Author's Note: Lol, to my reviewers Kaylin and Matt, yes Danielle is a huge part of this story! Most of you realized that her writing style is similar to the one in this story.

Good guess... I was waiting until the very end of the story to credit her, but since this story has been blowing up, I have to.

Her fanfic username is iimdanielle. thank you Danielle for revising my content and giving me this story idea! Check her out she is the author of Mine. xx

Thank you all for reviewing! Onto the chappie..

Chapter Eight

The corners of Paulina's lips rose ever so gently as she motioned towards Sam, who was standing beside her with her wrists locked behind her back. "One thing I like about Sam is how strong she is." Mr. Lancer and Principal Ishiyama flashed her a thumbs up from their places near the classroom door. "Mental wise."

"And one thing I like about Paulina is her confidence." Sam looked over at her and smiled as well, though it wasn't as wide as hers was. "I know I poked fun at it last week, but I mean it. Sometimes you go overboard, but it's great that you appreciate yourself."

To Paulina, it felt really peculiar to see Sam smiling at her instead of glaring at her as per usual, but it also brought her a strange new sense of comfort. She didn't know if she was smiling at her because of the compliment she gave her or because that was their last day of having to state what they liked about each other, but either way, it made her smile, too.

However, once she flicked her gaze in Star's direction, her smile instantly faded. The girl's face was contorted into a mask of what she thought was hatred. Her eyes were like twin beams of betrayal, which confused her to the point where she just decided to look away.

After Mr. Lancer's class ended, they both met up just a few feet away from his classroom. Well, more like Star lightly gripped her wrist and pulled her in the opposite direction. Once they were out of ear-shot of any teachers, Star swung her arms outward. "What was that?"

Paulina curled her eyebrows together, which caused her forehead to crease. "What was what?" Just then, Sam, Danny, and Tucker passed by, but Sam and Tucker were so engrossed in a conversation that they just bypassed her. Danny, however, noticed her and flashed her a tiny smile. Though it surprised her, she smiled back at him.

"That!" Star exclaimed. "Since when did you start associating yourself with those freaks? I can understand you smiling with Fenton, but with Manson?"

"Calm down, Star." Paulina exhaled and raised her hands defensively. "You're overreacting."

"I'm not overreacting. Buddying up with Manson will for sure get you booted from the A-listers, even if she's dating Fenton." Star took a step forward and jammed her forefinger into Paulina's face. "You're getting soft on us. Don't be so quick to trust Manson because she's nothing but a snake in sheep's clothing." And with that, she stalked away.

"Jeez. What the hell was that about?" Paulina murmured to herself. She waited until Star disappeared around the corner before moving towards her second period class. She truly didn't feel like dealing with her best friend's sudden spike in attitude that morning, so she brushed off the encounter for the moment.

At lunch, however, things took a turn for the worse.

Paulina, Star, Dash, Kwan, and Tiffany were all sitting at their usual lunch table in the center of the cafeteria. As the boys and Tiffany ate their lunch, Star and Paulina stared each other down. Paulina was mainly glaring at her because she started it, but part of the reason was because of what happened after first period.

After several minutes of angrily eyeballing each other, Tiffany picked up on the tension between the girls and narrowed her eyes. "Okay, what happened between you two?" she inquired. Star didn't respond, so Paulina decided to.

"Ask Star. She's the one acting like a baby." Star scoffed and turned her head away, but Paulina disregarded her and continued speaking. "Since when is it against the rules to smile at someone?"

Tiffany pursed her lips and rose an eyebrow before looking to Star, who exhaled sharply and pointed at Paulina. "She was kissing up to Manson during Mr. Lancer's class. She complimented her and they smiled at each other."

Paulina rolled her eyes. "Such a crime, right?"

"What?" Tiffany straightened her form and blinked a few times. "Why would you do that? You don't even like her."

"I don't really see what the big deal is. It's not like we're going to go skipping off into the sunset holding hands or something just because we were cordial to each other today. Besides, you guys already knew about the assignment Principal Ishiyama gave us both."

