It was an evil prank to play on the new girl but Nayden didn't spend more than a few seconds thumbing it over in her mind.
*Whoosh.*
She avoided participating in the conversation between the 4 girls, at least until she thought of a slightly passive aggressive, but classic-Nayden, comment. The gum in her mouth was the perfect prop to mull things over for a second. She chewed the waddled up ball in her mouth, producing a chalky pink balloon from between her lips.
*Smack.*
The sound of bursting gum echoed through the bathroom stalls.
After a few loud chews of her now, flavourless gum, she decided to have a little fun with Hemi.
Hemi, with her irritatingly innocent demeanour, annoyingly luscious curves, and natural charisma that induces jealousy; was as Nayden realised recently, a threat to her popularity amongst the group of girls.
Regardless, the little joke Nayden was about to play on Hemi was worth the risk of being a complete bitch.
"How far can it go," Nayden thought, "we'll all laugh about it later and then give Hemi the real information."
Hemi, who was actually Hemia, was waiting for Nayden to respond.
It was clear that Hemia looked up to Nayden in a weird, toxic way; even believing it wasn't absurdly disrespectful when Nayden confessed that "Hemia was too hard to pronounce, so it would be Hemi from now on."
Even then, Hemi still listened intently, perking her ears up to absorb every ounce of what the popular girl said, and taking mental notes.
Why?
It was simple - like every classic high-school-girl-clique movie depicted; Nayden was the it girl. She knew all and controlled all.
Hemi was new to all this in the worst way possible. Growing up back home, on a small island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, life was different.
School wasn't meant for gossiping through notes in class or giggling about boys during lunch hours. Students were there to build their futures.
On every seat, in the blaring heat wearing rough cotton uniforms, sat a student who was determined to uphold their family's reputation.
Not to mention, everyone was watching. There was no room for the superficial social bullshit Hemi now faced here, in North America. If you didn't dig your face into your school work during a majority of your waking hours, people noticed. In those neighbourhoods, everyone was your family. The community was one unit and as beautiful as that was, it also meant you were to be on your best behaviour.
Now, on the other side of the planet, Hemi was doing her best to assimilate comfortably into this new society.
And university was a big deal. Hemi could use all the help she could get, if it meant she could survive the social game.
(Un)Luckily for Hemi, Nayden was the resident "go-to" girl for advice and somehow, Hemi ended up on her radar very quickly.
Perhaps, it was the comment Rhys made in the Organic Chemistry Lab, during the first week of classes.
"I better not fail this course again. My dad's already yanking my chain about it." Rhys huffed quietly in the last row, sitting between Nayden and Derek.
The lab instructor cleared his throat and began announcing instructions for this week's lab report, due at the end of next week.
"You can choose your partners, but be mindful of working with friends." The old man in the front of the class grumbled.
"I know it's tempting to work together but, there's a lot of work to be done on this report. See you next week." With that, the old man swung his suede side-bag over the shoulder and made his way slowly out the door.
"Well," Nayden asked, waiting impatiently for Rhys to reply.
"What?"
"Urghhh," Nayden huffed annoyingly, "are we partners or not?"
"Uh," Rhys began, looking over at Derek.
"Nah man, I'm not gonna be your partner. Or yours, Danny girl. You guys are gonna make me do all the work. I'm finding someone else. See you back in the res house."
Rhys looked back at Nayden's pleading face. "You know what, he's right. I'm gonna find a new partner. You know I can't fail this course man."
"Whatever! Who are you picking?" Nayden began packing her things while Rhys looked around the room and locked his eyes on the new girl who joined mid-year, at the beginning of the winter semester.
When asked to introduce herself to the class, Rhys listened intently, ignoring his friend's shenanigans at the back of the room.
She was beautiful - clearly very shy, but still inexplicably intoxicating.
Hemia.
Rhys watched as the words left her plum coloured lips - her top lip a deep purple, while the bottom lip was a vibrant pink hue, similar to that of the inside flesh of the juicy fruit.
"Oh my god, not her! Not the new girl, Rhys, seriously." Nayden slapped his arm, distracting his thoughts.
"You know what, she's smart. I'm gonna ask her to be my partner. I'll see ya later Danny."
"Ew," Nayden barked back as Rhys began to walk away.
"Ew? What are you on? She's pretty. Later, Danny girl," Rhys replied defensively, shrugging his shoulders as he turned and continued walking away.
"It's Nayden," she whispered, "asshole."
Hemi? Pretty?
Snort.
"We'll see what's so great about this girl."
Rhys didn't know it, but his interest in Hemi only pushed her into Nayden's radar. Like every girl before her, Hemi was now a threat to what Nayden wanted.
Rhys.
There couldn't be a popular Nayden, without her exceedingly popular boyfriend to stand by her. A semester had gone by and it hadn't happened yet.
And there was no way in hell Hemi was going to get in the way.
***
"Don't worry girl. I got you!"
Hemi felt her shoulders relax, the tension releasing as Nayden spoke.
"Oh phew, thank you Nayden. Seriously! You know how it is! I can't exactly ask my mom about this so..."
"Of course! Here! Look," Nayden pointed, turning her laptop screen towards Hemi's direction.
"I've saved some videos on my laptop in this tab, to show you so you know what a typical doctor's appointment looks like."
Hemi's face formed an excited grin. "Oh, I never even thought of that. People record that kind of stuff? Isn't it like, against doctor / client privilege or something?"
Nayden giggled, hiding the evil intent behind her actions, and continued to spew lies to Hemi's face as she pulled up the Incognito Tab full of videos to further enforce her prank.
Hemi watched as a girl, probably around 20 like herself, sat on a slightly tilted up examining bed, in what looked like a doctor's office.
