Zoe bumped into a tanned, athletic girl with long, bleached blonde permed hair.
"Excuse me," said the girl. She barely glanced at Zoe before walking away with her friend.
"Sorry," mumbled Zoe. Is she afraid of me? she asked herself.
The two girls in pink tanktops and skirts stood out against the other students who were mostly wearing black. Each had adopted some elements of Goth fashion: a piercing here, a collar there. But none were full-blown Goths, so they could never pass for members of the cool crowd. Only Zoe, Sarah, and Biff had fully embraced the darkness.
"Losers," snorted Biff, who had taken a break from embracing Sarah. "And those ... cheerleaders think they're soooo coordinated. Hah. Who do they lead anyway?"
"More losers like them," answered Sarah. "Boys who can't get a real date ..." She looked up into Biff's eyes outlined in black. "Who don't know the first thing about makeup. It would be pretty funny to see them play their 'sports' and sweat out there beneath the - ugh - sun." Sarah twisted her face in disgust. Only peasants fried themselves. She was a queen, a snow-skinned ruler of the night. Biff was her king and Zoe was a dutchess. "I'll never understand why anyone would cheer for such animals. Maybe all that jumping and yelling is some twisted religious ritual, some offering to the 'Team Spirit' or whatever it is they babble about so much. Even the music they listen to is so sick ... so bright ... so happy."
Zoe realized that she was listening to what Sarah must have thought of people like her before the change. The fashions were different, but Sarah was still the same old narrow-minded elitist. Zoe couldn't help but feel that Sarah's words were aimed straight at her. She was a member of the "in" crowd now, but she couldn't forget her years of living on the margins of school society. "Who exactly were those girls anyway?"
"Um, Athena and Zelda, I think." Sarah laughed. "What lame names!" Sarah flapped her pale arms in the air. "Gimme an A! Gimme a Z! Z for zero!"
Zoe turned away from her new "friends" to look for her old friends in the distance. She envisioned herself doing routines with Athena and Zelda. She'd never thought much of cheerleading, but she was used to being uncool, and she could deal with that again. Sarah and Biff ... or Athena and Zelda? The choice was obvious.
