She was going to get revenge. Her plan was flawless. Sophie knew all of Charlotte’s secrets and could easily pick one to destroy her with. She racked her brain, trying to find the perfect way to get her back. Charlotte liked Quinn, but he liked Sophie. She could definitely use this to her advantage.
“Hey Quinn,” Sophie said cheerily, running up behind him “, what are you doing this weekend?”
“Oh, hey Sophie,” he responded, surprised to her smiling so soon after the incident. “I don’t know what I’m doing yet. I think I might just hang out with a few friends. Anything that wasn’t like last weekend,” Quinn chuckled shyly.
“Oh, yeah, me too. Maybe we could go see a movie or something?” Sophie batted her eyes, showing off her gorgeous smile. Anybody would kill to get a chance to hang out with Sophie, and now he got his.
“Yeah, that sounds great,” Quinn smiled. He just scored a date with the coolest girl in school and she asked him.
Sophie gave a mischievous smile, something she’s known for, and walked away towards the library. Perfect, she had Quinn eating out of the palm of her hand. As Sophie rounded a corner, she slammed right into the person coming the other way.
“Sorry, I wasn’t looking,” he mumbled. Sophie looked up and saw Jon staring back into her green eyes.
“Its fine,” Sophie grunted, pulling herself together and continuing on her way to the library. Jon grabbed her arm and turned her around to look at him again.
“Wait, I wanted to apologize for what happened. I was just confused, but now I know what I want. I want to be with you again, Sophie,” Jon pleaded. He was holding her hand and looking right into her eyes, which was rare for him.
“Jon,” Sophie smirked, “you had your chance,” she smiled, trying to seem strong and intact, but the truth was, she was serious. “Listen, now is a bad time to get together, okay?”
“But why? It wasn’t a bad time a week ago,” he said. He was so disappointed and upset it almost hurt Sophie to see him like this, but of course it didn’t deter her.
“Well, a week ago you didn’t hook up with my best friend,” Sophie grew angry remembering that weekend and how she was ridiculed in front of all her friends. “Just leave me alone,” she was running away now to find comfort in the quiet room with thousands of books waiting for her. She sat down at an empty table and took out her phone. It was 8:30, which meant she only had ten minutes until homeroom. She decided to text Kari so she wouldn’t have to venture into the halls alone. Kari walked through the door seconds later phone in hand.
“Hey! How are you? I saw you and Jon talking. What happened?” Kari was a happy person who always kept the people around her laughing, but her happiness was too much for Sophie right now.
“He just wants go get back together like I knew he would, but I’m not interested anymore.“
“Oh, why not? He’s so hot and he totally loves you!” Kari was now looking at her phone, smiling at the screen.
“Who’s that?” Sophie asked, pointing to the old Nokia in her hands.
“Oh,” Kari blushed, “just Quinn. I think he really likes me,” her eyes lit up when she talked about him. Sophie couldn’t dare mess with Quinn after all that Kari has helped her with.
“Aw, well I’m sure I can help set you guys up,” Sophie said, deciding to turn her movie date with Quinn into more of a group affair with Kari and Emmet. They were all friends so it wouldn’t be awkward, just a good time.
“Really! That would be great! Thank you so much. I definitely owe you,” Kari was beaming with excitement, but what was Sophie going to do now? She had no other foolproof plan to get Charlotte back.
“There’s something I need your help with.”
“Sure, anything!”
“I need a plan to get Charlotte back for hooking up with Jon,” Sophie asked desperate for ideas, but knew Kari would be of no help.
“Great idea! I was going to tell you to get her back somehow,” Kari answered excitedly. Sophie was surprised to have someone backing her up on her irresponsible idea, but she definitely needed the help.
“Okay, cool. Do you have any ideas?”
“I know that she’s making a mural on the courtyard wall for her AP art class. She gets to plan out the whole thing and nobody sees it until tomorrow when she shows it to the principal,” Kari said nonchalantly. It was brilliant. Sophie would sneak over to the courtyard and paint over the entire thing so nothing was there. Charlotte would be devastated.
“Perfect,” Sophie smiled. The bell rang and she gathered her books walking to her chemistry room. When she sat at her lab table she was surprised to see Jon sitting across from her staring. S***, she forgot he was her lab partner. Sophie decided not to ask her teacher to switch partners so Jon would know he no longer fazed her.

