As fate would have it, I was destined to face my karma sooner rather than later even though I had personally appealed for later when presented with the two options.
Mother Nature (Donovan) had scoffed at my tattered, loveless resume (my last minute refusal to sit with The Populars) and sent the cherubs (his nerdy friends) to drag me to my fate. It took six of them to pull me from under the stairwell where I had smushed myself with the utmost focus to stay hidden.
At this point, I couldn't distinguish the nerds from the bullies. They had merged under the guidance of my best friend to make my life a living hell.
With time and remarkable willpower,they achieved the impossible; dragging me from under the stairwell. I was soon plunged headfirst into the abyss of love (the cafeteria) with a mission given to me by none other than my best friend.
I looked around, desperately searching for the lack of any signs of The Populars but there they were, looking as cool and as popular as ever, with a theatrical light distinguishing them from us normies.
I almost peed my pants.
Of all the days they could have had a full house, they had chosen the one where I would have the pleasure of joining them.
Usually, Justin would be between the theater kids table or with the other boys at the basketball players lunch table and Riley and Catherine would be at the short skirt, pom-poms wielding girls table and Hero and Ian...they'd be up to no good at the back of the school. That was it.
What could have possibly rallied them like this? Were they having some sort of cool kids meeting or something? Was it seriously necessary in all honesty?
I think not.
This must be some sort of sick joke. The cameras hadn't been brought out yet to shock me into an early grave but my heart was still beating like an abused drum kit owned by a pre-teen that had been diagnosed with ADHD as I waited for the worst to happen. Pranks were common here and I was usually on the receiving end of them but they had personally invited Donovan and he had invited me so I don't think they'd do that. Or would they?
Do they even know that I'm Cash's sister? Would they let me off the hook if they did? It's a pretty big school and I have made sure my brother kept his distance from me.
Speaking of brothers, he was the only exception to The Popular's table today. Every other Popular had already marked their territory in the cafeteria. They were all seated around the best table-smack dab in the middle of the room and right under the cooling vents.
Next to them were the athletes.
Their table was as noisy as the inside of a club. Not that I've ever seen the inside of a club. That would probably be too much for my brain to take in.
And illegal.
I straightened up and puffed my chest bravely behind Donovan who was holding onto my hand as if I was some convicted criminal trying to make her grand escape from the bitter justice of the law that was afoot.
I skimmed the underpart of my nose with my index finger as I coolly faced him and cocked an eyebrow. He pursed his lips, trying not to feel intimidated by my cool demeanor.
To onlookers, it would have wrongly appeared like he was trying his hardest not to laugh. It's a good thing that I'm a great judge of facial expressions or I would have missed the frightened look on his face.
"Unhand me, peasant."
"Nope."
I puckered my lips in disappointment.
"There's a...a-you know, bunch of girls fighting over you right over there. Look. Look now or you'll miss it, Donovan."
"Not interested." He said before dragging me along with him.
Well, that didn't work.
I rushed ahead of him and put my free hand on his chest, halting him.
"How about..."
"No, this is good for you." He tried to reason. Too bad I wasn't a reasonable person. "You need a friend."
"But you're my friend."
"I don't count." He said then squished my cheeks in his hands. "Harley, whenever I'm not with you, you're either reading or in your mind. That can't be healthy."
I banged my head against his chest multiple times all the while muttering, "Why are you making me do this? You secretly hate me, don't you? Why, why, why..."
To which he answered, " 'cause you need this... No, I don't....because, because, because..."
I pushed off him and grumbled, "Fine."
A king must face her problems- even at the cost of her own humility. So I knotted up my battle helmet, aka the string on my black hoodie and bravely marched forward into the wolves' den.
The cafeteria was as noisy as ever and the lunch line was extra long today but thanks to Donovan's teasing and flavorless vomit jokes, it became a lot more bearable.
I grabbed a plastic water bottle from the canteen and followed Donovan to the popular kids table.
I had interacted with almost all of them at least once at school but hadn't planned on making a habit of it. Now that they had personally invited me to sit with them, I had no choice but to oblige.
Which, if I'm being completely honest with myself here, I wasn't totally against.
Actually getting invited to parties, laughing with someone other than my best friend, having sleepovers with other girls... all of those things do sound like a whole lot of fun and yeah, it would have been nice to not have been the only girl excluded from Jennie's 13th birthday party back in seventh grade on the account that I was 'super creepy' and had 'a hedge of fur' instead of hair on my head.
That experience was a lesson on its own even though it resulted in me feeling uncomfortable around people other than my family and Donovan as well as adapting the social skills of a moth, it also made me appreciate people like Riley more and treasure moments that others would've marked as the norm.
Like a full lunch table.
Donovan walked up to the most-likely-to-be-successful teenagers table with me trailing tentatively behind him.
