Today was it. Our plan would take place in the late afternoon.

Hyacinth had been pestering Angel for the entirety of the week. She wouldn't even let him sit with his friends anymore. Iris and Tulip would always ask me if they had said something to upset Angel because he wouldn't hang out with us anymore. It was honestly heartbreaking having to hear that but I just kept reassuring them that Angel was still our friend.

Poppy seemed rather quiet these days. She never really talked about her feelings for Angel anymore which worried me. I wondered if she was alright. However, every time I tried to bring it up, she would always change the subject. I simply told myself that when the time was right, she would tell me what was going on herself.

For now, the plan was the only thing that preoccupied my mind. If we did something wrong—one misstep—it could potentially lead to Angel being removed from the school, sending him back to stay with his mother.

Well, that was the worst-case scenario. I just kept a positive attitude as the day progressed.

"Camellia, we were gonna go study in the library, you coming?" Iris asked as everyone around us started to pack up their things for the end of the day.

"I think I'll meet up with you guys later, I have to take care of something first." I nervously chuckled.

I wasn't entirely sure how our plan was going to work out, but I needed to stay behind to make sure no one stayed in the classroom.

They both told me they would see me later and walked out. I kept myself busy by studying for almost an hour. Trigonometry was my worst subject at the moment and, if I was honest, I would give anything to take a pop quiz on the subject than to be here right now.

Everyone was gone, leaving me in the stillness of the empty classroom. It felt like an eternity until Hyacinth poked her head inside.

She waltzed in and stopped at Angel's desk. My heartbeat quickened. Hyacinth seemed to be looking for something and once she found it, her eyes fell onto mine. She snickered.

"What are you doing here?" I muttered, my gaze not leaving hers.

She danced her way to my desk and set down her things on another beside me. I specifically made sure she set her phone down along with them. "Angel forgot his book. Oops-" She covered her mouth with her hand. "You weren't supposed to know that," Hyacinth mocked.

I glared at her. "What? Do you 'accidentally' tell everyone Angel's secret or are you just that dumb?"

This made her furious. She slammed her hands onto my desk and leaned into my face. "You better watch your mouth, you whore, or you'll be sorry."

I pressed my lips firmly together and leaned away. Hyacinth laughed. "It's cute, how you care so much about him. It's like watching a sad, mindless puppy follow its owner."

Stay calm. This is part of the plan, just remember that.

She sat on top of the desk in front of me and stared at her nails. "Angel and I are meant to be together, you know. We're soulmates, it's so obvious. He's absolutely gorgeous and I'm a stunning beauty—everyone on campus tells me so."

I suppressed the urge to laugh. How deranged could a person be?! I wouldn't deny it, she was very pretty, but it was all so artificial.

"What more could a girl want in a guy?! He's perfect, simply perfect."

She sounded psychotic. Her words made my blood boil. Angel was anything but perfect, and that was okay. She was infatuated with him or more so, the idea of him.

"You've created this image of him in your head of what you want him to be, not of who he truly is. You don't even know the first thing about Angel." I said the last sentence through gritted teeth.

Hyacinth's eyes filled with anger and she immediately jumped off the desk and slapped me hard across the face—so hard that it knocked me to the ground.

"Shut the fuck up you stupid bitch! I know everything I need to know about him!" Her words dripped with venom.

I scowled up at her as I touched my cheek. It was on fire. Hyacinth made her way to the other side where I lay on the floor and loomed over me. "You're just so pathetic, to a point where it's almost amusing. Why aren't you fighting back?!"

She then kicked me in my stomach and I coughed up spit. My instant reaction was to go into the fetal position as I held onto the soft part of my belly. She struck me so hard that I felt like I was bleeding internally.

Her laughed filled the empty halls. No one would hear, though. I made sure no one would.

As I attempted to stand up, she pushed me back onto the floor. "I hate you so fucking much, you know. You put on this goody-two-shoes act in front of everyone, but I know it's all fake. You're so insecure about who you are that you have to put them before yourself. It's so pitiful, honestly. This is why you're so easy to walk all over."

Hyacinth's shoe slightly touched my face and I winced. She let out a manic laugh. "Look at you! You're so worthless! I don't know what Angel even sees in you."

Ignoring all her comments, I pulled myself up and lowered my head as I held onto my left arm. It was the first thing that had made impact against the ground. All I could do was simply glower at her. She kept trying to get a rise out of me, but I wouldn't let her.

But then she said something that made my heart drop.

"You know," Hyacinth started, "your little friend, what was her name? Oh, Poppy, yeah, I know that she's a lesbian. I wonder what would happen if her little secret got out? Would she go home crying to her mommy? That's a sight I would love to see. Just imagining her little petrified face gives me goosebumps. And don't even get me started on Tulip and Iris."

At that moment, memories of something that happened in middle school suddenly started flooding back to me, like a dam cracking open. Someone said something awful to one of my friends just because of her weight. And it made me blind with rage.

As if compelled by a strange force of nature, I immediately gripped a chunk of her hair and brought Hyacinth closer to me.

"What did you just say about my friends?"

"Ouch! Let g-go of me!" She cried.

I completely towered over her now. She was smaller than what I remembered. Hyacinth pawed at my face, but it didn't phase me. I smacked her arms away with my other hand and bellowed, "You can kick me, hit me, and say all you want about me, but don't you ever talk about my friends like that again."

In middle school, I had this friend who was constantly picked on by a specific group of girls. She never said anything about it to anyone. But one day, as I was walking home, I realized that I had forgotten my pencil case and went back to my classroom. That's when I finally saw what she was being put through.

My friend was on the floor sobbing, while the group of girls laughed and snicked. They didn't know I was there.

"You're fat and ugly," one said, "you should just kill yourself! No one would even care if you're gone." Then they all laughed in unison.

Hyacinth squirmed under me. The memory was starting to come back to me in pieces, and as I placed them together, I completely remembered something I did that I tried relentlessly to burn away from my memory.

I had broken the girl who had said such atrocities nose. Blood stained my whitened knuckles. They all stood away from me, mortified.

"How dare you say that. You have no right to say something like that to anyone," I had said back then. Frenzied by anger, I saw nothing but sheer red. No one should ever have to hear such things.

I had to change schools after that. Not many people know that I have a temper. It's not something I want them to know about me so I attempted to place the memory in the deepest, darkest part of my brain. But it was useless.

"L-Let me go, you psycho! You're gonna rip my head off!" Hyacinth yanked my hair, but I did not move.

Again, I felt it. The rage trickled in. I was afraid that if something didn't stop me I would-

"Camellia!"

━━━━