(brylee's outfit for this part of the chapter)

(bennett's outfit for this part of the chapter)

Brylee was walking down the hallway of the school when she noticed her sister and Riley sitting on the steps on their laptops. She smiles at them and stands by them. "Hey, girls."

They both glance at her with a smile. "Hi, sis." Maya greeted.

"What's up?" Brylee questioned, sitting on the step across from her sister.

"We're making our school profile." Maya replied.

"What did you put for your school profile?" Riley inquired, glabcing at Brylee curiously.

"I was honest and put down my interests." Brylee smiled.

Maya looks at Riley with an 'I told you so' look and points at her sister. "See? You should just put down what you like and not care what others think."

Riley frowns. "But that's all I do."

"Riley, it's not that hard. Just write down something and then you'll be done with it." Brylee encouraged.

"Yeah," Maya agrees. "Stop being so dramatic."

"Okay, I am the least dramatic person who has ever roamed the face of the Earth." Riley dramatically said, looking at Maya with offense.

"That's exactly something a dramatic person would say." Brylee chuckled and her sister nodded in agreement.

"What did you put for favorite movie?" Riley asked Maya.

"'Don't Look Behind You.'" Maya smiled.

Confusion overtakes Riley's features. "Did I see that with you?"

"No, but I did and it was one of the scariest movies of my life." Brylee admitted and she shuddered, grimacing at remembering the movie as her sister looked at her with amusement.

Riley furrows her eyebrows, glancing at Maya. "Why didn't I see it with you guys?"

Maya grins. "Look behind you." She smiles with amusement when Riley screamed with fear. She points at the brunette. "That's why."

"Well, I'm sure that nobody else knows what to write down either." Riley shrugged.

Meanwhile, Lucas, Farkle, and Zay were sitting on the bench in the hallway with their laptops, making their school profile. The three boys knew exactly what they wanted to put on their profile. Bennett was walking by when he overheard Zay say his favorite movie was The Notebook.

"Your favorite movie is The Notebook?" Bennett chuckled as he walked over to the boys.

"Love never dies, man." Zay shook his head.

"Good point." Bennett nodded.

"What's your favorite movie?" Lucas asked him.

"Any superhero movie." Bennett replies. "I'm a big superhero fan."

"Alright, favorite song?" Farkle questioned everyone.

"Ooh, 'Desperado'." Lucas responded with a smile.

With a smile, Zay shakes his head. "Anything by Celine Dion."

The other boys glance at Zay weirdly. "The sound of my computer turning on." Farkle confessed. He then mimics the sound his computer makes when it turned on. He laughs. "This is so easy."

Even though the boys found it easy to fill out their account, Riley was still having trouble. "Why is this so hard for you?" Maya asked her.

"When one makes a decision, one must consider the consequences of one's choice." Riley replied.

"I'm a writer and I didn't even understand what you just said." Brylee said, looking at her with confusion.

Maya nods in agreement. "Real talk."

"What if nobody likes me?" Riley cried out.

"Who cares?" Brylee shrugs. "Not everyone has to like you."

Riley stares at her with disbelief. Maya then chimes in with, "You're just freaking out because your name's on it. Let's pretend that you had an alter ego you pretended to be when you were all alone that nobody knows about and put her name on it."

Riley smiles widely. "Yes. Let's pretend that. Ha ha."

"What's her name?" Maya asked her.

"Jexica." Riley grinned.

Maya shares a look with Brylee before looking at Riley with raised eyebrows. "Jexica?"

Brylee nods slowly, staring at Riley with furrowed eyebrows and wondering why she picked that name. "It sure is a unique name."

"Like Jessica, but 'x-ier." Riley grinned.

Maya looks at her with an amused glint in her eyes. "Nobody's gonna find that adorable.'

"Jexica was the coolest thing there ever was." Riley comments. Brylee smiles a bit when she noticed her sister get her sketch book out and began drawing. "She had blue hair and she protected me."

"Ooh, she does sound cool." Brylee smiles. "I always wanted to dye my hair a different color.'

"Yeah, I remember." Maya chuckles. "When we were younger you tried to dye your hair with markers."

"I didn't know that wouldn't work!" Brylee defends herself, outstretching her arms dramatically before letting them fall back by her sides. She looks at her with confusion. "How do you even remember that? You were younger than I was at the time."

"There's a picture of you with trying to color your hair with markers in the scrapbook mom made." Maya snickered.

"Of course there is." Brylee mumbles, now she really wanted to change the subject. She exhales shaprly before turning to face Riley with a smiel. "So, what happened to Jexica? Why isn't she around anymore?"

"Maya showed up." Riley smiled.

"Aw!" The three girls spoke in unsion, all smiling.

