I am Jennie Kim! I can do anything!

Even if that meant being thrown into the lion’s den. If she made it out alive, Jennie could swear years would be added to her life span.

Jennie took a good look at herself in the school bathroom mirror and nodded once, nodded twice, fist ready, chest puffed up. She bit down her lip and nodded one last time for encouragement, patting one shoulder, then the other.

“I am the Queen,” she muttered, lightly touching her red lips. Her mirrored self smiled back. “I still have the crown. Mrs. Kang ain’t got .”

“Woaaaaaah,” Lisa’s head popped behind her. “Mrs. Kang? What ‘bout her?”

Jennie turned around. She crossed her arms over her chest, chin high, ready to fight anyone that dared question her superiority. Then the facade broke apart at Lisa’s sunshine grin. Jennie lunged herself at Lisa, arms wrapped tightly around her friend as she wailed.

“I don’t wanna! I don’t wanna!”

Lisa hugged her back. “What don’t you wanna, our Jendeukie?” Lisa teasingly pinched Jennie’s cheek, who let out a whimper.

“I don’t want to see my early death in the eyes of Mrs. Kang!”

Lisa laughed and pinched both her cheeks now, slapping them lightly to bring out the color in them. Jennie pouted, her knees weak as she slowly sat on the dirty floor, defeated by the weight of her decision. Jennie was embracing Lisa’s legs, sniffing.

“It can’t be that bad.” Lisa stated, watching her friend turn into a pile of misery. It was just another day with her Jennie, nothing that could surprise Lisa, but she did feel a bit bad for her.

“It’s horrible,” Jennie rubbed her cheek over Lisa’s leg. “You don’t know because you never had a class with her but she’s Satan in nylon dresses! Nylon!”

Jennie paused and stared at the cream tiles, the cogs in her brain pausing too and working counterclockwise, bringing the past before her eyes. She could even smell it, that day, that awful, awful day.

Jennie was ten and ever-bubbly and eager to start another year of school. Because back then, Jennie still believed in the good in people and her innocence influenced everyone that took a minute to listen to her talk and watch her happily bounce around with infinite energy.

Then Mrs. Kang happened.

She had a big head to make up for her minuscule heart. And not the type that seems big because Jennie was tiny back then, but a huge forehead with enormous eyes, a humongous nose and plump lips. Maybe in another lifetime, in another time period, she would have been friendlier. But the way she was spitting her sentences and slamming her ruler, and the way she picked on Jennie with every single occasion and made fun of her in front of the entire class for no reason other than breathing had slowly erased her naivety.

Jennie never liked the hag. The fact that she taught at high-school too made Jennie uneasy. But finally, she believed she finally had escaped her wrath.

No such thing.

Lisa picked Jennie from the floor and cupped her face between her palms.

“You’re Jennie Kim,” she matched Jennie’s motto, “you can do anything. You can always switch to my club, we’re going to have the best dance performance ever this year!”

“As much as I’d want to shake my with you,” Jennie pulled away, gathering up the last bits of courage. “I have a princess to save and a dragon to slay.”

Lisa showed her thumbs up and winked. “Go get her, tiger.”

Jennie flipped her hair and put on her best simper, returning the wink. “I am Jennie Kim, after all.”

*
 

Chaeyoung was excited and scared at the same time. Her first club activities!

Back home, she used to be the president of her own club. No longer having the reins felt strange but welcomed since she still had a hard time making new friends. Jennie joini