#‘be proactive not reactive’ is a lesson i learned as fuck in high school

[certified-anakinfucker]

i miss mace windu. where is he. is he safe. is he alright.

[pictureswithboxes]

Chapter 7 is up!

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Veronica was standing with Martha at their lockers before class when two girls walked their way. Veronica knew them well enough, Jane and Ashley were their names and Veronica was sure that if it weren’t for The Heathers, they would be good candidates for the top of the food chain at Westerburg. They were chattering about something, only to slow when they saw Veronica and Martha. Jane turned to Ashley and whispered something to her, Veronica was just close enough to hear the term “Dump-Truck” being used. 

Ashley laughed at that before she and Jane started to walk off again. Veronica watched them for a moment, she felt fury build inside of her. How dare they act like that toward Martha? Nothing gave them the right to be this way and all Veronica wanted to do was tell them that. Maybe she also wanted to slap them across their stupid faces as well, but that would probably result in a suspension of some kind. 

Veronica didn’t care about missing school, but a suspension would probably affect her college prospects. 

“Hold that thought.” Veronica said to Martha before she headed toward the two girls. 

She wasn’t quite sure what she was going to say, all Veronica knew was that she was furious. The girls were barely four steps ahead of Veronica, she only needed three seconds to catch up to them. 

“Hey!” Veronica said as sharply as she could manage. 

The two girls turned around and gave Veronica, both looking slightly annoyed by Veronica’s intrusion. 

“Veronica, right?” Jane asked, her tone almost dismissive already. “What’s up?”

Veronica took a second to think of what Heather Chandler would say if she were here. She had to think of something cutting and intimidating to say. 

“I must have heard you guys wrong just now.” That probably wasn’t the most intimidating thing she could say, but Veronica stood by that. “I mean, I didn’t just hear you both call my best friend Martha Dump-Truck, did I?”

Jane and Ashley both scoffed and Ashley rolled her eyes. 

“I know you may think you’re at the top of the untouchable now that you’re The Heathers’ little lap dog,” Ashley said, crossing her arms and straightening her back. “So I’m gonna give you some free advice. Ditch the loser if you know what’s good for you. The Heathers can only keep you safe for so long if all you do is commit social suicide.”

Jane laughed and with that the two girls turned and sauntered off. 

Veronica stood in the hallway, frozen. Did she really think that just because The Heathers let her hang out with them, it meant that everything would be perfect for everyone? She had no real power at this school, no one respected or feared her like they did The Heathers. Sure, she was left alone by the masses, but what good was that when her best friend still got bullied? How many times had this happened when Veronica was too busy hanging out with The Heathers to notice any kind of torment? 

“Let it go, Veronica.” Martha’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She sounded dejected, Veronica knew that Martha was used to this kind of thing. That just made it even worse. “It’s not a big deal. And we're about to be late to class.”

“Who the fuck do they think they are?” Veronica was seething. 

“Let it go.” Martha repeated. “It doesn’t matter.”

Veronica nodded. “Fine, I’ll let it go.” She lied, walking with Martha to their history class. 

. .

The Heathers were already seated at their lunch table in the center of the cafeteria when Veronica arrived for lunch. She hadn’t felt this nervous about speaking to them since the first day they’d met. Veronic kept telling herself that she didn’t need to be nervous, that what she was going to be asking for was normal enough for friends to ask for. Right?

Veronica paused when she got to the table, the cafeteria was loud and The Heathers rarely paid attention to anyone. They hadn’t noticed her yet. Duke was reading aloud as Mac and Chandler listened. When they’d first met, Veronica would have thought they were bored and not paying attention, but now after knowing them now it was clear that they were very interested in whatever Duke was reading to them.

“-The unknown fixed on the young man one of those looks which penetrate into the depth of the heart and thoughts.” Duke was reading when Veronica cleared her throat to announce her presence. 

“Hey Veronica.” Mac gave Veronica a little wave. “How’s it going?”

“I crave a boon.” Veronica blurted, earning confused looks from the three girls. 

“A boon?” Chandler asked, raising an eyebrow. “What kind of boon? And also why are you talking like I’m a pirate captain in the sixteen hundreds?”

Veronica could have hit herself for her phrasing. Of course Chandler would call her out on talking like a historical figure. “Well...” Veronica paused. “I need you guys to help me with something.”

“Generally that’s what a boon is,” Duke said, putting her book down. “Why are you still standing?”