"So make a profile as Jexica." Maya suggest. "Write down all the answers as her, but if nobody likes her, you're fine because nobody knows it's you."

As Riley began to fill out her profile as Jexica, Brylee cringes. "Are we sure that this is a good idea?"

Riley furrows her eyebrows, stops typing and glances at her with confusion. "Why would it not be a good idea?"

"I mean, if you make up this fake profile, people are either gonna demand to know who she is or they're all gonna pretend they're her because of how cool she is and they wanna be her." Brylee explained.

"Oh." Riley said in realization. She shrugs. "I'm sure that won't happen." She smiles at her profile. "Besides, this already feels easier."

"Pretending to be somebody else usually is." Maya nodded.

"Jexica likes all of the things that I like except she wears a green army jacket, has feathers in her blue hair, and she carries a sword." Riley voiced in a happy tone.

Maya grins. "Classic Jexica." She turned her sketch book around to show her sister and best friend the drawing she just made.

"Hey, that's her." Riley smiled from ear to ear upon seeing the drawing.

Brylee stares at it with shock. "You literally just drew that?" Maya hums in response with a smile on her face. "You are literally a professional artist. I'm jealous of your skills." Brylee admitted and Maya chuckled.

"You think anybody will like her?" Riley asked in a hopeful tone.

"I know I do." Maya replied.

"Me too." Brylee chimes in. "I feel like she'll be very popular. I mean, who wouldn't like a girl with blue hair, feathers in her hair, and who carries a sword? She's awesome."

****

At lunch, Bennett was sitting in the cafeteria with his friends when Brylee walked in with her group of friends. He rolled his eyes, knowing that she would come over to talk to him.

"Hey, Bennett. Mind if I sit here?"

"Actually, we were hoping to have a private conversation. Maybe you can sit somewhere else?" Bennett asked.

"Fine, loser. You're gonna miss out on reading the story I wrote, but it's whatever." Brylee rolls her eyes. "I'll go sit with my friends."

Bennett's friends looked at him with raised eyebrows, wondering why he was being so rude to Brylee.

Thor speaks up, "Dude, what was that all about?"

Bennett glances at him with confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Why did you have to be so mean to Brylee?" Thor asks. "She's not a bad person."

Bennett sighs heavily. "You don't understand. Brylee and I have a complicated history. She's always trying to one-up me and prove that she's better than me."

"Well, why don't you just try to be friends with her?" Thor suggests. "Maybe she's not as bad as you think."

"I don't know, man." Bennett mumbles. "It's just hard. We've been frenemies since we were kids. I mean...Maybe it could work." He admits and his friends exchange a knowing glance. He shakes his head. "How do you even stop being frenemies with someone you've been frenemies with basically your whole life?"

Thor shrugs. "It could happen if you let it."

Meanwhile, across the cafeteria, Brylee was venting to her friends about Bennett.

"I don't know what his problem is." Brylee frusturatingly said. "He's always so rude to me."

"Maybe he's just jealous of you." Fransesca voiced.

Brylee scoffs. "Jealous? Why would he be jealous of me?"

"Well, you're smart, talented, and you have a lot of friends." Nikki tells her. "Maybe he feels insecure around you."

"Oh, please." Brylee rolls her eyes. "If anything it would be the other way around." She admitted.

Nikki exchanges a glance with Fransesca. "Oh, so you're jealous of him?" Nikki asked, looking back at Brylee with a teasing smile along wtih Fransesca.

"Or," Fransesca drags out the word, grinning at Brylee. "Maybe you're actually falling for him and you just say you hate him so you can hide your feelings."

"What?" Brylee's eyes widen, mentally scolding herself becauase of the way her heart skipped a beat and how she could feel the blush rising to her cheeks. Upon noticing the blush, her friends exchanged a knowing glance. She quickly says, "No! No way. I would never be jealous of him or have feelings for that arrogant jerk."

"Okay," Nikki chuckles. "Whatever you say."

****

As Bennett walked down the hallway after class he had once lunch ended, he noticed Brylee was cornered by a group of mean girls and he felt a pang of anger rise in him. Those girls were like every group of mean girls that were in shows and movies. The leader of the group even called herself the 'Queen Bee' of the school. The girls always made fun of others plainly just for the fun of it and it always annoyed Bennett. He knew what it was like to be bullied - he was bullied when he was a kid, but it stopped as he grew up. Even though he and Brylee weren't friends, he wasn't going to let her get bullied.

"Hey, what's going on here?" Bennett asked, stepping in between Brylee and the bullies. Brylee glanced at him with surprise, not expecting for him to step in.

"None of your business, Matthews." The leader of the group sneers. She smiles, an obviously fake smile, as she looks at Brylee. "Besides, we were just having a friendly chat, so this doesn't concern you, right?"

