Rise, Fall, and Ruin

"Maybe the journey isn't so much about becoming anything. Maybe it's about unbecoming everything that isn't you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place." SummerSaldana

*^*

"I HATE YOU CASPIAN KING!"

My head jerks up from my locker as the shrill voice echoes through the main hall. Every student has immediately dropped what they were doing to watch the drama that's unfolding. I quickly and quietly close my locker, making sure to not disrupt the silence. I have to say that this is a very interesting way to start a Monday morning.

In the middle of the hallway, not too far from where I currently am, stands the kings and Caspian's latest girlfriend. And I use that term loosely. Everyone in this school knows he never stops sleeping around, even when he is supposed to be tied down to his girlfriends. But hey, it's his life not mine so he can live it as he wishes. Now that doesn't necessarily mean I like the guy. If anything, unlike almost all girls here, I'm repulsed by him.

Who is their right mind would even want to date a player? It almost seems as if girls think Caspian will change when they date him. That they will be the one girl to put an end to his player ways. Sorry honey, hate to break it to you, but this is reality and he isn't going to change his ways because of you. Girls know he cheats and, yet they still throw themselves at him. My only guess as to why is the status a girl gets when dating one of the kings, the status of Queen.

"Kate, darling, why would you hate Caspian King?" Nolan, the second king of this school, questions with amusement.

"He slept with four other girls during our one-month relationship!" Kate seethes pointing an accusatory finger at Caspian, who stares at her in boredom.

Nolan shakes his head and the small smirk on his lips says exactly what I'm thinking. "Sweetie, this has happened how many times before? Why did you think it would be any different for you?"

"I-I," Kate stutters and open and closes her mouth as she tries to find her words. They seemed to have escaped her for the time being.

Half a minute later, she speaks. "I thought I was different." Her voice is weak and a mere whisper. I had to strain my ears in order to hear her. But once I did, I scoffed.

And boy did that scoff turn everyone's attention on me. Nolan and Caspian turn their gazes from Kate to me. Their eyes meeting my own. My face stays devoid of the emotions running through my body. I hate attention and now I have at least twenty pairs of eyes on me. I move my hands in a sweeping motion, gesturing for them to carry on. Which they do, but a certain someone's gaze stays on me a little too long.

"We're done Kate." The man of the hour finally speaks.

"You can't break up with me! I'm breaking up with you!" Kate's face is now painted with the red of embarrassment and anger while Caspian scowls.

A sickly-sweet smile replaces Caspian's scowl within seconds, "It's too late Kate. I've already taken the initiative of breaking up with you."

Kate's mouth hangs open and she gasps. I can only imagine the feelings running through the poor girl's mind. Hurt, frustration, anger, embarrassment just to name a few. To be frank, I find it exceedingly difficult to feel any remorse towards Kate. The girl simply had it coming. She'd knew what was bound to happen. People don't change. And if they do, it's only a matter of time before they revert back to their old habits. Humans are creatures of habit after all.

Caspian and Nolan turn away from Kate and walk down the hallway in my direction. I step back to let the pair pass and could swear Caspian was looking at me from the corner of his eyes. Great, my little scoff has brought about the attention of the last person I'd ever want it from.

The bell sounds, alerting the student body of their tardiness to first period. Students scurry in their hurry to get to their classes. I sigh as I make my way to AP Calculus, knowing Mariah is going to have my head on a spike for being late. I decide to extend my tardiness by walking slowly and enjoying the last few minutes before I reach the class I die in every day.

The halls are deserted now, save for a few late stragglers such as myself. The sound of my heels meeting the floor reverberates as I walk. AP Calc is across the school from where the drama was this morning. It usually takes me a good five minutes to get to the class, but today the walk is more like ten minutes.

I don't bother knocking on the closed door as I walk right inside instead.

"Miss Zaikov, it's nice of you to finally make it to class. Care to explain?" Mr. Clarke questions.

I continue to walk to my desk as I answer. "I needed to pray to God for the strength required for me to get through this class."

I don't hear his response, if there even was one, because Mariah yanked my arm as soon as I took my seat next to her.

"Why are you so late?" She hisses in a low voice as she throws daggers at me with her eyes.

I roll my eyes at her. Poor Queen Bee can't stand when she doesn't have tabs on her best friend. Why? Good question. Make sure to let me know if you find out the answer.

Taking my Calc book from my bag I respond, "Caspian broke things off with Kate." Speaking of Caspian, I think he is in this class? Oh right. How silly of me to forget. Mariah only talks about him all the time.

"Oh, I know. Like I can't believe he even dated her in the first place."

I don't say anything in response because I know exactly what she is thinking. 'It's me he should have asked out already. I mean just look at me and then look at him! We would like make the perfect couple.'

Mariah played the role of Queen Bee well. She fit the stereotype perfectly. Beautiful, charismatic, blonde hair blue eyes, manipulative, entitled, a bitc- Opps. I got a little carried away there. Anyway, she's Queen Bee, as previously mentioned, and I'm her best friend.

Best friend. Another set of words that I use loosely. In an environment such as Acadia Academy, your friends are your worst enemy. When you have a status as high as mine, you're lucky if you even have true friends. Truth is that everyone is for themselves in this school. If you're not the predator then you're the prey, and being the prey in Acadia is damaging.

A pain shoots through my arm and I turn to face Mariah. "Did you just pinch me?"

She nods. "I called your name like three times." She says annoyed.

"Huh. Must have zoned out again."

"You've like been doing that a lot lately."

One of the things I cannot stand about Mariah is her ridiculous overuse of the word 'like'. I've contemplated many times about getting her a dictionary and telling her to find other words besides 'like' to use, but that would be a bitch move.

"Anyway, we like totally need a girl's day. Just you and I."

A girl's day with just Mariah and I. I have to keep myself from groaning out loud. I absolutely hate spending time with her outside of school. All she ever talks about is gossip, shopping, money, gossip, shopping, money, and then more gossip, more shopping, more money.

I know I seem like the bitch, but believe me when I say I'm really not. Compared to the other girls here I am an angel and that's says a lot. Besides, this school makes one ruthless. I just hope I never find out how ruthless I can be. I don't want to become the girls I despise. Even though in some aspects I guess I am already like them.

I plaster a fake excited grin on my face, "We so do!" Not.

"Tatiana!"

I look away from Mariah and towards Mr. Clarke. "Yes sir?"

"First you're late to my class and now you can't even at least act like you are paying attention?"

"Sorry sir. I'll act like I'm paying attention."

Quite a few people, Mariah being one of them, either giggled or snorted. Mr. Clarke just huffs out a breath of anger and continues on with his lesson.

My phone vibrates on my desk and I turn to look at Mariah thinking she texted me about the girl's day. Except it wasn't her since her phone is surprisingly nowhere in sight. Which is kind of strange. The girl can't go a millisecond without it. Shrugging, I look up to see what Mr. Clarke is doing and find that he is helping another student with this lesson's work. I grab my phone and press its home button. The lock screen shows a mass amount of notifications, but one recent text message from a number that is not in my contacts. I unlock my phone and open the message.

'SunRise Café. 4:00.'

Strange. Don't know the number so I'm most definitely not going. The person could be a murderer, or maybe they have the wrong number for a drug deal? Yeah, definitely not going.

And just in case it's someone I know, I'll claim I had plans with Mariah. They'll understand.

I put my phone down, glance in Mr. Clarke's direction to make sure he is still busy, and lean towards Mariah.

"What do you say we have a spa day after school and go shopping tomorrow? School is stressing me out too much." She smiles and nods her head in replace of a yes.

She is being too nice. She must want something from me...