“And why are you acting like you’re asking for a favor from the mafia?” Mac asked with a furrowed brow. 

Veronica sat down, she couldn’t help but fiddle with her skirt when she did so. 

“Just spit it out.” Chandler sighed, she looked bored. “Seriously, with the way you’re acting, it’s like you want us to help you dispose of a body.”

“Oh I know!” Mac said excitedly. “We get some liquid nitrogen, douse the body in it, shatter the body into tiny chunks, then throw them into different dumpsters all over town. That way no one will find the body, no body no crime.”

“Does the FBI need to put you on some kind of list?” Duke laughed, looking at Mac fondly. 

“Or acid.” Mac added after some thought. 

“Acid?” Duke leaned forward, she looked more interested in a hypothetical body dump than she did with this entire conversation. “What kind of acid?”

“Shut up, Heather.” Chandler said, snapping their attention back to the conversation at hand, before looking pointedly at Veronica. “Speak now, Veronica.”

“Some girls have been being mean to Martha and I can’t stop them.” Veronica blurted out, this seemed to pique The Heathers’ interest a little. “I need your help so they can leave Martha alone. They don’t listen to me, but everyone listens to you guys. I just... I don’t know what to do short of using violence. Please make them leave Martha alone.”

The Heathers were quiet for a few moments, their faces almost unreadable as they exchanged glances. 

“First off,” Chandler said finally in a particularly disinterested tone that made Veronica want to scream. “Violence really isn’t the answer. Not for you, at least. I could get away with slapping someone across the face, but you definitely couldn’t. For me it would be putting someone in their place, for you... Everyone would just say that a former freak became unhinged. Not a good look.”

Veronica opened her mouth to speak, to tell Chandler that she hadn’t asked if she could ever get away with slapping a person. But Chandler simply held up her hand to keep her from speaking. 

“As for the Martha situation,” She continued. “Did she ask you to help her?”

“What?” Was all that came out of Veronica’s mouth. 

“Did Martha ask for your help?” Duke repeated Chandler’s question. 

“No, she didn’t.” Veronica replied. What did Martha asking her for help have anything to do asking The Heathers for help? “What does that have to do with anything? My friend is being harassed, I have the resources to help end that harassment. If I don’t help her, then I’m doing her a disservice.”

“You feel guilty.” Chandler said after a moment. “You have some powerful new friends so people are afraid to mess with you. But our umbrella doesn’t cover Martha, and that gives you nasty, little tummy rumbling.” She paused and took in a breath. “As for these girls, you have to think about how it’s going to look if we come running to her defense.”

“How’s it going to look, Heather?” Veronica’s blood was boiling. Chandler could have just given her a yes or no answer, but for some reason she decided that this had to be a learning opportunity. 

“Like we give a shit.” Chandler said with a sigh. “And like Martha can’t handle her shit. We storm up to these girls and demand that they leave Martha alone, she’ll have a week, maybe two, tops. But we can’t and won’t hover over Martha’s shoulder everywhere she goes. We don’t have classes or lunch with her. And our lockers are on the other end of the hall. We have no way to ensure that whatever happened to Martha won’t happen again.” 

“What are you saying?” Veronica had to clench her jaw to keep from yelling at Chandler. 

“What I’m saying is that anything we do would be a bandaid.” Chandler replied. “We’d have to rely on your friend tattling to us whenever someone is mean to her. Which then makes all of our actions reactive rather than proactive. Meaning, we’d be playing cleanup. Not running maintenance.”

“So you’re saying you can’t do anything?” Veronica demanded. 

“We never said that.” Mac said, her face was just as unreadable as the others’. 

“Then please stop giving me a high school politics lesson and please just tell me you can do something!” Veronica snapped. 

“If you understood high school politics better, you wouldn’t be in this situation.” Duke replied with more venom than Veronica could ever hope to muster. Her eyes were sharp and her glare was almost painful. “But here we are, so let Heather talk.”

“We can make their lives miserable.” Chandler said, taking her cue from Duke. “Punish them. Retribution and all that. But... It can’t be us telling them why. If we do that, we lose power. We lose power, and next thing we know, we’re...” She glanced at Mac.

“Heather McNa-Moron.” Mac sighed. 

“Or Heather Dyke.” Duke added. “Or Heather Puke, if my hypothetical tormentor isn’t a homophobe.”

