Emma was not Queen Bee of the school; she was just one of the drones. Melissa was the Queen Bee. Everyone in the town knew of Melissa Jenkins. To all the teachers, parents, and elderly, knew Melissa as a kind-hearted young lady who did anything to help her community. Her peers knew her as the Queen Bee, head cheerleader, lead partier, the one girl you never wanted to cross because she would screw your life up if she wanted. To be a part of her group was considered a privilege that was only handed out to a select few. 

Life in a small town was difficult; everyone knew everyone’s business. It made a wrong decision into a mistake that followed you all of your life. So when Emma made the mistake to kiss the wrong boy in middle school, Bobby Joe, the ex-boyfriend of Queen Bee Melissa. Seeing a potential threat, Melissa had blackmailed Emma into joining her group of friends. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. After a few years, in their sophomore year of high school, Emma had stopped worrying about trying to find a way out of the group. While Melissa could be controlling, rude, and manipulative, she had managed to change Emma’s life completely around.

Being a part of the ‘it’ group came with its benefits. Emma’s parents were never really home, so Melissa and her group took Emma under their wings and taught her how to do her make-up, how to dress fashionably, and it helped that the boys flocked to them. Over the years though, the girls had become her family. They protected each other, kept secrets, and had each other’s back, even when it came to dealing with Melissa’s attitude. Her friend group that the Queen Bee had black mailed her into joining were some of the best people in her life.

This night was going to be awful. At first, it hadn’t sounded so bad. Emma had planned to get paired with one of her friends, there was a ten of them going so the odds of hanging out with one of them was pretty high, but of course she got paired with the new girl in town. It had been her plan to go off somewhere with a friend, take a midnight dip, drink some alcohol, and use this “project” as an excuse to have some one on one downtime with one of her girls. Tonight was not at all what she had hoped.

Soon she found herself walking along the beach next to the new girl. Her face was really plain, had she never heard of make-up? Emma sighed and looked behind her. Most of her friends had been paired together, except Melissa. She had been paired with Zach. Emma rolled her eyes. “Of course.” She mumbled. Emma had told Melissa that she had a crush on Zach, her mistake. By the way Melissa was clinging onto Zach, Emma knew exactly what the Queen Bee had in mind for her night on the beach. Kelly and Brea noticed the same thing and mouthed ‘sorry’ to Emma, but continued in their own direction. 

In all the years that Emma had been a drone, she had never once had a boyfriend. It had never been confirmed, but she had a feeling it had always been Melissa who kept boys from being interested with her. Tonight just confirmed her suspicions, every boy she had ever been interested in, or had been interested in her, had always fallen through. Now it was clear as to why. Melissa would probably have a boyfriend by the end of the night, and she would act sorry on Monday, but she wouldn’t be sorry.

The walk down the beach was quiet; all Emma was thinking about was how far away she could get from what had just happened. Images of Melissa and Zach ran through her mind, and she tried pushing them away, but they kept coming back again and again. It did not even occur to her that she had been walking for an hour. The new girl talking snapped her out of her own thoughts. Had they really been walking for so long? Emma glanced down at her watch to confirm. “Yeah here should be fine.” She looked around at the beach for the first time since they started walking.

It was dark, darker then she had been expecting it to be. They must be well away from the town lights. The sky was breath taking though. It would make it easier to chart the stars. Down the beach a little ways, Emma could just make out a small enclosed pool. “Let’s go up there.” She didn’t give the new girl any chance to give her opinion before she took off towards her destination. Jumping into the pool and forgetting about what she will have to face in the morning sounded like a great plan to her.