Chapter 21

Lisa walked out of her seventh period class, happy the school day was over. She was in a particularly good mood these days, mostly because of how things were going with Jennie. Every day she seemed to like the girl more.

Although she liked how close they were now, Lisa was growing a bit antsy with these feelings. Every time they were together, she wondered if Jennie was experiencing the same emotions or if she was just happy that she had a close friend. Not knowing was eating Lisa up, as was her desire to touch Jennie...pretty much every time they were together, she was dying to kiss her.

I wonder if she can even go for girls...I think my heart would break if I kissed her or touched her and she got disgusted.

Well, they weren't nearly at that stage anyway. Lisa's imagination was just getting ahead of her.

"Heyyyy!"

Lisa was startled when her arm was suddenly grabbed. She looked over to see Chaeyoung, followed by Jungkook.

"Hey, not with the boyfriend today?" Lisa asked.

Chaeyoung rolled her eyes. "You say that every time I see you."

"Well, you are always ditching us for him," Jungkook joked.

Chaeyoung playfully kicked his shin. "Shut up, you're just mad you're still single."

"Hitting me where it hurts," Jungkook sighed.

Chaeyoung turned back to Lisa. "Plus, I should be asking you the same. You're not going to follow Jennie around like a puppy today?"

"Well, it's not out of the question yet," Lisa replied with a laugh.

"Seriously Lisa, I'm still not sure about her," Chaeyoung admitted. "She seems like she's hiding something...or using you to get back at that girl Jisoo."

Well...it's more of the opposite, Lisa thought.

"Why does she even hate Jisoo?" Jungkook asked. "She's super nice and hot."

"It's something like an old rivalry, I guess," Lisa answered. "But Jennie is a lot cooler than she seems. You just got to give her time."

"Hmph," Chaeyoung huffed, unconvinced. "Well, we're not letting her take you away today. You're coming with us to the mall."

"Ew, the mall? Are we in middle school?"

"Shut up, just come."

They dragged her out of the building towards the parking lot. Lisa couldn't help but be disappointed from not hanging out with Jennie, but to be honest, she could use some time away with her own friends.

She felt like she was getting a little too desperate.

"Lisa! Hold on a second!"

The trio stopped when they heard the voice, and Lisa turned to see a small girl with glasses jogging towards them. Tears were running down her cheeks, her hair frazzled. Her dishevelled appearance shocked the group.

"Nancy? What's the matter?" Lisa asked, stepping towards her.

"M-my books, th-they're-" The girl was interrupted by her own crying.

Lisa couldn't help but feel extremely uncomfortable with this situation, but she couldn't exactly leave the girl alone when she was having a breakdown. Plus, she kind of had a responsibility towards her when she took her side against Jennie.

Right...I completely forgot about this whole situation.

"Hey, slow down and tell me what happened," Lisa instructed gently.

"Come with me!" Nancy suddenly said, grabbing Lisa's wrist and running off with her.

Nancy led her across the field and over to a sort of marshy area that was near the back of the school.

There was a small pond there where the smoker kids usually hung out, but there was no one else around at the moment.

Leading Lisa to the edge of the pond, Nancy sobbed as she pointed to the water. A plethora of things were dumped there - textbooks, a jacket, a calculator, some photographs...

"Are these your things?" Lisa asked.

"Y-yes," Nancy sniffed. "Someone threw everything from my locker in here, my stuff was missing this morning and I couldn't find it all day. I happened to come out here and see it, and I just freaked out.

"Well, who could've done this?"

Nancy looked down as if she were afraid to answer.

She wiped her tears away. "I-I think it must've been Jennie," she finally choked out, seeming ashamed.

Lisa's eyes widened. There's no way she'd do that!

Even though Jennie seemed like the usual mean girl at first, she honestly wasn't so bad. Lisa had come to believe that most of Jennie's poor reputation revolved around baseless rumours.

But the girl seemed shaken up, so Lisa bit back her words. "Uh... well, first, let's go and see if we can salvage any of your things."

Nancy nodded.

There was a period of silence as the girls rolled up their pant legs and waded into the pond. Lisa shivered from the coldness of the water as she reached down to grab the calculator. It was one of those expensive hundred-dollar ones, but when she fiddled with it, it didn't respond.

Lisa sighed. "Looks like it's busted."

"Yeah, I figured," Nancy said as she held up a drenched textbook. She looked at Lisa with sad but pleading eyes. "Look, I know you're pretty close with Jennie...I'm sorry to drop this on you."

Lisa shook her head. "Just...why would she do something like this? It had to be someone else."

"I've laid low since the bullying started last year, so I can't think of anyone else," Nancy replied. "She's been doing little things to me for years now. I just didn't think she'd do all this."

"But...why?" Lisa really couldn't believe something like this. Sure, she'd never really cleared up Jennie's deal with Nancy, but she knew Jennie now.

"I got a higher score than her on the calc midterm, so maybe she's starting to feel threatened?" Nancy replied. "You remember what I told you before, right?"

