Playing with Fire

A few moments earlier

Vicky took a deep breath as she looked through the crowds at Vana and Penelope. The Queen Bitch was confident and strong, softening or no, she refused to be intimidated by a few weirdo soft mores.

Still, she wondered on just why Charlie wanted them on that bench by the window? and contemplated even deeper still on why she agreed to do his bidding so readily... and then she thought on when He had visited her house in the night, yah she was scared at first as anyone who had woken up to bright eyes and a pale face standing over them in the night. But his willingness to confide in her, the way his hot skin touched hers in their first embrace, that was why she skulked around the cloud of warm bodies and body odour towards the pair of social outcasts.

"I can't seriously have a thing for this guy of all guys, right?
A couple of months ago the thought would have made me laugh my ass off.
I must admit, what he said made me think. Izzy and these two freaks have been acting more than a little strange, all since we began attendance at the academy - I have to find out for myself if something is genuinely wrong them, or if Charlie really is as much of a bullshitter as I suspect he is."

She did not approach them outright, but swivelled behind a bloated band-geek to stay hidden, quickly shooting into a free seat among some of the sweaty choir boys, who froze in terror at her sudden appearance. She shot a warning finger out at them, keeping her head low so that Vana and Penelope (both seated directly behind her) would not be alerted to her presence. "I'm not here. Got it?" She whispered through closed teeth. Reddening, the choir members nodded and turned their eyes away from her.

Vicky lent back only slightly, listening in keenly.

"...I don't think that's necessarily true, Nells-" Vana said in her cool, cordial tone.

"No! it is. How long are you gonna keep your head buried in the sand, Vana? Every day those fucking mutts push their luck with us, the fact they are even allowed on our turf is a god damn miracle. If I had my way, I'd burn the hairy-shits to ash." Vicky could not see Penelope Helia, but she could hear the sneer in her voice. The girl was infamous for getting brawls over very little, her temper made all but Vana avoid her, even the other S&Rs.

"...I honestly thought you'd be more concerned about, Drake, more than anything else. You have been scowling even more than usual since he refuted your little threat." Vana mused.

"Don't even talk to me about that asshole, why Hedwig hasn't shot him into space by now is beyond me! Those idiotic crusaders call him the dark-sun, ha! I bet I could melt that creepy man-whore like a candle!"

"Keep your voice down!" Vana pleaded in an urgent whisper, lowering her voice just enough so that Vicky could barely hear her "Don't add breaking the Grand Charade to your already long list of hiccups this week, Provost Hedwig is already furious over your confrontation with him. Listen, Nells, I know your families have history but remember what I told you, Drake is exceptionally powerful, we may be able to incapacitate him but if he calls in the other Descendants, or worse; his clan, then it would be the end of us."

"Descendants? Descendants of what... and... clan?
Is he a covert KKK member or somethin'? the fuck are these chicks talking about?
and Charlie, Charlie, what have You gotten me into?"

Vicky heard Penelope grunt, seemingly stuck on Vana's non-sensical logic. "Whatever. Just give me twenty-minutes in a room with him, I'll rock his world." Helia growled.

Vana grinned mischievously "Yeah... I bet you would."

Penelope shot up from the table, rocking it violently.
People turned to look and Vicky used the opportunity to glance over, herself. Penelope had grasped Vana by her shirt, raising a threatening fist at her friend as she flushed with crimson "SHUT YOUR MOUTH YOU BASTARD, I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT WHY YOU GOTTA TAKE MY WORDS OUTTA CONTEXT WHEN YOU KNOW IT PISSES ME OFF!"

Despite what most people might think, this was an entirely normal affair during lunch. If Helia didn't have a shouting fit at someone (usually Vana) then something was surely wrong. Vana did what she always did as her bestie threatened to box her up. She chuckled sweetly, her cute dimples forming as she coyly grinned "Yeah, yeah alright. You done?" Vana asked.

