Tanner sat in Principal McVey's office. She scratches the back of her neck, sitting in uncomfortable silence by herself. When the principal finally walked in.

     "Sorry for the wait Miss Crawford, I was dealing with other pressing matters." Principal McVey said.

     Tanner rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, knowing exactly what this was about. "Oh sure- the mayor's daughter gets in trouble and you come running." She scoffed. Principal McVey's eyes narrowed.

     "Miss Crawford. I don't think that's any of your business. Now onto what we're actually here for. Tanner, you're one of Perry's finest. You're the number one cross country runner in the country, you carry the girls soccer team on your back and let's not even get started on softball. You're grades are perfect. Straight A's since the first grade. So, let me me ask you this- why would you threaten your record by punching Miss Cross?"

     Tanner sighed. "I don't want to alarm you, but in case you haven't noticed, Lexy Cross is a heinous bitch and deserved what happened. She was making fun of Jake. She set up this whole Go Fund M-" Tanner started to ramble, but was cut off.

     "Lexy has been delt with. She agreed to take the page down. Because of your record I'm going to let you off with a warning. Now, school has already ended so go ahead and head home." Principal McVey said.

     Tanner left without another word. She was walking down the halllway when she bumped right into the blonde she-devil herself. Lexy looked like she was about to start screaming in her face, until she looked up and noticed it was Tanner.

     "Oh, it's you." Lexy scoffed.

     Tanner looked Lexy up and down. "What is your problem with me? I haven't done anything to you ever and all you do is treat me like I don't matter." Tanner always thought she didn't really matter, but Lexy made her feel it every day since school started.

    
     "You just annoy me, okay? Look- I'm sorry I called you a butch. It was like super insensitive. I don't even know if you're actually gay, so forgive me?" She sounded superficial. There was no way she meant it, and Tanner knew that. She knew from the way Lexy even struggled to say the word sorry.

     Tanner scratched the back of her neck, not sure what to say next. "Well if we're saying sorry, then I'm sorry I punched you." If Lexy wasn't going to be genuine, then neither was Tanner.

     Lexy scanned her face. "No you're not." She said with a slight smile on her face." Lexy looked down at her shoes before looking back up at Tanner.

     "No, I'm not." Tanner repeated, also wearing a smile.

     "Hey, I'm uh- gonna be announcing all the acts at the talent show tomorrow if you wanna come watch." Lexy said. Which weirded Tanner out, causing her to start picking at her nail beds.

     "Yeah- okay sure. I'll be there." Tanner agreed.

     Lexy nodded. There was a look on her face that she couldn't quite read. Lexy Cross actually being nice? Tanner wasn't buying it, but she was gonna go, but only because she was already going to watch Devon. Just then, Tanner's phone vibrated in her hand. It was a text from Junior, telling her to come over. Lexy stared down at Tanner's phone.

     "I've gotta go, but see you tomorrow?" She didn't mean for it sound like a question, but it came out that way. Lexy let out a simple "Mhm." before turning on her heel and walking away.

     "Hey wait!" Lexy turned back around.

     "Yeah?" Tanner started to sound annoyed. She wasn't used to this sort of kindness from Lexy and frankly, she didn't like it.

    "I can't find my phone. Can you tell me if you see it?" She asked.

     Tanner mimicked the "Mhm." Lexy let out a few moments ago before leaving to head to Junior's.

Tanner rang the doorbell of the Wheeler household, before remembering she has the security code. She walked in and punched it in before heading upstairs to Junior's room.

"What's up?" She asked, kicking her shoes off and jumping onto Junior's bed.

"It's Lexy. She won't leave me alone. She's been blowing up my phone begging me to get back together with her."

Lexy. Lexy. Lexy. Just a few hours ago, this was the best birthday ever, now all Junior wants to talk about is Lexy.

"Don't. All she's gonna do is be toxic as fuck and make you wish you were never born." Tanner exclaimed, putting her head in her hands.

"Hey, you okay?" Junior asked, turning around to his best friend. Junior's parents hated Tanner, mostly because they wanted Junior to be the best at cross country, and are mad that a girl beat his time.

"You do realize, fifteen years ago I was born, right?" In the morning, Tanner didn't want anyone to know about her birthday, but now that no one wants to talk about it. It made her feel even less important.

"Are you serious? You think I'd forget your birthday? Annie's baking you a cake right now." Junior laughed, amazed that Tanner thought he'd forget.

"You know what? Screw Lexy, Tonight's about you. Let's go for a run, and then we can come back here and eat that delicious birthday cake of yours."

"Red Velvet?" Tanner asked, mentally crossing her fingers.

"Duh." was all he said before grabbing her by her hands and dragging her off his bed.

