Chapter Two

Tiffany took a deep breath. You can do this. Remember what we went over? Get into the popular group and you won't get teased. Popular people are always cheerleaders. Go to cheer try outs. She exhaled and looked at the looming gate in front of her. There were hundreds of students in their groups, their combined conversations drawled together into one mass of noise. She ceased the frown on her face and walked through the gates. Well that's the first part down. Now, I need to find the principal's office...

She headed off towards the most official looking building and eventually found a receptionist. The talk with the principal was boring, but when he asked her if there was any activities she was interested in she immediately said cheerleading. She refused to spend the rest of her schooling life being put down everyday like she did in her first few years of middle school before she transferred. When she transferred she completely changed herself and she was in no position to get teased after that, but she still didn't join in. However she didn't stop it either.

Her first class was Korean with Ms Ahn. She was nervous. This had to go perfectly. She couldn't screw up anything. She eventually found the room she was supposed to be in and opened the door apprehensively. She scanned the room, a few eyes had focused on her, the rest were either staring off into space or where focusing on their desks (phones).

"Hello, are you Ms Ahn?" She said, stepping into the room and closing the door behind her.

"That's me, who are you?" Tiffany was taken back by her tone, though she was very attractive for a teacher.

"Um. I'm Tiffany. I just transferred here."

"Ohhh, right. Well, welcome to hell, leave your soul at the door and we can continue on with the lesson. Take a seat over there." She gestured vaguely towards a section of the room, Tiffany spotted the only empty chair and made her way to it. Don't fall, don't fall, don't fall. She repeated the mantra in her head. She was so focused she didn't notice a girl who's attention she'd caught.

Taeyeon stared at the new transfer student. She took her glasses off as she approached. Just to experiment with her theory. The fuzzy shape moved closer. And it looked very familiar to her. Is that her? The pieces fit. It's safe to presume she was moving in the other day. Now she's at school. She's new. Her vague shape looks like the girl sitting on the porch a few days ago. And her name is Tiffany. What an exotic name, kind of like Jessica's. And that other girl Sunny. Taeyeon slipped her glasses back on and tried to remain calm as the new girl took a seat behind her. Should I start up conversation? Like what? I was creeping on you the other day and you have a nice voice also by the way you need more milk. No, that's weird. Reaaal weird.

"Taeyeon?!" A shrill voice broke her thoughts. She flinched. It was the third time the teacher had called out her name.

"Yeaaah?" Taeyeon replied with a lazy tone.

"Question ten. Answer." Ms Ahn ordered.

"Yes ma'am. Question ten," Taeyeon hadn't done the work yet, but she knew the answer after she read the question. To say she was smart and quick was an understatement. Some of the teachers tell the tale of the equivocal Taeyeon. No matter how many times they caught her drifting off in class, or how many times she's drawing in her book when the teacher is talking; she will know what to answer. It drove half of them mad and the other half were just dying of curiosity. Taeyeon answered the question right as usual, hiding the smug smile about to creep onto her lips she looked down at her book, pretending to be interested.

"Hey. Tiffany." A voice whispered past the teachers voice and the clacking of the chalk on the chalkboard. Tiffany turned to look at the person in the seat next to her.

"Hi." She grinned broadly. The girl she was talking to was pretty.

"Welcome to our school, my name is Jessica, it's nice to meet you."

"It's a pleasure." Tiffany was still grinning.

"I can show you around if you like?" Tiffany had to trust her gut instinct here. If she befriended the wrong person it'd be middle school all over again. And she couldn't have that. Jessica seemed like an outgoing person, a little stoic but had a nice smile even if it were small. She was being nice, which wouldn't usually be a trait of someone who was heaps popular, that was a strike against her. But she was very attractive, she must have some kind of standing, perhaps if she wasn't in with the most popular people she could use her as leverage. Her gut instinct told her she shouldn't blow her chance with this Jessica girl.

"I'd like that, thank you."

"Cool, I'll introduce you to-"

"Barbie, if you have something to say, wait until I'm not trying to help you secure a good future okay?" Ms Ahn stared indignantly at Jessica who narrowed her eyes at the teacher. She utterly despised that nickname. It was hard enough for her to talk to Tiffany in the first place but then the teacher had to go and embarrass her like that.

She'd only really managed to gather the courage to talk to Tiffany mainly because she was new. New people rarely ever cut you down if you're being nice. They're there to make friends. Plus the girl looked nice and there was something about her that seemed familiar, so she forced herself to do it.

~

"Yuri-ah." Taeyeon whispered below the droning voice of the World History teacher.

"What?" Yuri whispered back, a little agitated that Taeyeon was bugging her in her favourite class

"Have you done anything to annoy the Jung?" Yuri glanced at Taeyeon who sat next to her.

"What are you on about?" Yuri frowned at her friend.