“The downside is that if they’re miserable, then they might take it out on Martha.” Chandler continued. “Now, I can think of worse things to do to a person than just a mean nickname that rolls right off the tongue.”

“Especially with all the ammo she just hands out.” Duke added. “No offense.”

“So it’s up to you.” Chandler folded her hands in front of her on the table. Her pose, her perfect posture, the sharp look in her eye, it all made her look like a supervillain. “Give me the names and I will make their lives pure hell. Or, you let it go, respect Martha’s wishes, and we never speak of this again.”

The way Duke and Mac sat beside her, one on each side, their eyes boring holes into Veronica as she considered the offer, they were like a group of sharks. And Veronica was about to chum the waters. 

Veronica thought for a moment. Was she really just feeling guilty about her newfound friendship? And even if she was feeling guilty, what did it matter? Her friend was suffering, and she had the means to help her. It was wrong not to help her. Wasn’t it? Martha had to have told her to let it go because she didn’t want to be a bother. Veronica had to help her friend. 

“Martha can never know.” Veronica said finally. “None of this gets back to her.”

“Veronica, I can confidently say that I’ve never knowingly spoken a word to your friend.” Chandler said. “Honestly, before this year, I probably wouldn’t have been able to pick her out of a line up. There’s no way this would get to her.”

“I’m not even sure who we’re talking about, if I’m being honest.” Mac said, turning to Chandler. “Isn’t she Harvey Dinsmore’s sister?”

“What?” Veronica frowned. “We’re talking about Martha Dunnstock, not Leslie Dinsmore.”

“Please just give us the names and stop being so dramatic.” Duke sighed in a bored tone. “This isn’t the fucking Godfather. Just spit it out already. Not everything has to be a big production”

“Jane Derringer and Ashley Evans.” Veronica said quickly. 

“Ashley’s on the cheer team.” Chandler said, turning to Mac. “See what you can do.”

 “I’ll have her running extra suicides this week.” Mac said. “Trisha Cappelletti, from Northpoint Catholic, told me that she got a nose-job the summer before she transferred to Westerburg last year. I could make a couple calls. Ashley was on their squad, they’re bound to have photos. Post them all over the school. Trisha owes me a favor, she won’t tell.”

“You’re sure she won’t tell?” Duke asked, she looked suspicious. 

“Completely.” Mac nodded. “I loaned her my lalas at a competition last year after she... uh... had an incident with hers.”

“That’s too much too fast, suicides are fine though.” Chandler nodded knowingly. “She doesn’t have anything on you, does she?”

“The only people who have anything on me are at this lunch table.” Mac rolled her eyes. “And I could take you all down with me if I wanted to.”

Veronica frowned at that. Eating lunch with these girls was like eating lunch with members of the KGB.

“As for Jane...” Chandler said, turning to Duke. “Did you hear that she’s been cheating on Jake Devaran with Alex McMinnimen?”

“I sure did.” Duke said, opening her book again. “I also heard that she’s missed her last period. Her and Jake apparently haven’t done anything yet, but it would really be a shame if a rumor started about her getting pregnant.”

“Oh that’s fun.” Chandler smirked. “Let’s stagger these rumors. Spread the cheating shit around for a week or so, then we’ll start on telling everyone that she’s about to be rocking a fetus fanny pack a little bit later.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Mac said, clapping her hands together. “We should get tacos!”

“Oh man, from that authentic place on Main?” Duke replied with a nod. “Definitely. I’d kill or die for their pork tacos.”

Veronica sat there for a moment with her mouth agape. How could they be so casual about this? It was like they already had a plan for what they were going to do. Did they just have an issue with these two girls already? Or did they have a plan for how they were going to take down everyone at Westerburg? 

“You guys never asked what they did.” She said, making the three of them look up at her again. 

“Does it matter?” Mac asked before taking a sip from her chocolate milk. 

. .

The library at Westerburg High School was not used often, mostly due to Westerburg not having an actual librarian, making it impossible to check books out of the library. Veronica had asked several teachers on more than one occasion if she could borrow a book for her studies, only to be told that she needed to come in on her own time to read in the facility itself. Unfortunately for Veronica, there weren’t any faculty members willing to stay behind to supervise a reading teenager. 

The Heathers, as it turned out, were much more persuasive when it came to convincing faculty to stay behind and supervise them. Or rather, the group had been given a key by the principal after they had promised not to steal anything. Veronica wasn’t sure that was a very good system.

