Chapter Text
The alarm blares, forcing me out of sleep. 6:00 am. That’s cursed, even for me. I sigh, roll out of bed, and head towards the bathroom. While brushing my teeth, my phone begins to ring. Incoming call, Lara 💗😛.
I slide my finger across the screen to answer as I set my phone up against the mirror. I flip her off, holding my toothbrush between my teeth with my mouth full of toothpaste. She bursts out laughing, immediately screenshotting my disheveled state. “Lara! What the fuck,” I finally manage, spitting out the toothpaste. “Delete that immediately or I’m coming for you.” I laugh, but the threat stands. I have too much blackmail potential.
“Relax, Soph.” She rolls her eyes, feigning nonchalance. “It’s the first day of senior year. There’s no need to resurface old shit in our last year of high school.”
“Yeah, right.” I grin, knowing I have the upper hand. “Or I tell everyone how Ms. Player Lara Raj developed a fat crush on Megan Skeindiel after flirting with her on a bet with Manon to see how many numbers they could get in a week, and now the very same Megan hates her after finding out about the bet.”
“Sophia, it is 6:15 in the morning on the first fucking day of school. There is no way you are hitting me with my romantic failings over one stupid screenshot. Especially when you’re no better. I’m deleting it right now. You’re crazy.”
“You love me,” I retort. “And I’ve never fallen for anyone I’ve flirted with, so I still win. Anyway, why did you call?”
“Girl, are you slow as well as crazy? We always get ready together on the first day.”
Lara might actually be onto something; I completely forgot about this tradition. We’ve been getting ready together on the first day of school since 7th grade, when we first got phones. She always picks how I do my hair, and I always pick her outfit so she doesn’t deliberate for an hour and end up late for school.
“Sophiaaa,” she whines, cutting off my thoughts. “You zoned out. What should I wear today?”
“Depends, do you want to be academic, slutty, or casual but cute?”
“Casual but cute. It’s the first day, I don’t want to scare my teachers yet. And you know I’m never academic unless it’s a test day.”
“I was fully expecting slutty, but I prefer this. Your teachers are not ready for full slut Lara yet.”
“Girl I know. Now what do I wear?” she says impatiently.
“Bro chill. Get your baggy mid wash jeans and the white structured tank top that makes your boobs look good but not fully out to party. And accessorize to shit. I want to see your collection.”
Lara laughs. “How on Earth is that casual?”
“Lara, nothing about you is casual. But here at least, you’re wearing jeans.” I roll my eyes. “Now, how should I do my hair?”
“Straighten it, but give yourself those swoopy curtain bangs. You’ll look cute as fuck.” She leaves the frame to go get dressed as I follow her instructions. She returns after several minutes, looking gorgeous in the outfit I picked for her. “Okay Soph, I’m going to do my makeup and then head out to grab Starbucks for you and Manon. Same order as usual?”
“Yes, thank you love.” I smile as I finish my hair and begin doing my makeup. “See you soon!”
“Love you, bye.” Lara flips me off, smiling, and hangs up.
I giggle and return to doing my makeup, applying my signature lip gloss. Back to breaking hearts today, Sophia. Being in a trio of girls known to be players at our school has got to be the funniest shit ever, especially when we’re all art nerds at heart. There’s something incredibly high school about that.
After getting dressed, I grab my keys and start driving to the park we always meet at on the first day to take aesthetic “first day” pictures. It’s a tradition our parents started but we continued once Lara and Manon became obsessed with curated Instagram posts. As I’m driving, I realize I haven’t checked my schedule yet. And if I haven’t, none of my friends have either. I pull up to a red light and stop, immediately opening my phone and entering my gradebook.
Schedule
Period 1: AP Calculus BC- Mr. Emerson
Period 2: AP English Literature- Ms. Chavez
Period 3: Advanced Theater- Mr. Guzman
Lunch
Period 4: AP Psychology- Mrs. Thomas
Period 5: AP Economics- Mr. Norris
Period 6: Ceramics- Ms. Woolls
Not bad, considering it was possible that I’d have all four APs in a row. I quickly screenshot my schedule and send it to the group chat, but the light changes before I can add anything else.
