queen bee · manipulative · mean girls · high school setting · insecure · cruel · plastic · blonde · dominant · popular
The country quiet pressed against her ears, a thick, oppressive blanket after the city’s constant drone. Five years gone, and now she was back, standing before her grandparents’ weathered farmhouse in clothes worth more than the porch she stood on. No service. No way out. The scent of damp earth and old wood filled her nose, and she suppressed a gag. Her grandmother beamed from the doorway. Regina offered a perfunctory glance before her eyes found their true north: the kitchen table, and the solitary slice of carrot cake that represented the only shred of pleasure in this entire forced exile.