It’s raining. Of course it’s raining. It’s England. 

Slouching against the backdoor of the gym, Vivienne smoked a cigarette as she stared into nothingness. 

 Peggy used to think Vivienne looked cool and mysterious while doing that. But now standing soggy in the rain she thinks Vivienne looks rather small. Rather alone. 

A flurry of shouts carries from the boys rugby practice at the backfield and Peggy turns in time to see someone score a try. 

“What are you doing here?” Vivienne shifted her vacant gaze to Peggy. 

“Are you going to apologise to Attis? Calling him out on his family was out of order.”  

Taking a long drag of her cigarette Vivienne looked her up and down. 

“Someone finally found their backbone then.” Tossing the cigarette bud away, Vivienne stomped on it with a sly grin. “I don’t see why you care about Attis’ feelings though. The whole town knows what his dad did. Unless of course you're one of those girls who's hopelessly in love with the bad boy.”

Peggy scoffed.  

“I don’t like Attis like that.” 

“Sure.” Viviene rolled her eyes. “Then why do you care what I say to Attis?” 

“Because I want to win.” Peggy took a deep breath. “I am good-no great at making dresses and I want to study fashion at university and make outfits for film sets one day. Winning the Herringbone-House Fashion show will help me do that. So I care what you say to Attis because you can hate on his designs all you want but his sketches are great. Part of the judging is the drawings in the portfolio. We can’t win this without his skills and I want to win this.”

“So what do you want me to do? Make him a friendship bracelet and tell him my deepest secrets while we watch Mean Girls. No thank  you, I’m not apologising.” Vivienne kicked off the wall and stalked away. 

“Why do you have to be so difficult?” Following her, a tightness formed in Peggy’s chest. “You were insulting his family, what did you expect to happen? For him to take it lying down.” 

“Are you sure you don’t have a crush on him? Girls only defend jack-asses like Attis this much when they have crushes on them. But your a nice girl Peggy, so I’ll tell you, your wasting your time with Attis-” 

“I don’t want to get with Attis and I don’t want to be a nice girl.” Peggy snapped, stepping into Vivienne’s path and forcing her to stop. “I want to do whatever it takes to win because unlike you I have a future that I care about.” 

It took Peggy approximately three seconds to realise what she had said. 

She didn't mean to imply that Vivienne didn’t have a promising future, but by the thunderous look on Vivienne’s face that’s exactly what she’d done. 

“I-I’m sorry I didn’t mean it like that. Only that you don’t care if you get suspended or expelled, while I want to get into the best uni I can-” 

Vivienne dropped her bag and squared her shoulders. They stood so close Peggy could smell the smoke on her breath. 

Peggy’s heart hammered in her chest. She’d never been in a fight. She hoped Vivienne didn’t punch her in the face. 

“Apologies are for kiss-asses and politicians.” Vivienne snarled. Her eyes flicked over Peggy like they were meeting again for the first time. “You want me to apologise to Attis for purely selfish reasons? You don’t actually care about Attis’ feelings or the ethics of me insulting his family. You only care about what is best for you and that’s winning” 

She leaned closer with each word until Peggy could see the pimple under Vivienne’s nose. 

Peggy nodded. 

Vivienne studied her.

“You and your friends like to think that you're better than girls like me.” Vivienne stepped away and grabbed her bag. “But you and me? We are the same.”