My tightly closed eyes soon relaxed as I took control of the kiss. The softness and warmth of his perfect lips soothed my frantic nerves. I obviously had caught him by surprise because he wasn't responding well enough. At first, his mouth was held rigidly, with zero movement. But now they were slowly responding to my touch. They started to pucker, but only slightly. It's like he was enjoying it, but also not at the same time. That's when I realized that abruptly kissing a guy without so much as a warning may not have been the best idea.

Reluctantly, I slowly detached my lips from Ryan's. I took a spring step back as I looked up at him. His lips were still in the puckered position that I last remembered. I could tell he was surprised as his onyx orbs were held wide. Yep, he was in a state of shock. I do, however, tend to have that effect on men.

I turned my head to the left. Gwen and April stood with their mouths hanging wide. I, of course, noticed the mischievous looks in their eyes as they stared upon Ryan and I. Oh boy, am I going to get an earful from these two later.

Ryan took a fist up to his mouth as he cleared his throat. He was trying to go back to his usual stoic expression, but I could tell he was still flustered. "Well. Okay. I-l'll just text you later then."

Unsure of how to respond now, I just nodded my head. Hopefully I didn't just make things even more awkward between us now. He gave me one final nod as he averted his eyes slightly away before walking past me.

Ugh. Great, now I'm left here with-

"Girl, spill!"

"Ha! 'hE's nOt teCHnIcalLy mY bOyFrIeNd.' Yeah right!"

"He's not!" I countered back at April. 

"Well whatever you two are, we need deets. ASAP!" Gwen said. Her excitement slowly vanished as a devious smirk stretched across her face. "As a matter of fact. I'm throwing a slumber party tonight. The whole squad is gonna be there too. Are you in?"

"A slumber party?" I rolled my eyes. "I'll only go if you change the name of it. How about an overnight. 'Slumber party' sounds too childish. 

"Oh, wow, you're right. That does sound classier," Gwen pondered.

I shot Natalie a quick text saying that I would be staying over Gwen's for the night, so everyone at home shouldn't wait up.

"I call shotgun!" April shouted as she sprinted to the passenger side. 

"Not on your life," I muttered before slightly pushing her petite frame out of my way. She pouted some as she reluctantly got in the backseat behind me. Whatever, she should be used to it by now. April will forever be behind me, along with everyone else. It's just the simple way of life.  

"Daisy, do you want to drop by your place so you can pick up some of your stuff?"

I instantly froze upon hearing Gwen's question. Thankfully, no one had been by my old mansion to see the humiliating 'for sale' sign that was plastered on the silver front gates. "Uh, no. I'm pretty sure I still have clothes that I left in your closet from the last time I was at yours."

"Oh, yeah! You do. We can just head to mines then." 

I let out a quiet breath as I relaxed some in the luxurious, light tan leather seat. My sense of relaxation didn't seem to last, however, as April wouldn't shut her yap about the most meaningless things. It started from her describing the new pair of Versace heels that she got on sale, to somehow talking about how her cat can meow the ABC's. I couldn't take her constant chatter anymore so I turned the radio up higher, hoping she would get the message. I rolled my eyes because she clearly didn't. She spoke even louder in order to make her voice heard over the pop music. Thankfully, she finally gave up as no one seemed to be responding back to her as we drove.

-----
The large steel gates opened to let us on the exclusive private property. Gwen entered onto the cobble stoned roundabout as she carefully curved around the tall, gray fountain. Its water was falling smoothly as a few birds were sat on the edge, occasionally dipping their beaks in for a drink. As she pulled into the expensive luxury garage, I got hit with an overwhelming feeling of grief. It's been about two months now since I've stepped foot into a multi-million dollar mansion, and to say I was missing my old lifestyle would be an understatement. I don't think anyone could possibly understand this miserable, gut wrenching pain that I'm feeling right now. 

