POV: Rebel Reid 

“Pickle Sucker! Pickle Sucker! Pickle Sucker!”

Another victim. Look at her face, she’s enjoying this. That smug smile, that gleam in her eyes. Dillion Smiley is a monster. Her eyes are glued to her latest victim Miranda Pickle. Miranda runs out of the school in a fit of tears.

I watch several people take out their phone open the gross app and verify the takedown. It’s disgusting. All of it. Dillion even takes a picture of Miranda’s locker, just for a memento. A happy little reminder of how she ruined yet another girl’s life and reputation.

Just being near her makes me mad. I quickly walk out of school and head to the mall. Someone needs to do something about this. Someone has to stop the madness. If not the girls at Sunder high will continue to eat each other alive. 

For fun.

How can a person live like this? Where your favorite hobby is ruining someone’s life and making a scrapbook of all the past victims. It’s truly sad. She must have issues. I bet she is obsessive over it; always wondering who’s gonna get it next. It’s all just a game to her. A silly little game. I wonder if she would feel that way if it was her on the receiving end of the takedown. If it was her life that just blew up.

But of course, what does Dillion Smiley have to hide? She’s an open book, or so she advertises. Yet if that were true how come she doesn’t have any actual friends? She keeps a good distance between herself and anyone who tries to get close. People who do that tend to have something to hide. She isn’t untouchable, she just wants everyone to think she is. She has a reputation now, and that alone is enough to get people to steer clear and not even try and see if she’s actually untouchable. Which is exactly what she wants.

She’s good, she’s undefeated. But guess what, so am I.

Granted I’ve never played the stupid game or had anyone challenge me, but that still makes me undefeated just like Dillion. This can’t go on any longer, I have to stop it. If not me then who? How long will this continue to grow? Is this really what we want to pass on to the next group of students who are entering Sunder high? Is this really the legacy we want to leave behind? Dillion Smiley took down Pickle Sucker… not really a great legacy.

I sit in my usual booth and wait for Birdie and Scooter to join me. I pull out my copy of the book Pride and Prejudice. Just as I open it I hear snickers to my right. I glance that way and see a table full of the guys from the football team. Cricket Glass, Flynn McRay, Thomas Bell, and Mariam Black, otherwise known as Ram. They are whispering to each other and playfully pushing each other. Sometimes I think they are just as bad as Dillion.

I roll my eyes and go back to my book. That is until I hear a chair scrape across the floor and the snickers increase tenfold. Before I can think to move, Flynn is standing in front of me. I sigh and close my book. He flashes his cocky smile. I can’t help but let my eyes scan over his finely chiseled body. His shirt is so tight I can see his six-pack underneath. His brown hair is spiked up just right so it gives him a wild look. His hazel eyes have a boyish gleam to them, his devious smile tells me this is some joke to him. He’s really tan, probably from all those practices out in the summer heat. I bet he thinks he’s all that. He gives off that vibe.

“Hey I’m Flynn, you go to our school, right? I think I’ve seen you around.”

“I’m Rebel. We have the same homeroom.” I point out.

“We do?” he questions out loud.

“Maybe you’ve never noticed because I sit in the back.” I shrug.

“Or maybe it’s because your beauty if too blinding that I can’t look at you without hurting my eyes.” He wiggles his eyebrows.

I can’t help but laugh at the corniness. Give me a freaking break. That’s his best one-liner? What an idiot. Who would ever want to date him?

“You like that? There is more where that came from.” He chuckles.

He thinks I am laughing with him, what an idiot.

Heels clacking against tile draws both of our attention. A sour taste fills my mouth at the sight of her. What the hell does she want? Just look at her in her pink tutu looking dress, her pink-tipped hair, and her pink little purse. Yuck. Talk about a walking cliché.

“Hey Smiley,” Flynn turns his full attention to her.

“Hey Flynn, who’s this?” she turns her piercing blue eyes on to me. Raising a thin brow at me. Her overly glossed lips squish into a tight line.

“Oh uh, um…”

He really forgot my name already, what an idiot. How has he even made it to senior year? Really, I want to know who passed this idiot.

“It’s Rebel.” I roll my eyes.

“Right Rebel, I knew that.” Sure you did.

“I’m Dillion, Dillon Smiley.” Please like I don’t know who you are.

“Rebel Reid.”

Just being near her and associating with her makes me feel lowly. How can anyone stand to be around this monster? She doesn’t even care that she ruined someone’s life. It is like literally nothing, meaningless to her. She’s a gross person.

“Hey Flynn,” Clover, a girl equally as bad as Dillion finally speaks up.

She’s always following Dillion around like a lost puppy. It’s obvious she only does it to make herself look equally as intimating as Dillion. She wants what Dillion has, why would anyone want that? She’s just as Gross.

“Hey Cloves.” He winks at her.

“So Rebel, you go to our school right? I don’t really see you around.” Great now Dillion is talking to me. I got to get out of here.

“Well, I see you.” Trust me, I see you. I wish I didn’t.

I wish I went to another school where girls were normal and not trying to destroy each other.

“Anyways, um. I got to go.” I say just as I see Birdie and Scooter walking over.

“Right, uh, nice meeting you.” She smiles.

What was that? Did she smile at me, why? We are not friends, nor do I want to be her friend. Unless… Maybe I should be her friend. What if I could get Dillion Smiley to turn good, with her help we could stop the game once and for all. Who better to end it than the current reigning champion? Okay, I can work with this, if she wants to be my friend then so be it. I will bring her onto the side of reason and together we can put an end to this crusade once and for all.

I quickly walk off towards my friends; I have a plan.

“Okay, why were you talking to Dillon Smiley?” Birdie says as we go upstairs and sit in a new booth.

