It was a quiet evening in the Howard household, or at least as quiet as it could get with the ongoing drama swirling around Cassie. She sat slumped on the living room couch, her phone in one hand and a cold pack pressed to her forehead in the other. Her mom, Suze, paced back and forth in front of her like a drill sergeant, hands on her hips, her wine glass resting dangerously close to the edge of the coffee table.

"You know, Cassie, there comes a time in every mother's life when she has to ask herself: where did I go wrong?" Suze said, her voice dripping with exaggerated despair.

"Mom, I didn't even do anything that bad!" Cassie protested, sitting up straighter. "Maddy is just blowing everything out of proportion."

Suze spun around to face her, pointing a dramatic finger. "Oh, really? Is that why Principal Lodge called me during my spin class to talk about your little showdown during the fire drill? Because you didn't do anything that bad?"

Cassie groaned. "It wasn't my fault! Maddy started it—like always!"

"Cassie," Suze said, pinching the bridge of her nose, "I don't care who started it. What I care about is the fact that you've somehow managed to turn your life into a soap opera that's now trending in the school parking lot."

"It's not trending," Cassie muttered under her breath, but the guilt was already settling in.

Suze crossed her arms. "Here's what's going to happen. You're grounded. No parties, no boys, no drama. And definitely no Maddy Perez. You're going to sit here and focus on your homework like a normal teenage girl."

Cassie opened her mouth to protest, but Suze held up a hand. "Don't even try it. If I hear one peep about another fight, I swear I'll throw your phone in the garbage disposal."

Cassie's jaw snapped shut, and she sank back into the couch, defeated. "Fine," she grumbled.


Upstairs in her room, Cassie sat at her desk, her chemistry textbook open in front of her, though she wasn't paying attention to it. Her laptop hummed softly, and her phone buzzed occasionally on the edge of the desk. She stared at the blank worksheet in front of her, her pen tapping against the paper.

"This is so boring," she muttered to herself.

Her eyes flicked to her phone. She picked it up and scrolled through Instagram, her thumb stopping on one of Maddy's latest posts—a perfectly curated selfie with the caption: Unbothered, moisturized, and thriving.

Cassie's blood boiled. Thriving? The audacity.

She stared at the screen for a moment longer before an idea began to form. It wasn't a good idea, but it was an idea. Setting her phone down, she grabbed her laptop and opened a new browser tab.


Thirty minutes later, Cassie had created a fake Instagram account. She'd named it TeaSpillEastHigh and set the profile picture to a generic cup of tea. The bio read: "Just here to share the REAL truths about East Highland's elite. DM me your secrets."

She cackled to herself, feeling a rush of exhilaration. "This is genius," she whispered.

Her first post was a not-so-subtle dig at Maddy: a blurry photo of Maddy from the cafeteria, captioned: "They say confidence is key, but delusion works too."

Satisfied, Cassie leaned back in her chair, waiting for the chaos to unfold. It didn't take long. Within minutes, the post had a dozen likes, and comments started pouring in.


Comment Section:

QueenBeeMaddy: "LMAO who even is this?"

LexiSpeaks: "Cassie, is this you? Be for real."

BadBitchAlert: "Not the drama starting early this week."


Cassie froze when she saw Lexi's comment. How did she know it was me? She quickly deleted Lexi's comment and refreshed the page. Her heart raced as Maddy herself started replying.


Maddy's Comment:

QueenBeeMaddy: "Oh, look. A coward with a fake account. So original. "


Cassie gritted her teeth. She typed out a response but deleted it, realizing it would be too obvious. She needed something sharper, something more anonymous.


Cassie, switching back to her burner account, commented: "Maddy's confidence is as fake as her Louis Vuitton."


Seconds later, her phone buzzed. It was a text from Lexi.

Lexi: "Cassie. Stop this. Now. You're embarrassing yourself."

Cassie ignored it, focusing on the flood of comments and DMs pouring into the burner account. She was reveling in her brief moment of power until a notification popped up on her phone.


Maddy Perez tagged you in a post.


Cassie's stomach dropped. She clicked on the notification, her eyes widening in horror.

It was a screenshot of the burner account's bio, with the caption: "So embarrassing when someone tries to troll you but forgets to log out of their main. CassieHoward, is this you, babe?"

Cassie gasped. "No, no, no, no!" She frantically checked the account settings and realized, with dawning horror, that she'd accidentally posted the bio edit from her real account before switching over.

Her phone buzzed nonstop as texts and notifications flooded in.


Text from Lexi: "I warned you. You're a disaster."
Text from Maddy: "Pathetic, even for you. Also, thanks for the clout, babe. "
Text from Suze: "CASSIE. DOWNSTAIRS. NOW."


Cassie groaned, slamming her laptop shut and throwing herself onto her bed. This was it. She was finished. Her attempt to expose Maddy had not only failed—it had completely backfired.

"Why am I like this?" she mumbled into her pillow.

From downstairs, her mom's voice rang out. "CASSIE HOWARD, IF YOU DON'T GET DOWN HERE IN TEN SECONDS—"

Cassie sighed, dragging herself off the bed and preparing for yet another lecture. She'd lost this battle, but the war with Maddy Perez? That wasn't over. Not by a long shot.

At least, that's what she told herself as she trudged downstairs, her pride in tatters and her Instagram notifications still blowing up.