The women hurried over to the auditorium, which had many students in it.

“Wow,” Emily whispered. “People actually showed up!”

They climbed the stairs to the stage and stood next to the microphone.


S walked into the auditorium and joined them on the stage. As he did so, a girl in the audience let out a loud cry. She rushed down the aisle, over to the stage, and up the stairs. Much to everyone’s surprise, the pretty black-haired girl flung herself into S’s arms and clung to him, trying to cover his face with kisses. Ophelia and Charise exchanged looks of utter dismay while S looked pleadingly at Charise. Everyone else was simply confused.

After a moment of dead silence, Charise finally spoke up. “Cassandra,” she said, addressing the girl with black hair.

“S, why haven’t you kept in touch?” Cassandra wailed, ignoring Charise. “Mother has been worried about you! You promised to keep in touch with me and take care of me! Remember?!”


“Cassandra.” Charise gently pried the girl off of S, who mouthed words of thanks.

Cassandra gave Charise a look of pure hatred. “Charise,” she said bitterly. “You’re looking well.”

“You do too,” Charise said kindly, reaching out to hug her.

Cassandra slapped Charise’s hands away and shouted, “It’s your fault my big brother doesn’t care about me anymore! You did this to him!”

“Cassandra…” Charise said weakly.

“Uh…” Ophelia was desperate to end the drama. She grabbed up a microphone. “Hi, everyone. I’m Ophelia, from Clique News Crash, the new campus show. We’re doing karaoke here. We’ll be videotaping you guys in action, and later today, we’ll show the tape on our news show!”

Cassandra ripped the microphone away from Ophelia and said, “Karaoke? Well, fine… put this song on, Ophelia.” She handed Ophelia a CD and a copy of the lyrics. Ophelia glanced over the lyrics and said, “You might have to censor a few words.” “That’s fine with me. I’ll just sing the song and get on my way, like everyone,” meaning Charise, “wants.”


Ophelia hurried to put the CD in, and music began playing. Cassandra began singing in a low, bitter voice, glaring at S and Charise, “I want you to know, that I’m happy for you. I wish nothing but the best for you both. An older version of me…”


“Oh no,” Emily whispered to Ophelia. “It’s worse than you think,” Ophelia whispered back, then added, “Remind me to tell you the whole story another day, when Charise and S aren‘t around.”

Cassandra went through the song, becoming more and more bitter. After the last, “You oughta know,” she more or less flung the microphone in the direction of S and Charise and stormed off the stage.

Charise caught the microphone, watched Cassandra leave, and then said, “Wasn’t she great, ladies and gents? And who wants to go next? Preferably something lighter…”