~Third person POV~

Bianca Rodriguez, Chioma Dozie and Jamie Griffith had the holy trinity of looks, intelligence and sass. Stacey was in awe of them. She couldn't believe they had asked her to come over; the ultimate popular girls.

"I have everything you want to know about Millie," Stacey promised, "But why do you want it?"

She never thought Millie Ripley would be her ticket in. Aside from what happened this summer, Stacey knew nothing about Millie – but everyone else knew even less. Millie was a nobody, and Stacey planned to use that to her advantage.

"It's none of your business," Bianca answered, "You're here to deliver what we want to hear. And if we find your news satisfactory, we'll reward you with whatever you want in return."

This was a non-negotiable deal. Bianca was known for making girls cry in the bathroom. No one was about to question her.

Stacey hid her nervousness and tried to play Bianca's game, "In return for telling you what I know, I want to be invited to every party you go to this year. And I mean every party."

Oma answered that, "There's one tonight so, if you want to go, you need to hurry up with your evil confession. I'm not going to miss it."

Stacey had no idea why these girls wanted to destroy Millie. Millie was clumsy, boring and weird. These girls have it all, so what could Millie have that they want?

What could she have?

The girls waited for Stacey to start dishing.

So Stacey began, "Luke and Millie were co-counselors in Apple Cabin. They lived together this summer. He was seeing another girl, Tamara Woodhouse, but he broke up with her over something to do with Millie."

"No way," Jamie gasped, reveling in the drama, "I should've gone to summer camp."

"Who's Tamara Woodhouse?" Bianca asked Oma, "Is she prettier than me?"

Oma shrugged, having never heard the name in her life.

"Tamara had a plan to get revenge on Millie before the end of summer. Since Millie had interfered in her relationship, she wanted to get even. Everything was in place to execute on it, but then she changed heart."

"Why?"

"Something to do with Luke and a random accident on the lake. Some kids almost drowned, it was a crazy night, anyway," Stacey continued her story, "I have the picture that Tamara was going to use to end Luke's interest in Millie. It's saved on my phone. If you agree to my deal, then the picture is all yours."

"How bad is it?"

"It's bad. Post it online, spread it through the school and no one will look at Millie in the same way again. You could even get her expelled for underage prostitution."

"What?!"

"Ok, that might be a bit much," Stacey retracted her prior statement, "But definitely in trouble for being an underage stripper."

Bianca whispered something in Oma's ear. Oma considered it and said, "Before we agree to anything, we want to see the picture."

Stacey pulled her phone out and got the picture ready. She'd saved it on her computer before Millie deleted it the night of the lake accident.

She held her phone out but didn't let them take it. She wasn't about to make the same mistake twice.

"Eww," Jamie whistled, "That's a bad photo. Is she really a stripper?"

"No, it's just money we put in her bra."

"OK, well obviously this is not believable," Oma said and glanced at her best friend, "But it's still a bad photo. What are you thinking, B?"

"I'm thinking you have a deal, Stacey. I'll invite you to some parties. You give me that photo and Millie Ripley is little miss innocent no more."

The deal was made. Stacey sent Bianca the photo and was invited to the party that evening. She was ecstatic and asked to see Bianca's calendar, so she could drop in more invites.

Meanwhile, Jamie made her way to the front door.

Bianca said to her, "Well done for finding Stacey. I'm glad I contacted you."

"I don't have the stomach for this next step, so I'm glad it's on you," Jamie responded, before leaving Oma's house in a rush.

Oma and Bianca remained together. Oma watched her friend zoom in on every detail in the photo.

"This can go viral," Bianca giggled, "We haven't had any scandals at school lately and people are starting to wonder who this girl is. Luke's been hanging out with her everywhere. It's sickening."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Oma asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" Bianca laughed and showed Oma the picture again, "It's exactly what we need. Bless Stacey for being an ambitious wannabe!"

"Excuse me?!" Stacey protested. She was still watching her calendar fill up.

"Ssh," Bianca silenced her, "What are you thinking Oma? I can tell you have on opinion. You're giving me that look."

Oma rubbed her eyes, "You want to hear my opinion? My honest opinion?"

"Obviously," Bianca said.

"I don't think you should go through with this."

"Why not?"