“When the hell are we going to get a damn color copier at this school?” Duke muttered as she and Chandler made copies of the photo that Mac had been able to procure using her cheerleading connections after over a month or so of waiting. 

“I don’t think anyone’s going to care about the color.” Chandler said, grabbing a stack of freshly printed papers. “Did you get the tape, Heather?” She looked over to the table that Mac was sitting on.

Mac held up three rolls of masking tape with a smile. “Got it.”

“Good.” Chandler nodded. “I think five hundred copies should be enough. We should get these posted.” She passed everyone a stack of flyers. “Heather, you do the second floor and the gym, and Heather, you do the junior and senior hallway. Veronica, you come with me, we’ll cover the freshman wing. Once we’re done, we’ll meet up at the cafeteria. Make sure that you save at least ten copies each, I want the cafeteria covered in these.”

“Got it.” Duke gave Chandler a mock salute before leaving.

“See ya.” Mac said, practically skipping out of the library. 

This left Chandler and Veronica alone to do their work. Veronica’s work was essentially just following Chandler around and holding her papers for her. She also was apparently the lookout too, though the school was already locked up, so Veronica wasn’t sure why that job was needed. 

“You know, it was only a matter of time before Ashley Evans and Jane Derringer crossed a line.” Chandler said once they’d finished plastering the freshman lockers with Ashley Evans’ pre nose-job face and were headed to the cafeteria. “They always forget that they don’t exist in a vacuum. Like come on guys, your actions have consequences. Unfortunately for them, it’s apparently my job to teach them this lesson.”

Veronica couldn’t argue with that statement. 

“The thing is, Veronica,” Chandler continued as she began posting flyers all over the cafeteria. “Real life sucks you dry, if you want to fuck with the eagles you have to learn to fly. And do you know how birds learn to fly?”

“They get pushed out of the nest.” Veronica replied. 

“And some of them fly, others just fall and die.” Chandler nodded, she taped a flyer to the vending machine. 

“Thanks for the life advice, Mother Goose.” Veronica said. 

“Oh shut up, everyone knows that people remember shit better if it rhymes.” Chandler snapped before tapping the vending machine twice.“You want a pop? I’m buying.”

“Sure.” Veronica shrugged. “I’ll have a-”

“I’m gonna guess.” Chandler said quickly, shoving a bill into the machine. “You look like you drink Dr. Pepper. No offense.”

“I mean, I do drink Dr. Pepper, but why would I be offended?” Veronica asked, watching as Chandler hit two buttons at the same time. “And what the everloving fuck are you doing?”

“Well, it’s no fun if I just buy you a drink.” Chandler said as a bottle fell and clanged at the bottom of the machine. “Think of it as a game of roulette. Either you get the Dr. Pepper that you crave, or you get milk.”

“Milk? From the vending machine?” Veronica furrowed her brow. “Why is there milk in the vending machine?”

“I don’t know.” Chandler shrugged. “But I don’t know how often they change out the machine gets restocked. So are you feeling lucky?”

“Why are you like this?” Veronica asked, bending down to grab her drink. 

“Do you want a joke answer or do you want to hear all about my childhood traumas?” Chandler replied sarcastically. 

Veronica chose to ignore that and grabbed the bottle, scowling when she saw that it was a bottle of milk. Regular, white milk. It wasn’t even chocolate. This was such a disappointment. Veronica scowled at Chandler, who was not even bothering to hide her laughter. 

“Dude, you just wasted a dollar.” Veronica said, tossing the milk into the garbage can. “And for what? Two seconds of laughter?”

“Worth it.” Chandler was cackling. “Wanna try again? What’re the odds you get milk twice?”

“Do me a favor and never go to Vegas.” Came the voice of Duke as she and Mac entered the cafeteria. 

“There go my weekend plans.” Chandler rolled her eyes and fed the machine another bill. “Who wants to try their luck? Veronica?” She met Veronica’s eye. “Double or nothing? If it’s a Dr. Pepper, I’ll get you a second one. If it’s milk, you have to open it up and take a sip.” 

“Don’t do it, Veronica.” Mac said, crossing her arms and leaning against the table. “I once got the milk and she made me take a sip.” She scowled. “Gross.”

Chandler smirked. “Tick tock, Veronica.” 

“Fine.” Veronica shrugged. What was the worst that could happen? She’d take a sip of something gross, it wasn’t like it was her own money she was wasting. 