Star seemed to drop the matter, as she started to eat her once untouched meal. Tiffany, however, was relentless. "We don't associate ourselves with the unpopular. Period." She hunched forward in her seat and tapped her right forefinger against the surface of the table. "If you want to hang around with the unpopular and be all buddy buddy with them, then go be unpopular with them."

Paulina's brows furrowed. "Didn't I invite you into this group? Know your place."

"I'm just letting you know."

Dash belched before snorting and glancing at Tiffany. "You'd better cool it before Manson dog walks you. You know that girl is strong as hell."

"That string bean?" The sadistic girl scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Please." She then flattened her palms on top of the table and rose to her feet. "Only weaklings are afraid of her. She's not as tough as she's portraying herself to be, you know." Without uttering another word, she walked over to the entrance of the cafeteria and departed.

Paulina had a bad feeling in her gut and decided to follow her. Star, Kwan, and Dash remained in their seats, all of them either oblivious to what Tiffany was about to do or just too understand to find out. The first one made much more sense, so she chose not to inform them about what Tiffany was up to.

"Where are you going?" she asked once she caught up to her friend. She received no response, but the path Tiffany was marching down told her that she was heading outside to the patio, and she knew exactly who was sitting out there. "Tiff, no. Don't go that way. Don't do that."

But Tiffany simply ignored her and continued storming over to the door leading to the patio, where she proceeded to push it open and walk outside. All Paulina could do was follow her like a lost puppy and wait to see what exactly she was going to do.

Sure enough, Sam was sitting out there at a table with Danny and Tucker. Her lips were parted as she laughed at something inaudible to Paulina. No one else was around, as everyone normally ate lunch inside the cafeteria. Tiffany made a beeline for the trio and, after stopping at the end of the table, cleared her throat.

"Get up, Manson," she demanded. Everybody at the table looked over at her, perplexed as to what was going on. She eyed Sam's bottle of water that was sitting beside her food and then knocked it off of the table. "You heard me. I said get up."

"Get up for what?" Sam was surprisingly nonchalant this time, not flinching or even raising an eyebrow at the aggressive girl before her. Paulina stood back and watched them again, but not because she was afraid to intervene; she wanted to see how far Tiffany was going to go.

"I'm tired of you walking around here like you're tough just because you fought Paulina. You fought somebody weaker than you." Tiffany then drew her hand backwards and swung it out sideways, knocking Sam's food onto the ground. "Fight me. Fight someone on your own level of strength."

Danny quickly got up from the table and moved in front of Sam, acting as a barrier between her and Tiffany. "She's not fighting anyone. Why don't you guys just leave her alone?"

"This doesn't concern you, Fenton."

"No, Danny, it's okay." Sam gently towed him out of her way as she, too, stood from the table. Once she was up, she crossed her arms cocked her head to the side. "Why can't we just talk it out like two civil people? Fighting doesn't really accomplish anything. You're still not going to like me after we fight."

"So now you want to talk it out? Why didn't you want to talk it out with Paulina? Oh, because you're weak." Tiffany inched closer to her, appearing to grow in height with each step she took. Sam remained unbothered, still not flinching or moving backwards. "You're a punk. You'd step up to her but not to me."

"I only fought her because she put her hands on me first. I don't have a problem with you. Everything you feel is one-sided because I don't care about you."

What unfolded next was wild for Paulina to witness. Tiffany caught Sam off guard by roughly pawing her in her face. She then followed up with a punch, but Sam was swift and retaliated with multiple sharp blows to the girl's head and face as well.

Paulina curled her arms around Tiffany's waist and started to pull her away, but Tiffany jerked her right leg back and kicked her in her shin, which made her accidentally loosen her grip on her. As a result, she toppled to the floor, giving Sam more of an advantage over her. Paulina didn't really want to keep watching her friend go at it with Sam and lose, so she looked to Danny and Tucker for help.

What she didn't know was that they were both already working on seperating the girls. Danny, being the strongest of the two, grabbed Sam's wrists while Tucker grasped her hips. As they tried to haul her away, Paulina reached into the mix and pried Tiffany's fingers from Sam's hair. Eventually, all three of them were successful in breaking up the fight.