I pull into a parking spot next to the field, not seeing Lara or Manon’s car yet. They’re both incredibly slow in the morning, though Lara’s tardiness today is likely explained by the Starbucks line rather than her inability to get out of bed. Manon, however, has no excuses. It's entirely possible she forgot today was the first day, so she didn’t set an alarm, and she woke up five minutes ago in a panic. I grab my phone to text her, but then realize both she and Lara have been blowing up the group chat.
The Players 😉😛
Lara 💗😛: AYYY WE GOT LIT, ECON, AND CERAMICS TOGETHERRRR
Lara 💗😛: AND LUNCH YESSS
Manon 💙🫧: nonchalance gone
Manon 💙🫧: soph ruining laras aura
Lara 💗😛: shut up manz ur dying to see my schedule
Manon 💙🫧: girl u wish
Manon 💙🫧: im js happy to have lit, psych, and ceramics w sophia
Lara 💗😛: bitch im in 2 of those classes wtf
Lara 💗😛: fuck u i see how it is
Manon 💙🫧 liked a message
Manon 💙🫧 sent a photo
Schedule
Period 1: AP Statistics- Mr. Parry
Period 2: AP English Lit- Ms. Chavez
Period 3: AP Drawing- Ms. Ortega
Lunch
Period 4: AP Psychology- Mrs. Thomas
Period 5: AP Government and Politics- Mr. Fields
Period 6: Ceramics- Ms. Woolls
Manon 💙🫧: since ur so concerned w my schedule
Lara 💗😛 reacted 😡 to a message
Lara 💗😛 sent a photo
Schedule
Period 1: AP Statistics- Mr. Parry
Period 2: AP English Lit- Ms. Chavez
Period 3: Advanced Music Production- Mr. Alvarez
Lunch
Period 4: AP Environmental Science- Mrs. Gonzalez
Period 5: AP Economics- Mr. Norris
Period 6: Ceramics- Ms. Woolls
Lara 💗😛: i js ordered our starbucks but im considering drinking urs manz
Lara 💗😛: u dont deserve it
Manon 💙🫧: NOOO LARA IM SORRY
Manon 💙🫧: im so excited to have stats w u
Manon 💙🫧: i love u sooo much
Manon 💙🫧: ur my everything
Manon 💙🫧: 🥺🥺🥺
Lara 💗😛: 🙄 fine u get ur drink
Lara 💗😛: annoying hoe
Manon 💙🫧 liked a message
Manon 💙🫧: sophias pulling up to the park rn i js checked her location
Manon 💙🫧: ill be there in 5
Sent 2 minutes ago
Sophia 💜😘: im waiting manon …
Sophia 💜😘: u two r ridiculous
Sophia 💜😘: im happy we all have classes and lunch tgthr tho :)
Manon 💙🫧: look left
I smile and turn, seeing Manon step out of her car. She looks ethereal as always, hair catching the light perfectly. I turn off my car and step out, immediately squinting due to the sun. “Damn Manon, the sun really loves to share its radiance with you. Bitch you blinded me.”
She laughs. “I think you blinded yourself, by staring straight into the sun. But I’ll claim it was my beauty. You're too sweet.”
Before I can respond, I’m cut off by the loud screech of a car as it breaks. Lara's ridiculous purple Lamborghini pulls into the spot next to mine on the right. She rolls down her window. “You hoes didn’t start without me, right? Cuz I will drink your drinks.”
“Woah, coming in hot with those accusations, Larz. We’ve literally never done that,” Manon says, attempting to maintain her calm facade. Her eyes betray her, sparkling with past mischief.
“Bitch remember last year?” Lara looks ready to fight, getting out of her car and leaving her precious strawberry matcha behind. She holds Manon’s drink in her hand, and my eyes widen.
