How Ignorant

Kat walked into school, dreading this first day. Since last weekend, when she finally came back from a whole summer in Canada, Les hadn’t spoken to her. Kat’s ex best friend saw the tattoos and piercings Ronnie had convinced Kat to get, and didn’t want anything to do with her anymore. But it wasn’t Les that Kat feared, it was the crowd that followed Les.

A few years ago, a girl had come to school on the first day wearing all black, her hair streaked pink. Les took one look at her, and automatically judged her as an emo cutter. The “queen bee” of the school, Les made the girl’s life a living hell. Eventually, the girl committed suicide. Did Les care though? Not at all. Her exact words were “She cut, didn’t she want to die?”

Kat was appalled at Les’s indifference to tragedy. Even when Les’s own grandmother had died, Les didn’t shed a tear. Yet, Kat stayed in Les’s shadow, hiding behind the queen bee, for fear of being stung.

Maybe once they had been truly friends, back in the time before Les became what she is today. Maybe they had once had a real friendship, back before stereotypes and popularity mattered. But maybe they didn’t.

Maybe the girls had never truly clicked as best friends. Maybe they had just drifted apart. Maybe neither.

But it didn’t matter now. The two best friends were no more, and today, they would be forced to be together.

Kat went to the office and got her locker number and location, praying that a transfer student had arrived with a last name that started with a X. No such luck, Kat realized as she went to the locker she had been assigned. Standing next to the locker was Les and the rest of her “royal court.” Kat cursed her last name under her breath. Why did Yanley have to come right after Wu? If her last name had been something different, she might have been able to avoid Les the whole day.

“What the hell, Kat?” Les asked her ex best friend as she opened her locker.

The short girl with black hair looked up at her taller former friend and said, “Change can be good, you know.”

“Not when it makes you look like some sort of JD,” the shallow blonde replied. “I can’t be seen with you anymore.” Then Les walked away, chattering with her loyal followers.

Kat frowned, putting her backpack in her locker and taking out the notebooks she knew she would need. “So I’m a bad person, just because I look different?” she muttered to herself. She tried to ignore the stares she was getting from the rest of the students at Jay Memorial High School and continued to her homeroom.

Whispers of rumors were already being spread around the school, and Kat heard them. “I heard she joined a gang,” one girl said, sitting in the front row of the classroom Kat had just entered.

“I heard she started doing drugs,” another whispered back. Kat sighed and walked to the back of the classroom, taking the seat as far away from the teacher as possible. Putting in her earbuds, Kat tried to drown out the world with Paramore songs.

“Ugh, that freak is in my homeroom, along with having a locker next to me? How much bad luck can I get?” she heard an all too familiar voice say from the doorway, the high pitched voice making it past Kat’s Skullcandy earbuds. Kat looked at her ex best friend and frowned.

Kat couldn’t believe she was ever friends with such a shallow person. What a bitch, Kat thought, looking at the blonde with disbelief.

“Ah, yes, Leslie, is there a problem?” the timid teacher asked Leslie, who was giving the teacher a glare.

“The problem is that I don’t see any empty seats,” Les said, snapping her bubblegum.

“There’s one right there, Ms. Yanley,” the teacher said, pointing to the seat beside Kat. The girl groaned inwardly.

Les gave the teacher a look that said “you’ve got to be kidding me.” After a moment, Les trudged to the seat and sat down.

Kat tried to make eye contact with Les, hoping that some of the girl that Kat had been best friends with was still there. No such luck. Les kept her eyes away from Kat, and ignored her.

Kat sighed, and took out her phone. She debating texting Les, but knew that she would not get a reply. Instead, Kat texted Ronnie, her new boyfriend, from Canada, just across the border. “School already sux” she sent to the boy she had fallen for.

Kat smiled, remembering their moments over the summer. Meeting Ronnie, at the beach party. Dancing with him by the campfire. Kissing him by the lake. Then, when he convinced her to get the tattoos and piercings she had been wanting. Ronnie gave Kat confidence, confidence to be herself, instead of the girl who kept her head down, hiding in the corner.

