Sela and Sirena stared at the lively table.

“ Do you think Narayon’s jealous?

“ Do you think this could mean a new plastic cup?”

“Maybe two?”

“What about a love triangle?”

“Guys, your food is getting cold,” Kiara waved her hand in front of the two gossiping friends. Sirena nodded her thanks and ate what was left of her muffin, before washing it down with juice.

The awkwardness was real. Narayon and Raina had somehow ended up in the same group. Sela was suffering just as much. She had been paired up with a girl by the name of Drew, who was the definition of fake.

“ She pretends to be nice because she’s popular, she can’t afford to ruin her image,” Sela had hissed to Sirena when they passed Drew in the hallway. Sirena was quite content with her partner, who just so happened to be Kiara.

“ Biology is so hard,” Sirena groaned

“ That’s just because Mr. Banks is evil,” Sela gave her a reassuring pat. Sirena gave her a smile in return and they eagerly walked to History.

“ Alright class, I know you’re all eager to start creating your own civilization, but first we need to learn about other civilizations!” Even the positive Ms. Teresa was no match for the boring classes ahead. Sela, Sirena, and Raina silently suffered the torture together.

“What I wouldn’t give to be Kiara right about now,” Sela sighed as Ms. Teresa came around with another worksheet.

“Not me, I suck at geography,” Sirena muttered back as she took a worksheet and handed another one to Sela.

“Thanks,” Sela whispered back “ But still, anything would beat this,”

“Even watching Perachel becoming canon?” Sela responded to this with a mock gasp of horror.

Sirena tried to disguise her laughter by literally burying herself in her worksheet. Sela followed her when she noticed Ms. Teresa coming around.

“How about you take the bottom half and I’ll take the top?” Sela whispered once Ms. Teresa had left.

“Deal,” Sirena replied

You see, the girls had a goal, one to write as alike as they possibly could. It was the forging project. Then, when given a truckload of work, they could split it, so it would be as if one girl would only need to do one half of a packet twice. Then, dear reader, now is when you will ask, but what is that for? Isn’t it better to learn and work hard that get off the easy way? And the girls would respond, try saying that to the study guide, which was almost always the same as the real test. Also, the girls thought a more valuable lesson was to learn how to forge a handwriting.

Cramping their hands while trying to shape letters the same way as each other weirdly entertained them, distracting them from the mind-numbing task of reading about dusty old pillars and arches. Sirena’s handwriting was petit, dark, and not very spaced out. Sela’s handwriting was all over the place, light, and relatively large. Yeah, try to forge that. No, my e’s don’t look like that. No, that S looks like an eggplant, that’s not how I write it. Believe it or not, this was fun for the girls.

It was also an excellent distraction from the fact that they would have to get into groups soon.

Sirena had gotten lucky, as she was paired with a kind classmate of hers, by the name of Irene, and suddenly, Sela felt very, very, alone. Drew sneered at her, answering her questions in a nonchalant way that made her feel small. See, there was something about Drew that changed her. The old Sela would make witty comments 24/7, in response to her anger at Drew. Oh yes, Sela hated the way that Drew acted, the way that Drew hated her. But when she came, something about her made Sela nervous. Docile. Afraid. It made the audacity and the courage and the slyness of the fox inside her dissipate completely. It was the fact that Drew disregarded her, and Sela didn’t know why. Oh, and Sirena changed too. Once a gentle, cheery, graceful cat lived within her, but when Drew came, she changed into a growling creature, one that bared its teeth, but scrabbled into the corner, frightened.

__________________________________________________________________

Sirena had a great time with Irene, and they came up with at least a hundred ideas, all plausible and simple. (Well, the cat dimension was a bit complicated, but Irene would understand one day.)

But when Sirena met up with Sela at the end of class, her hair was frazzled with frustration, and her eyes were slightly crossed. This wasn’t the first hint that Sela was not happy with her partner. The first was when they started a shouting match that she heard from across the room. No wait, the first one was when Mrs Teresa assigned them as partners, and Drew made a sound a disgust, asking for another partner. Yes, that was the first time. Sela said nothing at first. Then, she picked up the plastic cup notebook, and drew a snake with it’s head severed, even adding a horrific pile of blood.

Drew hasn’t bled yet, Sirena thought, So she should count herself lucky

Sela thought for a moment, then added a line connecting the snake to a trash can, and squished as many dashes as she could fit.

Sirena suppressed a giggle. Drew should count herself lucky twice.