Manon does not need another drink spilled on her 30 minutes before school starts. What a way to begin our senior year. Our trio's reputation of being players will end up even more exaggerated. Why? Manon will inevitably text some random girl in one of her classes asking for her to bring extra clothes to school, wear them, and then hold on to them longer than necessary because she’s forgetful. She will be very nice for a while, talking to the girl all the time, caring about her interests and learning her life story. But eventually, Manon will move on to someone new because for her, it was just friendship. She’ll flirt and maybe even date this new person (none of us could tell if they were dating or not). The girl will be heartbroken, thinking she had a chance and lost it. Manon will later rub salt in the wound by wearing the clothes without remembering where she got them. This all happened last year, and I’ll be damned if it happens again. I don’t see anything wrong with flirting or leading people on a little, but that scenario, we all agreed, leaned too far into genuine emotional manipulation and toxic behavior. Manon felt incredibly guilty and we all had to assess how much of this persona we created we were okay with. We have standards, unlike what most people want to believe.
“Lara, please hand the drink to Manon peacefully. Do you remember the rest of what happened last year?” I say, regret evident on my face. “Your fight took all three of us too far.”
I watch as their faces shift from false innocence (Manon) and anger (Lara) to recognition. Without a word, Lara hands the coffee to Manon. She then reaches back into the car to hand me my matcha, and both of our pastries. I take a sip, waiting for one of them to speak.
Finally Lara does. “Alright loves, let’s take these photos.” She sets her camera up on a trifold, catching the sunlight perfectly. She puts the shutter on a ten second timer, and the three of us artfully arrange ourselves to be captured on camera. I’m in the middle, with Lara on my left and Manon on my right. We wait, holding our pose, until we hear the click of the camera. Lara gets up to inspect the photo. “It’s cute. I approve. Let’s take a couple more before doing our solo and duo shots.”
Manon and I oblige, not needing to check over the photo. We trust Lara’s judgement, as she’s our resident photography whore. We rearrange ourselves as a trio for a few shots, then Lara picks up the camera again. “Soph, I want to photograph you first. Your cunty look belongs in a museum.”
“Aww, you know you could just call me hot. No need to get all faux-poetic. We know you're not like that.” I laugh, attempting to diffuse some of the still lingering tension. Lara never compliments more than calling someone a slut in a positive way.
“Bitch I am poetic. I am never being nice to you again. Now shut up and pose.” Lara attempts to look angry, but her smile is evident.
“Lara’s backkk,” Manon sings, laughing. “Soph really had you in overthinking mode.”
“Shut up! You was overthinking too. I saw you go quiet. You think it makes you look all cool and mysterious but we know you too well for that.” Lara smirks.
“Okay, okay, I concede. We don’t need to go there.” Manon raises her hands and steps away.
Lara smiles, victorious. “Alright, for real now, picture time Sophia.”
I pose and then transition through as many different ones as I can think of as Lara takes seemingly a thousand photos. After a few minutes, she indicates for Manon to get into the frame with me, then resumes taking her hundreds of photos. A while later, Lara mimes shoving me out of the frame to take solo shots of Manon. I watch Manon pose; her grace evident. Manon could totally be a model. I should have Lara post photos of Manon on her photography account, or even submit them to a competition. It could help them both get recognized. Finally, Lara allows us to take pictures of her. She is annoyingly specific about her camera preferences, in a way Manon only has patience for. I join Lara in the frame, posing with her. I then take the camera from Manon, and ignoring both of their specificities, capture images of them I know they’ll appreciate, even if they are technically “incorrect.” Lara will sort through these many images later and curate our “first day” photo dumps, but for now we depart to school.
“Race you to school!” Lara yells after I hand her the camera. She jumps in her car and speeds off before Manon and I have time to react.
“I guess we’re racing, Soph,” Manon says, eyes glinting. I realize she’s trying to beat me out of the parking lot, so instead of replying, I hop into my car, blaring the Fast and Furious theme to add to the ridiculousness. She smiles when she realizes, salutes, and gets in her car as I drive out of the parking lot.
I merge into the main road, searching for Lara’s car. The obnoxious purple thing is already three stoplights ahead, and I have no chance of catching her. Instead, I focus on beating Manon, driving just fast enough to stay ahead whilst maintaining a legal speed. I also make sure to not leave any gaps that allow Manon to pass. She finally ends up behind me, and I see her flip me off in the rearview mirror. I laugh, and she honks in response.