Chandler slammed both buttons and a bottle clanged down. “What do you think it’s gonna be?” She bent down to grab the bottle and her smirk became almost predatory. “I am so happy.”

Veronica scowled when Chandler placed a bottle of milk in her hand. “You’re a dick.”

“You made a bet.” Chandler said, her eyes narrowing. “Now sip the probably bad milk or I’ll shove the entire bottle up your growler.”

Veronica wanted to ask Chandler what the fuck a growler was, but on another level, she absolutely did not want to find out. She wrinkled her nose and opened the lid of the bottle before lifting it to her lips and taking the smallest sip possible. The unmistakable taste of sour milk slipped into her mouth and Veronica almost gagged before throwing the bottle into the trash. 

“You suck.” Veronica groaned, digging into her pocket and pulling out a bill. She got herself a Dr. Pepper to wash the taste away. 

“You made your choice.” Chandler shrugged, turning to the others. “You guys get good coverage?” 

Duke and Mac nodded, both looking smug. 

“I can’t wait to see Ashley’s face tomorrow.” Mac said gleefully. 

“Are we ready to go?” Duke asked, glancing around the cafeteria with a frown. “This place gives me the creeps at night.”

“Yep.” Chandler nodded, gathering her things and heading toward the doors. “You guys wanna grab some food then head to mine?” 

“Sure thing!” Mac replied, following Chandler out. She was practically skipping. 

Duke and Veronica followed last, walking a little slower than Mac was. 

“What the fuck is a growler?” Veronica asked Duke. 

. .

Veronica walked into Westerburg with her head held high, there was a certain amount of power that came with knowing someone else’s week would be absolutely ruined because she willed it to happen. As she walked to her locker, she heard a few people whispering about how they’d heard Jane was pregnant with a baby that wasn’t her boyfriend’s and saw the flyers with Ashley’s original nose on them. If these were different girls, if they hadn’t been blatantly mean to her best friend, Veronica would have felt sorry for them. But they made the mistake of insulting Martha right in front of Veronica, and for that they needed to be punished. 

“Hey Veronica.” Martha greeted Veronica when she got to her locker, she looked a little less than thrilled to see Veronica. 

“Hey Martha.” Veronica smiled. “How’s it going?”

“I’m all right.” Martha crossed her arms and leaned against the lockers, she fixed Veronica with a glare. “But I did hear a rumor. Apparently Jane Derringer is pregnant with Alex McMinnimen’s baby and everyone is going crazy about Ashley Evans’ nose.”

Veronica pretended to look surprised. “Oh wow, really? What’s up with her nose?”

“One of the reasons why you’re such an easy person to be friends with is because you’re such a terrible liar.” Martha deadpanned. 

Veronica felt a pit of dread form in her stomach. “What?”

“Veronica.” Martha sighed. “Do you really expect me to believe that it’s a coincidence that a little while after Ashely and Jane were mean to me, suddenly there are rumors and mean flyers going around? You got The Heathers to help you get revenge, didn’t you?”

“Well, look at you, Nancy Drew.” Veronica forced herself to laugh. 

Martha didn’t look amused. “Veronica, come on. This isn’t funny.”

“What was I supposed to do?” Veronica asked. “They were jerks to you and deserved to get a little blowback. I tried to stand up to them and make them stop, and all they did was laugh at me! So I reached out and got back at them.”

“Veronica.” Martha’s frown deepened. She didn’t look angry anymore, she looked disappointed. “But you stooped to their level. You’re no better than they are.”

Veronica rolled her eyes. That was exactly the kind of movie bullshit logic that she hated. It was what kept the hero from killing the villain, even after they’d absolutely mowed down groups and groups of the villains minions. It made no sense to Veronica on movie nights and it made no sense to her now. 

“That logic makes no sense.” Veronica replied. “You can’t just let people be jerks with no push back, letting them be mean to you isn’t an option. I’m not going to let my best friend keep getting hurt just so I can pat myself on the back for being the bigger person!”

“But that’s what I asked you to do.” Martha said. “This was my problem, not yours. And I wanted to rise above it. You didn’t listen to me. I told you to let it go and instead you got your friends to bully these girls. Now everyone knows that Ashley’s nose is fake and that Jane cheats on Jake with Alex. That’s way worse than being called Dump-truck once sometimes.” 