"Four reasons," Omi laid into it hard, "One: if you think a girl like Millie is a threat to you then you got some serious confidence issues. Two: Luke and Austin like this girl. Tell me how bullying her will get them on your side."

"They won't know it's us. Stacey won't tell anyone. She wants to be popular and that's her trade. Photo for popularity," Bianca argued.

Oma dismissed it, "Three: Stacey will tell the right people. Luke can threaten or charm anyone into submission."

"He won't care enough to find her. He'll just dump Millie. I mean, look at this photo!"

Oma ignored Bianca and turned to Stacey, "OK so tell me why you made the effort to take such a creative photo earlier this summer but never use it yourself? Who stopped you? You're so willing to hurt this Millie girl. Why didn't you go through with it then?"

"We didn't need it anymore-"

"Honey, if you lie to me, you are so done at this school."

The threat silenced Stacey in a heartbeat. Her face got red, "It was Luke. He spoke to Tamara and said that-"

"Exactly," Oma raised her hand to stop Stacey from babbling on, "There you go, B. I had four points. And the fourth one is... let's not be total bitches. Life's too short for that."

Bianca wasn't sure she agreed.

Luke was practicing layups in his back garden. This evening had not gone to plan. His sister was in her room crying and Millie was furious with him. Jamie had surprised him by coming over, because she had something urgent to tell him.

And then she'd left.

He bounced the basketball and practiced his slam dunk.

His father had installed a hoop against the back of the house four years ago. Since then, they'd covered the grass in tarmac to make a half-court with proper basketball stands.

Mr Dawson would stop at nothing to get his son to the top.

"Hey Mr Dawson, how was date night?" someone called out from inside the house.

"Austin, I didn't see you come in. It was good. We went to that old Italian spot by the Rockford theater," Mr Dawson replied from his armchair by the TV, "Luke's outside, but don't distract him for long."

"Yes sir," Austin said as he walked through the house and into the backyard, "WHAT'S UP MY BROTHER?"

Luke dribbled the ball to a standstill and raised his hand, wiping the sweat off his brow, "Hey man, it's late."

"You know I don't sleep properly. Is everything alright?"

"All good. Still waiting to hear back from colleges but we won-"

"I'm not talking about basketball."

Luke's voice lowered. "About Millie?"

"Yeah."

Luke dropped the ball, and sighed, "Yeah man, I don't know what I'm doing. She was a pain in my ass all summer and then, as soon as it was over, I wanted more."

Austin raised his eyebrows. He didn't expect this. He'd guessed it, but he sure as hell didn't expect Luke to confess it.

Luke continued, "I'm going crazy. Everyone thinks I'm crazy. I almost punched Jake when he asked her out. And Chad is confused as f*ck why I invited her to his place today. But she's unlike any girl I know and I don't know how to deal with that. I want to show her I'm changing."

"Don't change too much, bro," Austin said, "Some of us like you this way."

"And I'm angry, man. They treat her so bad. Her mum, everyone at our school, even my friends," he threw the ball into the hoop but it bounced off the rim, "Her fake friends organized a birthday dinner that they ditched. How messed up is that?! You should've seen how innocent and hurt she looked. It broke me."

Austin had one question to that. "Why wasn't I invited?"

Luke grabbed the ball and dribbled it aggressively, his emotion spewing out into his performance, "And I'm worried-"

"OK, you have a lot of feelings today," Austin remarked, looking for a chair he could sit in.

This may take some time.

"I'm worried I'm going to hurt her. I can see it in her eyes already. I'm not good enough for her. I'm self-centered and overhyped," he smiled at that word, "And she's the most honest and genuine person I've ever met."

"She doesn't idolize you," Austin said, "That's good. I can't deal with that."

"Oh!" Luke remembered, his eyes lighting up, "She said she started to fall for me."

"What?!" Austin gave up on a chair.

"Outside my house tonight, she said she started to fall for me," he then admitted, "she also said that she wanted to run me over, but we go way back on that one..."

"That doesn't sound like a good thing," Austin pointed out, "Her wanting to kill you."

"Nah, it's fine. She runs everything over. It's her way of saying hello."

"You two are twisted."

Luke smiled at that. "Yeah, I like her."

"Hey man, I never said anything about like. That was all you."