Some of the students drew their attention-and phone cameras-
toward us as we approached The Populars. By us, I mean me.
They paid no mind to Donovan seeing as they had already made him up to be a certified Casanova and lover of all things movable (If only they knew) and I was seen as the ugly duckling who had decided to touch the electric fence, unprovoked.
I patted my hair down some more and wiped at my eyes to make sure I was squeaky clean and decent to look at. Not that anyone would have had the fortune of staring at my emerald greens anyway. They were fully covered by my hair.
My nerves lit up as we came to a stop at the table. The populars turned to look at the newcomers as the entire cafeteria side eyed the exchange with baited breaths. They really love drama, don't they? As expected of our school, to be honest. It's a small town with not much going on around here. The population was big enough to forget a face but small enough for anyone and everyone to be in your business.
I sighed as I felt the excitement drain out of me. This was either going to be the best thing to ever happen to me or something that would destroy me completely. I pray it's the former. It's my last year here. I want it to be fun.
Thanks to Donovan, I can now cross out sitting with my crush from my bucket list. I guess I don't need the list of well-planned out coincidences that I had made over the summer anymore. I'll just have to wing it from here on out and see what happens.
I'm still going to hold on to the Things-not-to-do list, though. Just in case.
My brother and best friend were well known and liked. There's no way I could screw it up this year. This was it. My moment. I just need a dose of courage, an act of bravery, to push me in the right direction. I can do it. I know this year will be good.
Harley!" Riley signaled me to sit next to her and, after convincing myself that she wouldn't pull anything while all her friends were in hearing range of me, I slid into the empty space next to her.
Catherine poked at the food on her tray warily, continuing her conversation with Ian like I wasn't even there. Her actions didn't surprise me. She had gotten what she wanted and now I was but a dust in the wind. Unworthy of her notice.
Ian was staring at Catherine like a freshman would look at their Physics notebook during the second half of the school year; with intense focus that they hoped would mask their stupefaction.
Despite the tired look on his face, complemented by the redness in his eyes, he appeared to be trying his very best to understand the girl troubles of Catherine who was drilling on about the woes of being the daughter of a famous fashion designer.
He looked away for a second to dap up Donovan who immediately abandoned me to chat with two of his teammates that were two benches over after greeting everyone and setting his tray down.
Seated a pace away from Ian was Justin. He nodded a quick hello to me before pulling his hoodie over his head and burying his face into his crossed arms on the table.
I was a bit put off by his lack of interest in his friends but I quickly covered it with a smile. It was the start of the school year. Surely he had lots to tell his friends about his little summer break or maybe not if they had all spent it together. Cash had been out a lot during the summer. I guess that would explain Justin's disinterest.
Hero was sat across from Riley and me-endlessly spinning a pen on the base of his thumb-a trick he did to kill time, boredom and often times to ignore the people around him.
He put the pen away the minute he spotted me, leaning forward on the round bench. I smiled stiffly and pushed my lunch tray onto the table,successfully avoiding his piercing gaze.
"Hey, didn't see you there." I croaked out and-with trembling hands that I prayed no one would notice-casually grabbed an apple from my tray.
His gaze hardened, fixated on something behind me, and he scooted back, not so discreetly putting his AirPods in.
I looked back, finally spotting my brother with some girl in the corner of the cafeteria. It looked like they were in a heated argument. People were staring but I was actually hungry and didn't feel like seeing my brother get slapped around like a ball today. Plus, he'd tell me all about it at home anyway.
"Right." I drawled out and turned to Riley who had already dug in to her lunch. "So...what's your favorite co-Ow!"
A kick had come from under the table.
"Cathy!" I jumped in shock and pain, reaching down to rub the sore spot. She really kicked me hard.
"Riley doesn't like people talking to her while she's eating." Cathy grumpily explained. She was picking at her food again with a scowl on her face. When she finally looked up at me, she looked disinterested. "And don't call me that. We're not friends."
It's scary how fast she pulled her friendly mask off but, hey, at least she's honest.
"That's fair." I reasoned with her. "But if you kick me again I'll have no choice but to catapult you all the way to the back of the sun. You understand that, don't you?"
The entire table turned to stare at me.
Riley snickered, failing to hide her satisfaction in time while Catherine had no reaction as if I'd never even spoken. She's already mastered the art of ghosting people and we're not even out of high school yet.
"You're so weird." Ian noted gravely and gave Donovan a questioning look. I didn't think Ian and Donovan were that close.
Though, to be fair, it would have been really weird if any of these guys had been close with him before this. They were hot and fit and popular and Donovan, at the time, was...well, the opposite of all of that.
Don't get me wrong, he was absolutely handsome and a bit popular due to basketball and his goody goody morale but not enough to be considered as one of The Populars.