“Be strong. Those bitches got no reason to be hating on my girl,” he replied quickly. Kat smiled and sent him a heart in reply. She put her phone back in her pocket just as the bell rang, signaling the end of homeroom.

The little old teacher stood in the front of the room and began a speech on the joys of a new school year, and how much fun they were going to have in her class. Kat drowned out most of what the teacher was saying, which wasn’t difficult with the monotonous tone the teacher was speaking in.

Instead, Kat thought about her friend Les. In Les’s eyes, she must be some sort of bad person, so she doesn’t like her anymore, Kat reasoned. I guess I’ll have to make my own way, she thought, frowning. Les loved to hate. It’s a circle, a mean cycle. Kat guessed that being Les’s best friend and slave didn’t excite her anymore.

“You’re such a freak,” Les said, finally glancing at Kat.

Kat looked at Les with sad eyes. Where’s her gavel? Where’s her jury? She’s not a judge. What right does she have to judge me? Kat thought. If she’s going to judge me, please sentence me to another life, the girl begged silently.

Suddenly Kat heard music playing. She turned her head, only to see Les blasting music in her ears. It must be pretty loud for Kat to be able to hear it clearly. It was “Hello” by Evanescence.

Kat sighed. Les was still listening to her sad songs. Late at night, she would confess to Kat that she was depressed, and listened to sad songs to feel better. She always said it was Kat’s fault that she was depressed. She said it because she was a lesbian and had a crush on Kat.

Yes, the school’s head cheerleader and queen bee, was a hypocritical lesbian. If someone else was gay, they were shunned by Les, and then the rest of the school followed suit. But the queen bee herself was a secret lesbian. Considering that Kat is the only one who knows, Les should be more careful about respecting Kat’s feelings.

Kat felt nothing for Les, only pity. Pity that Les would never be anything more in life. She would always be a secret lesbian, a shallow beauty queen, and a hypocrite. And one day, Les’s beauty would be gone, and she would be left with nothing. Kat was not the same as Les. Les would one day be alone, whereas Kat would never be alone.

Kat had the real friends she had made in Canada, along with her family. Les had her followers, which only followed her out of fear, and one day, they would leave her. They would leave her alone, and Les would hit rock bottom.

“We used to be best friends, you know,” Kat said quietly to Les. It was true; the girls had even become blood sisters, mixing their blood when they were eight. It was silly, but they were only eight.

Les ignored Kat. I guess she can’t accept that change is good, Kat thought to herself.

The day continued, Les ignoring Kat, treating her like a stranger. Ignorance was her new best friend, ignorance of her old friend. Two more hours passed, and then it was lunchtime.

Kat took her vegan sack lunch to the cafeteria, her eyes fixated on her grey Converse. She looked at the smiley face Ronnie had drawn on the toe and smiled. She went straight to an empty table in the corner. A few tables away, Les and the royal court sat. Kat could hear their laughter and gossip.

Kat shook her head, laughing at some of the completely bogus rumors she heard. She started to eat, thinking. Maybe it was the best thing that could’ve happened, no longer being in Les’s shadow. Any longer being in that crowd, spreading those rumors and listening to those awful jokes, Kat wouldn’t have made it.

Kat suddenly felt eyes on her, and she looked up, to see Les giving her a glare. She raised an eyebrow, to ask “what?” Les’s frown grew.

The girl laughed, suddenly realizing. Les was angry that Kat wasn’t miserable without her. She couldn’t take the thought of Kat being content out of Les’s shadow.

“Hey, new girl, want to sit with us?” Les said, putting a fake smile on, speaking loud enough for Kat to hear.

Kat saw Les’s eyes still fixated on her, as everyone else at the table swiveled to see who Les was talking to. Kat shook her head. She knew that trick. Les would have the new person, who she hated, sit with them, then embarrass them in front of the entire popular crowd. Les’s tricks wouldn’t work on Kat. And treating her like a stranger? How ignorant.