Oh, they’re coming

The next day we went to school and Kayla gave us invitations to hand out to everyone in school, everyone being a large crowd of people and Lira and Ty, or just a few people and Lira and Ty. Just as long as we invited Lira and Ty. A girl's gotta like her revenge.

"I think Em should do it, he's always going after King's contestants." Nia popped into our conversation about who should ask Ty to the pool party.

"That's true. I don't think I've ever seen Ty turn down one of King's contestants." Kayla added.

"Then it's settled unless Em doesn't want to." The girls looked at me.

"Oh, no, I'm cool with asking Ty, but it'd only be fair if King had to ask Lira." I turned and smiled at King who again shot bullets at me with his eyes.

"No. I don't talk to dog water." King said.

"Dang, King," J said.

"Alright, you don't have to ask her." I nodded, then turned my attention to my phone.

"You'll still ask Ty?" King asked slowly.

"Of course not." I smiled brightly at him.

"Fine. But, you have to ask Ty first." He stated.

"Fine by me." I shrugged and slid my phone into my pocket and started walking towards Ty, who was, at the time, on his phone.

"Hey, 'adopted girlfriend' pick-up line." I stood beside him. He looked up from his phone and smiled.

"Dang, it's only been a day and you've already forgot my name." Ty put a hand to his heart.

"I haven't, but I don't think you knew my name to begin with. I'm Emmelyn, but I go by Em." I introduced myself.

"Oh, I know exactly who you are. The whole school does." Ty motioned to the rest of the class and I could see a few girls looking at us and whispering. Wanna fight? No? Look away then.

"The infamous King's new fling, I assume." I glanced at the room once more before returning my focus to Ty.

"Yep." He said.

"Oh, right, here. It's an invitation to the pool party Kayla's hosting." I gave him an invitation that looked too grand for a mere pool party.

"Is there going to be paparazzi?" He asked, scanning the invitation.

"Yea, you know how Kayla just loves to bask in the spotlight," I answered.

"Well, can't let the people down, I'll be sure to be there, Emmie." I waved and walked away, but my heart clenched at what he called me. I don't think I'll ever stop feeling guilty about taking a position Emy wanted so badly, even if I don't end up marrying King.

"So?" Kayla asked as I retreated from the danger-less danger zone.

"He's coming," I said.

"It'd be nice if you didn't have to flirt with him first." I heard King grumble.

"Ugh. She wasn't even flirt flirting." Kayla defended me.

"Yea, because Ty has smiled at every girl like that." King rolled his eyes.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were jealous," Olli said, a grin on her face.

"I'm not jealous. I don't want him getting the wrong idea about her." King said.

"Jealous." Kayla sang, but King just walked off, and over to Lira.

I walked a few steps forward but kept to the wall so Lira wouldn't see me.

"Hey, Lb." King approached Lira. Lb? I'm pretty sure that means pounds, but maybe I'm wrong.

"King!" She gasped, "You haven't called me that in forever." She smiled up at him. Her voice sounded so calm and soft and sweet. It matched her look perfectly. Whatever she did to him couldn't have been that bad.

"How's it been? Heard you're with Ty now." King shoved his hands in the pocket of his hoodie.

"Oh King," she giggled, "don't tell me you're jealous and have given up on that new country bumpkin already." Hold up- wait a minute! Did this underage black barbie bitch just call me a country bumpkin?! Forget showing her up, this nigga finna be put 6 feet under. And King too, because he just shrugged.

"We're having a pool party. It'd be nice to see you there." He put the invitation down and walked towards me as if he knew I was there the whole time.

"That bitch called me a country bumpkin!" I yelled at him and started walking towards the plastic dumbass when he grabbed my shoulders.

"Chill, she'll be embarrassed when you look better than her at the party. She'll just be in pain if you hurt her." King told me.

"She isn't going to be in pain, I'm not gonna hurt her," I said in a calm voice, "she's gonna be dead and Imma kill her!" I said, but King just dragged me back to the group.

"What happened?" Kayla asked.

"She's coming-"

"The underaged black barbie bitch called me a country bumpkin!" I yelled.

"Oh hell no," Kayla said and she and the girls started off towards her, but the guys held them back too.

"As much as I want to see Lira in pain, I am not sitting through a lawsuit," King told us after they dragged us to the back right corner, the farthest away from the underaged stripper that we could be.

"The legal way we can cause her pain is by embarrassing her, and when she expects to be the center of attention at our party and she's not, that'll embarrass her to the point of insanity," King explained to us.

"Um, no," Kayla said, "we're going to embarrass her so much we're still gonna get sued." Kayla smiled at us.

"She's going to post what she'll be wearing to the party because she posts what she's wearing every day and if she changes she posts on it again," Kayla informed us.

"As if anyone cares." Nia rolled her eyes.

"But, it will give us the chance to make sure Em looks far better than her." Kayla tagged us in on her plan.

"And that won't happen if you beat her to a pulp." King reminded us.

"I hope her sew-in falls out." I breathed under my breath, even though I was 80% sure that was her real hair.

"Oh, boo, she wouldn't be caught dead on Fridays with her sew-in in," Kayla assured me, but I was surprised. I thought that was Lira's actual hair, and what 11 or 12 year old actually gets sew-ins?

"She gets a new hairstyle every week. She doesn't repeat the same hairstyle until 6 months later." Olli filled me in.

"Oh," I said. I wondered how long her hair actually was then, but I guess I would figure it out when we went swimming.

"Well, we've got 3 minutes until the bell rings. Group hug girls!" Kayla cried out and we all huddled in a hug and stayed that way until the bell rang and we were forced to switch classes, but I really couldn't wait until our little soiree.

***

The guests had already started to flow in downstairs and all the boys except King were down there greeting guests. All the girls and King were up here with me, although King sat outside my room, waiting for me to come out.

"Omg, girl, you look stunning!" Kayla said once we were all dressed and standing in front of my mirror.

"We all do, and these cover-ups are amazing Olli." I complimented her, she and Nia never seemed to talk much.

"Thanks, J said they really looked good. He's also the one who suggested getting different colors for us each." Olli told us. She had a bright yellow cover-up, Nia had a lavender one, and Kayla had a teal one. I had a pink one, the color of our cover-ups was the same color as our swimsuits. They must have been on the phone when picking out their swimsuits and cover-ups.

"Well, thank god for J, huh ladies?" Nia said, admiring herself in her swimsuit before turning to all of us.

"Oh yes." Kayla agreed.

"Now, we're gonna walk out before you and King, announcing that you're coming out, and you two are gonna walk out together, all lovey-dovey smiles and things the public loves." Kayla instructed me.

"Of course, I've seen the celebrity parties and I know how the lovey-dovey thing goes." I assured Kayla but wasn't so sure myself. I didn't really mind talking to strangers or medium-sized crowds, but big crowds scared me, and I'd be fine if it were just a pool party for the school, but this would go on T.V. And then Emy would see me so close to the person she wanted to be with, even though it was mostly just for the money, but now, with me gone, I'm sure mom has a bit more money because of me not using the showers or eating the food, so overall, Emy really just wanted more money, and that's what she was going to get.

Even though the amount would be small.

"Great, looks like a bunch of guests are here, and I already see Lira. It's go time." Kayla readjusted the sunglasses on my head, twisted the bracelet on my wrist around, and pushed me out of the door and into King.

"You ready?" He asked, grabbing and intertwining our hands.

"Even if I wasn't, it's too late to back out now."