Down With The Queen

Operation Recruit The McCain

“New plan girls. Operation Recruit the McCain,” Jennifer said with her eyes in slits. She was now out for blood; slowly and surely she would get her pound of flesh.

“Recruit? I thought you hated her,” Raven said.

“Hated? Pfft. Do I look like I hate Vi?” Jennifer said, waving away Raven’s assumption.

“You pushed her off your roof,” Pearl pointed out.

“You’re making the ‘I will destroy you’ face,” Mars noted.

“I, do not...hate...Vi!” Jennifer said with gritted teeth. Forget that they were her girlfriends. They could be really annoying.

“Umm, guys? She looks like she’s gonna blow,” Raven said, shifting gazes between Pearl and Mars, just in case she needed to know whether to run. A mad Jennifer was not a fun one, as she had learned when she pushed Jennifer away from her face when Jennifer had called her a brain damaged druggie on her first week of school. Jennifer had retaliated a week later when she somehow found her secret weed stash and flushed them down the toilet, and Raven couldn’t even get a new one because Jennifer had bribed all the kids who dealt handsomely not to sell to Raven. But eventually, Jennifer warmed up to Raven and took her under her wings because she liked her feisty spirit and would rather have her fighting by her side than against her.

“I’m fine,” Jennifer exhaled, taking in deep breaths to calm herself. She wondered if she’d have to dispose of her team if they proved to be any dumber.

They were missing first period of French to properly and attentively draft out a master plan to efficiently draw in Vi McCain into their circle in order to weaken her from the inside, and here they were bickering over whether Jennifer liked Vi or not.

“Alright ladies!” Jennifer clapped her hands to get their attention. “Vi McCain, if not adequately nipped in the bud, is a force to be reckoned with. Something about her seems off, and I don’t like being in the dark. So, we must know her in order to beat her, if need be. Know thy enemy,” Jennifer finished, staring seriously at each face to make it clear that she meant business.

“Exactly. Know thy enemy. It was Chou Tzuyu who said that,” Mars said, nudging Pearl.

“It was SUN TZU dumbass!” Pearl exclaimed incredulously, slapping her forehead with the disbelief that this wasn’t already common knowledge.

“That’s what I said,” Mars mumbled and shrugged, not getting why Pearl was so racked up about a name.

“Chou Tzuyu is a K-Pop idol from the group Twice. Sun Tzu was a master of war tactics and a philosopher. They are two different people!” Pearl explained, looking like she was about to bust a vein on this one.

“Someone’s touchy,” Mars whispered to Jennifer, who was just standing there with folded arms and a newfound headache.

“I’m not touchy. You’re being obnoxious,” replied Pearl.

“CAN WE FOCUS??!! PLEASE!!!” Jennifer yelled. She felt like she was babysitting three annoying bickering kids.

The girls immediately shut up and looked guiltily at Jennifer, as if she had found them stuffing their mouths with cookies that were off-limits.

“Right. Since you three cannot seem to focus enough to come up with a plan good enough to recruit the McCain, here’s what we are going to do.”

---

Vi wasn’t the least bit nervous or anxious, and even though the school’s exterior had changed since the last time that she was here, the interior seemed not to have changed, and neither did its students. It was the same old pale yellow walls, the same red lockers with doors that were sometimes stuck and difficult to open, the same cliques of students with only a few changes here and there, and even the same grey waiting chairs that were lined up in the secretary’s office, which was a precursor to the inner chamber of Vice Principal Bart’s office. Vi always wondered why he was called the Vice Principal when in fact, they had no Principal that he was the Vice to, as he was the sole administrative head of Knox High.

“Vice Principal Bart will see you now,” said the secretary who was just coming out of Vice Principal Bart’s office with a file in her hand, which Vi assumed was hers.

As Vi stepped into Vice Principal Bart’s office, she was not disappointed to see that it was still the same old green themed office that she knew-the jade ceramic cat sat atop the left hand side of the navy green shelf by the window, a large green mahogany desk was accosted by a large green leather swivel chair for Vice Principal Bart, and two wooden teal chairs for his visitors. A portrait of Vice Principal Bart hung behind him, along with smaller framed pictures of his family.

The man in the chair had not aged a day since Vi last saw him, and for her sake, she hoped earnestly that he did not recognize her. He did not.

“Welcome to Knox High, Miss Violet McCain. Here at Knox High, we encourage our students to be on their best behavior, to follow and pursue their dreams, to perform excellently academically and to desist from all sorts of gross misconducts and practices which are punishable by the administrative body or the constitution of the United States,” he drawled, repeating words he must have been saying for over a decade.

“Except bullying,” Vi muttered to herself.

“What was that?” VP Bart asked.

“Nothing,” Vi said quickly. Vice Principal Bart couldn’t decide whether she was being a smarty pants or a plain weirdo. He let it slide and reached for a sheet of paper that lay atop an encyclopedia on his desk and handed it to Vi.

“This is your schedule of classes, your locker number and a map of the school should you have the need to visit the infirmary, the labs or the counselor’s office, amongst other facilities.”

Vi took her schedule from him and made to go, assuming that they were done.

“And Miss Violet...” he called out as she turned the doorknob “Good luck.”

It was almost as if he knew she would need as much luck as she needed to successfully infiltrate and navigate the socio-political world that was the Knox High student body.

“Thanks.”