Penelope gritted her teeth, opening her grasp on Vana's shirt as she sat back down, cross-armed and sulking angrily "No. I'm sick of you and your stupid face and your sarcastic quips. I swear when we graduate, I'm gonna-"

"-Burn me to a crisp, I know. - Love you too." Vana shrugged off the tantrum as always, picking up her empty tray.

Vicky tensed "They finished their food already! shit, I gotta get them over there somehow, think Vic, think!"

Boom, Lightbulb!

"Thanks nerds-I mean um, guys... thanks guys." Vicky pointed enthusiastically to the nervous choir boys as she stood from the bench. Penelope was sat directly behind her, so it was very easy for Vicky to 'accidently' stumble backwards into the narrow punk-outfitted edge-lord.

The Impact made Penelope drop her tray, bits of potato mash and peas flying up and smudging on her oversized yellow and orange stripped sweater. Vana raised her thick brow, as Helia slowly turned to Vicky, showing her heavily creased wrathful face.

The two of them sized each other up, Vicky putting on a purposefully sarcastic look of regret "Oh look who it is..." Vic sneered with her trademark malice "...The worlds biggest stiff and her attack dog. You better watch where your going, Helia."

Perhaps Vicky had changed, but that didn't mean that being the Queen Bitch didn't come well in handy.

Penelope's eyes twitched, fingers crushing into a tight fist. "...The fuck you say, Kaz?" She seethed. Many feared Vicky and the social ruin she'd bring if they crossed her, but in that regard, Penelope had nothing to lose.

"I swear if I get punched in the face, I'm gonna fucking kill you."

Vicky took a deep breath, as eyes wandered over to watch the coming cataclysm "I said, keep your dusty discount guns and roses groupie looking ass the fuck out of my way."

Penelope seemed so angry that she was in disbelief "W-What? what!?"

Vana grimaced, trying to grab her friends arm "Nells..." which was swiftly ripped away.

"Bitch, did I st-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-utter? You better step off before I catch whatever disease changed your hair colour to that of a senile old man's bloody-afternoon-piss." Okay, maybe this wasn't such a bad idea. She was kinda starting to enjoy this!

Penelope was shaking with rage, barely able to contain herself. Unfortunately a saner head prevailed. Vana approached from behind, placing an arm; half comforting and half restraining around Helia, gently pulling her back "Come on, Nells, let's get out of here, we gotta get to the library remember? We really don't want to be late." Vana said... in a very strange way, while giving Vic the stink eye.

For some reason, somehow, Penelope seemed to hold back, pushing down her anger and turning to leave.

"Shit! quick quick!"
Penelope was one of those that Vicky knew of since kindergarten, and it was with this long time knowledge where an ancient memory popped into her mind.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. run away..." Helia would explode over even the smallest insult, but what made her nuclear was one nickname that nobody had dared to speak of, since the incident in 2004, the only true way to guarantee Penelope's wild response of murderous intent was with the legendary, fabled nickname: "...Piss-Pantie Penelope." Vicky said.

Everyone around them oooed and braced. Vana's head fell "Well... shit."

Helia slowly turned, eye's bloodshot, chest heaving as she screamed out a deadly war cry "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Bursting suddenly toward, Vicky, Vana closed her arms around Penelope trying to hold her back with every inch of strength she possessed.

Vicky stepped back, making sure that her back faced towards the bench by the window as she slowly inched closer and closer to it.

Like a wild, untamed animal, Penelope thrashed and pulled forward trying to break Vana's hold on her. Vana held on tight though, Helia's angry flailing succeeding only in dragging both of them towards Vicky. "I'M GOING TO RIP THAT LOOSE TONGUE OUT OF YOUR STUPID MOUTH! COME HERE RIGHT NOW, I'LL BREAK YOUR GOD DAMN NECK, COME ON! GET OVER HERE!!!!!"

"Ummm, no?" Vicky protested, stocking the fire to ensure it didn't go out prematurely.

"Nells! nells stop it, just calm down!" Vana's pleading fell on deaf ears, as Penelope marched them both at Vicky.

