Ms. Davis dismissed us from class and the school day was officially over. I felt relieved that it was because today felt everlasting, and I hadn't eaten a subtle breakfast or lunch to keep me focused for the entire day.

After I packed up all my supplies to leave the classroom, I threw my heavy backpack over my shoulders and prepared to exit. Before I had the chance to, a familiar voice from behind me interrupted me and lured me to stay.

"Rose, what is on your pants? It looks weird," The voice stated.

Lizzie stood behind me, her hands planted on her hips. Her left eyebrow raised while the other stayed down. Tracey was behind her, and her facial expression looked similar to hers. They looked at me as if someone had asked them a question that would keep them up all night.

"My pants? What's wrong with them?" I queried, glancing down at them as my nose wrinkled.

"The back of it," Tracey answered. "It has something yellow and gooey on it. It looks strange."

I scanned the back of my bleached jeans with horror. My eyes widened as if I saw a ghost. I could not see the yellow substance on my pants thoroughly, but from my view, whatever is on it looks spine-chilling.

I don't remember sitting on anything yellow, like paint or mustard. When I arrived at English, I automatically plopped myself in my chair without scrutinizing it beforehand. I did feel something gooey the moment I sat down—but I didn't investigate it because the teacher started the class promptly.

"Now I see," I muttered, continuing to gawk in horror at my pants. "Let's stop by the bathroom to see if we could fix this."

Based on how the stain appeared on my light blue jeans, the stain was beyond fixable with only water, but I'd try anything to make it unseen. Tracey and Lizzie nodded curtly as I started to head towards the door. Before I had the chance to exit, I was caught off guard by howls of obnoxious classmates that were directed to me.

"What is on that girl's pants? Did she have an accident or what?" One student snickered, followed by other obnoxious chuckles and giggles.

I dug my head into my bare, sweaty hands. My cheeks flushed cherry in embarrassment. Why do some people have cruel hearts, or worse, no heart at all? I clearly did not have whatever I sat on for a purpose. It was by accident. I didn't even know that it happened until now.

"Leave her alone," Tracey growled at the group, her calm expression fading into an irritated one.

"Yeah, why don't you pick on someone else?" Lizzie added with a snarl.

The group's snickers became louder as they tried their best to cover their mouths with their hands. Apparently, their strategy to stop laughing was not working. My accident still appeared to be a laughable joke to them.

"Okay, okay," A person said, attempting to hide their uncontrollable giggles.

Their gazes turned to something that was on one of their phones, instantly making their giggles stop and whispering begin. I can tell that it's some type of gossip or something. Whatever it is, I'm glad I'm not their focus of attention because of a yellow stain that resided on my butt.

"Thanks for defending me, you two," I acknowledged as we escaped the classroom.

"Don't mention it," Tracey mustered quietly. "That's what friends are for."

As we walked through the corridor, I gained a few bewildered looks that specifically targeted what was on my pants. Some people started to turn to others to whisper about it to others, and those people told it to others—like a game of telephone. I dug my face into the sleeves of my yellow hoodie in embarrassment as I continued to scurry to the restroom.

The faster I got to the restroom, the faster I could not hear the rude cackles of students that targeted me. When we got to the restroom, I made a beeline for a mirror to closely observe my jeans.

The yellow substance that was spread on it looked worse than what I saw without the mirror. The blob was larger than I anticipated. No wonder why I got so many looks in the hall.

"Who could've done this?" I muttered to myself. "Spreading something like this on a chair isn't done accidentally."

"It will be hard to find out who did it," Lizzie stated. "But whoever did it is wrong."

I let out a blunt sigh as I continued to gawk at the large, yellow stain. I pondered on what the stain could have been. My best and most reasonable guess was honey mustard from the lunchroom. There is hardly any chance that it could have been anything else.

I hesitated on what I could use to cover my pants with. It would be impossible to get the stain off with plain water. I don't have a sweater or jacket I could cover my jeans with, and I'd prefer not to walk back into the hallway and have several eyes gawk at me.

"Is there anything from you two that I could borrow to cover the stain?" I questioned with an ounce of hope and doubt.

"You can borrow my sweater," Tracey suggested.

She rummaged her hand into her backpack and fished out a forest green sweater and handed it over to me. I gratefully accepted it and tied it around my waist.

"Thanks!" I acknowledged with a bright grin. "I appreciate it."

Even if the stain is covered up now, I would still get looks in the hall from students who already saw it. However, I will try my best to avoid the looks. I can't give it my time and energy, anyway.

