"Oh, her? She's that girl who placed second in that contest... his rival."
"She's that 10th grader, you know, his partner in that contest? Also, I totally ship it, but she denied it openly, saying she despises him."
"Wait- but she-- they were besties just days back!"
What do all these statements have in common? The word 'she', you might say. Well, that's true, but... what else do you see in common?
These three bits of dialogue happened at completely different school years, and the other person involved in each case was very different from the last.
It all started in ninth grade, when she began to notice a pattern of back-and-forth struggle for victory between herself and a classmate - let's call him X. She and X were strangers to each other, except that they were head-to-head at everything. And this triggered her.
Sure, it's petty, but high school's like that.
This was a simple matter of academic rivalry. No personal issues, really, just cold, calculated dislike.
Strike 1. Potential Friendships lost: 1
A year passed, and she matured ever-so-slightly to the point of having gotten over this silly little imagined rivalry in her head. Besides - he wasn't enough competition anymore anyway.
This story began differently, between her and a different person. I wouldn't call them friends, but they certainly weren't strangers after having ended up in the same place outside of school at least thrice. Let's call him Y, because that's how all the teachers spell his name (wrongly) - but it's the way it's pronounced. Weird, huh?
They were teamed up for a day or two, on a little contest. The competition was fierce, and they had complementary strengths, attributing a fairly satisfying victory.
As Bebe Rexha said in her song, 'she's the queen of burning bridges'. But here, she didn't really sabotage anything she loved. She simply sabotaged half her sanity so that she could gain some peace and quiet after saying 'No, and God forbid I ever like Y- if I ever do, I'm hanging myself' fifty times an hour.
So she took it upon herself to pull out her trusty old imaginary matchbox and burn said bridge. By avoiding him until people started to think they weren't friends anymore.
Strike Two. Potential Friendships Lost: 2
She grew up and grew out of it yet again, and while her plan worked, it wasn't all foolproof. She didn't particularly care anymore. About anything.
Life was decent, till she noticed yet another problem, with her former best friend. Let's call her Z, because after Y, comes Z. I know, the friendship levels really seem to rise more and more.
Z started hanging out with a different girl and seemed kind of avoidant and distant from her friend group. Said group, 'she' included, were concerned, but decided to stay out of it. But she was pretty angry.
But oh no, there she goes... she places her hand to her back pocket, and pulls out the famous little imaginary matchbox. She pulls out a match, but this time, she hesitates. She knew she didn't regret the last two, and she was already starting to befriend X.
Strike Three?
Damn, she's on a roll...
[A/N: Kinda sad, but not really, I know. Still... I don't like thinking about what might have been with either of the three. (Especially not 2, which was why I did what I did!) But #3 is sad too, because... well, I dunno... my social skills just suck, I guess? I'm confused AND sad now!]
ns18.117.79.92da2
and then Add to home screen.