"Sure." Brylee quietly replies. She looks embarrassed about being in this situation, but she had to admit she was grateful for Bennett attempting to help. "Bennett," She gets Bennett's attention, his harsh gaze turning soft when he looked back at her. "It's okay. I'm fine."

"You're not fine." Bennett scoffs. He uses air quotations when he said friendly chat. "And that clearly wasn't a 'friendly chat'."

"I know," Brylee murmurs. "But you can go, Bennett. I can handle it."

Bennett had to admit he was surprised about her behavior. This wasn't the Brylee that he knew. The Brylee he knew was confident, sarcastic, didn't hesitate to stand up for herself, and almost always had a witty comeback at the ready. But it seemed like these girls made her the shell of who she was.

"No, you shouldn't have to handle it alone. No one deserves to be treated like this." Bennett tells her. He glances at the group of mean girls with a glare. "Well, except maybe you guys." They all look at him with a glare to which he ignored, and he glances back at Brylee, his harsh gaze softening. "Come on, let's get out of here." He stands by her, throwing an arm around her shoulders. He looks back at the group of mean girls with an intimidating stare. "If I see you guys ever bother her again, I will not hesitate to tell the principal you guys cheated on a test and also skip class many times."

They all stare at him with shock, not knowing that he knew those things. The leader of the group scoffs, pretending to not care when it was obvious she did. "Whatever, Matthews. Way to be a buzzkill."

And with that, Bennett then guides Brylee away from the group of girls. He glances at her, his eyes full of concern. "Why didn't you tell anyone that they've been bothering you?"

"I'm used to it." Brylee sighs. "And I only have senior year of high school left so I figured I'll just deal with it until I graduate."

Bennett's eyes widen. "They've been messing with you since freshmen year?"

Brylee grimaces. "Yeah."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that. I know what it's like to get bullied and it's not fun." Bennett admitted. He didn't ever plan on telling Brylee that he got bullied, but he figured she would feel better if she knew he understood what she was going through and could easily relate.

"Thank you," Brylee said softly. "I didn't expect you to help me like that."

Bennett smiles at her. "Hey, we may be frenemies, but we still help each other out, right?"

Brylee smiles and nods in agreement. "Yeah." She was still surprised that Bennett had help her out. She had always thought he was a bit of a jerk and arrogant but seeing him stand up for her made her start to see him in a different light. She was grateful for his unexpected act of kindness. And maybe this was the start of them being friends.

****

At school the next day, Brylee was surprised when almost everyone at school was dressed up as Jexica. "Well," She comments, walking over to stand by Maya and Riley. "I knew something like this would happen." Her eyes widen with surprise when she realized Riley was dressed up as Jexica. She shakes her head and smiles. "Which means I get to say, I told you so."

"Yep, should've listened to you." Maya nodded as everyone who was dressed up as jexica began to shout out 'i am jexica'.

Yogi was even dressed up as Jexica. He stands on the bench, announcing, "I am Jexica."

Maya's eyes widen and she stares at Yogi with surprise. "Yogi?"

"Jexica." Yogi corrected her.

"I am Jexica!" Everyone dressed up shouted.

"Oh no, what kind of apocalypse did I just walk into?" Bennett wondered out loud as he walked over to the girls, his eyes wide as he looked at everyone.

"Jexica is taking over the school." Brylee replied.

Bennett groans in annoyance, closing his eyes. "Please don't tell me my cousin has something to do with this."

Brylee chuckles. "What do you think?"

Bennett opens his eyes, glancing over at Maya and Riley. His shoulders drop in defeat and he looks annoyed upon seeing Riley was dressed as Jexica. "Yep, that's exactly what I didn't want to know." He glances at Brylee with confusion. "What happened?"

"Riley was worried about making her profile for the school so she made a fake profile aka Jexica and she became very popular and now everyone is claiming to be her." Brylee replied.

"All in, like, what, two days?" Bennett asked, his voice laced with surprise.

"Yep." Brylee nodded.

"Oh, great." Bennett grumbled.

"What do we do now?" Riley asked worriedly.

"Too early to tell." Maya admits. She takes Riley's sword, dramatically holding it and pretends to be speaking in a commercial. "We'll be back right after this with our lesson."

Bennett stares at her with confusion. "Who are you talking to?" He looks at Brylee. "Who is she talking to?"

****

It was the next day when everyone doesn't care about Jexica. And in all honesty, that's how things are. Something exciting and new comes along, getting everyone's attention and becomes popular, but then the next day they focus on something out and forget about what happened the day before. Riley eventually learned that she shouldn't care what other people think and finally decided to just put things about her on her profile.

A/N bennett defending brylee even though they dont really like each other >>>>