Chapter Two
One of the girls had long blond hair with even blonder highlights. She was tall, with blue-green eyes and a fake tan. She wore a tight blue shirt that said 'Blond AND Smart!' in white, tight blue jeans that flared at the bottom, white flip-flops that showed how much work she spent on painting her toes hot-pink, lip-gloss that made it look like she had pink spit, and too much purple eyeshadow.
Another girl had curly reddish-brown hair, shoulder-length, and pulled into two pigtails and golden brown eyes. She had a pink shirt with the Aeropostale monkey on it, denim capris, white boots with a hole for her toe at the end of it, sparkly, cheap, pink lip-gloss that only seven-year-olds would wear, mascara that made her look like a raccoon, pink and white nails, and dangly, gold, heart earrings.
The last one had dark brown hair, in a high ponytail, a tight brown and gold tube-top, a short khaki skirt (that showed her chunky legs), and long, tan, fuzzy, boots. She had long, pinkish red fingernails, blue, sparkly, eyeshadow, black mascara (a bit too much of it), thick brown eyeliner, and gold colored bangles.
Rei walked past them, thinking 'Preps...' but before she could glare at them, the brunette (who looked like their leader) said "Oh. My. Gawd! Not another emo!"
"Ugh, those emos think they're so cool cuz they act depressed," The blond one replied. They spoke like Rei wasn't even there.
The amber-haired one shook her head. "Hey Dana, didn't you know a Chinese emo once?"
Rei sighed. "You know, by attempting to insult me, you're just making yourself look more idiotic than you already are."
The brunette the others called 'Dana' scoffed at her. "I hate these foreign kids. They think they're better than us Americans!"
"So... by that you're trying to say that if your little 'Smart Blond' friend here was from China, then you wouldn't like her either?"
Dana didn't have anything to say about this. Rei found this a bit funny. "You know, you're only popular because you intimidate everyone. Which is incredibly stupid. Because there are more of us than there are of you. And someday, we'll overpower you. And you'll be kicked off your throne of lipgloss and tight shirts."
Dana glared at her, looking at her own tight shirt and sticking her lip out, getting cheap lipgloss in her mouth. "Someone, get me a bottle of water! Room temperature!"
"On it Dana!" Her two hench-girls shouted.
"What, you can't handle a little lipgloss flavor? Or is it that you just applied too much?" Rei asked.
"Whateva! I don't listen to emos!" Dana strutted away, in search for her room temperature water. Rei shook her head.
"Pathetic..."
Rei sat in the locker room, drawing some more. She was hoping she wouldn't have to deal with the loser preps again. She had been drawing all day, and she had gotten tired of it. She put her sketchbook back into her locker, longing for her laptop. She was looking for something to do when she heard, "Are you really an emo Chinese chick?"
It was Bob. Rei shook her head. "...Okay, first of all, I'm Japanese. and second, I'm not emo. This is just... the way I dress. And the way I act. It's natural... Why?"
"It's just what everyone else is saying. I wanted to get your input on it first."
Rei smiled slightly. "That's... sweet." She told him.
"Yeah, well..." His face turned the color of his hair.
Rei nodded, giggling a bit.
"Hey!" Lizzy and Mickey walked towards them, and Rei felt a pang of anger. Things were getting interesting.
"H-hi!" She smiled and waved, but only half-heartedly. For some reason, she felt jealous that Lizzy and Mickey wanted to talk to Bob, even though she didn't care about boys... right?
Rei shook it off. "So... what's up?"
"Um... nothing. Just wondering, what did you do to make Dana so mad?"
"Dana? Oh, you mean that one weirdo... the one wearing tight clothes and a bad taste in makeup?"
Mickey covered her mouth. "Don't talk about her that way! She'll start rumors and try to make things as bad as possible here for you!"
Rei shrugged. "Already tried. Didn't work."
"What do you mean?" Lizzy asked. "She's the most popular girl in school!"
"And... you had a point in there somewhere?" Rei replied. "Look, popular kids don't bother me. They just think they have power because they intimidate people. It has no point whatsoever. They just look incredibly stupid doing things like this. And these girls are the worst yet!" It was almost the most she'd ever said in a long time, considering how little she talked. But she liked it that way, because when she did talk, people listened.