The sound of our heels simultaneously clacking on the polished floors echoed throughout the mansion. The home wasn't as big as my old estate, but it was still a decently large size, nonetheless. The wide, gold themed living room was brightly lit as it shone in excellent natural lighting from the decorated glass windows up above. There was a scent of baking sugar cookies that wafted in from her modern, chrome kitchen that was an open floor, connected to the living area. Gwen casually continued on as she led the way up the grand steps. 

Her favorite color obviously was purple, seeing as the majority of items from her bedding, to the floor length curtains that covered her back balcony were the color. I glided across her plush carpet to the far end of the room that led into her walk-in-closet. Her dozens of clothes were categorized by color, with each row being a different shade of the rainbow. Remembering where I last placed a few of my outfits, I decided to change into something more comfortable. I settled on a pink crop top and leggings before making my way back into the main room.

"So when is everyone else going to make their appearance," I asked boredly.

"Jessica said they should all be arriving in a few minutes," April said as she laid back on the plum colored sofa that sat across from the large vanity. 

Just as soon as she finished, the doorbell rang. "Oh! That must be them," April sprung up. 

"Sit back down," Gwen responded to April's eagerness. "You know Esperanza will let them up."

"I thought her name was 'Esmeralda'," April questioned.

"Honestly, I don't even know. You may be right."

Actually, it was 'Estafania', but Gwen never really cared enough to remember. She could be kind of mean to her maid. A luxury hobby that I dearly missed.

"Knock, knock," Jessica said as she entered the room with Tracy and Danielle closely behind. The large area filled out with an equal amount of blondes and brunettes. They all carefully placed their overnight bags on the elegant sofa that April was sitting on.

"Omg! Daisy!" Tracy gasped as she made her way across the room to me, embracing me with an air hug and cheek kisses. "We all haven't seen you since April's party. What have you been up to?"

"Yeah!" Jessica chimed in. Her brown eyes were glued to me as she flipped a piece of her medium blonde bang from her vision. "You've been so lowkey ever since you started getting homeschooled."

Well duh, of course I've been trying to stay somewhat lowkey. That's because I can't let you all know what my life has come to.

"Oh well, you know, it's senior year. I really have to stay on top of my studies. I don't really have time for any distractions."

"I know my life would come to misery if I was you," April expressed. "Like, I wouldn't be able to take it being homeschooled. There's no way I could possibly spend an entire school year being trapped at home without guys."

I rolled my eyes at her absorbed comments. Please. I wish I was trapped inside of a mansion. Instead, I'm stuck in the backwoods.

My thought got broken as I heard another voice speak up. "Fresh cookies!" Estafania, Gwen's thick accented, mid-thirty-something year old maid greeted as she stood at the open doorway. She held in her right hand, a silver platter of one dozen-still steaming sugar cookies. 

"Umm. Why would we want cookies, Elmerada?" Gwen questioned. "Do you know how much sugar is one of those?" She then took a dramatic pause as her face hardened at the woman. "Are you, like, trying to make me fat or something?!"

"Si?- Ah! No, no, miss!" Estafania rapidly shook her head.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Gwen rolled her eyes. "Why don't you just go prepare garden salads for all of us for later," she shrugged.

"Ah, okay. Lo siento," she muttered before hurrying down the long corridor.

"What did she say?" Tracy asked. She was mindlessly playing with a strand of her straight, platinum hair as she laid back on Gwen's California king bed. 

"Don't know. Don't care," Gwen breathed. "I'm just bummed that she won't go home. My parents renewed their vows last week, so now they're on their second honeymoon and left Empanada to, like, watch over me or something."

I felt slightly guilty as I took in the scene before me. It kind of reminded me of the way I used to treat Mildred and the other staff that worked for my family. I also couldn't help but feel a little responsible. Gwen used to be a rather nice girl until I took her under my wing. I'm pretty sure that my behavior might have rubbed off on her a bit. 

