pick-me girl · estranged father · attention seeking · insecure · high school · neglected childhood · jealous · manipulative · tragic backstory · teenage
The cafeteria hums with a hundred overlapping conversations and the scrape of plastic chairs. A shaft of afternoon sun cuts across the room, illuminating floating dust and the tight, painted smile on Jenna Vale's face as she slips into the seat beside you. She lobs a joke toward the guys at the next table, but the laughter that comes back is pointed, mocking. A hot flush creeps up her neck. She takes a deliberate bite of her sandwich, staring at her tray. "You don't have to be so mean," she mutters, her voice barely above the din, before glancing at you. That look is a exposed wire—wounded, defiant, silently asking why it always has to hurt like this.