It was extraordinarily tempting to just abandon Jessie and make your way either to safety or just straight-up hitchhike home from Weston University (something you'd done plenty of times in the past). In the span of only a single 'date', this crude, crass girl had shoved you up her ass, tormented you for hours on end with her crushing sweaty booty and rancid farts, continued to talk over you and misconstrue your words, and had proven herself to both be wildly dangerous for a tiny to be around, and also to have a close circle of (somehow) even more dangerous friends. She was bad news, period, and you knew in your heart that dating this girl was not what you wanted to do.
Or did you?
Despite the objectively horrific first impression Jessie made, you couldn't deny some of her positive traits. She was, obviously, beautiful, and even her more slobbish tendencies couldn't diminish just how jaw-droppingly gorgeous she was. She was also funny, and her confidence was really inspiring. It was also a plus that she was such a nerd. Dating Mari for so many years had been wonderful, but it had sometimes felt like talking to a brick wall when you tried to share your hobbies with her. Mari loved your passion, but she never could truly 'get' your love of gaming and anime. Jessie, meanwhile, was totally on board with gaming and anime, which was excellent.
Also, was it truly fair to completely throw away the chance to date this girl because of one bad experience? Yes, her ass was a monstrous thing of evil, and thanks to the phobia of booties you now apparently had courtesy of your month of suffering with Lihua and the other Focused Fitness ladies, you'd probably never shake that psychological trauma. But it was rude to just up and run, wasn't it? Didn't Jessie deserve at least a true genuine conversation where you addressed your issues with her, the two of you set some boundaries, and then tried to take it fresh from the top? She did, didn't she?
Maybe you were giving her too much credit, and maybe you'd regret this...but you decided to stay. To stay through her gaming tournament to support her, and then talk with her afterwards.
Of course, you weren't so dumb as to sit out in the open in the abandoned affected seating area. No, it'd be much safer to--
Your thoughts were disrupted by the sound of high heels clacking against the ground, steadily growing louder as they approached your location. Gulping, you turned and looked up right as a shadow fell over you, and your eyes widened in disbelieving horror.
The slim-figured but infinitely-intimidating platinum-blonde towering above you smirked. "Why, hello there Mite. What a surprise to see you!"
Your blood ran cold.
It was Penelope Graham!
The girl who had been your bully through all of middle school and high school. The girl who had, time and time again, relentlessly and ceaselessly tormented you without mercy or remorse. The girl who had made it her singular mission to belittle, demean, insult, and dehumanize you. The girl who had indebted you with so many repressed nightmares and traumatic memories that you still woke up in cold sweats from time to time. The girl whose mere presence could cause you to freeze up in horror...just like it was doing now.
Why was she here, at Weston University? Why was she dressed up so formally, looking for all the world like a professor? The last you'd heard, Penelope had moved away to attend college in some different state, and you and Mari (who also hated Penelope) had thrown a party as celebration. You literally hadn't seen Penelope in years, and had been hopeful that she'd never cross your path again. And yet here she was, standing before you in all her accursedly smug and condescending haughtiness, with a purse slung over her shoulder that was writhing and shaking so fiercely you just knew it was stuffed with kidnapped tinies.
Why is my life always like this? You internally bemoaned.
"Speechless, Mite?" Penelope scoffed. "I'm flattered. So many years apart and all you can do is stare at me. If I was any other girl, I'd think you had a crush on me, and I've got to say, we certainly have a long history together, don't we? Of course, you're taken by Mari...oh, wait, oops! No you aren't. I'm not sure how you screwed that one up, but I saw her with a pretty silver-haired girl at a café nearby. Those two spent more time sucking each other's faces than their milkshakes. Half cute and half gross. But, I guess, it's better to see Mari with a real partner instead of a bug."
Penelope's ceaseless taunting began to turn your fear to anger. "Leave. Me. Alone."
Lips curling in amusement at your outburst, Penelope lunged out and slapped a hand on the table, narrowly missing you. You yelped and flinched, then began quivering, brief spurt of rage gone. Penelope chuckled darkly.
"Still such a weakling, Mite. You know, I've actually dreamed about this moment. It hurt me dearly to move away to college, knowing that I'd be leaving a stubbornly unbroken bug behind to continue to pretend he's worth a damn in this world. That's why, if I'm being honest, I saw it as a sign from the gods when there was an open position for a professor here at Weston, and they were accepting new graduates like me! It was fate that we meet again, Mite, so that I can finally put you..." Penelope leaned in close, voice dripping with venom. "...in your fucking place."
You shivered, and could barely react before the girl's hand snagged you, crushed you, and dropped you into her purse which was, indeed, stuffed to the brim with kidnapped tinies. No doubt the rest of the affected who had, prior to the arrival of Penelope the she-devil, been sitting happily in the affected seating area.
As Penelope walked off with you and her other captured prey, you didn't try to escape. Instead, you were caught in a memory spiral.
You'd blocked most of the memories from your mind, but there was a time of your life that Penelope was a constant presence. From sixth grade to ninth grade, Penelope appeared to any outsider to be one of your 'best friends'. She'd latched onto you practically from the first day of sixth grade, viewing you as her personal stress relief and plaything. It had angered her greatly when you'd struck up a relationship with the cute transfer student, Mari, and in recompense Penelope had manipulated and gaslit her way into becoming Mari's best friend too. The three of you had formed a trio of sorts, with Mari blissfully unaware of the thousands of times that Penelope tormented you and often used Mari to do it.
You could never even remotely forgive Penelope, but you did know that on a certain level she was a miserable and heavily-bullied lonely girl. She had a terrible home life too, thanks to some truly monstrous older sisters. Though it had started as a way just to get close to you, her friendship with Mari became genuine, and the two girls were nearly inseparable. Sleepovers were something they did often, and Penelope never wasted a chance to bring you along. Whether it was molding you into a seat cushion for oblivious Mari to sit on during movie marathons, feeding you to your unaware girlfriend in the form of candy, or merely smiling at the knowledge that you were in the room over disguised as a sweat rag and being brutalized by an unknowing Rio getting in a late-night workout, Penelope loved to cause chaos.
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