⠀⠀Jill Vargas places a bowl of salad onto the dining room table that Emma sits at, scrolling through Instagram on her phone and smirking at all the comments her adoring fans are leaving on her latest selfie. Her mother goes back into the kitchen to grab the main course of their dinner.

⠀⠀"Do you ever see Kalani Hunters at school?" Jill asks.

⠀⠀Emma rolls her eyes as she plucks a crouton from the salad. "Unfortunately."

⠀⠀Jill sighs. "I talked to her mother, Cara, at work today, and I just feel so bad for that poor little girl."

⠀⠀"After seeing her making out with Alec today, I feel no sympathy for that bitch," Emma snarls.

⠀⠀Okay, maybe they weren't exactly making out, but they were kissing, which is close enough by her standards. The nerve of that girl to make such a public display of affection towards Alec so soon after they had broken up... Emma thought that Alec would come crawling back to her, but now that Kalani's all over him, she doesn't have a chance.

⠀⠀Jill places the bowl of spaghetti on the table and scoops some onto her plate. "Sweetie, cut her some slack. She's having a rough time."

⠀⠀"Oh my God!" Emma shrieks. "First Alec says that, and now you! Is nobody on my side? Does nobody care that she made three years of my life hell? I have absolutely no reason to be nice to her or feel bad for her."

⠀⠀"Sweetie, calm down," her mother says. "I know that you two don't have a good history, and I'm not her biggest fan because of what she did to you. However, something horrible happened to her, and I think you should be kind to her."

⠀⠀Emma groans as she puts dinner on her plate. "Whatever."

⠀⠀The dinner is quiet after that. Emma hates her mother for asking her to be nice to the girl who has never said a kind word to her. Jill is too focused on enjoying her third glass of wine of the evening to say anything.

⠀⠀"What happened to Kalani that was just oh-so-terrible?" she asks. "Maybe then I'll feel bad enough to be nice."

⠀⠀Jill takes a sip of her wine and pats her lips with her napkin. "Cara didn't give me all the details. All I know is that something happened, and Kalani went to a psychiatric facility for treatment. I guess whatever it was was really awful and put the whole family through hell."

⠀⠀Emma tries hiding her smile by shoving a forkful of pasta into her mouth, but it's so hard. A psychiatric facility? Isn't that just a more politically correct term for mental hospital?

⠀⠀She's going to have fun with this. She's going to have a lot of fun with this.