"... It's so stupid! I hate projects," I snapped as I turned towards the window in a huff, watching the neat row of coniferous trees that our car whizzed past in the direction of our schools. I, being wise for once, decided not to pick a fight with Sebastian as he chuckled at my misery. After weighing the harms and the one (1) benefit of getting my nasty side satisfied by morning drama, it just wasn't worth it to start season 10 of Sibling Rivalry.

Just... wait till you grow up, young one. Just wait till secondary school comes for you.

"Exactly," Mom agreed from the driver's seat, "Which is why you should be putting in more effort to score for your tests, where the results are what you can actually control... and stop looking at your phones all the time! This is a moving vehicle; if you become myopic like your sister, I'm not buying you glasses! Sebastian!"

"What?!" Sebastian scowled as he exited his sniper-shooting game, or whatever it was that boys played on their phones, and placed it back into the bag, zipping with all the aggressive anger that could go into such an action. "I only just started looking at it," he muttered under his breath.

"Yeah, that's what you say all the time. You too, girl," Mom commented as she took a turn, "You better study for math next week. I don't want to see a repeat of that twelve upon thirty again."

"Yeah, yeah."

The rest of the ride to school was able to occur with no more nitpicks from Mom, and I soon found myself within the school compound and heading for my classes. Everything was normal and as boring as usual, but it was the safe, predictable kind of boring.

And then Ms Woods' class happened - and boy, my temper was truly tested.

Imagine being in class, being told to discuss an essay with Lisa. Everything is fine, as fine as it can go when one is paired with the new queen bee of the school.

And then, someone's screaming (again). For whatever reason, everyone had something to scream about certain famous figures, be it bands, singers, or actresses, while I was unable to relate at all. How did people get so obsessed and love the songs of one band? Were there not always songs that were inferior in quality? I didn't get it.

"LISA!"

I winced internally as Cassidy Carter, leader of the clique I named the Leftovers (they had formed their clique as the last few girls left without a clique, thus the name I gave them) came hurtling over excitedly towards Lisa and I.

I was okay with Cass as a person - she was decently fake-nice and tried her best to wave to me when we met in the hallways like every other girl who was trying their best in the hierarchy - a bit too hard. Everyone thought she was outgoing and all, but honestly? It was just annoying, and I was very much annoyed.

"I JUST WATCHED IT LAST NIGHT AND IT WAS SOOOO GOOD!"

In about 0.01 seconds, Lisa's solemn project discussion face melted away into a hot mess of excitement as she joined Cass in fangirling, the two girls jumping up together to speak in their own unique fangirl frenzy. "I know right, OMG! I cried, okay, I freaking cried! He was so cute I couldn't, oh my gosh..."

It wasn't long before the two girls had attracted one or two other avid fangirls, all too excitedly discussing some trashy teen movie that I did not know of. Taking a deep breath at the scene of my worst project discussion nightmare, I attempted to brainstorm on the question we had been assigned - only to find that the fangirling was way too loud for much focus at all.

Screw project discussion.

Screw Lisa Knight.

Forcing the scowl off my face, I turned to the clock - five more minutes to the end of class. Lisa and friends still talking about crappy romance movie. An intervention was overdue.

"Erm, Lisa?" I asked, only to be met by a lack of response from the intense fangirling speed talk. I raised my volume, "LISA?" Lisa whirled around for a second, confused, before going back to chatting animatedly with the girls swarming around her about the clothes they were interested in buying, the cute iPhone covers on Amazon and a variety of other things that I never had any interest in.

My fingers curled inwards into a fist as I lowered my raised hand, forcing an awkward smile that combined the energies of 'and I oop-' and the 'am I a joke to you' memes.

It really do be like that sometimes, huh?

The plastic smile remained plastered on my face in my awkwardness as I pulled out a new tab page and made my way to chess.com, ready to drown the bitter taste of disrespect out with a stolen moment in this unproductive class.

At least some things were individual - such that your rise or fall were dependent on your own efforts, without anyone freeloading, without anyone dragging anyone down.

Well, I could certainly put aside what had happened for now. The project wasn't hard; Lisa had better put in work - for I wasn't going to sit here and take her BS like that.

It had been too long, too long since I spoke my mind and handed people their asses when they threw BS at me. I'd forgotten my old self in that bathroom where I first witnessed the ugly brutality of the teenage world, of backstabbers and false facades, to become the lame, awkward kid who had to act forgiving and respond 'okay's to everything.

Well, I, Selene Chan, was officially done with that - if there was nonsense being thrown at me, it was time to throw it back hard.