Veronica frowned. “Okay, I admit, it was kind of an escalation.” She nodded. “But-”

“No buts.” Martha interrupted. “You broke my trust and that’s not okay. Period. You’re in the wrong.”

With that, Martha turned her heel and walked away. Veronica watched her go, frozen in place. Did she and Martha just have a fight? She and Martha never fought, sure they’d had their disagreements, but never to the point of a storm off. 

It didn’t feel right at all. 

. .

“Martha and I had a fight.” Veronica said when she sat at the lunch table. 

“And let me guess, you’re going to project your frustration with yourself at us?” Chandler asked, barely even looking at Veronica. “Because if that’s the case, don’t even bother. It’s so cliche and played out, and we established that you were going against her wishes when you asked us for this favor so-”

“Heather, I’m not mad at you.” Veronica said quickly, earning a glare from Chandler. 

“Don’t fucking interrupt me.” Chandler said in a low, dangerous voice. “Ever. Understood?”

“Right, I won’t.” Veronica replied with a nod. “Sorry, Heather.”

“It’s fine.” Chandler said, leaning forward onto her elbows. “So you and Martha had a fight because you went behind her back and got revenge on her behalf. Go on.”

“She’s mad because I didn’t listen to her, and I get that.” Veronica said with a frown. “But she wasn’t listening to me when I told her my side. I just don’t get why she’s mad. People were being mean to her and I had the power to stop it. What was I supposed to do? Watch my friend get hurt over and over again until graduation?”

“It sounds like a tough situation to be in.” Mac said in a noncommittal tone. “It sounds a lot like being between a rock and a hard place. I don’t know what I’d do.”

“That’s why I exclusively make friends with vindictive bitches.” Duke shrugged, unsurprisingly, Chandler and Mac smiled at the accusation. “If someone hurts these two, they’d love to see that person burn.”

“She’s right, I would.” Chandler nodded. 

“Maybe apologize to Martha.” Mac said softly. “You can’t really take back what happened, especially since I know for a fact that Heather, Heather, and I will not be cleaning those flyers up. But It sounds like you just hurt Martha’s feelings. Apologizing to her might be a good first step.” She paused. “Unfortunately you might need to have a talk with Martha about feelings.”

“Gross.” Chandler scowled. 

“Ditto.” Duke added.

Veronica groaned at the idea. That sounded like the worst possible solution. 

“You know, sometimes it’s kind of hard to deal with you guys and your emotional constipation.” Mac said with a frown. 

“Shut up, Heather.”

. .

Veronica would rather eat glass than talk about her feelings. Fortunately for Martha, she loved her best friend more than she hated dumping all her emotions out in front of another person. Her friendship with Martha meant everything. 

So there she stood, on Martha’s doorstep after school. Veronica rang the doorbell, the sound of the ring seemed to kick start her heart into overdrive. She’d never been this nervous to speak to Martha before, then again, she’d never had Martha more than a little annoyed with her before. Logically, she knew there was no way that this was a friendship ending argument, but there was a little nagging voice in the back of her mind that kept telling her that if she said the wrong thing, they may never recover. 

It felt ridiculous to even think about.

“Hi, Veronica.” Martha said when she answered the door, opening it a little wider so Veronica could step in. “What’s up?”

“I’m sorry.” Veronica said the moment she stepped through Martha’s front door. “I didn’t mean to hurt you or make you feel like I don’t listen to you. I just didn’t want to see you hurting. Especially since I don’t get bothered so much anymore, ya know? I just... You know... I love you, I guess. So I didn’t want to see you get hurt.” 

“Oh.” Martha looked very surprised. “I don’t know what I was expecting.”

“Yeah, I kind of surprised myself if I’m being honest.” Veronica let out a nervous laugh. “But, you know me, I need to be the hero and save the day. I just... I let my feelings overshadow yours. That wasn’t cool of me.”

“No, it really wasn’t.” Martha replied, crossing her arms. “And I think I’m gonna still be mad for the rest of the night.”

“I understand.” Veronica nodded. 

“I’m not gonna lie, it sucks that you didn’t listen to me.” Martha smiled after a moment. “But you really pulled out the big guns for me, didn’t you? They called me a mean name and you basically ordered a mob hit on them.”

Veronica laughed. “I was just fighting fire with fire.”

“More like fighting minnows with sharks.” Martha replied. 

“Don’t say that around The Heathers, the next thing we’d know, they’d be arguing about what kind of sharks they are.”