"She's just...Somehow you've managed to get her attention. She keeps looking at you."

"She's probably just zoning out Tae."

"I saw her looking at you the other day too. Like her eyes followed you, she wasn't just zoning out." Taeyeon pressed. Yuri frowned some more. The two simultaneously turned, looking over their shoulders. Jessica who was three rows behind was indeed staring at Yuri. Yuri's eyes widened a fraction and Jessica looked down at her page quickly upon being spotted. Is she...blushing? Yuri thought to herself before turning back to the front.

"That certainly is strange.." Yuri muttered.

"Mhmm. I hope she's not planning anything monstrous to do to you." Taeyeon voiced her concerns out loud. Yuri scoffed.

"Tae, to that group, I'm invisible. They have problems with you because you keep throwing statistics in their faces." Yuri said with amusement.

"Just doing my part for the world." Taeyeon looked back to the board, a smug look on her face.

Jessica kept her eyes locked onto one word on her page. It wasn't an interesting word, it was the word 'and', but to others it would seem Jessica really liked the word, she'd been staring at it for the past five minutes. Thankfully her blush had gone, but she didn't want to risk being caught staring at Yuri again. She hadn't even noticed Taeyeon noticing her looking. Get your together Jung. It's not going to happen. Just keep to yourself, don't go screwing things up. She's probably not even gay anyway. Jessica scolded herself harshly, hoping she'd see the hopelessness of the situation.

But she couldn't help but remember how shiny Yuri's hair is. And she almost died when Yuri had pulled all her hair over one shoulder, showing her glorious neckline and shoulder. She found herself biting her lip at the memory. No, stop this. Stop it stop it stop itstopitstopitstopppitstoppit. She told herself over and over. Then she decided she should probably try and concentrate on the teacher. She looked up from her book and stared at the back of the teachers head. Right, I should be taking notes. She started scribbling down the work from the board. But she couldn't stop noticing Yuri in her peripherals. Why am I so infatuated with this girl?! Jessica inwardly screamed and grabbed her hair in frustration. This is ridiculous, I mean, sure she's utterly gorgeous and she seems like a really kind and gentle person but I don't know that for sure. I should talk to her. No I shouldn't. What's the harm if I do talk to her? Well, my friends of whom I don't really like anyway would probably get mad at me. I could always say that I'm asking her for notes or something..

"I'll just touch on the next topic before class ends. It'll be on Australian History, we'll be starting off with the stolen generation." The teachers voice broke Jessica's scheming thoughts. Siwon raised his hand. "Yes Siwon?" The teacher said, albeit a little exasperatedly.

"Did they ever catch who did it?" The teacher frowned.

"Who did what?"

"Whoever stole the generation?" The class was dead silent, aside from a loud groan and thump as Taeyeon head butted her desk.

Wow, no snide comment from Taeyeon? Siwon must have reached a whole new level of stupid. Jessica smirked to herself, Taeyeon was quite the little in her opinion.  Jessica didn't have anything particularly against the girl, she found her kind of amusing. Taeyeon said the things Jessica wished she could say to her group of friends. Sometimes they were just so stupid she wanted to smack them, but that'd probably make them stupider. Though Taeyeon did get what she deserved for saying those kinds of things to the most narcissistic and horrible people Jessica had ever met. I mean, of course they'd react that way.  Her friends really hated her. Oh god. My friends hate Taeyeon, Yuri is close to Taeyeon. I can't ever approach her ever! Jessica inwardly fell to her knees in defeat. Damn you cruel world!

To Jessica, this was the end of her one sided infatuation with Yuri. She wasn't allowed to get herself wrapped up in anything to do with Taeyeon or she'd probably be shunned from her group on that alone. The bell rang and she stood up gloomily.

"Jessi, are you okay?" Tiffany asked as she helped her friend pack up her pencil case and book.

"Yeah.." Jessica said, her head down. She felt Tiffany pat her shoulder reassuringly. She looked up, mustering a smile for Tiffany. Jessica realised now her gut feeling was right, Tiffany was nice. She was glad she'd made the effort to talk to her. Now she wouldn't be practically alone in that group anymore.

"Come on, let's go eat some lunch. I'll buy you a chocolate milk if you like?" Tiffany offered, her eyes turning into crescents. Jessica chuckled, instantly happy. Thank you Tiffany for being the only light in this dark cesspool that I call my life.

"Can I have strawberry instead?" Tiffany pouted, Jessica immediately regretted being picky.

"Seriously? I could have sworn you were a chocolate person!" Jessica laughed, relieved.

"I do like chocolate, but I really like the colour pink. I think that'd make me happy."

"I like pink too!" Tiffany exclaimed excitedly. Jessica had trouble keeping up with her, she was so energetic and happy all the time. It was insane. She smiled sheepishly.