I reach school and park beside Lara. Manon pulls in next to me.
“I beat both you losers!” Lara cackles.
“We both know you cheated, hoe.” I roll my eyes. Lara’s a fool.
“Technically, you both cheated, since no one left at the same time.” Of course Manon hits us with the technicality.
“Soph, you can agree that’s lame, right?” Lara looks at me for approval.
Not sensing the trap, I agree. “Yeah, that’s kinda dumb.”
“SEE. I didn’t cheat. You just agreed that needing to leave the parking lot at the same time is stupid.” Lara is grinning uncontrollably now.
“Wait, I didn’t say that. You proposed the contest and then left before we processed it. That’s why you’re a fucking cheater,” I say, not ready to lose now.
Manon shakes her head. “Sophia, I think your argument is wraps. We both have to cede Lara victory here. And also, we’re gonna be late.”
“Oh fuck, you’re right! I can’t be late to calculus.” I rush to grab my backpack out of the passenger seat. Drinks in hand, we walk into our school, appearing ready to face the onslaught that will be our senior year.
Immediately, we are torn apart as different people demand our attention.
“Manon, what do you think of the new mural?”
“Someone tampered with the recording equipment, Lara.”
“Sophia, can you reveal the musical yet?”
More voices press in and overlap. The three of us exchange glances, smiling warily, as we register how much of ourselves we’re going to have to give up this year. It’s going to be hard. Then the worst possible question cuts through the noise.
“Manon, what’s going on with you and XXXXXX? Will she be a part of the art club this year?” Manon freezes.
“Manz, you don’t need to respond,” Lara’s voice cuts in, soft in a way we rarely hear. “I’m going to take you to class.” She takes Manon’s hand, but looks at me before leaving.
Wordlessly, I hug them both, then wave them off. Lara herds Manon into AP Stats, murmuring in her ear the whole time. I know Manon was not ready to hear that name so soon. She was crying over her last week.
Since I’m alone, I start talking to the people swarming me in the hallway. “Love, your sweater looks gorgeous today! Now what did you just ask?”
Marquise blushes. “I just wanted to know if the drama club is meeting this week?” She looks around nervously.
“Yes, Wednesday after school as always. I can’t wait to see you there!” I wink, seeing her face flush. Without thinking, I blow her a kiss as I walk away.
“Hey, Sophia,” a voice calls out. “You need to see the drawing Ezrela made.”
I scan the hallway for the speaker. Lexi is grinning, holding a notebook out of reach of Ezrela. It must be a picture of me.
“Hey gorgeous,” I say as I saunter over, looking directly at Ezrela. “Is it alright if I look at this drawing?”
Her face flushes pink, a surprising sight on a brown girl. She nods nervously, not saying a word.
I gently grasp the notebook and look at the marked page. The picture is captivating, a stunning rendition of me on stage done in charcoal. I look mid breath in the middle of a song, and she’s even captured the way my eyebrows furrow as I prepare for a high note. I inhale sharply, not having expected such a high level of detail. “Ezrela, this is wonderful. You’re so talented. Is it alright if I take a picture of this? I’ve never looked this good before.” I intend to tease as always, but my words are genuine. She shocked me.
“No, Sophia,” she says, surprising me. “I want you to keep it.” As I open my mouth to refute this, she rips the page out of her notebook and hands it to me. “Here.”
In my hands, the paper feels so fragile, too easy to rip or fold. I set my backpack down on the side of the hallway and pull out my folder, gingerly placing the sketch there. It feels wrong, but I don’t know what else to do. Packing up my stuff again, I look at Ezrela, then pull her into the best hug I can. “Thank you so much,” I whisper in her ear, noticing again how pink dusts her cheeks.
“You’re welcome,” she says, scrambling away from me. Lexi follows her, leaving me alone again as the bell rings.
