeared. She knew Massie wanted to be co-captain (she also knew Massie wanted to be student body president, which was a reach) but didn't think it would be her who became co-captain.
"Massie, I'm sorry." Claire squirmed, uncomfortable under Massie gaze. Her smile was fake, that much Claire knew. What she didn't know was what Massie was going to do. She always had a back-up and a revenge plan in her purse.
Massie sighed and dropped her hands from her hips. "It's fine," she gave Claire a soft hug and took a step back, "I know if it were up to you, you would've made me co-captain. And besides—you can make Charlie put me in front for all of the routines!" Massie exclaimed with genuine excitement, though she was still reeling over losing co-captain to Kuh-Laire.
Claire struggled to come up with a response as Charlie introduced them onto the stage.
"Please welcome your very own BOP varsity cheerleaders!"
.
.
Massie's chest moved up and down as heavy breaths flowed in and out of her lungs. They'd just finished their first performance—the student seminar. Every student in every grade had just seen her dance her ass off, and there was more to come. As long as Claire was co-captain, Massie was bound to be in the front of every performance.
As they lined up to take a bow, Massie put herself at the end of the line. Save the best for last.
Charlie bowed first, followed by Claire, Aubrey, Heather, Tatia, a junior Massie didn't recognize, Alicia, another unknown-to-Massie student, Dylan-
Before the rest of the girls could bow, it seemed as though every student's phone began to ring.
Massie frowned at looked around in confusion to the girls on the stage. None of them knew what was going on.
Just then, her phone buzzed in the pocket of her skirt.
"What's going on?" One of the girls next to her whispered to another.
Charlie and Claire exchanged lost looks with Tatia and Aubrey, while Dylan and Alicia checked their phones. Alicia gasped and stared at Dylan with wide eyes.
Massie pulled her phone from her pocket and looked at the screen: Massie Block would like to airdrop a video. Allow?
"What?" Massie murmured to herself. She pressed allow and let the video play, captions appearing on the bottom of the screen. The students were far too loud, even with Principal Cahn getting on the mic and attempting to settle the crowd.
Massie tuned him out and red the captions. The video began with the frame showing the calves and feet of a girl running.
Oh no... Massie thought to herself.
It continued with laughter, "I'm going to win!" The girl in the video, who Massie knew was Dylan, cheered. The boy, Cam likely, stuck his foot out and tripped Dylan. She fell to the ground, with him landing on top of her.
Massie could no longer see anything in the video, only captions on the screen as Cam had dropped the phone and only a starry sky could be seen.
"Dylan, I can't." She read Cam say as the video continued. Massie shook her head and stopped the video. Someone got their hands on a video of Cam and Dylan's crime and was showing the entire school.
With squinted eyes, Massie peered at the front row of students below her in attempt to find the culprit. The lights blinded her, causing a damp hand to raise to her forehead and shield her eyes.
Giving up, and realizing she was one of the few cheerleaders left on stage, Massie ducked behind the curtain and froze as the majority of the cheerleaders glared at her, disgusted and horrified looks on every one of their faces.
"What?" Massie snapped, looking for Claire with her eyes. She wasn't in the mood for games, her friend needed her. Finally spotting her within the group, standing next to Charlie, she jogged towards her immediately. "Claire!" She fluffed the hair stuck to the back of her neck, "Ehmagawd are you-"
"How could you do that?" Claire interrupted, tears pouring from her eyes.
Massie pursed her lips, in need of a fresh lip gloss application, and stuck her neck out, "There's no way you thought the girl in the video was me."
Claire shook her head and folded her arms. "No. But you-" she shoved a pointed finger in Massie's face "-sent it to everyone to embarrass me because I made co-captain and you didn't! How could you!"
Massie's mouth dropped open in shock. She noticed her name when the video was airdropped to her phone—but it wasn't her! She'd received the notification too!
"Someone set me up." Massie folded her arms and glared at Claire. How could she think Massie would do that? Granted, she was pissed that Claire made co-captain, but she wouldn't publicly embarrass her best friend like that. Ever. A few weeks of innuendo-insults and some cold shoulder treatment until she thought of a way for Claire to make it up to her would've sufficed.
