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rise before her and then rush by.

3
SYDNEY
    â€œOkay, seriously, Sydney, you and your sister need to write a freakin’ book,” Rhea commented randomly.
    The three girls leaned against the student lockers outside the entrance of their Fine Arts classroom, watching students pass by as they waited for the second-period bell to ring.
    â€œWhat are you talking about, Rhea,” Sydney muttered in reply as she examined the damaged cuticles on her left hand. Those last couple of weeks of hardcore punishment had wreaked havoc on her normally flawless fingers. And from the looks of her chipped polish, it was going to take several honey and warm paraffin treatments to undo the damage.
    â€œI’m just saying, if a melee ever broke out at one of my parties, please believe it would take more than two weeks for me to convince my parents to let me off punishment,” Rhea began as a crowd of boys heading toward the girls came into view.
    â€œShoot, it would probably take me another lifetime,” Carmen co-signed. “The way my parents are about all their precious homes, I’d probably be sleeping in the garage until the day I died.”
    â€œDon’t get it twisted,” Sydney said, measuring her words carefully. She didn’t want to give away more than she was willing to explain about the repercussions of the property damage and public humiliation of the entire Duke family that had happened that night. “Altimus and Keisha were not pleased. It took some pretty fast talking and a whole lot of begging. But at the end of the day, it’s not like what happened was either of our faults.” Sydney’s voice faded out as she remembered the betrayed look on Jason’s face when Marcus put her on blast for going out on a coffee date with him. Even though at the moment Jason had pretended that Marcus’s accusation of Sydney not being over their old relationship didn’t faze him, there was no hiding that he was no longer speaking to her. Or even worse, that thanks to the blow-by-blow YRT recap of the night’s events, the entire school thought she was a cheater. She immediately beganto tug on the diamond stud in her right earlobe. “I mean, who knew…”
    â€œDuh, it definitely wasn’t your fault,” Carmen quickly reassured her best friend. “That’s not what we’re saying at all.”
    â€œOmigod, not at all, Syd,” Rhea said as she shook her head. “Don’t think that. It’s so obvious Marcus is totally jealous of Jason. He was just looking for an excuse.”
    Sydney smiled warmly at her friends’ valiant attempt at damage control. They always managed to make everything seem okay—even when it was so not.
    â€œWhat’s good, ladies,” a voice called out from the group of guys that had finally made its way down the hall. The three looked over at Rhea’s newly minted boyfriend, Tim, as he sidled up to Rhea for a quick kiss and squeeze of her booty.
    â€œUgh, Tim.” Rhea feigned disgust as she swatted his hand away.
    â€œWhat? Can’t a brother get a little somethin’-somethin’ to get him through the day?” he questioned playfully as he wrapped his arms around Rhea’s tiny waist. He nuzzled his nose into her neck. “You smell good, babe.”
    Sydney felt a slight twinge of sadness as she remembered how Jason used to compliment her all the time on the scent of her favorite L’Occitane Green Tea with Mint perfume.
    â€œLloyd, will you please come get your boy?” Rhea pouted playfully toward Tim’s best friend.
    â€œHey, don’t blame me, Beyoncé. You’re the one that’s got him actin’ all crazy in love,” Lloyd joked as he yanked Tim back by the collar of his varsity baseball jacket.
    Carmen giggled as the boys finally headed off down the hall with Tim in tow. “Not crazy in love! Lloyd Chesquire is a stone-cold fool.”
    â€œGirl,