Against the World

Bianca Gray knew Serenity Lake High better than her own two parents. She knew who to trust, who to avoid and sadly but very necessary, who to bully.

Bianca was in a very high position and it was her junior year, her time to shine. She couldn't let gross mosquitos take away her crown.

She had everything she could possibly ask for. All the over-exaggerated high school movies would be jealous of her. She had a tight coven of friends (not too much because some of them are fake, obviously) and had the perfect boyfriend, Tanner Cortez. Not to mention she was an international model, on a runway to success and fame.

Bianca didn't care for her grades unless it really mattered to her, she was crazy rich after all. Her daddy could just do a little bribing here and a little blackmail there and boom! She landed herself in an Ivy League school. Her mother was a surgeon in some useless place a thousand miles away from her hometown but Bianca probably couldn't care less.

She had concluded when she was only eleven that family was not blood. Family was chosen. Family was earned.

So of course some would be surprised to hear about what had happened earlier today. Bianca Gray had vanished into thin air, leaving no breadcrumbs and no goodbyes. Some say she had run off with Tanner but everyone knew the captain of the football team would choose scholarships over girls any day. Some say Bianca was kidnapped for ransom because of the sudden hiccup in her dad's business that sent workers haywire.

There were a lot of conspiracies of what could've happened to Bianca Gray but once 24 hours passed the clock, everyone grew desperate.

Bianca's dad had urged the authorities to find his daughter, already giving them a list of possible suspects from his business who had a vendetta for him.

The beginning of high school was eerie and dark, the flickering bulbs ready to give up the light like the hope in Bianca's future.

The police had asked all the teachers at Serenity Lake High and even went out west to reach Bianca's mother but they were left on an endless loop of no answers. But not once did they ask the quiet girl sitting in the back corner. Not once did they try to ask the student that envied Bianca to a point of dark obsession. Not once did they ask the little plant in the library that stood there uselessly for no ones' entertainment.

Jazlin Davis was a shadow in situations like these. She wasn't suppose to get caught like this, she wasn't suppose to be there. But now it was too late.

If only Jazlin never talked to Bianca. If only she didn't hook up with Tanner. If only she could go back in time and fix all her mistakes but time itself wouldn't wait for her to fix them all. There were too many.

There were tears burning in her eyes, the pounding sound of blood rushing through her head. A ticking bomb of confessions stuck in her throat. Jazlin knew what would happen if things went down to this.

Everyone thought Bianca Gray disappeared. But Bianca never even left her house on her last day. Jazlin knew, so did Carrie and Tanner.

Bianca Gray was murdered. And it had been her fault.

** TWO MONTHS EARLIER **

The girl was really getting onto Jazlin's nerves. Each time she heard her speak, voice sounding like a frog was croaking it's last lament before dying, she wanted to rip off her ears. Together at once.

"But I still don't understand! So, you cancel the 'x' because there's another one? But wouldn't you just have '2x'?" the girl asked, her voice squeaking to it's fullest capacity.

"Gosh, someone didn't make it to the puberty train," Jessica Marley whispered beside her.

Jessica's goth group laughed at this, growing red by trying to hold the chuckle from within.

"Jenny, why don't you come to me on your own time because we don't want to drag the others, this is an enriched class. Maybe you should stop by one of the counsels and ask to change to an applied class," Mr. Dubois announced, earning a lot of "oohs" and "what'cha gonna do 'bout that!"

Jenny hid behind her brown locks and grew silent.

The bell rang and Jazlin quickly made it out of the class knowing what would happen. Jenny had overly-supportive friends that were probably paid from Jenny's parents to talk to her. Each time the other students picked a fight with Jenny, she would cry and her 'friends' would do damage-control until the class turned into a verbally fighting brawl.

It was messy and she didn't want to get stuck between sides so she left quickly. These fights happened so often near the beginning of school, it has been two weeks so far and Jazlin counted at least thirty of these brawls. They only lasted for five minutes or so but for Jenny and her reputation, it could feel like an eternity of humiliation.

Maybe when Jazlin was popular and had friends and courage, she could stand up for Jenny. One day.

She was too busy snaking through the hallways trying to make it to the cafeteria when Jazlin knocked straight into the one and only captain of the football team, Tanner Cortez.

But with Jazlin's terrible luck and frail figure, she practically bounced back off of his hard muscles and happened to land into the reluctant arms of Tanner's girlfriend, Bianca Gray.

To her horror, Jazlin had spilt Bianca's freshly brewed coffee all over the ground but did manage to not get sprayed by it. Another bonus point was it also didn't spill on Bianca's designer clothing. Thank God, Jazlin really wanted to make it to senior year.

"God, I'm so sorry! I mean no harm!" Jazlin said, instantly regretting her 80th century English.

Tanner rolled his eyes at her, not bothering to ask if she was okay after walking into a literal rock hard wall. He walked past Jazlin, hitting her shoulders on the way, to sling a reassuring arm over Bianca's slim shoulders.

Jazlin rushed away before hearing what Bianca had to say. Sometimes Jazlin liked to think of herself like glass. Like really fragile glass. Like a 500 year old China tea set that would break under the pressure of air.

She could already feel tears coming out of her eyes. Why was she even crying? She felt like at that moment everyone was watching her scram to the closest bathroom.

She just wanted to go home and never come back to a place like this and people like Tanner could just rot in--

"Uh, you don't belong here..."

Oh God, even the random boy in the bathroom agrees with her. "I know, I am I don't belong anywhere I hate this Goddamn school."

"Huh, um like you don't belong in here. This is the boys bathroom," he said, cocking his head to the side.

Then it came to her. The one sign that pushed me over the limit. The one sent from the Lord himself that she was going to have one of the worst years ever.

"You are in the boys bathroom," he said more slower, showing useless hand gestures to correspond with the words.

"Yes, yes! I know! Jesus I'm leaving," Jazlin shoved the door opened and ran to the office to call in sick.

She couldn't believe how her day just went crashing down into pieces just like that. One second she was pitying Jenny McDonald and now her day was 10 times worse than her embarrassment. All it took was to not pay attention in the hallways and now she was crying on her way to the office so she could lie in front of the principals.

She opened the office door and thought to herself how ironic if things could get worse. If her day of bad things didn't stop after going to the boys bathroom.

Jazlin's eyes widened once she saw the office. Apparently, humiliation wasn't done tormenting with her terrible life. When one door closes, all the other doors closes too.

A teenage boy no older than she was turned to look at her. Shinning brown eyes and jawlines that could cut, the boy smiled, revealing dimples that made her sick on the inside. "Hullo Jazlin."

She closed the office door and sprinted out the school doors.

There was no way in hell was she going to talk to him. Not in a million years to come and above.
It almost felt like today was just the beginning to something worse. Something darker.