In primary school, I never got into any real trouble.

Yes, there was occasional incidents of not handing in homework and (very) frequent incidents of forgetting to bring things, including said homework, as well as petty rivalries over the dumbest things with those I considered enemies back in the day. But not discipline trouble, never the kind where my name got taken down to be remembered for ass-frying. Perhaps it was also that we were stupid little girls in an all-girls' school, and teachers saw nonsensical behaviour as a phase of childhood, to some extent.

Good times, my dudes.

I guess the not-so-strict rules were what gave me a culture shock at Rifton. After not tucking in my shirt for PE once, I found myself having another in-toilet mental breakdown again because demerit points were a thing. Perhaps puberty had brought on the entire 'rebellious phase' that adults used; all I was sure of was that the more they wanted to punish me, the more I hated the rules with a burning passion.

Back to that fine ol' Monday, the week after my crusade against Lisa, the prefects jumped at us with another one of their nasty spot checks, leaving me with another demerit point because my skirt was apparently too short if it was only covering 80% of the knee.

Ah, note taken, next time I'll add more fabric so that it's floor length. Imagine how proper and respectful I would become! Indeed, the studies have shown that an increase in skirt length leads to an increase in decorum in female students!

That was the first thing in the day to get me in a bad mood. The second was when I received my Algebra test - a large 15/20 was slapped onto the front cover with a bold red marker-like pen. It wasn't a bad grade in the grand scheme of things - but we been knew that it was awful. I was actually confident about doing well in the test and possibly getting full marks but somehow, I'd managed to make careless mistakes that took the five marks off my paper.

I couldn't believe there was a time that I felt like the world had ended from scoring anything below ninety percent, goodness. Now, passes and a seventy-plus average were already a safe grade.

When would I get my glow-up? All I was having were a series of go-downs.

"We have six full marks for this test - Juliette, Natalie, Sarah, Caitlin, Angeline, Rianne." Mdm Lorenzo announced with her signature strict voice. "You six can follow me to the office to collect your prizes when the lesson ends." Instantly, the entire class began a round of applause for the full-markers, but most of them remained cool about it or just smiled as they received looks of awe. I, however, just tried to contain my anger. Goodness, why are they so smart all the time?

Juliette's face was completely blank as she turned her focus towards the board, her excitement numbed by many similar scores that she had attained. Caitlin was visibly pleased as she nodded politely, as did Natalie - who had a smug-ish look on her face, probably due to Gillian's unimpressed face as she nudged Lisa, her mouth moving with a few silent, resentful comments that I was too far away to hear.

I watched Lisa reply, similarly solemn as they soon turned to the screen flashed with equations.

Happy, airhead, I-got-pics-to-share-and-PSLs-to-drink Lisa wasn't here today, it seemed.

Did Selene Chan know why? Perhaps, she did have an idea... but always better to check with someone else.

I tapped Elise on the shoulder, "Hey, dude, is it just me or does Lisa seem a bit... sad today? Or, okay, not sad, but like... not as happy-ish? Like, I'm pretty sure she's normally supposed to be chattering away at this time of the day."

Elise frowned, a mild irritation etched on her face, probably because I had forced her to engage in conversation with someone like myself. Yes, I was a loner with no power in Rifton, but to ignore someone was still rude, and most followers of cliques were still too conscious of their own decorum to outright display hostility towards a peer, even a loner. "I guess. Maybe she didn't do well for the test or something. I don't know, just a guess." She picked up her green pen and looked back at the screen - a clear indication that the conversation I had initiated was over.

"Yeah," I mused, looking at the board.

Just as I had intended, news had spread, and if Lisa wasn't able to weasel out of this, things would be bad for her. She'd have a permanent mark on her report card for disciplinary issues, and she probably wouldn't be eligible for scholarships and things in the future if people did look into this stuff.

She was the final piece of the core three of the Populars to fall, trapped by the sudden forward trod of a pawn such as myself, a move that she'd foolishly assumed I was too passive to put forward. In her desire to always flaunt her social media and constantly share her most perfect and polished moments, she had forgotten that Avery was the only one of the two of them with a free period and thus allowed to be outside.