"Oh! Look, It's golden hour!" April announced as she turned her attention to Gwen's sheer purple curtains. The now setting sun was glowing in from the two, glass balcony doors.

 I made my way over and pushed the curtains to the side as I stood in front of the glass. "Selfie time!" I grinned as I unlocked my phone. "Come on guys."  Everyone then swarmed around me, either smiling or making kissy faces, as I effortlessly snapped a few pictures.

 "Ah! They're so cute! You take the best pictures, Daisy," Jessica complimented.

"Thanks," I smirked as I began to type up a cute caption to post.

"Eh."

I scrunched my face in confusion. Stopping my typing, I looked up to see an unapologetic look on Danielle's face. "I'm sorry," I chuckled. "But, um, what do you mean by, 'eh'?"

"I just don't think you took a good picture of us, is all," she shrugged.

The rest of the girls gasped in shock as I narrowed a death glare at the treacherous girl before me. How dare this wannabe just say that I, Daisy freaking Nickels, took a bad photo. "Okay, Danielle, maybe you just had a bad latte or something, so that's why you're being delirious right now. But let me remind you, I am the only one in this room with millions of followers. My pictures are nothing short of perfect and phenomenal." 

"I-I never said they weren't," she stuttered. She was nervously rubbing her olive toned arm as she was trying to find the right words to say. "I just think you took the better angle of only yourself in these photos. The rest of us look washed out in the background."

Well maybe that's because I'm at least 80% hotter than all of you. Of course none of you will look on par. No matter what angle I take it from.

"Uhm, I think the pictures look great, Daisy," Gwen said. She nervously smiled while looking between Danielle and I. She was probably secretly hoping I wouldn't kill the girl on her new carpeted floor. I couldn't make any promises right now though.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay, Danielle. I'm going to give you one more chance." I showed her the now posted slide of photos that was already accumulating tens of thousands of likes. "Do you really not like these pictures that I took?"

She tucked her boring light brown hair behind her ear as her dark hazel eyes searched the ground, avoiding eye contact with me. "I- um-"

"THAT TEARS IT! I roared. "Come with me." I grabbed her skinny wrist before I hastily paced out of the room. The rest of the girls wasted no time to follow me, wanting to know where I was dragging the idiotic girl off to.

I led us all to the bottom of the steps,  through the foyer, and down one of the long corridors. I let go of her wrist as we stepped into the giant pool room. There was a long, rectangular, inground pool that sat in the middle. The room had five long windows along the left wall, showing off the Hollywood sign from the distance as it overlooked the hills. Gwen hit the lights, lighting the room up a few brighter shades. 

"W-why did you bring me here?" Danielle asked. 

"Walk the plank."

"I- um, what?"

"WALK. THE. PLANK!"

"Daisy, sweetie, do you really think this is necessary?" April squeaked up from the background. 

I swiftly turned my head in her direction. "Oh! You must want to walk with her?"

"No!" She rapidly shook her head.

"Good. That's what I thought," I smiled. "Now, Danielle. It's time to face the music." I pointed to the white, diving plank board that was in front of us, motioning for her to stand on it and jump.

"B-but, Daisy. Let's be reasonable here," she tried to reason. "Do I really have to do this just because of a picture?"

"Just because of a picture? You completely disrespected my photography skills. Social media. My livelihood!" I tried to calm myself by taking a breath. "Now you must pay for your acts."

She solemnly looked at me, hoping for a grant of mercy. An act that would not be given. I hardened my look so that she would get the message. She kept her head down as she walked off the tan colored tiles. With one foot after another, she made her way to the end of the wobbly board. She stood there for a few seconds, probably regretting her very existence at the moment, before finally taking one foot in the air, falling fully clothed into the chlorine filled mass of water. There were gasps and a few giggles that came from the rest of the girls as Danielle's body impacted with a giant splash.

Hm, serves the traitor right. With a flip of my hair, I turned around to leave. Ah, now that I've bullied someone, today can finally end with a good night.