     The next day, Devon took a seat next to Tanner after performing his piano piece for the talent show. Cheers and applause filled the room as Lexy spoke into the mic.

     "That was so beautiful Devon. Was it meant for anyone special?" Lexy asked.

     "Only for you, Lexy." Devon smirked as the audience laughed. Tanner couldn't help but grimace.

     "I think you're lying." Lexy said with a menacing undertone. Tanner glanced over at Jake, trying to make it not seem obvious, as Lexy pointed out people in the ground.

     "And is that Jake Wheeler sitting right across from you?" Lexy asked Devon's mom. Tanner looked behind her, wondering how the universe knew she was thinking about Jake.

     "Hey Jake. Enjoying the show?" Lexy asked. Tanner knew it. She knew this was just gonna be another opportunity for Lexy to make fun of people.

     "Uh, yeah." Jake said nervously.

     "What did you think of Devon?" Lexy continued.

     "It was good."

     "Just good? Come on, Jake don't be shy. Now is your chance to tell Dev, and his mom what you really think." And just when Tanner was about to march up the steps and give Lexy another bloody nose, a different voice spoke.

     "Hey Lexy! Lexy!" The voice spoke. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Tanner smiled as she sunk into her seat, ready to enjoy every minute of this.

     "Who is that?" Lexy asked, trying to see into the crowd.

     "Little help here, Jake." The voice called over to him. Jake got up and grabbed his doll. That creepy, redheaded fuck.  He brought the doll up to the stage and to the mic. Lexy looked so frustrated and Tanner thought it was the funniest thing in the world.

     "Hi , I'm Chucky, and I'm your friend to the end. You get that now, Jake, right?" Chucky spoke. It freaked Tanner out, but it must've been some sort of ventriloquy act, right?

     "Hey, look what I found." Chucky said, pulling a phone out of his pocket, which reminded Tanner that Lexy'd been looking for hers.

     "My phone!" Lexy said, lunging towards her phone, but Chucky stopped her. "Boo!" He yelled, making Lexy scream and jump backwards, getting another laugh out of Tanner. She leaned over to Devon.

     "Is this a part of the show?" She asked.

     "I don't think so, but I'm loving it."

     "Looks like someone's been stalking Tanner's instagram. Huh, and here I thought you were still into Junior." Causing a reaction out of the crowd. Tanner's eyes went wide, as she made eye contact with both Junior and Lexy.

"Whoops! Guess that was a secret." Chucky giggled.

"Here's Lexy's search history. Apparently, she's Botox curious. She's into Pokémon porn and look what she keeps googling." Chucky turned the screen to Jake.

"Why do my farts smell so good?"

     Lexy looked like she was about to cry, and Tanner almost felt bad for her, but it was just payback. Simple as that.

The crowed howled with laughter.

"It's contagious, isn't it? Laughing at people. Well, guess what, dickheads. Now the joke's on you. You're all a bunch of fucking assholes. I'm out of here." Jake and Chucky finished their "act" by getting dragged offstage by the principal.

     After talking to Devon and his mom after the show, Tanner approached Lexy, who was outside the auditorium crying.

     "Hey." Tanner simply said. Lexy looked up with a sniffle. "What do you want?" She asked, clearly not having it.

     Tanner slid down the wall, taking a seat on the floor next to Lexy. "Doesn't feel too good does it? Being humiliated in front of the whole school. Although it's pretty cool that I have a stalker." Tanner joked, but Lexy didn't think it was funny.

     "Yes I know, I'm a bitch, and I wasn't stalking you. Would you just go away?" Lexy raised her voice.

     "Well after what you did to Jake, I'd say you probably deserved that." Tanner was trying to be nice to Lexy, but every part of her body other than her heart, was rejecting it.

     "Okay fine, I probably did deserve it. I'll admit that, but that stupid doll said some pretty cruel things. All I did was make a fucking page." Lexy leaned her head back so that it was touching the wall behind them.

     "You say cruel things to me all the time Lex, but I don't try and hurt you or anyone on purpose. You started this." Tanner got up and turned to walk away, but Lexy grabbed her arm. "Thank you for coming." She smiled, trying to see if Tanner would smile back at her. It felt genuine, but Tanner still wouldn't believe it.

     "I came for Devon." Tanner said coldly, before turning back around and heading home.

     Okay, Tanner could admit Lexy had been on a nice streak recently. Tanner still thought Lexy was messing with her, but maybe it was real. Maybe Lexy Cross wasn't so bad after all.

A/N: Oh my god. Okay I adore Lexy so much and I wanted to show early on that there's more to her than just the mean girl part of her she shows.

     Also her and Junior's friendship is so cute. Junior doesn't really have the same role in this as he does in the show because he's not dating Lexy, but that'll probably just make things worse for Tanner when she starts falling for Lexy. 🤭🤭