“She was talking to me, please, I would never. Just being around her makes me sick.” I shudder.

“Did you see her latest takedown?” Scooter leans in.

“You would have to be blind to miss it.” Birdie complains.

“You guys didn’t even see what I saw. She was so smug you should have seen it. I mean it’s disgusting, What a horrible person. She actually takes joy in ruining people lives. We have to stop this once and for all.” I look from Birdie to Scooter.

With their help, we can do this. We can put a stop to this gross game.

“You would have to face the bitches of Sunder high, not a good idea,” Scooter says as he runs a hand through his shaggy black hair.

That’s exactly what I am counting on. As soon as this snitch alert goes out Dillion will have no choice but to come after me. While she’s trying to find out intel on me, I will find out intel on her. I think it’s high time someone knocked her off her high horse. But we can’t forget about Alaska and Clover. I can’t handle all three of them on my own.

“She won’t have to do it alone, she has us.” Birdie pats me on the shoulder.

I can always count on my friends to help me.

“Maybe we should just tell someone,” Scooter leans forward in his chair.

“Don’t worry, I have a plan.” I flash them a cocky smirk.

I open my mouth to go on but my eyes catch the glint of a phone camera recording me. Well, that didn’t take long. It’s too public here, not safe to talk.

“We should go.” I glance at my friends then back to the recording girl.

They catch my drift and together all three of us stand and head over to scooters house.

After waving high to his dad we go down the hall to his room and shut ourselves in. Birdie makes a face at the mess.

“I know, I know.” He says before she can say anything.

“Dude I thought you cleaned up.” I frown.

“I did, but it just gets messy again.” He sighs.

“Whatever back on business.” Birdie says.

I nod.

“So what’s the plan?” Scooter asks.

“We get Dillion to end the game.”

“And how exactly do we do that?” Birdie raised a brow at me.

“We take her down! Give her a taste of her own medicine!” Scooter says.

“That is one option, I was thinking more like pretend to be her friend and get her to change her ways.” I shrug.

“Rebel, poor naïve Rebel, that is asking the impossible. The only way this bitch is going down is if we take her down.” Birdie says.

I frown.

“First things first you are going to have to download the app and make a profile,” Scooter says.

I sigh and pull out my phone. After watching Birdie be taken down freshmen year I swore to myself that I would never download the app and play the stupid game. Yet here I am, about to do that very thing.

It’s for a good cause.

“Once Dillion is finally taken down she will be so upset that she might just end the game for us. Just one question how do we take down Dillion Smiley?” Scooter asks.

That’s the million dollar question. This all sounds good in theory but no one, and I do mean no one has ever come close to successfully bringing her down. I wouldn’t even know where to start.

“She has to be hiding something, right?” Birdie says.

I open the now downloaded app and start creating my profile.

“Well duh, no one is perfect,” Scooter says.

“We should start with Clover, I bet she knows something. She’s been around Dillion the longest.” I say.

“Like she would tell us anything.” Bridie sighs.

“Maybe if we take her down she will,” Scooter says.

“So what we just take down the bitches one at a time?” I look up from my phone.

“Or all at the same time!” Birdie declares.

“Once again how are we going to do this?” I ask.

“We each take a bitch down. I get Alaska, Scooter gets Clover, and you take down Dillon.”

“You only want Alaska for payback.” I roll my eyes.

“Damn right I do. That bitch has it coming. You know people still call me trash bag, it’s been like 3 years! Can we move on please?”

“I still get called Fag Tag thanks to Clover, so join the club.” Scooter sighs.

“This is why we have to do this! Peoples lives get ruined! Their reputation. This school is so freaking corrupt and mean that it makes peoples lives a living hell. High school isn’t supposed to be like this. Dillion Smiley and her band of bitches have really taken this stupid game to the next level, it’s like a freaking competitive sport or something. I saw a girl have a nervous break down in the girl’s restroom just because she accidentally bumped into Alaska Roundoff. Let’s not forget what happened to poor Miranda. Kelly Wesner moved just because she couldn’t handle the bullying anymore. It has to stop before someone really gets hurt. All this secret sabotage and war, it’s going to push someone over the edge. I can’t live with myself another day knowing that I continue to let this go on. I have to end it, I’ll do whatever it takes. She can’t silence me. Dillion Smiley is going down.”

“Woo, someone turn the heat down. Damn now that is what I call a motivational speech.” Birdie fans herself dramatically.

“You’re right Rebel, if anyone can do it it’s you. I mean you are the only girl in the whole school who hasn’t played the game. That makes you a legend of your own. I believe in you, I may not have been able to end the game last year, but maybe with you, we stand a chance.”

Maybe with me. Yeah. I’m not like anyone Dillion has faced before. She knows nothing about me, I am not popular, and my only two friends would never spill anything on me. Not that there is much to spill. She has no ammo, even if she just made up something, who would even care? I am a nobody, and that is what gives me the advantage. I may not have much to lose, but she has everything to lose. She is the one who has to watch her back. My friends are loyal, can she say the same about herself?

I add my picture onto my profile and see that a snitch alert has already been placed on me, Birdie and Scooter. I’m not scared of her. She can’t win.

“So back to this issue, how do we take them down?” Scooter asks.

“We start with all their past victims. Surely one or two of them got close to finding something out. Maybe if we piece their stories together, we might actually have something.” I say.

“Oooo, good idea.” Birdie agrees.

“Okay, so who wants Miranda?” Scooter asks.

“I’ll do it.” I sigh.

A beep on my phone notifies me that I have been challenged, Birdie and Scooter get similar beeps.

“I just got challenged by Clover,” Scooter says.

“I got Alaska.”

I look at my phone and see Dillion’s name flashing in red. Dillion Smiley challenges you, the notification says.

Bring it on bitch.

Bring it on.