"Got it, but... since we kinda have to follow the rules of the men, it's gonna be hard to find beer, wine or whatever it is..." Andrew immediately holds his hand up and seems to be about to talk when Iara continues. "But... but hear me out, we can guarantee a big stock of all types of alcohol if you do us a favor."

"Or I can just gather some people and tell the principal that you guys aren't doing a good job and if there are enough students he will listen and kick you two out." Andrew shows a small smile for the two of them, Lily quickly realizes that this is a negotiation and that her job is to stay quiet and agree with whatever Iara says.

 "Yeah, go ahead and do that, and then the afterparty will be done by the popular kids right there." She gets closer to Andrew pointing at the table occupied by the cheerleader and football players. "And answer me, do you think they will invite the little chess club that has six members and is behind the theater club in popularity?"

 "We... We have eight members..." Andrew seems a little unsure and he was going to keep going when Iara interrupts him with a smile, she already feels like she won.

 "Did any of these members get invited to the last afterparty?" Iara doesn't try to hide her condescending smile.

 "What exactly do you want?"Andrew says looking down, his voice a little more contained.

 Lily feels like she just saw a cops show in real life, she doesn't even know what exactly Iara wants but she is happy that her friend won this negotiation and it is fun to be on the winning side of a social interaction in school. Iara fixes her posture and stealthily points at the trio.

 "I dislike the popular kids. All you need to do for me is gather information about them and text me whatever you get, I want to know everything, from the color of their socks to their deepest secrets, got it?" Andrew looks at their direction, he sighs and for a moment he regrets ever sitting down at this table.

"Agreed, I will make the effort to accomplish your task, if you accomplish yours." He holds his hand up, waiting for a handshake, Iara doesn't waver and firmly shakes his hand and saying.

 "You got it. It will be a pleasure to work with you."

After the negotiation ends they exchange numbers, Lily introduces themselves with a smile, she is excited to have one acquaintance in the school, Iara has got what she needed and mentally checked out of the conversation, she only goes back to paying attention when Andrew gets up and leaves, Lily smiles at Iara and says.

"Girl you fucked him in front of all of us! That was just out of a fucking porn movie! He is not even walking straight after that!" Lily's voice is a little bit louder than what Iara would like, but she smiles at her friend before going back to eating.

"I couldn't have done it without you." Lily knows that that's a lie, but it's nice to feel included. She is about to talk about how she doesn't understand chess when Iara sighs and begins recapping the plan they did in the classroom.

"So, for the party we just have to google some stuff about the school, write some notes and put in the lockers. We find some people that want to do a talent show to celebrate how "everybody has their own talent" and that's it. What we really have to focus on is the afterparty because nobody actually cares about parties in school, it's gonna be at your house right?"

 "Yes, my dad will throw another party when I tell him I'm throwing a party" Lily smiles remembering all the times her father told her to leave the house.

Iara continues with her plan. "That 's great! For a good afterparty all we need is a bunch of beer and vodka. I can create a playlist for it, and we buy a little food so people don't have alcohol poisoning, and... that's it right?"

 Lily puts her hand on her chin and after a little thinking she says. "We also need to find a way to fuck The Trio. How about we say it's a costume party but just for the three of them?"

 The lunch break goes smoothly with them discussing and talking about progressively worse ways to make fun of three people, Iara goes on a mission to ask the principal's secretary what she can or can't do in the anniversary, learning that the leeway she has is more than enough to do what she wanted, and that Anastacia had no problem with lying to the school. As she is making her way back to class, she feels a little weird not having Lily at her side, she is used to always having company, except in class, she runs a hand through her hair seeing one of the fliers of herself she didn't do on the floor.

 She takes the paper and her mind actually connects the two dots she already knew, this photo of them was posted on her private instagram, Lily doesn't post pictures that have drugs in them, which means someone has gotten access to her personal life, which means this person needs to burn in hell for eternity, she regrets the last thought, feeling a little too dramatic.

 "But it would be right if that person was Anastacia." Iara says with a smile.

The smile vanishes, her whole body stops, the minotaur in her mind has solved the puzzle and is finally escaping the labyrinth. Anastacia, she got a new follower last week, the Nikolaevna, which coincidentally is the same last name of Anastasia the duchess of Russia. She thought it was just someone who liked history, but now she is certain that it's a wolf in sheep's clothing. Better yet, a wolf in Russian clothes. She gets in of the bathroom of the school, taking out her phone and immediately opening instagram, the only reason she looked for a more private place is so that she can send an audio message to Nikolaevna before blocking her and if she did that on the school halls people were going to give her weird looks, unfortunately when she looks at the sink she sees Anastacia and Carol side by side talking while washing their hands. 

Carol is the first one to notice the tattooed girl's presence, she points at her and says. "Oh look, it's Iara, are you stalking us now?"

 Anastacia immediately looks in the direction of the older girl. For a second their eyes meet and they both try to read what the other is thinking. "No, I just wanted to find the two ugliest girls in school, and it seems like I found" Anastacia doesn't seem impressed but Carol looks very offended as she answers.

"Hello? You can call us assholes, dumb, with no future ahead of us, gangly and annoying, but you know that calling us ugly is the biggest lie you've ever told." Anastacia smiles at her friend, a little worried about this defense, and when she looks at Iara she can also see that the other girl is also unimpressed.

"Whatever you say. asshole." Iara smiles, going closer to the sink and washing her face. She actually just needs an excuse to leave now. 

