Benny stabbed at her lettuce angrily as the rest of the girls sat around at their lunch table. Steff watched in bemusement.
"You're crabby today," said Heather.
"I'm pissed off," said Benny, stuffing a piece into her mouth. Steff snorted, which made Benny look up to shoot her a glare.
"She's pissed off because me and Claire called her a bitch," said Steff
"Why?" said Heather.
"She was being rude about Megan Langdon," said Claire.
"Why is that a problem?" said Heather.
"Because Megan Langdon has never done anything wrong to us."
"In the third grade she stole my can of coke from my desk. I saw her do it, then she denied it. She's the bitch." said Benny.
"Yeah, in the third grade, Ben. I doubt she'd even remember that if you asked her." said Steff.
"Wanna bet? I bet if I strolled up to her now and told her, I'd make her cry out of guilt."
"Or because you'd probably terrify the poor girl."
Benny stood up and pushed her lunch box away from her. Steff's eyes widened.
"Don't you fucking dare, Benny," Steff said.
"Sit down," hissed Claire.
Now Heather was the one watching the scene with a bemused smile on her face.
Benny ignored them all, turned from the table in such a dramatic way that her blonde hair whipped behind her and almost smacked Claire in the face. She scoped out the cafeteria to find Megan Langdon, and began on her way over when she spotted her sat with a group of girls in the corner of the room.
"Should we follow her?" Claire said.
"Maybe. Just to make sure she doesn't rip Megan's hair out for stealing an 89 cents can of coke," said Heather.
Heather laughed, but Claire began to feel worried. They all packed away their things, their half eaten lunches, and trailed behind Benny.
"Megan Langdon," Benny said as she approached the table. All of the girls looked up.
Claire noted, as she looked at each of them, that Megan Langdon was the sort of girl that had friends in all sort of cliques. Trisha Paulson, sat next to her, for example, was on the school's lesser known wrestling team just for women. She wore glasses that she had to take off every time she was in the ring, and her hair was always pulled tightly back into a low pony tail. Sat opposite was Rachel Collins, who'd had a perfect 4.0 gpa for as long as Claire could remember. She shared a few AP classes with her, and she was always receiving A's on all of her work. They were nice girls. Megan Langdon was also a nice girl.
Claire bit down on her bottom lip.
"Benny Curtis?" Megan said.
"It's Bernadette to you, bitch."
"Whoa, Benny," said Steff.
"Yeah, what's your damage, Benny?" Trisha said.
Benny glared at her, then looked back at Megan.
"That's an interesting lunch you have today," Benny said. "Sloppy joes from the lunch lady? So appetising. But surely after today's performance in P.E, you'd think that one would cut back on the carbs. So, you know, you could actually make your fat ass run and keep up with the rest of the class."
Steff's jaw fell and she grabbed at Benny's arm but she shrugged her off. Megan didn't say anything, just stared down at her lunch.
"Do you want to fuck off now?" Trisha said.
"Remember in the third grade, Megan?" Benny said, ignoring Trisha and moving closer to Megan, "I used to think you were an alright girl, you know. Nice, even. But then you started stealing my things. You stole my can of coke, remember? I know it's nothing, but I personally don't want to be associated with people who have to resort to stealing. They're the worst type of people. Dirty people. Right, Heather?"
Heather nodded in agreement. Claire elbowed her in the waist, pleading with her silently not to encourage Benny. She would stop her herself if she wasn't so scared of her when she was angry.
"I-I have diabetes...and, and my blood sugar was low and…" Megan began, but Benny cut her off.
"I don't give a shit. Today's just you're unlucky day, I guess, because I'm in a very bad mood and I'm so fucking sick of your fat, fugly face, Megan Langdon. I bet you even stole the lunch you're eating today. You probably finished your own and took that from someone else because you can't control your own appetite. Diabetes my ass."
Before anyone could stop her, Trisha launched forward from the table, knocking Megan back as she grabbed at Benny and threw her down onto the floor. Benny screamed and Trisha seemed to growl as the girls began to hit each other and pull at the others hair.
"Get off me, you fucking lesbo!" Benny screamed.
The cafeteria around them was silent for a moment, then erupted in noise as everyone gathered around to watch the fight and cheer the girls on. Claire and Steff's eyes were wide in horror as they tried to pull Benny off of Trisha, and Megan had begun crying.
"Girls, step apart from each other!" A female teacher rushed towards the front of the crowd and helped pull Trisha away from Benny with a lot of struggle. Once the girls were separated, Benny shrugged herself away from Claire and Steff and began to dust herself off as if nothing had just happened.
"You're lucky I didn't rip those cheap fucking extensions from your head, you bitch!" Trisha yelled.
"Be quiet, Trisha!" the teacher said, "Mr Vernon is on his way right now and your punishment for this will be ten times worse if he hears that sort of foul language leaving your mouth!"
"She started it!" said Trisha, finally releasing herself from the teacher's grip, but staying in her spot.
The crowd began to disperse, unhappy that all the action was over. Benny smiled at Trisha as if she hadn't done anything wrong.
"What the fuck, Benny," Claire said. She turned around to face her.
"You can fuck off as well, Claire. If it wasn't for you and Steff earlier, none of this would have happened. It's both of your faults more than mine!"
Vernon arrived a few minutes after looking flustered, as if he had ran all the way here.
"What happened?" he asked the teacher.
"I was just minding my own business, Mr Vernon, when she attacked me!" said Benny.
"Bullshit!" said Trisha.
"Quiet!" said Vernon.
"I didn't see the start of the fight. I was passing by the doors when I saw a crowd gathered around and I came to break up the fight. But it looked like this one attacked the other," she said, pointing to Trisha.
"But she started it!"
"I don't care who started it," Vernon said. "Trisha Paulson, I'd expect better from one of our school's athletes. And Bernadette Curtis, I'd expect better from you, too."
Benny looked down at the ground, as if she actually felt bad.
"What are the rest of you doing here?" he asked the other girls, meaning Claire and her friends, and Megan and Rachel.
"They were here to back Benny up," Trisha blurted out.
"No we weren't! We were here to stop her from doing something stupid!" said Steff.
"Well, you guys did a pretty bad job at that, didn't you?" Trisha said. Steff began to argue back.
"Enough!" Vernon shouted. The girls went quiet. "Trisha, Bernadette, I want you both to come with me to my office. I do not tolerate physical violence in this school. And the rest of you, let this be a warning to you. If I catch any of you in the middle of a fight again, I'll give you the same punishment that I'm going to be giving to these two here. Got that. And don't think I haven't noticed you standing there, Claire Standish. If I think you deserve to be put into detention for something, I will do it. I don't care what your father says."
Heather snorted, and Claire mouthed at her to stop.
"Right, girls, let's go."
Vernon, Trisha and Benny left, accompanied by the female teacher. The rest of the girls stood around awkwardly, unsure of what to say to each other. Claire looked around and sighed.
"Megan, we're sorry about that. Benny can be-"
"Fuck off," Megan interrupted her, then stood up and left with Rachel, leaving their barely touched food on the table.
Claire frowned, watching them leave. She'd never heard Megan Langdon swear before.