Trig could last for hours. It seemed like that at least. I guess I passed the time thinking of... that night. Riley seemed more out-of-it than usual today. He almost seemed mad at me. It wasn't as if I had done anything wrong. In fact, I had let him take my jersey... but maybe he's just nervous about that game? Well, I guess he should be. After all, he is the team captain. Captain of the football team, and the head cheerleader. I let out an involuntary sigh, causing the people on both sides of me to cast me a perplexed look. Could there be a more perfect couple? No, there just couldn't be. It's in all the movies, and all the shows, and all the books... Well, the few books that I have actually read.

"Miss Haverfield!"

My head snapped up to find my teacher glaring down at me, her mouth pulled into a tight grimace. Her small eyes were narrowed even more than usual, giving her wrinkles on her forehead that reminded me of waves in the ocean.

"That's twice today that you've been dozing off," she hissed, gesturing to my barely-started notes. "Would you like to tell us the topic of today's lesson?" I blinked, trying to catch a glimpse of Shannon's notes. She awkwardly adjusted herself so that her paper was out of my sight. I cast her a nasty look, silently threatening to dig my hands into her spine the next time that I was above her in the cheer pyramid.

"Miss Haverfield?" Mrs. Grey demanded, bringing me out of my bitter reverie. Ugh. What a bitch. A pruny old bitch.

"Sorry," I muttered, trying to get out of a detention. She seemed satisfied with my apology, and walked away, leaving me to my 'work'. I winced, pulling a piece of bubblegum out of my pocket. The teachers hated gum, but there were no rules against it. Yet.

Class ended five minutes early, or at least I left five minutes early. This was high school, after all. Boyfriends were priority. I found my boyfriend at once. He was in his usual spot, sitting in the center of the common room on the fountain. A small group of freshman were nearly blocking him, yet I could see that he was talking with somebody. I narrowed my eyes, immediately recognizing that mane of red hair. If my face could have turned green, it would have. But he was mine, and now he was talking to that little redhead skank? Ugh. Curiosity merged with envy, so I pulled my sunglasses out of my purse and ruffled my hair up in a lame attempt at a disguise.

The large crowd of students cutting class helped me sneak up behind the two, and I immediately picked up on the gist of the conversation. It was a typical multi-gender high school conversation. Everyday chatter, with poorly-concealed flirting thrown in here and there. Stupid Riley... falling for this girl's tricks. And he didn't even recognize me sitting right behind him facing the opposite direction?

"Dijon? Like the mustard?" Riley asked, in response to the girl telling him where she was from. The redhead tossed her hair back as she let out a high-pitched laugh that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

"If that's the way that you want to look at it," she giggled, taking a stray curl between her thumb and index finger and twirling it in circles. I rolled my eyes; hair twirling was my thing.

"So what grade are you in?" the girl asked. Poor Riley. He had to be subjected to this strange girl's boring questions...

"I'm a senior," Riley replied, a hint of pride in his voice. I rolled my eyes. The fact that Riley was a year older than me had always enthralled me. He had been out-of-bounds as far as my parents were concerned, and I had been the subject of envy in my friends' eyes. It was a perfect set-up, really. Until he walked across the stage and accepted his diploma.

"Me too!" the redhead squealed, as if this was a huge coincidence. I refrained from rolling my eyes; she could have passed for a college senior. "I would have thought that you were a college student, though. If I didn't know that you went here." Riley blinked in shock, clearly flattered. Puh-lease. Riley was muscular and all, but he had a boy's face.

"I'm not," my boyfriend replied, his voice once again brimming with pride. "You don't look like a high-schooler yourself." He threw the redhead a sideways glance, anticipating her reaction. Of course, the knowledge that she looked older than she was thrilled her.

"That's another thing that we have in common!" she replied excitedly. How could somebody's voice be so... high? I scoffed, glancing down at my nails. What was the other thing that they had in common? The ignorance was clawing at me...