 When she looks at herself in the mirror she realizes something. Why block her? In a battle of wits the most valuable resource is information, if someone doesn't get the truth, their whole world view becomes wrong, a little smile creeps on her face when she turns to Anastacia, a full plan forming in her head.

"Anastacia, I dislike you." She ignores the "wow" Carol says right after that. "But, I like having good grades more. Tomorrow you can go to my house and we will finish this so I don't have to look at your face, ok?" Anastacia gets taken back by this sudden invitation but quickly recovers saying. 

"Alright, but this time, you will follow what I say."

"Whatever you say, princess." Iara says as she shakes her hands and leaves the bathroom, that "princess" came out before she could actually think, but maybe that can help her plan. She rushes to class, anxious to tell the new lan to Lily, the smile on her face growing bigger when she looks at the front of the class and spots Lily quietly scrolling through her phone, she sits down at the chair on her side scaring her friend when she almost screams.

"I got it. I fucking got it." She almost can't contain herself and the confused look Lily has makes her even more excited.

"What... what did you get?" Iara puts both her hands on Lily's shoulder and says with the most confidence she could ever have.

 "The way I will get our revenge on Anastacia is by pretending I have fallen in love with her." 

When Lily feels comfortable with someone she always says the first thing that pops in her head, sometimes it's something weird, most of the time it's something sexual, but at this moment, she has no words for the sudden news Iara gave her. Iara seems to expect a bigger reaction, Lily slowly moves a hand through the table, after letting out a big sigh she says.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Iara ignores the aggressiveness in Lily's tone as she explains with a smile.

"She gave us what we hate, work. So I give her what she hates, love from a girl." Lily feels even more confused with this explanation.

"Hey, did you like, suck acid out of your ass? What the fuck are you talking about?" It's Iara's turn to feel annoyed at how Lily doesn't understand her plan.

"Alright, I will fully explain so shut up." Iara says.

"I wasn't even talking!" Lily exclaims while throwing her hands up.

Iara has to pause for a moment to collect her thoughts she wishes she could just make other people understand what she is thinking, she pulls out her phone showing the Nikolaevna profile, she ignores the confused look her friend gives her, and after a second of silence, that feels like days for Lily, Iara finally begins.

"So, someone followed my instagram, and it was the bitch, Anastacia" She points at the profile picture of Anastasia from the Disney movie. "She created a fake account by the name, Nikolaevna, it's a reference to the actual person Anastasia Nikolaevna. She probably did it this way so she could tell god she wasn't actually lying. This is the only new person I accepted and everyone else is from my old school or my neighborhood, so with this we have a way to contact Anastacia without her knowing that we know that we are talking to her."

"Sorry what." Lily has been lost since the name Nikolaevna showed up.

"Just hear me out, I can plant seeds that I like her from a safe place, telling "Nikolaevna" that I like Anastacia, which leads me to the main course, we tried attacking her public persona, but she controls the media, the people and the faculty, nobody will believe our word against hers. So we have to attack her privately. If I can pretend to like her while we are forced to work together, she will hate every second of every interaction we have, because she is homophobic but also needs to get good grades."

"Can't she just, like, I don't know, tell the school you like her? And we don't know if she's homophobic, she could love the guys and the gays." Lily shrugs, besides being called scissors Anastacia has never said anything bad about Lily's sexuality.

"I already thought of that! I will only make a move when we are alone, and when talking with Nikolaevna I will come up with a story that only she will be able to connect with herself, so she will not have actual proof of my feelings. And of course she is homophobic, she sucks!" Iara almost smiles at how simple the situation is, at least in her mind the plan is the easiest thing in the world.

"But if you like her... wouldn't she get happy? Her ego will probably get even higher" Lily believes in what she says, but she is actually just trying to put problems in Iara's plan hoping that the girl changes her mind.

"I already explained, she will get mad that I'm flirting with her, she will feel bad that she can't tell anyone, and I will have an even better excuse to annoy her." Lily looks up trying to find answers in a god she doesn't believe, she doesn't find it and she doesn't hide her feelings when she asks Iara.

"A-are we in sixth grade?"

"Do you have a better idea? Iara replies with a fake smile

"Yeah, literally anything else but that would be pretty great."

The two girls kept this argument for a long time, at the end of the class, that neither of them paid attention, they were in a heated discussion about how Iara never supports Lily's plans. When they leave the classroom they're practically screaming at eachother.

"No, because It's like, everything I say is wrong and when you have a bad idea I can't say nothing!" Lily says while pushing one freshman out of the way, her first interaction with one of them in years.

"It's not my fault you only come up with shit plans is it? And I do support you, It was your fucking idea to throw the party at your house." Lily rolls her eyes slowly feeling more vexed at this discussion, she clenches her fists before saying with a little smile and all the anger painted in her voice.

"Yeah because where else would it be? We are only here because you couldn't have lunch with a cunt for a day, right?" Iara fully turns to Lily stopping in the middle of the hall, her voice a little higher showing more anger than she would like.

"So I am wrong for not leaving you? Am I wrong for always fighting your battles for you, because you can't speak when needed?" Iara gets closer putting her index finger on Lily's chest. "But fine, I am gonna do it alone, while you can fuck off and do nothing, like usual."

Iara takes this moment to walk away from the conversation, she doesn't even know why she is so angry at Lily or why she is saying things she doesn't believe, but if she stays she will begin saying even more hurtful words. The whispers of the students around them are drowned by Lily's scream as Iara leaves.

"Oh yeah? Well fuck you too!" She covers her face with one of her books as she runs to class while Iara feels a little bad that that was the best Lily could come up with.