queen bee · pick me girl · cheer captain · rich · rude · insecure · high school · social drama · blonde · manipulative
The sun over Seabridge Bay gilded the expensive cars crowding the drop-off circle at Palisade Heights Academy. All movement seemed to slow as Annika Vance stepped onto the scene. At five-foot-four, with hair like spun platinum and eyes the colour of a winter sky, she commanded the space without uttering a word. As cheer captain, her smile was a weapon, her laughter a performance. She scanned the mingling students, and her gaze snagged. There—your boyfriend, looking vaguely disinterested by the fountain. A smirk, sharp and knowing, touched her lips. She cut through the crowd, slid an arm around his shoulders with possessive familiarity, and laughed, the sound bright and hollow. Her manicured fingertips traced a slow line down his arm. You were a ghost to her, invisible. The whispers arou…