"I mean, yeah, but..."

Nancy turned to Lisa with a serious expression on her face.

"Lisa, my livelihood has depended on my grades," she began.

"My parents think nothing of me now that I can't get the top spot. They always say how my older brother was able to do it in high school, so why can't I?"

Lisa felt a pang in her stomach from that. "I... kind of understand how that feels."

"There are times where I really should've gotten first in the school," Nancy said. "But Jennie has turned people against me, and I'm worried about what'll happen if I speak out against her.

"We used to be friend's freshman year, but I think she was just using me. I'm worried she's doing the same to you so that you'll turn against me or Jisoo or whoever else she doesn't like."

Lisa kept silent. She truly couldn't believe that Jennie would do something like that. She'd have to reserve judgement until she heard Jennie's side of the story.

But still, she couldn't help but feel a wave of anxiety wash over her. People said so much about Jennie, that perhaps it would make sense if at least some of it were true. Was Lisa just being blinded by her feelings for the girl?

Regardless, she knew Nancy was upset, so she refrained from arguing with her. It was obvious that she was the type to be an easy target, if not for Jennie, then someone who really was a bully. These issues were real to her, so Lisa was in no place to disregard them.

"Thank you for helping me, but I don't think any of these are salvageable," Nancy said, standing up.

"I'm totally screwed."

"Can't you tell the teachers? They'd have to give you a break if they knew something like this happened."

Nancy shook her head. "None of them trust me after I tried to tell them about Jennie. I've got a pretty bad reputation now."

Lisa felt hopeless, caught between her relationship with Jennie and her sympathy for this girl. At her last school, Lisa herself was shunned by her peers, so she couldn't help but relate to Nancy.

"I can lend you some of my books," Lisa said. "Surely we have some of the same ones."

Nancy smiled. "That would be great."

The two headed back to the school to go to Lisa's locker. Nancy stopped them, saying she'd make a quick trip to the bathroom while Lisa grabbed some of the books.

As Lisa went to her locker and fished out her calculus book, she sighed, overwhelmed. Things had been going so well, but now all of this drama was suddenly rearing up again. Regardless of the accuracy of Nancy's statements, the accusations alone were enough to make Lisa feel weird and suspicious.

She was tired of doubting who people really were all the time. She just wanted someone to be real with her. Lisa headed back to the bathrooms that Nancy went into. To her surprise, the girl wasn't waiting outside of them. Is she not done yet? Lisa wondered.

Suddenly, Lisa heard a loud bang coming from within the bathrooms along with loud voices. What the hell?

Lisa decided to go investigate, worried that someone was giving Nancy a hard time. She was shocked to hear a loud noise, something like a really hard slap.

Now especially worried, she stormed into the bathroom and was met with a disturbing sight. Nancy was pinned up against the wall, shaking, appearing to be genuinely terrified. Her cheek was red, most likely the source of the slapping noise earlier. And the perpetrator.

"Stay the fuck away from me or you'll regret it. I'm beyond tired of you!"

The vitriol in Jennie's voice disturbed Lisa, and she was genuinely concerned that the honour student was about to hit the smaller girl again. What was this?

She was legitimately threatening Nancy? Did Nancy confront her about the pond thing? Was Jennie lashing out because she didn't want her to tell anyone the truth? No, this couldn't be.

Regardless, the whole scene was confusing, and brought Lisa right back to the first time they met with Jennie ganging up on Nancy in the bathrooms. The image seemed to fit Jennie more than Lisa was comfortable with, and that fact alone made everything the two of them experienced together seem like a lie, like she suddenly didn't know the other girl.

"Hey, what the fuck's going on?"

"Lisa! Lisa, just wait a second!"

Jennie hurried after Lisa who had already started rushing off to the other end of the building. They received some weird looks from the occasional student or teacher that was lingering behind after school. Jennie chased Lisa all the way out to the parking lot.

"Lisa! Just fucking hold on and talk to me!" Jennie called once more when they were outside.

Finally, Lisa whirled around, Jennie nearly running right into her. Her expression was a mix of anger, hurt, and confusion, a face Jennie had never seen from her before.

"What?" Lisa yelled.

"Are you going to try to tell me that back there wasn't a total shakedown?"

"Well, if you would just take a second and listen to me-"

"I can't right now," Lisa argued.

"I need to think this whole scene over and then maybe we can talk about it."

"Listen to my side first and then you can spend all the time you want thinking!" Jennie retorted.

"It really wasn't what it looked like."

"And what about the whole throwing all of her shit into the pond?" Lisa snapped. "Was that not what it looked like either?"

Jennie paused for a second, confused.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"You haven't told me a thing about your situation with Nancy, and I'm starting to think it's because you're hiding it from me!" Lisa continued.

"None of this makes sense! Why are you threatening some tiny shy girl in a bathroom? And it's not even the first time I've seen you do it!"

"Nancy's not some innocent girl," Jennie said, in disbelief that Lisa was acting this way towards her.

"She's been bothering me for all of high school!"