I just hope that no one will decide to start a rumor about it, or start calling me disrespectful names.

***

Tuesday morning had already arrived, faster than expected. It's interesting that a school day could fly by slower than sloth, but an evening could go by faster than a speeding bullet. This is a mystery that I'm struggling to solve.

This morning, I made sure to eat a decent breakfast. I didn't eat anything special, like eggs or coffee. I only had a granola bar, that will not keep me full for long. But on the bright side, it's better than eating nothing.

Before I walked off to my next class of the day, I made a beeline to the restroom. There is almost no chance of the teacher letting me use the bathroom in the middle of class, and I'd rather not have a desperate need to use it.

My hands lingered on the metal handle of the girls restroom door. I pushed it open and entered an idle stall.

The clatter of people's feet brushed against the tiled floor of the restroom, loud enough for me to hear. Inaudible conversation of a few girls pricked my ears, tempting me to listen. Their smug voices sounded oddly familiar. With closer inspection, it turned out to be Millicent and Mercedes.

I pressed my right ear against the stall door silently. Maybe the conversation the two are having doesn't matter, but my curiousness stopped me from minding my business.

"My plan was extremely successful," Millicent boasted with a hum. "Several people were talking about the mustard stain on Roselynn's jeans yesterday."

"I know, right? That must have been humiliating for her." Mercedes cackled obnoxiously.

The answer to my question from yesterday has been answered. Millicent had the heart to spread mustard on my chair, knowing that I would sit on it. I'm a bit surprised that she would do this. A few weeks ago, we were hanging out and she even invited me to her birthday party. What made her want to go from being friends to enemies with me?

I continued to listen carefully, intrigued to know what they would say next.

"Soon, she will realize that we never wanted to be friends with her in the first place," Millicent chuckled. "If she didn't lie about her older brother having a girlfriend, then she would not have to suffer with mustard on her butt."

"Exactly, and she lied just so she could stay close to us. How pathetic of her," Mercedes laughed.

I furrowed my eyebrows as my nose wrinkled. I don't recall lying about Rafael's relationship status to stay close to them. I may have wanted to be noticed by people, specifically elites, but I'm not desperate to the point where I lie about people that are close to me.

When they asked if Rafael had a girlfriend, he didn't tell me that he had one at the time. He kept it a secret until the day of the party. None of this is his fault. He might have had a reasonable reason to keep it secretive. The only person I could blame right now for this mishap is me. I allowed myself to fall for Millicent's scheme and didn't bother to closely observe the signs she paved out for me.

My cheeks began to flush cherry with fury as my fists clenched together harder than stone. I never anticipated to find out that I had been used so Millicent could get closer to Rafael.

I resisted my urge to storm out of the bathroom stall and confront them. I need to stay calm, especially since class will start soon.

Before I could take action, Millicent and Mercedes abandoned the bathroom with muffled chuckles. As much as I wanted to skip class and use this time to blankly stare at the wall with hesitation and doubt, I resisted that. I vacated my bathroom stall without using the bathroom, and stormed out of the restroom with my arms folded against my chest.

As much as I wanted to take action for the situation now, the chime of the late bell ringing prevented me from doing so. With fury, I wandered down the corridor to class.

***

History class flew by faster than a lightning bolt. Maybe it was because I spent the entire class period doodling frustrated faces on the last page at the back of my notebook. It calmed me down a tiny bit, but not enough to cover up all the frustration that boiled inside my veins.

Instead of packing up my supplies as slow as a walking tortoise to the lunchroom, I bolted out the classroom as briskly as possible to Millicent's locker.

I didn't want to go to her locker to gain attention. I wanted to go there to meet her by surprise, and question her despicable behavior.

There is a fifty-fifty chance that she will stop by to grab something. But on second thought, she might not. With all my might, I hope that she'll come here. I can't bear waiting any longer.

The muffled voices of two girls got louder as they came closer to me. My head cocked to the direction they were coming from, only to find out that they were from Mercedes and Millicent.

At first, they didn't notice me residing in front of the locker. When they lifted up their heads from the screens of their cell phones, they raised their flawlessly lined-up eyebrows as their noses wrinkled.

"Roselynn? What are you doing here?" Mercedes questioned. "Is there something you need from us?"

"I do need something," I stated, resisting the urge of my cheeks flushing ruby red. "I need an explanation."