Paulina didn't even attempt to help up Tiffany, who was still on the ground as a result of the fight. The girl picked herself up and wiped at the small amount of blood that trickled from her right nostril, grumbling derogatory things about Sam under her breath. "You wait until other people hit you first because you're a follower. You're still a punk to me."

Paulina moved out of the way and just watched the scene escalate, too stunned to properly react. Danny and Tucker stopped restraining Sam and let her go, but Danny still stood in front of her with his arms spread outward to create some distance between her and Tiffany.

"It's always Manson this, Manson that." Sam tried to bypass him and get closer to Tiffany's face so that she would take her argument much more seriously, but he wasn't having that and kept moving in front of her. "I don't even talk to you guys, yet you still find a way to harass me."

Upon hearing that, Paulina became offended and scoffed. "Who's you guys?"

"You and her!" Sam brought her palms to her chest and raised her voice a level. "No matter what I'm doing, whether it's walking down the hallway or just hanging by myself, you two always attack me."

"I haven't physically attacked you since we fought!" Paulina took a few steps forward, but Danny was still standing between them, so she didn't walk up too close. "That Nasty Burger incident doesn't even count. All I've ever done recently was be verbal with you, and barely even that."

"Each time one of your friends approach me, it has something to do with you, yet you sit there and try to play me by pretending you had nothing to do with it. It's like you pick and choose the days where you want to be cordial with me."

"I don't have to pretend to do anything."

"Sam's actually right," Tucker chimed in. Paulina glared at him, and while he gulped, he still stood his ground. "Every time Tiffany comes up to her, you're always involved somehow, so it's either her with the problem or you with the problem."

Paulina scowled at him, but Tiffany was the one who retorted. "Who asked you, geek? This doesn't involve you, but Manson?" Despite the fact that she just got rocked pretty badly by Sam, she started to pull her hair up into a bun. "I want round two."

"Not going to happen." Danny nodded his head towards the door leading back into the school and lowered his eyebrows. "Both of you just beat it, please."

Tiffany narrowed her eyes and huffed. "Fine." As she turned over her shoulder, however, she quickly craned her head in Sam's direction and spit on her. Sam then reached over Danny's shoulder and capped Tiffany one good time in her face before she was forced back by both he and Tucker.

Paulina finally had enough and grabbed Tiffany by her wrist, roughly towing her back into the school. She had a whole tantrum on the way over to the building, but once they stepped inside, she yanked her wrist away. "Don't touch me! Who's side are you even on?"

"I'm on my side, but that was disgusting. I know fighting isn't classy, but neither is spitting. You're blowing up this situation and escalating it more than it needs to be and I'm sick of it."

Ire clouded Tiffany's facial features and her voice shook with rage. "You're actually defending her?" Her lips curled into a sneer and she pointed at her nose, which wasn't bleeding as much as she thought it was. "After she did this to me, you're seriously jumping to her defense?"

Paulina didn't recognize the hostile girl standing before her. Sure, she wasn't nice in general, but the only person she saw sulking in front of her at that moment was a monster. She couldn't help but wonder if that was the same person she looked like to Sam.

"Wrong is wrong, Tiff. She and I have our own personal reasons to dislike each other, but you don't have a legit reason to not like her, and if you do, I promise it's not worth what you just did out there." Paulina stared into Tiffany's eyes with a stern expression plastered on her face. "You need to quit bullying people. I hate to say this, but she beat your ass and it wouldn't have happened if you just minded your business."

Tiffany's glare seemed to burn a hole into her face. "It's either her or me. Choose wisely." Paulina parted her lips to answer, but then she decided not to. She realized at that moment that Tiffany was manipulative, controlling, bossy, and everything that Sam called her the other day in the hall. If that's the monster she was seen as, she didn't want to be like that anymore.

"You're out of the A-listers. Consider yourself booted." She pulled her gaze from Tiffany and started to walk away, not even looking back at the distraught expression she was certain the girl was now wearing on her face.

"Y-You can't kick me if I quit!" she heard her cry out, but she merely ignored her and kept it moving, which only seemed to upset her further. "Paulina, don't you dare walk away from me!"

But she was already gone.