The final school bell rang and the halls were flooded with students. Fat, tall, short, anorexic, you know, all your stereotypes.

Bette waited until the the sound in the hallway died down before unlocking the stall door and heading over to the sink to wash her face. The cool water contrasted her warm face and she sighed. It wasn’t going to be long before her new identity as a lesbian would spread along the gossip lines. She wondered if the way she was treated was going to change.

"Fuck!" She yelled to herself.  This wouldn’t have started if she hadn’t fallen for Nadia’s tricks, temporarily hypnotizing her into agreeing to be her girlfriend.

Bette got a note hidden in her middle school locker asking her to meet someone in the girl’s locker room. She almost didn’t go but something told her it might have been good for her. Maybe someone actually had a crush on her that year. Bette was beautiful (as we all know) but her beauty was hidden behind thick glasses, acne, and her hair always in two braids on the side of her head. She was famous for that look and she reused it every school year.

Nadia was waiting for her in the locker room and was in tears, confused at her newly developed feelings for the same sex. She asked Bette for advice, guessing that the only reason Bette didn’t have a girlfriend was because she was gay. Her guess was correct and Bette wrapped her arms around her and consoled her. They hit it off automatically and Bette thought that Nadia was changing, becoming a better person. But it all went downhill when Nadia tried to undress her in her bedroom. Bette told her to stop but Nada continued to tear apart her clothing. She pushed Nadia off of her, harshly, and broke her dresser window. Nadia picked up her belongings and never returned.

Bette knew the truth at that moment: Nadia was never in it for love.

 Bette dried her face with her black, blue, and white argyle sweater and looked in the mirror. She had matured over the years, replacing her glasses with contacts, her curves starting to jut out in all the right places, her acne clearing up with the help of Proactive, and her hair leaving the scrunchies and flowing freely across her shoulders. Yes, Bette deserved to be popular, but her image as the school nerd said otherwise. Her eyes were swollen but other than that, she looked fine. She quickly ran her hair through her fingers and stuck her head out the bathroom entrance.