"An explanation of what?" Millicent inquired, her eyebrows batting innocently.

There's a huge chance that she knew what I'm talking about, and a small chance that she had no clue. Whatever the case is, she should know what the explanation should be regardless.

"I need an explanation of why you decided to use me to get closer to my brother," I protested, the palm of my hand smacking against my forehead. "I overheard your conversation in the restroom before last period started."

She let a smug chuckle escape from her mouth as she planted her hands on her hips.Her lips puckered into a cheeky smirk while she continued to bat her eyelashes faultlessly.

"Oh, so your nosy self decided to overhear our personal conversation?" She scoffed. "You should know better than to do that."

"I know, and you should have known better than to use me just to date my brother," I petitioned, my fists clenching together as hard wood. "Even if he wasn't dating anyone, I'm sure that he'd never want to date someone as shallow as you—"

"Whatever," She interjected. "That was the only way for me to get close to him. If you hadn't lied to us about your brother's relationship status, things would have gone a lot better than they are now."

"I never lied about that. I didn't know that he had a girlfriend until the day of your party!" I fired back. "And why did you want him as a boyfriend anyway? Couldn't you date someone else?"

"Of course not. I wanted someone who would keep me relevant to my title as queen bee." She shrieked, throwing her hands in the air.

I can now understand Millicent's logic. She is not glitz and glam like most people claim for her to be. Underneath her everlasting coats of expensive-branded make-up and perfume, shallowness overfilled her. She only shows her true colors whenever something doesn't go her way, and she uses lies to state a false claim.

I might not be the first person to notice the reality of her, but I might not be the last. It's a mystery of who knows the harsh reality and who doesn't.

We gained several glares as our argument went on. People stopped dead in their tracks to witness and record the event. I don't care about what anyone did. All I care about right now is clearing up this tangled mess.

"Millicent, let's just go," Mercedes proclaimed, grabbing her arm hurriedly.

"Fine. I don't have time for this anyway," Millicent groaned. "See you never, loser."

"Before you leave, just know that you shouldn't use someone for your benefit," I said calmly.

The two escaped around the corner to another hallway, avoiding all the baffled looks they received. I began to make a U-turn to where the lunchroom was located, ignoring the people who took pictures on their cell phones and whispered to each other. I assume that they're talking about the recent incident, and making gossip out of it.

"Rose, we heard what happened!" Familiar voices from behind me exclaimed, stopping me dead in my tracks.

Lizzie and Tracey stood behind me with faint neutral expressions plastered across their faces. My frown got even larger as I struggled to say anything.

"A lot of people did," I murmured, cocking my head down to the tiled floor. "I feel responsible for this."

"It isn't your fault. You didn't know that Millicent was trying to set you up," Tracey reassured me, planting her hand on my shoulder. "But you should've listened to Lizzie and I when we told you that the connection between you, Millicent, and Mercedes was odd."

"I know, and I'm sorry about that. I guess I was too caught up in being noticed by them than to notice the signs they left." I muttered.

"That's fine. Let's just forget that this happened. It isn't worth your time," Lizzie stated, motioning to the door of the lunchroom. "Let's just eat lunch now."

Students squeezed their way through the over-crowded doors of the cafeteria. We weaseled in and waited in line to get our lunches. I pulled my phone out of my front pocket to check the time, but instead, my fingers tapped on the new message I received by Tyler about five minutes ago. My interest level powered up as I carefully read the message.

Tyler: Hi, Rose! Can you meet me at the bleachers of the football field outside during lunch?

Me: We can, of course. I'll be there in a few minutes.

I turned my head to Lizzie and Tracey, who were ordering their lunches. I don't want to ditch lunch, but I don't want to ditch Tyler too. Having Tyler invite me to hang out with him is rare, so I can't let go of my chance to be with him.

"Guys, I have to go meet Tyler outside. I'm sorry," I apologized out loud.

They exchanged bewildered, yet amused looks to each other. Lizzie started to chuckle to herself, while Tracey put a hand over the broad grin she had plastered across her face.

"No, it's alright," Lizzie chuckled. "You two are making huge progress."

"Yeah, go hang out with him. We'll see you later!" Tracey exclaimed, her grin spreading broader as she held her new tray of lunch out.

"Thanks, I'll see you later!" I acknowledged with a broad smile.

I started my journey outside, avoiding looks of all kinds I gained on the way. Maybe going outside is a great idea for today. I won't have to show my face to hundreds of students that resided in the cafeteria for lunch.