“Pour the liquid nitrogen into the water and stir it so it doesn’t freeze and then record the temperature,” Mr. Nielson instructed. Jon always did the experiments so he hurried over to get the needed equipment and started taking down measurements.

“Why did you do it?” Sophie wasn’t about to let him go so easily. She wanted him back and she always gets what she wants. Jon looked up unexpectedly and frowned.

“I was drinking and I saw Charlotte and thought it would be fun to try it out, but I guess it wasn’t,” he put down the beaker he was holding and came close enough to Sophie so that she could smell his cinnamon gum. “I love you, Sophie. I want to be with you.”

Sophie wanted to make him work for it a little harder before she gave in. She wanted to see how desperate he was for her.

“This is what I’m going to do. You get one more shot at showing me how much you supposedly care,” Sophie grinned, “so I guess we can get back together, but—“

“Yes! Sophie I love you!” Jon exclaimed, picking up her tiny figure into his strong arms. He kissed her like he never had before, but she felt nothing. She didn’t even want to kiss him back.

“But one more mistake and we’re done for good,” she said, trying to keep a stern face, secretly hoping he would mess up again just so there was a legitimate reason to stop talking to him for good.

“I don’t care. I’m not messing up again,” Jon beamed back to her, leaning in for another kiss. By now Mr. Nielson was staring them down from the other side of the room and the entire class was watching. Sophie became embarrassed and ashamed, ignoring Jon and rushing to the cafeteria once the bell rang.

During lunch she saw Quinn and decided to keep playing him up a little more, but nothing too pushy. “Hey, can’t wait for this weekend, but Kari and Emmet will be joining us if you don’t mind,” Sophie said with her mischievous grin.

“Yeah, whatever,” Quinn answered, obviously ticked off. He must of saw Sophie and Jon in science.

“Why are you so upset?” Sophie pouted trying to look innocent and venial.

“News travels fast in this school and I’m pretty sure everybody knows about what happened in your chem class. Don’t try to pretend you like me anymore,” he shot back, clearly more keen than Sophie assumed. Maybe this was a good thing though, so she could easily back off of him for Kari’s sake.

“Alright, I’ll leave you alone,” she said looking down and disappointed when in reality she didn’t care that she really did hurt him. He’d get over it eventually.

A long day followed with a nervous bundle in the pit of Sophie’s stomach for the horrifying deed she would be committing. She continued to go to the art room every now and then to make sure there was enough paint to cover up the entire courtyard wall.

The last bell rang and Sophie’s excitement soon mixed with question and doubt, but she wouldn’t let anyone notice.

“Hey, come with me?” Sophie asked Kari as she was getting the paintbrushes and light yellow paint.

“Nah, I have to go to math for help,” Kari lied. There was no way she was going to get involved with all this.

“Alright, I’ll do it myself,” Sophie grimaced back in disgust. She grabbed three pints of paint and headed for the courtyard. Nobody was around and the mural was covered with two large sheets. She might need more paint, but pulled off the sheets and threw them next to her bag. The mural shocked her. It was a beautiful landscape painting of the beach near their school. Charlotte was by far an extremely talented painter.

“What the hell are you doing, Sophie?” Quinn demanded standing above her. Sophie was shocked to see him there questioning her.

“Ugh, nothing. Mr. Duffy asked me to help repaint the courtyard and since I’m such a good student I decided to lend a hand,” Sophie smirked. She knew he wasn’t going to let her get away with this so she threw herself on him in desperation. He pushed her off with a disgusted look.

“I feel bad for you,” Quinn said, walking away like no other boy would have ever dared. What was his problem?

“Wait, just keep this our little secret, okay?” Sophie said seriously for the first time in years.

“Yeah, I’m not a d***** but if you get caught it’s not my fault,” he said leaving Sophie alone in the hallway with a can of paint and a brush hand. She opened the paint and dipped her paintbrush in. Sophie was filled with doubt at the sight of what could possibly get her expelled, but she wasn’t about to back down now.
• • •
“All right, Mr. Duffy, you’re really going to like it,” Charlotte said the next morning happy to show her meticulous mural to the principal.
“Well, let’s see it,” he smiled back. Charlotte reached for the two sheets and pulled them down gracefully. She gaped at the blank wall that she saw three weeks ago when she made her first blue stroke of paint. “Sophie?”
“That b****,” was all she could manage to say.