People damn well flew out the way, leaving an open path as Vicky led both girls to the window.

"Come on, come on just a little further."

"I'LL KILL YOU, I'LL END YOUR FUCKING LIFE, JUST WATCH! LET GO OF ME VANA I'M GONNA BREAK MY FOOT OFF IN HER BLEACHED ASSHOLE!" Penelope screamed.

Vicky stepped and stepped and stepped again, more and more people continued to gather... when just the person she didn't want to show up, well... showed up.

Izzy burst through the swarm of onlookers, pushing people out of the way and trekking fast toward them.

"Not good, come on Iz, for once can't you just not have my back?"

If Izzy got between them, then Helia wouldn't get to that window, and whatever Charlie planned would go to shit. Luckily, Vicky knew Isabella Salvador better than any person in the world. She caught her friends eye, quickly diving into her pocket for her phone and shouted "Hey, Izzy look Piss-Panties Penelope is gonna be tik-tok famous!"

The very second, Izzy saw the phone camera she stopped her pursuit to duck down out of it's view. Izzy was herself an instagram model, she loved snap-chat too, hell she even posted on facebook when making those jumped-up charity posts she made to keep her mom off her back. but if there was one platform Izzy hated more than any other, it was Tik-Tok. "I'll be dead, before I jump on that ****-train" she said, almost daily.

"Yes!"

Not only did Izzy back off, but Helia seemed to get even angrier, pulling Vana harder toward Vicky.
Stopping as the back of her knee hit something hard, Vicky grinned widely, looking down to see the seat of a bench stopping her in her tracks, and the light of the midday sun shining through its corresponding window.

...but, what now? Penelope was only a couple steps away, fist raised ready to hammer down on Vicky's face. She had never been hit directly in the face before, when she said she wanted a nose job that certainly wasn't what she meant, and so the Queen Bitch raised her hands to protect the one that that had ever done her any good... only, the first punch never came.

Peeking through her fingers, she saw Penelope stood directly in front of her: Frozen. Vana too was petrified in place, the both of them staring out the window to their right.

Now that her phone was down, Izzy rushed in throwing herself between them and grasping Helia by the arms "What the hell do you think you're doing!? how dare you try and put your hands on her when I told you that was my girl! Perra tonta, debería ponerte en el maldito piso aquí.! Look at me when I'm talking to you Nells, look at m-" Izzy stopped.

Looking out in the same trajectory as Vana and Penelope, she too was frozen in place. Vicky followed their eyeline out the window and saw what the fuss was all about.

Charlie stood at the edge of the footpath... his arms wrapped around a lean and fit body, his face buried into the woman's neck as her face warped with what can only be described as incomprehensible ecstasy.

"Is that... Becca Estevan, and Charlie Drake!?" One of the preppy girls spoke from the crowd.

"God dayum, that mo'fuckuh is a stud. He got more hoes than puff daddy!" Flint Jackson cried, in a tone far too cartoonishly ghetto for a guy with scholarship options.

Helia relaxed and Vana let her friend go, their faces were identical. They looked like they had personally witnesses an atrocity, the utter grimness of Charlie giving some rando a hickey must have put them off.

Vicky was disappointed and maybe even a little angry, she put in all of her effort... for that?

Penelope and Vana both turned their eyes towards Vicky, it was creepy how they both seemed so deeply offended... but Vic could tell, it wasn't because of what she'd done. It was what Charlie did that made them both march past her without saying another word.

As people scattered, moaning over not getting to see the fight, Izzy remained standing where she was, in front of Vicky with her back turned. When Izzy did turn to look at her... yup there it was, that same grim expression.

"What are you all so miserable about? If anyone is getting pissed off that Charlies necking some chick then it should be us! the hell they marching off like that for?" Vicky questioned.

Isabella licked her lips "He put you up to this didn't he?"

Surprised, Vicky opened her mouth to speak but couldn't find any, just letting loose an awkward smile. Shaking her head Isabella Salvador licked her broad lips "This is not good."