But now that he had lost weight-having the body of a Greek god-and somehow removed his adorable chubby cheeks, he fit with them like the final piece of a puzzle: Just right.
This was all still new and strange yet they were all seated here chatting as if we'd all been friends for our entire lives.
Riley swallowed her food then piped up.
"I like all cows but my favorite is definitely the Belgian Blue." She stated giddily. "I didn't know you were into cows, Harley Quinn. I guess we have something in common."
"I assure you we don't." I corrected her, flashes of her locking lips with my brother assaulting my mind. I shifted in my seat. "Not yet at least. I was going to say color. 'What's your favorite color?', but Catherine kicked the words right out of my mouth. Literally."
"Oh."
"Yeah and my name is actually Smith. Harley Smith not to be mistaken for the notorious comic book character-"
"And... I'm back." My brother sauntered over and took the last seat on the lunch table, resting his hand on the table and his head in his hand. He locked eyes with me to which I gave a disgusted face. "That went well-Oh, hey sis."
"Sis?" Catherine and Ian asked, the latter confused and the former-well, I can't really describe the reaction.Her eyes flitted from Riley to Cash suspiciously as she worked to connect the dots.
Riley didn't seem fazed and Donovan, Hero and Justin were already aware that we were in fact twins.
"Yeah. Sis." Cash answered, giving me a cautious look. "She's my twin sister." The clueless populars gasped and a nervous grin immediately crawled onto my face.
"But you look nothing alike."
That would be Ian. Brutally honest and unashamed for it.
"I know right. I got our parents good looks, height and brains and she got..." he seemed to be struggling for words. "She's got a great personality!"
"I think I see it." Ian mumbled, reaching forward and pushing my hair out of my face. I wanted nothing more than to slap his hand away. "Whoa, it's like looking at Harvey but the attractive version. You have green eyes?"
"Uh, yeah..." I mumbled as Ian an and Riley took turns smushing my face and staring into my soul.
"Now I have two green-eyed friends." Riley chuckled, carelessly. I smiled at her words but looked into my lap so she wouldn't see.
Friends...
She uses that word so casually.
"Why don't you show your face more?" Riley asked and I shrugged, avoiding Cash's gaze.
"You do have the same face, it's just the jawline maybe and the eyes but apart from that you two are like twins."
"We are twins." I corrected Ian.
"Okay, grammar police." He rolled his eyes and sat back down.
"What were you guys going on about?" Cash asked.
"Cows apparently." Justin mumbled, not caring to lift his head up. He had a natural low and grouchy voice. The one you get after a long nap or when you just wake up. I know his girlfriend just loves listening to him speak.
"Okay..." Cash instinctively looked at me then Riley as if pondering which one of us would most likely bring up cows before resting his eyes on me again.
As wrong as your birthdate, you slow potato
"Anyway, you guys were totally right about that Evangeline girl."
"Told you."
"Told you!"
"Totally called it."
Justin mumbled something incoherent before lifting his head up, "...and before you tell me to repeat myself, I said 'you're an ass'."
Considering Cash didn't budge in the slightest or even try to look offended, they'd probably been through this little hoop-da-loop before. The others looked unbothered too, although Riley did show a bit of discomfort.
"How is it my fault that she's a...what's the word you ladies use again?" Cash lowered himself to Catherine's level, putting a hand around her shoulder as he asked.
"She's a snake." Catherine shrugged and Cash nodded in appreciation. "You would never catch me trying to be somebody's side piece- let alone my best friend's boyfriend's side piece. That's fatherless behavior."
Hmm, now doesn't that sound familiar. Oh, I know! That's what my brother's doing to his best friend. And he is fatherless, so the stereotype must be true!
"See? Even the girls know what's up."
Hypocrite
"Don't get me wrong. Cash's behavior was totally unacceptable and weirdly out of character but my opinion still stands that she one hundred and ten percent deserved it." Catherine finished and took out her phone which wasn't allowed within the school grounds.
I would have told her just that if Justin hadn't started talking again.
"He literally tricked her into falling for him as a 'joke' and then dashed her to the side when she caught feelings. Who does that?"
"Last I checked, she decided she didn't want to be friends with someone like you so why are you defending her like that?" Cash grumbled. "With her personality, I'm surprised someone didn't do that to her sooner."
"And that person just had to be you, right, Cash?"
"Okay, what's your problem, man?" Cash was getting irritated now. I could feel the little tank of emotions he kept bottled up crack with each sentence. Justin didn't look too good either. He wore a sickly expression, accompanied by a glower.
Even I could tell things weren't going to end good if one of them didn't stop responding to the other. People were now starting to stare at our table and I could see two or three phones- Is this normal? Why do people have their phones out in broad daylight?- turned in our direction.