Honestly, I didn't know. These people dropping their free pieces left, right and centre... they were really making it too easy for me at this point. It was... quite unbelievable, to think that they who had looked down at me from their lofty pedestals, were just as human and flawed to make the foolish mistakes of a typical youth.

But what's not to like about that? I wasn't complaining, there wasn't anything that they could say about it, even if they knew. Sure, I was a snitch, and snitches get stitches, but given my current status, I was already sort of in a stitch. I had nothing to lose, and I was doing the school a favour. I'd stood up for Mrs Walters and helped Lorenzo catch wrongdoings. Perhaps not very legal in the eyes of students, but it was justice for all who'd fallen prey to their idiocies.

Maybe, just maybe, they would even think twice before they repeated their mistakes in the future beyond the halls of Rifton.

Yet, I couldn't help but feel that burning in my chest as the friendly chatter of Rianne Clifford with her prefect friends reached my ears. It just wasn't fair. She was thriving, and that meant she got to pick on my mistakes and get away with it.

It was the same old bullshit, just different people executing it in my face.

"YOU LISTENED TO IT?! OMIGOSH IT'S SOOOOO GOOD, RIGHT?"

I nearly choked on a baby carrot when the fangirling noises of the K-Pop kids ruined the initial peace of the cafeteria. After coughing a few times to get the food back into my oesophagus, I turned my head up to glance at their table with an extremely annoyed expression settling on my face.

Not. Again.

As my mind ran wild, conspiring imaginary scenarios of strange ways I could avenge my poor ears for having to suffer from obsessive noises, I noticed something very wrong at their table.

Tina Lee's silky black hair flowed to her back as she fangirled with someone who should never be condoning the breach of school rules due to the striped tie around her neck. Rianne Clifford just laughed at something the Korean said, crossing her legs as she sat on the edge of the table. Not once did she pull out her booking card to award Tina a demerit point. Not once did they stop laughing about whatever they were talking about.

And I oop, Rianne. So apparently, you pick on me, but you ignore the ten million red flags about Tina's general appearance? Much fairness, such lawful behaviour. Not corrupt at all, yeah?

A real piece of work you are!

But then again, who said I couldn't go up there and give Tina a bit of a friendly reminder? I knew I was being daring today, speaking to Elise about school tea and all, and now trying to shade Rianne indirectly, but I'd been watching some fan edits of 'badass multifemales'.

If it was realistic for people in shows to assault people for disrespect, then I'd say I was being relatively tame with this.

Unclenching my fists and putting my fork down (I accidentally gave myself a red mark from gripping the fork, oops), I straightened out the crumples in my skirt and headed over towards the K-Pop Kids' table, all ready for giving Rianne a reality check. It wasn't much but reminding Tina to tie up her hair, Rianne-style, was going to be a good roasting session since she basically hounded me every day to clip up my side-fringe.

Little did I know that I was going to get a load of something much more interesting as I neared the table.

"Awww, that's so sweeet!" Tina exclaimed in her Korean-accented voice as Rianne smiled, her cheeks going just slightly red. "Y'all, get yourselves in a relationship like Riason, this is like the highest level. Couple goals, dude."

I instantly stopped behind the white cafeteria pillar. Seems like Miss Prefect has gotten herself a boyfriend...

"Ray-son? Did you just make a ship name for the two of us?"

"Hell yeah, Riri," Elise chirped, "Y'all are too cute to not have one."

Can't imagine her being cute, TBH. She's normally too horrifying and annoying. Guess fakeness increases with the introduction of the opposite sex.

Rianne blushed even more, to my confusion, "Goodness, I tell you one thing and you guys are all, like - "

"Sis, you literally cancelled on me today so you can meet him after school. Of course we're going to have to tease you a bit more about this."

"Jamie, don't be salty. Didn't that Hawthorne dude slide into your DMs last week?"

More playful slapping on shoulders, more teasing laughter.

I walked away from my spot behind the pillar and went to buy a juice, a risky but thrilling plan formulating in my brain. Both Rianne and I would be in supplementary class that entire afternoon. I doubted she'd pull a Lisa and ditch for a relationship, meaning my best bet was to tail her and hope for the best.

I mean, there was a chance that the entire school could be in a conspiracy theory sent to ruin my life and it was a set-up, but that was rather unlikely too. Whatever it was, the opportunity was being dangled before me, and I was not about to mind taking it.