Claire nodded sarcastically, "Let me guess, you didn't even know he cheated on me, right?" It was a hypothetical question. But Claire wanted to believe that Massie wouldn't do that to her. Cam was caught red handed—there was video proof so he couldn't deny. But if Massie didn't know that he cheated, then there was no way she could've leaked the video and, possibly, was right about being framed. Claire secretly begged her to say no.
Massie opened her mouth to answer, then closed it. She looked to Charlie, who stood by Claire with angry eyes that just weren't angry enough. Massie glared at her.
"I knew." She snapped, looking back to Claire. "But it wasn't me why would I-."
"Claire!" Dylan exclaimed with streaks of tears staining her makeup. "I'm so sorry," she rushed to Massie side with a frown imprinted on her face, "I never wanted to hurt you—it was a mistake, I'm so-"
"She gets it." Charlie snapped, making Massie's blood boil over. How could Claire be full-on befriending Charlie and replacing her? The situation gave Massie a headache—she had to force herself from regurgitating when Dylan told her what happened the night before, but knew she should have called Claire immediately to tell her. Making Dylan swear on her life that she would tell her by the end of the week wasn't a good idea after all.
Charlie allowed the rest of the cheerleaders to return to the assembly with the students and engulfed Claire in a comforting hug. The cheerleaders mumbled insults to Dylan as they passed. One girl flipped her ponytail at just the right time to whack Dylan in the chin.
"Please leave," Claire sobbed.
Dylan sighed, her chest heavy with sorry, as the consequences of her actions unfolded in front of not only her but the entire student body. She felt terrible and wanted to apologize again, but ran away before more tears fled from her eyes.
Charlie glanced at Massie with a blank expression as her right hand rubbed Claire's spine in a motherly manner, "You should go to." She stated, giving Massie a once over before asking Claire how she could help.
Massie clenched her fist, anger and insults threatening to leave her inner thoughts and be spoken aloud. "Some friend." She spat, snatching the bracelet she'd gifted to Claire for eighth grade graduation off of her wrists. Massie held the bracelet with a tight grip in her hand as she stormed off, fearing that if she let go of the bracelet her eyes would let go of her tears and they'd stream down her face before she could lock herself in the bathroom. The rest of the assembly would have to be reported to her by Alicia.
Briarwood-Octavian Prep
Freshman Hall - Locker 067
Friday September 10th
10:59 AM
The past two hours of Claire's life had been exhausting.
Every few minutes a girl would come up to her, engulfing her with a hug and telling her that everything would be okay.
But it didn't matter.
The comforting words weren't comforting her at all. She wanted to go home, crawl into bed and sleep for a year. At the minimum.
How could Cam... she couldn't even think about it without her throat clenching and her nose getting warm. Claire found herself at a crossroads: on one hand she wanted to drop to the floor and sob until her head hurt, and on the other she wanted to keep going. She never found herself the pity-party type. And what could she do? If Cam loved Claire like he said he did that wouldn't have just happened.
"I just need to move on from him." Claire whispered to herself, swinging open the door to her locker.
Suddenly she felt a presence to her left.
"Talking to yourself?"
It was Pierre.
Claire looked up to find a pair of dark blue eyes and shiny white teeth beaming at her. Had this been happening three hours ago her mind would've been racing at the sight of him. Pierre was very... inspiring. It was no wonder he was loved by so many of the students, he was gregarious in general and cared about people. A good guy.
But Claire shut her emotions off an hour and forty-five minutes ago. Seeing Pierre did nothing.
She gave a tiny grin and a quick shrug, to which he pressed his lips together at and watched as Claire traded in her Americal Sign Language text book for her Geometry notebook.
"Are you gonna be at my place Sunday night?" Pierre tried, noticing a lack of interest.
Claire slammed her locker and turned swiftly to glare at him. "Excuse me?"
Pierre's eyes widened with realization. His lips formed a tight 'o' before he responded. "Not like that!" He exclaimed with an uncomfortable expression written in his face. Pierre quickly grabbed his phone and opened up a photo, showing it to Claire. "The parking lot cookout. My friends, and some of my sister's friends too, come over to hang out before we meet here in the parking lot."
