Danni Rich glanced through her locker, skimming over the multiple spines of the book she had stashed away. After a moment, she grabbed the first in the Harry Potter series and shut the metal door with a soft click. Her brown hair flew as she spun around - and nearly collided with someone standing behind her.

With a yelp she scrambled back and stared at up the girl. Bitter resentment began to bubble up as she recognized Alexis Hoppkins who, like Danni, had  taken part in the cheer tryouts but, unlike Danni, had attempted to cheat by tripping Danni when it was the freshman's turn.

"Oh," Danni grumbled, "it's you."

"You don't seem very excited to see me," Alexis sneered. "If I were you, I'd be thanking me for getting you a low score. I don't even know how you got enough points to move onto tomorrow."

Danni gritted her teeth together to keep from snapping a reply, saying instead, "I've got to go, Alexis. I don't have time for this. My brother has a soccer game in a couple of hours and I need to get home." She tried to scoot around the girl but Alekis blocked her way.

"I'm not done talking yet," she snapped. "Didn't anyone teach you to listen when someone's speaking to you? Or do your parents not caring about ettiquite?"

Again, Danni bit her tongue. It was almost as if she had two people on each shoulder, one saying "Punch her! She deserves it," and the other arguing, "Try to keep this calm; it doesn't have to turn into a fight."

The person on the left snapped, "You know you want to. Hit her! She's been rude to you and your friends, so knock her across the room!"

Danni glanced at her right shoulder, where the other was insisting, "Just walk away. It's what responsible people do."

Eventually, she realized that Alexis was waiting for her to answer something. "Uh," she said. "Sorry, what? I wasn't listening."

With an irritated snort, Alexis repeated, "Why did you even attempt to get on the team? Same with your baby brother's stupid soccer gig. You're horrible, he's horrible, and whatever so-called "practice" you did really must not have gotten through." With a smirk she flicked the smaller girl's nose.

Rage began to swell inside of Danni. She remembered every hour of every day before the week of cheer tryouts that she practiced. Her left shoulder shouted, "Do it! Hit her! Take note of everything she just said. She insulted you and your brother. Are you gonna let her get away with it? Punch her!" And in a seething, blind anger, Danni clenched her fist, swung upward, and felt her knuckles connect with Alexis' jaw.