"Nothing Father", Henry replies politely to his dad. At such a point, he couldn't afford any other hit.
"I do care" his Father replies softly. Henry smiles, at least there was some good in him. "...about Ethan"
Henry's face drops at this. It was no shock.
"At least, he has made me proud"
Of course it'd always be Ethan, rich by twenty two and is the CEO of some... thing. Henry felt a pain, not physical but transcended beyond the pain from his father's slap.
Henry gets off his bed, wiped his tears and walks up to his Father, whose hand was off the switch. His father stood there confused, creasing his brows.
Henry smiles. "Pay the three hundred dollars left. I don't think Ethan would want to see you salty side."
His father is dumbfounded as Henry walks away from him, giving a cold stare as he went. He stops for a moment, "Before you say anything, I want you to know that I do not care about Victor Cladwell and his 'Death Wave'. We're not in the 1800s", still smiling.
His face falls blunt again. "Get that straight"
Henry drops onto his bed, looking away from his father, under the sheets. Surprisingly he stands still, switches the light back off and slams the door shut behind him.
Henry sighs like an elephant had lifted its feet off his chest.
School. The typical noise and chatter filled the compounds and hallways. Margot rushes into girl's washroom. She comes across the junior girl from before. This time she looked different, glowing with almost no make-up. Was that even possible.
"Ugh you again" she says growling but examines her for a moment, "Huh, you look different. Which product do you use?"
"I use Natural Beauty. You should try it too" Paula walks away, shaking her head.
Margot opens the washroom door, locks it from inside and searches, 'N-A-T-U...'. That's when she realizes the girl was being sarcastic. "That bitch", Margot grunts. The washroom smelled heavy with detergent, beautifully tiled. She flips her hair and struts to the mirror, inspecting her lipstick and lashes.
"Hey Henry!" she spoke into her phone, sending a voice note to Henry, "The girls are growing angrier and they need the money—" someone bangs on the door, "hurry and bring it to me."
Julia was at the door. "Oh Hey Margot. Why am I not shocked that you'd lock yourself"
"Yeah have a good morning Julia" she says hastily and walks off.
Elaine comes out of a cubicle, holding her phone.
"Julia! You have to see something"
The bell rings for class. Magnus casted a look at Anthemon and Sabine, jealous. They had Math, a subject Magnus didn't even feel was useful but he acted as though he was paying attention, his golden yellow suit glowed paired with his neatly ironed royal blue trousers. Soon, the bell sounds for break time. Everyone leaves, the G. Girls stay behind. Julia, Ava, Margot, the other three and Elaine. They sat in a semicircle facing the board as Margot paced around in front of them.
"Margot? Hello?" Ava snaps her back to reality. This meeting was quite unnecessary to her. She had more time to inspect her tightly shaped hips and ginger hair than to be in this meeting.
"Well.." Margot pauses, her face presumably rests on a light upright fist. She catwalks slowly in her royal blue skirt which was above knee length, clinging to her hips for dear life. She inhales as though she were about to speak, her index finger outstretched. Sighing, she begins to pace around... again. The girls looked at each other, getting infuriated by the second.
Elaine sat behind Julia so she would kind of be concealed by her. "I didn't sign up for this" Elaine groans silently resting her face lazily in her palm.
"We're here about Elaine" Margot suddenly says, looking behind Julia.
"Oh my gosh" "I didn't even see her there" "Gurll" "Where has she been all this while?"
These comments were passed when Elaine stepped into the light, peeping out her head from behind Julia.
"Welcome back to base Elaine" Margot says, blowing a kiss. The others do so too.
"Oh My God", she says, gnashing her teeth, twitching out a smile. Everyone was acting fake, almost as if they were not in on the plan to destroy Henry. Julia turns back to Elaine and whips up her eyebrows, tilting her head slightly. Confront her now.
Elaine walks off and struts in her uniform to the front of the classroom, giving Margot an eye because she stood there too, a little bit close to the door. She gazes upon the G. Girls, ready to drop the bomb. "Girls...", everyone goes silent, "You know what? I'm not the only person who has been absent for a while"
"Umm, what do you mean Elaine?" one girl chuckles nervously.
She looked at Margot again, twisting her black shoulder-length curly hair, in the process.
"Margot's truth telling skills seems to have left this group, decades ago"
"Excuse me?!" Margot gasps, pretending to stumble as one girl grabs onto her shoulders.
Ava whispers, "Whoa!" she looks at Margot sternly, who shrugs, giving an awkward smile.
Did she do what I strictly told her not to? She wondered.
"Elaine? We need some clarity" Julia suggests, eager to uncover the truth, supposedly. She and Elaine had discussed everything in the girls washroom earlier on. A slightly evil smirk pencils across her face.
"What I mean is... Our beloved Margot has been lying to us and I don't mean a level one type of lie" she scoffs, "Girls, I'm talking Grandmaster! Type of lie, non nose-growing Pinocchio! Type of lie... Heck! Oscar! Freaking OSCAR! Type of lie"
Elaine frowns, eyes glued to Margot's. Her eyes were red with shame and uncertainty.
"Elaine are you insane!?" Margot lashes out, being held back by one of the girls. She would have ripped off Elaine's light brown skin off if it meant she would just shut up.
