In the Hallways

Briarwood Octavian Country Day

Wednesday, September 1

3:02 p.m.

"God, did I mess up again?" Verity muttered to herself as she click-clacked along the hallway to her locker.

Earlier, when she caught the brunette girl's eyes, she had been meaning to try to hint her that she had a period stain on her pants. But unfortunately, it didn't seem like the girl had got what Verity was trying to say with her eyes. Verity had never been good at expressing her feelings or what she was actually thinking, and what appeared on the outside was always that bored "I'm superior and perfect" look or a sly grin with eyes full of mystery.

She guessed that what the girl saw was probably the latter.

The brunette probably thought that she was a gossip and was going to tell the whole school that she, a really pretty and popular girl, chose by will to hang out with an embarrassing best thing Verity could do before more people started hating her (as if they all don't do that already) was to tell the girl the truth about her pants so that girl would think that it was just a big misunderstanding.

But no matter where she looked during her passing periods, she just couldn't find the girl. She even asked a teacher for a bathroom pass once to see if she could peek through the tiny glass part of the classroom doors so that she could figure out which class the brunette was having and catch her before her next class.

Verity may be superior and slightly rude and judgmental sometimes, but she was not a cruel person who would ruin someone's social life on purpose, especially since she knew how it felt.

She sighed out of frustration and opened her locker, but to have it jammed."Oh great," she muttered under her breath, followed by a cuss word. She pulled the handle hard with her newfound frustration turned anger, and the locker door exploded open all of a sudden and slammed onto the girl whose locker was next to her.

Verity turned to the girl and was about to apologize when she noticed… uh oh.The girl who her locker door slammed on was the girl she had been looking for all day."Way to explain a misunderstanding when you just nailed them in the shoulder with your locker door," Verity though glumly to herself.

Meanwhile with Kaitlin, she was thinking angrily, "Serious-leh? First she spread gossip about me and now she attacks me with her locker?"

Kaitlin rubbed the spot where the locker had made contact and said, "What was that for? I never did anything to you. First lunch, and now this? What do you have against me anyway?"

Is she… accusing me? That was the first thought that instinctively popped into Verity's mind. She had been very sensitive to these since the bullying incident in 4th grade. Now, all the thoughts of apologizing were gone and in its place was the rage of being misunderstood that she knew all too well.

"Well sorry to you, but what are you blaming me for? It's not my fault your huge boobs jiggled so much they probably spilled out of your bra cups," Verity snarled at the girl.

Kaitlin was a little taken back by the insult, and her eyes widened in shock as a blush surged up her face. "You're one to talk," Kaitlin said after sizing up the girl's AA cups and a second's delay, "You don't even have boobs!"

Kaitlin wondered how the other girl remained so cool and collected after all these embarrassing insults. Kaitlin had tried not to blush earlier, but she had still felt the heat rising in her face. Right now, Kaitlin was trying to hide the fact that she was flustered and was never good at comebacks and insults while the other girl stared at her calmly with the raised eyebrows and amused eyes that she had flashed Kaitlin during lunch.

"At least I'm not the one walking around with a period stain," Verity informed the sputtering brunette in front of her with an eerie sudden change of tone from angry to back in control. She knew that whenever she calmed down, her comebacks were always on target. Right now, it looked like Verity's little insult had hit properly and that she had won the fight when the other girl lifted her poncho and looked down on her vintage gold Ralph Lauren stretch-leather pants and screamed.

Kaitlin couldn't believe her own eyes when she saw that there, indeed, was a big red wet spot soaking that part of her pants.

"How could this have happened? How did she put paint there without me noticing?" Kaitlin frantically thought as a million possibilities flashed through her mind. Maybe she put a hose that sprayed red paint under me? Did she have a partner in crime who splashed it on me when I was distracted by her insults? Is it possible that the girl in front of me right now is a witch who suddenly made my eyes see red? Or…did I really get my period?

"Why didn't you tell me earlier at lunch?" Kaitlin whimpered. Maybe the girl had been spreading gossip about her period stain too.

Hearing those words, Verity snapped out of her mini victory gloat. How could she have forgotten that she was here to explain and apologize, not make it worse? And here she was, her say-a-mean-comeback security instincts kicking in and taking over the side of her that hid behind the perfect face and carefully considered the consequences before acting. There was only one option left…

Verity willed her face to soften and hoped that for once it would show some emotion to convince the girl. "I tried to tell you," Verity said, "at lunch…" She drifted the last word off to make it seem like she was sincere, which she was, but never sounded like except when talking to Aaron. And those sincere moments they had were only occasionally because usually Verity never had to tell Aaron how she felt. He had always knew when he looked into her eyes which never revealed what she felt inside, but somehow, Aaron could see through it, straight to her heart.

"Did you say anything? Didn't sound like it," the brunette scoffed.

"What was I supposed to do, shout, 'You need tampons,' loud enough so that you could hear and everyone else too?" Verity snapped.

Kaitlin narrowed her eyes at the girl in front of her. How did she start out rude then suddenly to apologetic and now impatient in a few seconds? It was as frustrating to figure out as how to fit holiday shopping under a budget.

"What is she doing?" thought Verity, arching her lips to a perfect but subtle angry-pout and crossed her arms in response, "Is she trying to figure me out? Or is she trying to get me to break?" It was very important that she figured it out, because the attitude and glare she put up could lead her to her downfall if she guessed wrong.

Finally, the brunette seemed to loosen up a little in front of her. "Okay, fine, truce," she said, holding her hands up in front of her chest. "And then she smiled sheepishly and lowered her voice. "Can I borrow a you-know-what?"

Verity blinked at the girl's smile. She quickly regained composure and smiled back. "Sure. We should go to the Nurse Adele's office to get you new pants too. Hang on a sec, I think I have one of that thing for emergencies in my bag…