They walked out of the classroom and met a couple of people from their group. Tiffany had made a very good impression on them during recess. Jessica was glad that Tiffany wasn't rejected. And of course Tiffany was ecstatic that the first student she happened to talk to was someone who was friends with the cheerleaders.

They all stood around talking for a bit, Jessica's eyes wandered toward Yuri who was signing up for something. Once she'd finished she briskly walked off, her long legs giving her long strides.

"Jessica?"

"Huh, sorry?" Jessica snapped back to reality. The reality of hers that didn't involve anything to do with Yuri's legs.

"What were you looking at?" One of the friends she didn't really like asked her.

"Uh." I can't let them think I was staring at Yuri. "I was thinking about signing up.." She answered vaguely, hoping they wouldn't ask further. They looked to the direction she'd been looking at earlier.

"To soccer? I thought you were too lazy for any kind of sport?" Another one scoffed.

"Uh. The cardio. It'll be good, I won't get fat." She said in a truncated manner. She knew that'd keep the other girls off her back about it. As long as it had to do with losing weight they didn't care.

"I was getting worried about that. I think you've been putting on weight recently, wouldn't want you getting fatter." The worst of the three, Sun Hi, said.

"Of course." Jessica said simply and walked over to the signup sheet, swearing and cursing inwardly. She hesitated a moment before signing her name under Yuri's. Yuri's handwriting was so messy. Jessica chuckled softly to herself. How cute, it's  like little boy handwriting. She then remembered what she'd told herself in the previous class. Her face paled a moment before she thought some more. Screw them. They're s, if they don't want me in their group then to hell with them. At least then I could get fat without feeling guilty. She smiled happily to herself, feeling lighter. She walked back to her friends and they went off to their spot for lunch.

Jessica showed Tiffany to the canteen, they stood in line, thankfully it wasn't too long.

"Jessi..I'm sorry they were mean to you earlier."

"Hm?" Jessica had actually forgotten about it, "Oh, you mean the fat thing? I'm used to it."

"That's so unfair. You're totally gorgeous, they shouldn't be judging you so harshly." Tiffany pouted cutely.

"I know, but you know how it is in these kinds of situations." They looked at each other, they both felt it. They both knew they were in the same boat and suddenly had a deeper understanding of each other.

"The things we do..." Tiffany trailed off, and Jessica knew exactly what she meant.

~

Taeyeon felt something. It was niggling in the back of her head. It irked her badly. What was it that was bothering her? It only just started happening, she decided, so it must be something in her surroundings. She looked around and when she saw nothing out of the ordinary she started listening intently to the conversations around her. Perhaps someone had said something stupid and her subconscious had picked up on it.

The only person she could hear talking well was Seo Juhyun. And even then it sounded funny. Kind of like she'd been to the dentist or something, maybe had some teeth pulled. She cocked her head to the side. That bothered her.

"Developed a nervous twitch now?" Yoona smirked above her sandwich before taking a bite. Taeyeon frowned, cocking her head to the other side. Yoona. Seo Juhyun.

"How is your mouth feeling Juhyun?"

"Better, thankfully. It hurts so much getting your molars removed." Dentist.

Taeyeon grabbed her hair. WHAT IS IT BRAIN? WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO TELL ME?

She screamed inwardly. Then it hit her. Her shoulders slumped, she'd finally relaxed in her revelation. Yoona and Yuri had stopped eating and were focusing on Taeyeon. She had obviously gone through several stages of mental conflictions and seemed to have come out triumphant.

"You okay there Taeyeon?" Yoona asked gently. Taeyeon looked up at her, a smirk on her face.

"You.." She started, Yoona frowned, her cheeks full of food. "Were at the dentist with Seo Juhyun from our school. You stayed there for ten minutes, because you were talking to her." Taeyeon's smirk turned into a maniacal grin. There really was a fine line between ingeniousness and insanity.

Yuri's eyes widened, she looked at Yoona who was staring at Taeyeon angrily.

"But what I don't understand, is why it was such a big deal that you thought you should hide this fact from us. Care to tell us Yoongie? It doesn't matter anymore, you've already been caught so just spill." Yuri urged her on with her eyes, almost pleading.

"I have to go to the toilet." Yoona jumped up and sprinted away. Yuri went to chase her but stumbled over her bag straps, it was too late to pursue once Yuri had her legs untangled as Yoona was already out of sight. She sighed and sat back down.

"What a weirdo." Yuri chuckled as she picked up her sandwich ready to take another bite.

"Yes, it's quite curious.." Taeyeon tapped her chin. 

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Hey everyone! Apologies for not updating sooner -like I'd planned too- I just hadn't had any internet for two weeks ;_;

But anyway I hope you're all doing well and have also enjoyed this chapter.

Also thank you so much to everyone who has subscribed, commented, and upvoted. I appreciate it so much and I always love hearing from you guys =)

But anyway, until next time!

-TindahBox