Mickey looked at her with an arched eyebrow. She had never heard such things... and her cousin actually made sense.
Bob looked stunned. Her words... they sounded so... true.
Lizzy was clapping. She had never heard Rei say so much, and she never really had a chance to hear her voice. And on top of it all, she had said something meaningful, not something about anime or souls, or something else nobody understood but her.
They all just hoped that Dana or one of her 'spies' hadn't heard her. Rei looked a bit confused (or as confused as Rei's emotions showed). She wasn't sure why they all looked so amazed.
"...What?" Rei asked, still confused.
"It's just that... um... you, well, um..." Bob couldn't think of the right words.
"That just makes so much sense! The way you worded things, and the fact that you said so much! I've never heard you talk that much before!" Lizzy exclaimed (which she did rarely).
Rei blushed a bit. "Well, I've been to a lot of schools, and I've learned how to deal with these kind of pepole. And some huge obese kid who attempted to beat me up, but that's not important... You can't back down. You need to show that you're not afraid and stand up to them. If not, you're just giving them what they want. Show that you don't care, and tell them how stupid they're making themselves look. They can't really do anything to you, except make the rest of the school think things about you that aren't true. And if they physically or verbally abuse you, then you can suspend, expell them, or as my dad would do, sue them." Rei's voice became quiet and slightly creepy once more.
"Wow... even more words than before!" Mickey said.
"I sure didn't expect that!" Bob added.
"Yeah, but the creepy tone stayed this time..." Lizzy shuddered.
Rei sighed. "Yeah, well..."
Before Rei could finish muttering to herself, the locker room was crowded with kids, pushing, yelling, laughing, and... following Dana, who Rei didn't bother to tell off. She figured that a loser like that wasn't worth her time. Besides, Dana wouldn't even understand what she was saying.
Rei was still in the locker room after the rest of the kids had left. She didn't care if she was late, as long as she got good grades, which wouldn't be as hard as she thought.
Rei came into English class ten minutes late, but the teacher didn't count it, since she was new and all. Rei nodded, and sat down in the last seat available, the one in between Bob and the window.
"Why so late?" Bob whispered. "Did you get lost or something?"
"No, I just didn't feel like rushing with all the other kids. And I wanted to see what would happen."
"Reiko, I do not allow talking in my class!" Mrs. Officio, the English Teacher told (more like yelled at) her. "I'm not sure what they do in China, but here it isn't allowed!"
"Japan," Rei muttered.
"What was that?"
"I was just saying that I'm from Japan, not China."
Mrs. Officio ajusted her glasses. "Yes, well then..." She didn't like to be wrong, and if she was, she would never admit it. But in this case, she didn't know how to et out of accusing a student of being from a different country than she really was.
Rei shook her head. She was pretty good at embarassing teachers, and adults for that matter. Even children, but she didn't do it often, unless you got her angry, which was hard to do.
Class trudged on, as boring as it was, and the bell finally rang.
"And don't forget! Pages 79-86 are due tomorrow!"
The class ran out of the room, all at once. Rei gathered her things after the room was empty (except for her and some other kid), and left to meet up with Mickey and Lizzy.
Rei was almost to the locker room when she ran into one of Dana's 'friends', the tall blond one.
"And where do you think you're going?" She demanded.
"To the 'Slit my wrists convention for Chinese emos'." Rei replied sarcastically, with a roll of her indigo eyes.
The blond glared at her. "Well, then!"
"What, is that all you have to say? I thought you were both blond and smart."
The blond made a note not to wear that shirt again.
"By the way, what is your name?" Rei asked, "Unless Dana just numbers you and doesn't treat you as individuals, even though I doubt you've had an original thought since Dana came here, Number Twelve."
"For your information, it's number- Hey! My name is Alexa! Alexa Carlnae!"
"Well then Alexa Carlnae, I think I'd like to clear some things up wi-" She was interrupted by yelling from her cousin.
"Rei! Heloooo! Stop talking to what's-her-name and get over here!"
Rei nodded and walked off, leaving Alexa standing there, dumbfounded.