"Then how come you've never brought it up?" Lisa asked. "Is it because you're the one whose been 'bothering' her? You always tell me that these people at school are harassing you, but how can I be sure it isn't because you've been doing shitty things to them with your little friends? They seem to always have the same story, but you seem to always have a different excuse!"

Jennie gritted her teeth, feeling completely betrayed.

After all this time they've spent together and after all the things they've told each other, Lisa wasn't even willing to give Jennie the benefit of the doubt. Sure, they haven't known each other for more than a couple of months, but it's been the same amount of time that Lisa has known anyone in this school.

"I just don't understand," Jennie said, her voice wavering a little.

"You of all people should know not to believe anything that people say about someone. I've never been perfect, and I've done some petty things, but I've never done any of the things you seem to be accusing me of...I thought you were different than this."

Lisa seemed taken aback at the sudden display of emotions, but Jennie turned on her heel and stormed away before she could say anything. Tears pricked at Jennie's eyes as she rushed over to Nayeon's car in the parking lot. Luckily, Nayeon and Irene were waiting outside of it.

"Jennie! What took you so lon-" Nayeon was cut off by the sight of tears running down Jennie's face. A look of shocked crossed both hers and Irene's face.

"What happened?" Irene asked, the two immediately swarming their friend. "Are you okay?"

"Come on, let's get you in the car," Nayeon said Jennie had never cried in front of her two friends, but she was honestly too upset to even care about that right now. She could only be grateful that she wasn't alone.

"She wouldn't even listen to you?" Irene asked.

"She just believed whatever Nancy told her?" Nayeon chimed in.

The three of them were huddled in the back seat in Nayeon's SUV, situated in the parking lot of a sports complex not far from the school. There wasn't really a better place to deal with the situation being that Jennie didn't want anyone to see her in such a state.

With all of the emotions overflowing, Jennie had spilled everything to Nayeon and Irene. She'd refrained from opening up to them after years of being together, but she couldn't hold her mask together like she usually did. It shattered on its own, bearing everything to her two friends.

She told them about basically everything shy of some personal information that Lisa told Jennie about herself - she opened up about Will, about her relationship with Lisa, and the most recent developments with Nancy (the two already knew about Jennie's overall relationship with Nancy since they were also a part of it).

Jennie hardly had time to be embarrassed about opening up. Her friends were very gentle and understanding, as she always figured they would be, and the only other person she opened up to was now against her. It was always her pride and past trauma that kept her at arm's length from Nayeon and Irene.

"I think there's something more to it," Jennie said, wiping away some left-over tears.

"Lisa mentioned something about throwing stuff into a pond and I think Nancy's been manipulating her behind my back."

"Still, it sounds like she should know better," Nayeon said.

"We're so sorry this happened, Jennie," Irene remarked. "We'll get that little bitch back for what she did!"

Jennie shook her head. "I think it'd be best to lay low for a little bit. There's not much more Nancy can do at this point anyway."

The two friends looked at Jennie sympathetically.

They each grabbed one of Jennie's hands.

"Thank you for telling us all of this, Jennie," Nayeon said. "We've always been worried about you, but we didn't want to push you too hard."

"We'll be here for you no matter what," Irene affirmed.

Jennie smiled, her heart warming.

"Thank you guys. I'll be here for you too. I know it's a lot to take in, but I really appreciate you two listening to me."

"Of course!" Nayeon said. "Though, I'm surprised at how quickly you got along with Lisa. You did hate her at first, after all."

"Yeah! Now it's almost like you like-" Irene started, but Nayeon covered her mouth.

"You can't just say that, Irene!" Nayeon said, in shock.

"Oh...sorry," Irene said once Nayeon removed her hand.

Jennie laughed, much to the girls' surprise.

"I'm surprised you guys are so open to that idea."

"Well, of course," Irene replied. "If you two did have a thing going on, we'd support you no matter what."

"I know we used to call Lisa a dyke," Nayeon added, "but it is 2019, after all."

Jennie smiled, a little sadly. "Well, anyway, I don't really know what our relationship is, or...was."

"Hey, don't write it off just yet," Nayeon encouraged her. "She's being stupid right now, but maybe it was just an immediate shock reaction - you know, like her emotions got the better of her. I'm sure you two will get a chance to talk it out."

Jennie sighed. "I hope so. I don't want her to think I'm an actual bully.'

"Well, even if she does end up thinking that," Irene said, "if anything happens with that stalker guy or you need us to come over when you're alone, we'll be here for you."

"That's right!" Nayeon chimed in.

The two squeezed her into a hug, and Jennie felt eternally grateful to them. It wasn't fair that I was keeping so much from them...they're such good friends, Jennie thought, feeling a bit guilty.

All this time she'd assumed she was alone, so when Lisa came along, she was truly relieved. But perhaps more people were there for her than she originally realized...or allowed.

I also need to talk to Dad, Jennie thought.

But for now, she would spend this time in the arms and company of her friends. And pray that things would work out in the end.