SHORT RECAP:

Cassie was a fat, awkward girl not keen of socializing.

One day, Desmond, the 'king' of the school, toyed with her heart and then left after making out with her.

Heartbroken, Cassie seek revenge. She found fellow Desmond haters. One of them being his own girlfriend, Tyra.

Tyra helped Cassie 'upgrade' herself. And she also got a fake boyfriend, Tristan, Desmond's half brother.

Tristan and Cassie hit off. They became friends. On the other hand, Desmond wanted Cassie's attention once more.

One day, Cassie was feeling bold and she wanted to make a statement and she tapped Desmond's ass in public. It was supposed to be clandestine but someone took a photo of it and shared it to the whole student body.

Cassie's job right now is to do damage control.

——

Of course, a bad day would only get worse. Right after lunchtime, Tyra cornered Cassie in the girl's restroom. She didn't even try to make it subtle, like she had always done before. Tyra just straight up grabbed Cassie's elbow and dragged her into the toilet. There were a couple of sophomores inside, freshening up. Tyra gives a half-smile that looked more like a threat than a smile. They all scrammed.

Cassie made a mental note on how Tyra put on that kind of face. The face that still managed to be pretty and elegant and yet still terrifying. Maybe it was the slight tip up on her chin. Maybe it was the way her eyes always seemed to be looking down on people.

"I don't like that picture," Tyra didn't say hello or prefaced the talk with any context.

If it were with any other person, Cassie would have asked what they were talking about. Slow the train down, try to defuse the situation. But Tyra was too smart for that kind of tricks, and there was also the situation in which Tyra had already suspected Cassie as a sly, devious fox.

"I tried to talk her to take it down." Cassie said.

"Well?"

She shrugged. It was hard to make it look casual. "She wouldn't do it."

"Tracy Jones is a scholarship student whose father works here as a security guard. She hasn't changed her uniform, which is secondhand, since the first time she arrived here, and nobody in this school are going to have her back." She pauses, and that made the next words she said all the more terrifying. "So what's stopping you?"

Cassie looked at Tyra right in the eyes. "She didn't want to do it."

"What's stopping you?"

"She said-"

"Cassie," Tyra's face was so close to her now that Cassie could count all the pores around her nose, which was not a lot, but still amounted to something. She could feel bullets of sweat forming all around her armpit. "What the fuck does she have on you?"

Cassie didn't want to talk about this.

She didn't, but in the end, she knew that Tyra wouldn't let her go. Would do everything within her power (and that we're talking, a lot of power) to get her to speak. Would jeopardize everything they had done so that nobody stood in her way. Yes, of course Tyra cared about taking down Desmond. But she cared about her reputation more.

And photos of another girl touching Desmond's butt wasn't exactly right up her alley.

"I know her father," Cassie said. "I will talk to him. The photo will go down today."

"Yes, please, because if it's still there tomorrow, then we're cutting you off," Tyra said. "Now I have to stage a breakup with Desmond. This is so annoying."

Annoying. Not heartbreaking or saddening. Annoying.

Cassie got out of the restroom. But of course the whirlwind of ambushes didn't stop now. Because she spotted Tristan leaning against her locker, chewing a gum because there was about two more hours before the students can go out and he could have a smoke.

"Girlfriend," he said. His dark eyes showed humor, but there was something stiff about the way he carried himself.

"Tristan."

He looked away while Cassie fiddled with her locker combination. He had an arm around her, and he was standing close to her, but Cassie inartistically knew that there was something wrong. Something was wrong and she dreaded the moment when they had to eventually talk about whatever made Tristan's shoulders stiff.

People around them were looking. Not openly. But there were stares, whispers. After all, Cassie and Tristan were supposed to be the Newlyweds. Puke the Grape was a well-known school hub, and it was obvious that the photo of her and Desmond was the cream of the top. The one news that everyone was talking about. Of course, there were pics of clandestine relationship all the time, but never before that pics involved The King of St Pulkeria.

Not big at PDA, remember? Everything he did, he did within closed doors.

It created a shroud of mystery that people lapped on. With so many girls throwing themselves at Desmond, one had to imagine, what was he like in bed? How would he treat his partner? What did he like? The picture of Cassie touching him provided a little sneak-peek on that.

Oh, Cassie really really wanted to slap Tracy's cheeks red.

"So you're felt up my brother and I can't even get a hug? What kind of injustice is this?" he said without looking at her.

"I think we're supposed to be fighting now."

"Because you felt up my brother and someone took a photo of it."

"Listen to yourself talk. Which action is more deplorable? I'd say getting your pictures taken and then circulated within a gossip-starved school is the bigger tragedy."

They didn't even bother to whisper, and Cassie was pretty sure if people dared to venture closer to them, they would have heard everything. Cassie grabbed Tristan's hand and dragged him away from the increasingly denser crowd. "We need to go somewhere private."