Shit, I’m going to be late on the first day. I still technically have two minutes to get to class, but I’m nowhere close. I start speedwalking, since there’s no way you’ll catch me dead running at school. I somehow managed to get to calculus, but somehow everyone else was on time so I spotted only one open seat. I slide into it, glancing over to see my seatmate after I’ve already placed my stuff down as the bell rings. No fucking way, it’s Daniela Avanzini. ASB president and cheer captain Daniela Avanzini. My biggest hater Daniela Avanzini.
“Can’t believe you’re late on the first day.”
“Whar the hell. I was not late; the bell rang after I sat down.” I sound irritated, but I’m ecstatic. The universe has finally aligned to let me change the fact she hates me.
“Sure it did.” She tries to appear uninterested, so I don’t deign to fill the silence. “Were you talking to one of your many admirers?” The annoyance in her tone is palpable.
I smirk, starting to understand her dislike. “Why, you jealous? Don’t worry love, no one here is as beautiful as you.”
“No, of course that’s not why.” Daniela looks so irritated. It’s taking everything in me to not smile right now and give it away.
“Really? I can’t imagine any other reason. A girl as pretty as you should never worry about another person’s romantic options.” I let my fingers graze her arm as I reach to grab my notebook. She visibly recoils. “While I’d love to keep this conversation going, since you’re so adorable when you’re flustered, I need to listen to this lecture. I can’t struggle through calculus the way I did last year.”
Daniela looks ready to object to just about everything I said. Instead of letting her, though, I turn to face the teacher and make a show of my rapt attention. I take notes and diligently work out practice problems throughout the lecture, making sure to never look at Daniela once. I can feel her stare burning into my side, but she puts on the same front as me, paying too much attention to the whiteboard.
Our teacher finishes talking with a few moments to spare, and hands out the homework. I make sure to grab the assignments for both of us, then turn to Daniela. “Here, gorgeous. You’ll never have to get up for anything in this class.” I wink.
She stares at me, long and unreadable. Then she takes the paper I’m holding out for her. “Thank you Sophia.” She turns away from me and packs up, getting ready to leave this class as quickly as possible. I don’t blame her, pretending to pay attention to that lecture was painful. I pull out my phone as I watch her head to the door.
The Players 😉😛
Sophia 💜😘: you bitches arent gonna believe who i sit next to in calc
Lara💗😛: js tell us hoe
Sophia 💜😘: daniela fucking avanzini
Sophia 💜😘: its hilarious
Sophia 💜😘: im flirting w her till she breaks
Lara💗😛: alr bruh but dont end up like me
Sophia 💜😘: bitch pls i could never fall for her
Sophia 💜😘: that kinda stupid is reserved for u
I place my phone in my back pocket and walk over to AP Lit, far more focused on getting to class on time. I don’t want to be late twice, especially when my next class has my two best friends. Plus, Ms. Chavez lets you pick your seats, but it’s first come first serve and they’re permanent. I want to ensure our trio has seats together.
I find a table in the back corner with four chairs, and I figure we can scare off whomever in order to have it to ourselves. Lara and Manon joined me rather quickly, which was surprising. I figured they’d be late like we usually are. I didn’t think they’d remember to get here early. That assumption was proven right by the words that come out of Lara’s mouth as she sits down.
“Oh my god, Sophia, Megan and sweater girl have stats with us. It’s hell.” Lara looks to Manon for confirmation.
Manon nods. I can see the heartbreak etched on her face, and it shatters me. “They sit two rows in front of us. So at least we’re not together.” Her voice is so small, pain evident.
“I’m so sorry, you two. I guess the perfect trio got split up the same as us,” I say. The bell rings, and the last of the students shuffle into their seats, leaving the remaining chair at our table empty. “At least none of them are in this class.”
Lara and Manon both smile at that. We joke around, paying little attention to the teacher as we slowly dissolve the pain and tension from our first periods. We let our usual ridiculous nature overtake us, and get threatened to quiet down more than once. Smothering our laughter, we attempt to stay calm, and manage to make it through the class. The rest of the school day passes without conflict, allowing us to settle into the rhythm of our senior year of high school.