Well, shiitake mushrooms.

There were two things in the forefront of my mind, in this instant, before the water cooler as I felt the accusing glare being shot at my back, as my water bottle continued to fill.

1) That voice belonged to Angeline Whittaker.

And 2) If this was what I thought it was about, then I was Boo Boo the Fool for ever thinking that this little snitch crusade wouldn't go down in flames.

Of course it would. Why wouldn't it? I thought I was a genius, but I never bothered to sit down and plan properly, listing all the potential pitfalls and ways this could go awry and my ass be exposed. Heck, I knew that this was a wild idea, but I went ahead with it in the manner that I did, thinking that I wasn't fearful of the consequences.

I guess a small part of me still did, still screamed at me in my mind that I was going to regret it when I was shunned and hated, back to the Ostracism Level for being a little snitch. But there was always this other prt of me, a side that was dark and chaotic, a small part of me which craved these reckless and wild ventures.

That tiny side of me wanted people to know.

Silent revenge, little snitch moments and sneaky catfish-esque emails were fun and entertaining - yet never as satisfying as being able to shove it in their faces or taunt them that I, Selene Chan, ruined them. I, the loser, the geekish weirdo with no social skills. It was stupid and pathetic, but it made sense - I had always been hungry for attention. Hungry for someone to finally notice my power, and desperate that I would ever be important enough to be seen as a threat.

But I was never a threat. In fact, I was so insignificant that I was barely talked about at all.

I decided that the water had reached a good-enough height and stopped the water supply, screwing my bottle cap back on as I turned around to see Angeline expressing more emotion than I'd ever witnessed since the day I met her in orientation. It was a look of pure disgust... some disappointment, too. 

For whatever reason, I felt a little piece of my soul shrivel - not that I cared about what she thought, but I never disliked Angeline Whittaker throughout the time in Rifton. Not even jealousy. In fact, I'd once wished I could learn to be just like her - but that version of myself was not meant to be.

Now, she disliked me - which meant that she wasn't going to have qualms to take action against me. 

Game face on, Selene. Don't acknowledge. Who knows what she's brought with her?

"Sorry?" I blinked, feigning confusion as I ran my fingers over the water bottle, feeling the cold and the condensation. "I think I might be missing something here."

Probably not a good idea to do this - but too late at this point. I must follow through.

"You're the snitch," Angeline hissed, her baby blues glowering with distaste, "I saw you. I saw you rushing into the school toilet. Rianne came running after shortly. I closed one eye until Rianne got kicked out of the prefectorial board. And then there's Gillian and Lisa - you probably told on them too. Did you send that video of Natalie to eve-"

"Whoa, what?" I exclaimed, continuing the 'what-the-frick' face as best as I could, despite being terrible at the faking thing, "You - what are you talking about? Why do you think I was the snitch?"

"It makes sense. You had motive because, well, Rianne always comes after you and Natalie and her friends said plenty about you last year. And this is your revenge, isn't it? You're picking at every petty mistake because that's what they did to you."

"Angeline!" I lowered my voice, but kept my face pained as I hissed, "What the hell is wrong with you? Look, no one has ever acknowledged it because that's generally not what people do here, but everyone knows that I had run-ins with Natalie's gang. So what? Why do you think I would go out of my way to tell on them like this... crazy person clearly has? I - I have much better things to do with my free time than... snitch!"

No, actually, I don't.

"Yeah, why would you, Selene?" Angeline remained cold, haughty as she demanded her answer, clearly not buying my bullshit, "I thought you were better than this. I thought you had your own values, even if you weren't the best at things. But it seems like you're just like them and worse."

My jaw tensed as I tried to harden my glare. "Wow, you think really lowly of me."

"I know what I saw."

"And do you have legitimate evidence that I am, indeed, a snitch?" I knew I was in dangerous territory here, but I'd play it for as long as I could.

Angeline stared back - and I returned it with the same ferocity. 

No guts, no glory.

Finally, she spoke. "Yeah. Not yet."

"Oh, so you're going to... what, try and find something to pin on me?" I snapped, "And what're you going to do with that, if you find that thing that doesn't even exist? Expose me. force me to admit to some crimes that you're pinning on me because you think I'm a terrible person? Please, I'm leaving this school and I have no more brain cells left from this conversation to care about how you're going to tarnish my reputation for the second time while I'm not even there to see it."

This time, Angeline's blue eyes widened in shock.

Whoa, crap. Did I just - 

I dropped the snarl a little and narrowed my eyes, the guilt already blooming within me, a deadly vine ready to tighten its grip, "Well, good luck with that, Angeline Whittaker. I won't be here to see it."

Dramatically, I spun on my heel and walked off. 

"Selene, I'm not going to do anything," Angeline began - but I continued, knowing this moment from TV shows that stopping was acknowledgement of the truth.

"But, as I said, I thought you were better than this. This drama, this hypocrisy, this backstabbing... I know what you did, and... well, and so do you." 

I kept walking with an urgency to escape this terrible altercation, but the last part of her sentence rang continuously in my mind.

And so do you.

And so do you.

The situation with Angeline - she would be delighted to know - had sufficiently rattled me.

And so do you.

I did, didn't I? I did some pretty wild stuff.

The thoughts ran wild in my mind, Angeline's face and her mouth opening and closing, spitting the foul truth of what I'd done repeating and disturbing me, even when I tried diverting my attention to my academics. Even Lorenzo smiling at me when she gave me my recent worksheet that had a smiley face sticker on it didn't drive the bad thoughts out like it normally would have.

I wanted so badly for this to be just another chess game, and Angeline just another opponent trying to make me sweat, just another time to pull on a poker face and make my best move. 

But the poker face was crumbling.

A few more classes, and the bell rang. All I wanted was to make it to chess club and distribute my gifts, play a game with Priya and lose and get out of here.

But as I burst out into the hallway, scanning for any sign of Angeline exposing me for good and tarnishing my reputation down to the very bottom, I saw other things instead.

I saw the locker hallway, with the society of Rifton Girls' High School's second year students.

I saw Natalie spinning her combination alone, her headphones over her head.

I saw the Populars, wherein Addison Castle had clearly taken the helm, walking ahead with Avery, Gillian and Lisa following behind, the begrudging looks on their faces only visible within their eyes but sufficiently hidden with fake smiles.

I saw Rianne looking haggard, but her brave face on even as she followed her clique and its new leader, the new leader who would most likely run for Head Prefect next year - a role Rianne had so coveted, but an honour too large for her to bear.

And I saw Julie speeding out of the school with her phone in hand, alone.

My five targets, all down. 

But everything was still wrong. 

And I guess that was the first time in many days that I realised the one person I hadn't considered who was truly a threat.

It was her - the girl who'd masked herself so artfully, so perfectly. Such a marvellous job she had done, painting a picture so well it fooled everyone, including me.

She was the true threat while I'd been going around, worrying about everyone else in this warpath, not once considering that she was the bad guy, the true villain that had to be exposed.

Suddenly, the rose-tinted glasses that I hadn't even known about were off - and I saw it all.

The true threat, the worst villain, the final girl who'd hidden behind the most deceitful mask - it was me. 

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