I chewed on my nails nervously and tried my best to hide my face.
The popularity poles were already up. Any picture that was taken of commoners with The Populars during this time always ended in mockery and nonstop bullying. I wasn't taking any chances.
"Oh, you don't wanna know what my problem is."
Justin stood up....and got pulled back down by Hero who gave him a questioning yet stern look. His eyes were pleading, silently asking Justin to drop it.
I nearly did a front flip when he actually listened. Still, he continued to glare like a bull when it sees anything red. All that was left for him to do was to charge. Cash was also breathing like a camel that had gone weeks without water. I discreetly pushed my bottle to him to ease the situation a bit.
Boys are so dramatic for no reason.
I, for my part, had no idea what was happening between the both of them so I shut my trap and stepped out of the playing field for the entirety of their little squabble- a King Solomon move at its finest.
"You guys argue like an old, married couple." Riley giggled, interrupting their glare down. Catherine looked up from her phone at Riley with surprise, before quickly averting her gaze back to her phone.
I could bet my one and only blue jeans that I absolutely love so much I had decided to keep it in the closet forever that she wasn't really doing anything on her phone.
Or maybe she was.
She actually has a life so...probably.
Hero tapped the table, gaining everyone's attention.
"Look, I think you guys should just chill out. It's really not that deep. At the end of the day, she learned her lesson and we don't have to deal with her shit anymore. It's a win-win." He stated. "So let's all just turn it down a notch and focus on what we're really here for. Catherine?"
Catherine, after making sure it was okay to dismiss their argument by waiting for a go-ahead from both boys-Justin mumbled a whatever and Cash shrugged it off with a wave of his hand- opened her notebook but didn't get far in her explanation of the situation with the planning committee since Donovan had decided to snatch my fries.
I frowned at that, trying to get it back from him but he just shoved the entire thing in his mouth and swallowed it. I slapped his arm but otherwise gave up, opting for switching his food tray with mine.
"So, Harley," Ian addressed me and I nodded. "How does it feel to be sitting with us?"
"Pretty normal, I guess." I answered. "Though I didn't expect The Populars to invite me to sit with them at all."
Everyone looked at me again.
"Seriously, stop doing that." I drew back in my seat, a feeling of discomfort settling in my chest.
"What did you just call us?" Ian asked, breaking into an amused smile while the others laughed. Even Catherine chuckled a bit. The tension from earlier was gone and I was grateful for that but now their focus was on me and I don't do well with so many eyes.
"The Populars." I stated again, stuttering a bit as I spoke. "Y'know 'cause you guys are popular and it's way more convenient than listing your names out loud. Therefore, 'The Populars'." I finished with jazz hands.
It had just occurred to me that maybe they wouldn't like to be referred to as 'The Populars'.
That is until Donovan and Cash burst out laughing.
My face went red and I found myself reaching over to smack the both of them which in turn led to my half-opened water bottle falling on the table. The top came off completely and the bottle rolled around nearly soaking everyone.
"Sorry sorry sorry..." I mumbled, grabbing at any and every napkin on everyone's trays. Donovan pulled me up out of my seat before I could inflict any more damage and the others grabbed their trays from the wet table, still laughing.
"Calm down. It's just water."Ian teased Catherine as she jumped from her seat. "Unless you're hiding something from all of us. It's okay. Dorothy totally had it coming."
She slapped him on the back but laughed anyways and linked her arms with Riley's.
"It's too crowded in here." Riley spoke over all the noise. "Let's head out to discuss our plans for Saturday."They all nodded in agreement and I found myself being led out with The Populars.
"Now, can someone please explain to me why I had to hold off on my business to play tea party with your grown asses?"
"Having double chances of getting STD's in the janitor's closet isn't business, Cash." Catherine grumbled.
"Hey, it was one this time."
"Sure it was..." Riley rolled her eyes at him and he suddenly went mute.
How has no one caught on to this? It's so obvious...ooh, I just want to shout it out to the whole world to relieve myself of the guilt I feel of keeping this from Hero.
"So,Hero, are you sure you know a good spot?" Catherine asked and he nodded.
"Yeah, my grandma's friend owns this big ass campsite just four hours out of town. Trust me, it's just the kind of place..."
I took a deep breath, giving Donovan a thankful nudge as we listened to Hero drill on about whatever it is they had been planning beforehand. Donovan smiled down at me. I can't believe they didn't get mad just now. How are they all so calm? I nearly soaked them.
I looked ahead to everyone chatting among each other, not even blinking in the direction of the other students who were all staring at us as we headed out as if we were some sort of celebrity clique or something.
I drew closer to Donovan and prayed that nobody noticed my presence.
But they did.
Something that I'd find out sometime later.
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