"I'm sure that would sound way more fun if you were my real girlfriend," he rolled his eyes. "Or if you were at least half attracted to me as you were to my brother."

Cassie waited until they arrived at an empty classroom. Whichever classroom. The biology lab had three students inside and she rehearsed what Tyra had done to the sophomores in the restroom. Chin up, eyelashes down, judging-stare intensified.

It worked. A little. At least, the three students got uncomfortable and they decided to leave as soon as Cassie and Tristan arrived at the room.

"Oh, so now you do that too? You walk into a room and you think people should give up their place for you?" Tristan waved his hand condescendingly.

Cassie didn't even get a chance to have a mini celebration. "Would you give me a break? I'm trying to explain everything to you."

Tristan actually folded his hand in front of his chest and waited. He pursed his lips and his face was all red. There was something adorable about this, and Cassie couldn't help letting out a smile.

"What? I'm waiting."

"Nothing. You just look like you're a real boyfriend waiting to get explanation from his real girlfriend."

The redness in his face intensified. "Well, I take my role very seriously."

"Obviously."

They stayed quiet after that for a while. Tristan's hands were still folded and the pout was still there, but he was actually the first to break the silence, something that Cassie hadn't expected. "Is it the looks?"

"What?"

"Desmond. I mean, you know and I know and I think everybody who has met him for more than five minutes know that he's... he's trash. The only person who can stand him is August and that's because he's kind and simpleminded. So what makes you like him so much?"

Cassie's jaw was hanging open now.

If that was even possible, Tristan got even redder than before. "Or is it the family name?"

"That's not," she tried but stopped herself. "That's not it."

"Well you do take your time finding the reason."

"I'm still thinking about it."

"No, I know. Take your time. Really. I don't mind."

Cassie tipped her head. "Why do you sound so pissed about it?"

"I'm. Not. Pissed!" and yet Tristan's nostrils were flaring and there were lines all around his mouth and jaw and forehead. He even stomped. Wow. And here Cassie thought she was bad at masking her emotions.

"I think you're a little taller than Desmond, right?" Cassie said.

"By one or two centimeters."

"Your neck is thicker, too. I'm not saying that you're... uh, thicker than him. He just doesn't seem to eat a lot."

The ghost of smile appeared for a nanosecond, before Tristan caught himself and then re-pursed his lips. "Your point being?"

"My point being, there's a reason why you've been prepositioned a few times too many, Tristan."

He couldn't help it then. He smiled. "What, you think I'm handsome?"

"I think nobody would have called you ugly."

"Yeah, but you. Do you think I'm handsome?"

Cassie never liked it when someone put her in a spot like this. Not even if that someone was Tristan. "Okay, go easy there."

"You don't, do you? That's why you never even tried to cop a feel out of me."

Cassie snorted an unexpected laugh. "What?"

"The girls around me do that all the time. Tyra. Even Tyra! Sometimes when we're sitting side by side, she will lean forward and you know-"

"I don't want to know."

"The thing is. I totally thought you're a prude or you have no game. But turns out you're neither."

"This is ridiculous," Cassie shrugged her bag off her shoulder. She sat on the chair, and then folded her hands in front of her chest, imitating Tristan. "You're being ridiculous."

"What's ridiculous is that now all of our plans must be recalibrated. There's no way a photo like that can circulate around school and Tyra not do anything about it. And if I stay with you, I look like a chump. If Tyra stay with Desmond, she also look like a chump. In fact, Desmond looks like a chump, too, since he's the one being groped. You make a chump out of everybody!"

"I have a plan."

"Come again?"

"I have a plan. Tyra have already yelled at me and scared the fat out of me. So I've planned something."

"Why can't you just use your scary lying magic to get the person behind Puke the Grape to take down the photo?"

"I can't."

Tristan paused. "You can't?"

"I can't."

"You lost half your weight in three months. You revamped your whole image. You learned how to make boys blush. But then you can't ask someone to take down a bad photo?"

Cassie shook her head. "Yes. That I can't."

She could tell that Tristan wanted to ask why. But she wasn't in the mood for more talking. She walked towards him and took out her phone. "We need to take that photo out of the Popular page. And the only thing to do it is to create an even more scandalous photo."

She steeled her resolution, licked her lips, and then kissed him on the mouth. Her phone camera flashed repeatedly in front of them.

——

AN:

Oof. I guess I left this story not updated for quite a long time. What can I say? Life got in the way, and I think I lost a bit (I'm lying. It's a LOT) of motivation and inspiration for writing. Mostly it's because of language barrier. I've been writing for 8ish year? And I think I've reached an impasse. One of the reason is because I don't live in an english-speaking country. And now that I've moved to an even smaller town where english is absolutely never spoken or even understood, it's just... ah well.

I'm going to try to keep a semblance of update for this story. Because, well, updating makes me happy, and even though every word that I type hurts, it also makes me happy. Does that make sense?

Anyway, if you're still here. Thank you very much. :) I will try my best to not disappoint you guys.