Claire examined the phone with a blank expression. Displayed was a flyer to the cookout, featuring miniaturized photos of cookouts, held in the school parking lot the first Sunday of the month, from the previous school year. It looked fun, but, more than anything, she just wanted to go home.
She decided to be strong tomorrow.
"No, sorry." She mumbled, reopening her locker and tossing her book inside. "See you tomorrow." Claire slipped between Pierre and the lockers and walked as fast as she could down freshman hall while she dialed her mom's number into her phone.
Briarwood-Octavian Prep
First Floor, East Wing – Bathroom 1
Friday September 10th
10:55 AM
Massie Block suddenly missed OCD's yoga class. She couldn't slow her breathing for the life of her.
With blurry eyes, she threw the bracelet into the toilet and pinched her nose with one hand while she flushed with the other. Massie's chest was heaving dramatically as her palms grew sweatier.
She would never admit this aloud, but Claire had hurt her feelings. Of course, Massie wanted to be co-captain—it was part of her plan in becoming student body president. But hurting Claire when the decision wasn't up to her?
"She's so dead." Massie snarled, her fist balling as the sadness in her heart quickly turned into anger. Massie had been nothing but a good friend to Claire—she had made her mistakes, but so had Claire. They were even, and Claire ditching her for Charlie when she was obviously blamed for the treacherous video being leaked made then uneven. The only way Massie would consider accepting an apology from Claire was if she leveled the playing field first.
"Uhm..."
Massie jumped at the masculine voice that spoke through the door of the metal stall.
"You know this isn't the girl's bathroom... right?"
Massie shrieked and blinked back her tears. She needed to escape without anyone seeing her crying or leaving the bathroom with a boy—rumors about her were bound to spread by lunch.
"Leave!" She snapped through the door. "I don't want anyone seeing me leaving with you." For emphasis, Massie slapped the door to seem aggressive so he wouldn't put up a fight.
She heard a scoff come from the outside of the stall: "Yea right. You'd be lucky to be seen leaving the bathroom with Emilio De la Vega."
Massie's eyes widened for a short second. After a quick look in her compact mirror to ensure her mascara hadn't been ruined, she swung open the door and stood with her hands on her hips.
Emilio grinned. "It's Massie." He announced, though no one else was in the restroom.
The brunette rolled her eyes and sauntered towards the sinks, scrubbing her hands with the exfoliating soap before applying a dime sized amount of apple scented moisturizer to her hands. Massie aligned the curls in her hair before turning back to face Emilio.
"What are you doing in here?" Massie questioned.
He pointed a finger sharply at the urinals placed on the left side of the wall with dividers in between them. Massie blushed.
"Your turn." He crossed his arms with a smirk and placed his right foot on the wall behind him, leaning back nonchalantly.
Massie rolled her eyes; he was so trying to look cool.
"I thought this was the girl's bathroom." She answered with a quick hair flip.
Emilio nodded slowly, "Hiding from the mob outside?"
Massie froze and glanced quickly at the door.
The time had come where she was now an MHLBR—a most hated LBR. She would be socially exiled, shunned, teased, and more terrible things.
She shuddered; her thoughts abruptly interrupted by Emilio's cackling.
"I'm joking," he rolled his eyes playfully and removed himself from the wall, adjusting his poster.
Massie could now see his full frame: he was tall, standing six-foot-three to her five-foot-six, with dark brown, almost black eyes. Freckles lightly adored the skin near his cheekbones, and his thick black hair waved from the root of his scalp to the lower part of his forehead, dancing on his ears and the nape of his neck as well. He was well built, courtesy of his expertise on the soccer team and the track field. His dark grey Amiri jeans fit his muscular legs well, and the sleeves of his white Ralph Lauren tee accentuated his biceps—or maybe it was the bathroom light.
Emilio was absolutely a high-calorie piece of eye candy. But Massie knew all about his games.
She rolled her eyes again and decided to make her exit, but was stopped when Emilio's tanned palm grabbed the handle of the door before she could. Massie looked up to find him with a cheeky grin on his face.
"Ever been to a cookout on school grounds?"