"So," Riley began, silently ecstatic that they were so similar. "How are you liking it here?" The redhead bit her full bottom lip, glancing up at the ceiling.

"Well, I wasn't expecting to meet somebody so friendly before my first class," she admitted. Ugh. Overkill. "But it's not that bad here. Maybe you could show me around town sometime? I don't really know my way around..." Riley considered this, tentativeness evident in his face. Don't do it, Riles, I pleaded silently, Tell her that you have a girlfriend. Tell her my name. Tell her how wonderful I am.

"I'd love to," my boyfriend responded, a bit too enthusiastically for my liking.

"Great." The redhead gave off a perfect white smile; damn, why doesn't my mom let me get my teeth whitened?

"Riles!" I piped in, unable to contain myself any longer. This girl was being too... ugh... flirty. He was my boyfriend, after all, and I was about to make that extremely clear.
"Um... hi?" The girl looked confused, as if I had interrupted something. Please, she should consider herself lucky that I'm giving her a fair warning.

"Hi, you must be new. I'm Bree, Riley's girlfriend, and head cheerleader. You are?"

She blinked rapidly, before speaking. To my disappointment, she collected herself much quicker than I would have thought. "I'm Victoria."

I stroked Riley's forearm before wrapping it around my shoulder, tossing Victoria a seemingly-friendly smile. "Well, it was nice meeting you, but Riley and I have to be going."

"Bree, we don't even have a class together." My dim-witted boyfriend unwrapped his arm from shoulder, licking his top lip awkwardly. "And I'm kind of showing Victoria around. You know, cause she's new and whatever."

"But don't you need to get ready for the pep-rally?" I persisted, glaring at him, and putting my hand on my hip. "You know, now?"

"There's a pep rally?" Victoria chimed in, looking innocent as possible. I hated her already. No- I had hated her the moment that I had laid eyes on her.

"Duh," I muttered, casting Riley my famous Isn't-this-girl-stupid? look, "Why do you think I'm wearing this uniform?"

"You're right Bree. I'd better go." Riley licked his teeth again, before rushing off, pausing to wave. "Nice meeting you Victoria!" We both watched in heavy silence as he hurried around the corner. I pounced as soon as he was gone.

"Ok, let's start again. I'm Bree, and that's my boyfriend. Since you're new, I'll let this encounter pass."

"Excuse me?" Her emerald eyes narrowed, bringing the phrase 'if looks could kill' to life.

"Are you retarded or something? I'll spell this out for you, nice and slow. Stay. Away. From. My. Boyfriend."

"Is that a threat?" Her oddly-emerald eyes were sparkling with something that resembled amusement. This bothered me to no end. There was nothing that I hated more than not being taken seriously.

"I'm sorry?"

"How about I spell this out nice and slow for you. N-o. Did that pass through your thick head?" Did this whore really just use my insult?

"New girl, you're messing around with the wrong person. Take my advice, and you keep your slutty hands off of Riley. Clear enough, Victoria?"

She didn't look intimidated. She just laughed. "Slutty hands? Sweetheart, I've dealt with bitches before, and let me tell you, that's not the most creative insult. Here's one that tops yours. If you had half the beauty that I had, maybe your little boyfriend wouldn't be sniffing around so easily."

I glared at her and retorted icily, "What did you say?"

"Who's retarded now? You are no competition for me." She smiled patronizingly at me and added in a saccharine voice, "That means, I'm going to go after Riley. Did you understand that?"

"Don't you dare!"

"I"ll go for whomever I please, but if it makes you feel better, you're no more pathetic than most of these other high-schoolers."

"If you go near Riley, I'll make your life hell!" I barked at her, practically seething, trying to gain a somewhat cool composure. She seemed to be completely relaxed, and this angered me.

"Really? I'm not the right person to threaten."