"Oh that rhymes" one dark skinned girl whispers to herself.
"I won't talk too much Margot", she looks away from Margot, "Just listen."
She plays back the recording from earlier.
"I knew it!" Ava says softly, disappointed.
Margot sees this and is desperate for revalidation, "Ava! I can explain!"
"Just shut it Margot!" Ava retaliates, looking away from Margot. She walked to the back of the class and just stood there, back turned to the front.
Margot was shaken, broken and the girl that grabbed her shoulder gently was now pressing against it. She too looked pissed.
"Let go", Margot pleads.
The girl shoved Margot aside and all of them watch her crumble on the floor.
"Julia explain it to them... Please" Margot pleads with Julia, who paid a deaf ear.
Both of them disturbed Henry to pay back the money but she didn't know Margot was that desperate.
Margot was on the floor, between the G. Girls and Elaine, who was in front.
She looks at Elaine and gains energy, attempting to rise. In the process, her skirt rips, exposing her fair thighs. The girls gasp.
Margot was embarrassed beyond measure. She was on the brink of social death as her face grew red with shame. Ava looks at her from behind the classroom, deeply disappointed. A tear streams down Margot's face. She was helpless.
Suddenly she starts to chuckle, which turns into a giggle. This too, turns into a full outburst of laughter. A maniacal one.
Ava rushes to Margot and pushes her as she stood, "You are not the joker. This is serious." She scoffs and goes to take a seat.
Elaine's palms rested on the teacher's table as she leaned on it.
Margot gets up once again, giggling. She looked sick and her giggles were more of hiccups than happiness.
"Are you okay?" Ava asks, concerned.
"Oh, am I okay?" Margot questions, laughing, tears streaming down her face. With the way she stood, it was evident she would fall in no time. No one decided to help her with her torn skirt.
Margot turns to look at Elaine who was behind her, "You hear that? Am I okay?... I don't know", she laughs some more, "Are you?" she asks with a dark voice.
Elaine folds her arms, poised, her head cocked to one side.
"What are you talking about?", she replies looking disgustingly at an animalistic Margot.
"Okay before this gets any crazier, I think I'd like to inform you girls that there is also a possibility that this mysterious 'hot ten' of ours is not dead", she says nonchalantly, paying no attention to Margot.
"Damn, it's been months" one Latina whispers.
"Elaine!" Margot roars, "You whiny hormonally imbalanced bitch!"
"Margot!" Ava calls out. This has no effect.
"Yes, Ms. Winters, the Queen, definition and unfathomable human form of every imperfection unknown to many" she chuckles slightly, "because, every imperfection known to many is over a hundred times more perfect than you"
"You are doing this because you still have feelings for Henry!?" Margot says, narrowing her eyes slightly, "Because" she sniggers, "it seems like that childhood crush... Never really left" she walks closer to Elaine.
Julia looks at Elaine, bothered.
"We accepted you, Elaine Hunt" she pokes at her chest, furiously, "We accepted you because you had no one, you had no best friend, you had no Sabine by your side"
Elaine breathes heavily, pushing against the teacher's table as Margot got closer. She was feeling, even though she didn't want to accept it, defeated.
"We took you under our wing" she smiles creepily, "So if you want to take yourself off the warmth of it and face the bizarre winter of the real world, be my guest. You would be nobody", she cups her face, whispering, "...nobody, without... Us."
Elaine smiles, her eyes felt a million tingles as they grew red and wet. She'd been hit with the inevitable blow of reality and it hurt. It hurt so much, she smiled. What a beautiful, well orchestrated comeback, Margot Winters. Margot still stood in front of her, eyes locked in.
"So this is who you are Margot" Julia walks up to the two of them, "I am truly disappointed. Lying to us is one but preying on other people's fears? Seriously? No matter the insults or whatnots you say to Elaine Hunt here, it still doesn't conceal the fact that you lied to us"
"Why Margot, why?" Ava asks softly from behind. "I trusted you, I actually had faith in you" she sighs and stands beside Elaine, rubbing her back. Elaine was still trying to pull herself together.
"I really looked up to you Margot", the Latina whispers as she too goes to stand next to Ava.
"We have seen you for who you are and I personally liked the model bossy side better", the dark girl says softly as she went to stand by the Latina.
"You can't hide who you are, whether you put the whole universe's make-up on your face or not" Ava finalizes as the six of them left the classroom.
Margot drops to her knees, covering her torn blue skirt with her palm which could barely hide it. She sighs, wetting the tiles in the classroom with her bitter tears.
On the school compound, Anthemon walks around, strutting in her knee-length blue skirt. Her golden yellow dress shirt was tucked in beautifully into it, which complimented the short blue tie between it.
Mr. Keaton Whitewood, the headmaster, was scanning the compounds to catch and punish those who didn't wear their uniforms. The only time they were allowed to do that was Friday. Anthemon greets him and walks on ahead.
"Where is this boy?" she shades her face with her palm from the scorching sun, though it made her chocolate skin look golden.
"Henry!" she calls out to him. He wore a hoodie over his crumpled black dress shirt because apparently his golden yellow suit went missing in school.
"Anthemon?" he smiles, confused. "Wh-What do you want?" he asks as she approaches him with a white envelope in hand.
"Look, Henry..." she looks around, "I need you to be with me"