"Do you know who I am? I run this school, new girl, so you better watch it!" I hissed, storming away from the redhead. Instead of the whimpers I normally heard from girls I'd just threatened, I heard that annoying high-pitched laugh. Who did that bitch think she was? She had just arrived, today, and she already was going after my Riley! Am I really no competition? I couldn't help but think, but then again, I was Bree Haverfield, and this was just some annoying transfer. Riley would never dump me for her.

I stormed into the girl's locker room, and my squad was already getting ready. I huffed in the mirror, glaring at my reflection. When no one payed attention, I sighed long and drearily.

"What's the matter, Bree?" Chloe asked. Chloe was co-captain, and a complete bitch, but when we were face to face, we acted like best friends.

"Nothing!" I groaned, dramatically, flipping my hair, trying to gain more attention. If I wanted to put the new girl in her place, I needed a lot of sympathy, and a lot of people.

"Yeah, are you okay, Bree?" Jessie asked, coming up from behind me, and placing her hand on my shoulder.

"I don't think I can tell you guys," I whispered, up-playing the desolation in my voice. C'mon fishies, take the bait....

"You can tell us anything!" Chloe gasped, playing into my drama. As my father would say, hooked, fish, line and sinker.

"But, it's so embarrassing!" I whined, running my hand through my black bob.

"Tell us!" Lynn pleaded, resting her chin on my shoulder and staring at her own plain reflection. The drastic contrast between our faces gave me confidence, so I began the act.

"Some girl..." I started shedding tears, looking for the rest of the squad's attention. They immediately fell silent, merging from loyal friends to anxious gossips. I didn't care- As long as they were on my side. And they would be, once they saw how the girl treated their boyfriends.

"Did she give you that black eye?" Lynn squealed, her dull eyes widening. I spun around, casting her a spiteful look.

"What 'black eye'?" I demanded, as she cowered back. My eye-makeup wasn't that dark! She just had no taste.

"Nothing..." Lynn muttered softly, lowering her head in shame. I glared at her, until she moved to the back of the crowd. It wasn't my fault that my fake tears made my eyeliner run...

"Continue, Bree," Jessie hissed exasperatedly, "Nobody likes Lynn anyway." I smirked, pleased.

"She's the new girl," I explained, and everybody's reactions stopped me. They all looked confused; as if they had no idea what I was saying.

"We have a new girl?" Jessie asked, cocking her head and squinting her eyes.

Momentarily, I forgot to be upset and made the mistake of saying, "You shouldn't do that, your eyes are small enough as is." Snapping out of trying to help, I had a few more tears trickle down my face and said in a whimper, "But, yeah, we have a new girl. Her name is Victoria."

"What an awful name!" Chloe interjected, trying to get back in the conversation.

"I know." I brushed her off and continued, "She called me a bitch!" There was a collective gasp, which is exactly the type of reaction I was hoping to get. Wiping my red cheeks, I looked at everyone pathetically, and all of them looked back as if I had told them I was dying.

"That's awful..." Rachel murmured resting her un-manicured hand on my shoulder in what a gesture that was supposed to be sympathetic.

Moving her hand carefully off of me, I continued my pity act, whining, "And... she's after Riley!" Another gasp from my squad, and I was almost positive I had them on my side.

"What a slut!" Came Jessie, and stared at me in horror. "Who does she think she is?!"

"What if she does..." I whined, closing my eyes tightly, "What if I'm not good enough for him?"

"Of course you are Bree! She's just a stupid little bitch! I bet she's a prostitute. That's why she's after him." And there we go. The rumors were starting. All it took was a mere comment, and I knew my squad would have the entire school talking.

"She's been here two days and she's already gotten with the entire football team's second line of defense."

"Wait until basketball season starts! Ugh, at least she's not a cheerleader."

I made no move to stop them; they could say whatever they wanted to say about her. And where would this all lead Victoria? Hopefully it would lead her to go back to whatever shitty school she came from.