"You're both late!" Ms. Plumb exclaimed as Beth and Jess came through the classroom door still laughing, Beth still flush from her passionate kiss with Miles.

"Our apologies," Jess oozed, "we meant no disrespect. Beth was caught up in a pressing matter."

Beth was always amazed how Jess could charm peers and adults alike. The way in which she confidently conversed with people, emitting charm with ease came naturally to her. Ms. Plumb immediately appeased ushered the girls to their seats. Thankfully they could sit together with two seats near the back still vacant.

"So, assuming you have all completed your assignments, I expect you all to be experts on Miss Austen's masterpiece by now," their teacher began. "I shall be collecting your reports at the end of the class but for now, I'd like your thoughts on the characters and the prose."

Beth listened intently to Ms. Plumb's brief interpretation of Austen's work in general but her exhilaration from her second kiss with Miles still quickened her heart as each memory cavorted through her mind, her body reacting instinctively to each image. She felt as if something was changing inside her. Jess was the catalyst to this change, it was true but her feelings towards Miles and the confidence the knowledge he appeared to reciprocate those feelings was extraordinary to her. His hair felt soft as she recalled gripping it and the way he returned each circle of her lips and flick of the tip of her tongue kept breaking into her mind as she tried concentrating on the lesson. After replaying the moment in her mind numerous times Beth realized she'd been daydreaming for a few minutes and hadn't realized several of the students were already discussing the book's various merits.

"Right, here goes!" Jess whispered to Beth.

Beth realized this was what Jess had been referring to when she said she would be getting payback for the cruel prank the Clones had played on Beth that morning.

Beth looked over at them. Only last week Jess had been sat with them, one of them. Aloof and alluring in her perfection. Perfume and smiles, lacking any form of sincerity they all merged into one entity that you either aspired to become part of, or avoided like the plague for fear of public persecution at their twisted sense of fun.

Lucy sat at the end of their group with Charmaine, Claire, Michelle and Bella all sat in a row next to her. Each one disengaged with the lesson, looking vacant.

"Um .... Ms. Plumb?" Jess began, addressing the class, "I wondered if I could ask Claire to share her thoughts. I know she'd be too modest to tell you herself, but she and I were talking about this book the other day and she shared with me some truly remarkable insights. I'd hoped she'd share them with the group today?" 

Claire looked back at Jess with venom in her eyes. 

"What are you doing?" whispered Beth. 

"Just see," she whispered back, "I'm going to play to her vanity and overconfidence. This is how you take them down."

"Claire, is this correct?" Ms. Plumb asked, suddenly delighted at the prospect of a normally mute member of the class taking an active part. 

"Oh, yes!" continued Jess, "She really understood Mr Darcy's character, his position in life and the prejudices he'd held throughout his life. Well, until Miss Bennett came into the picture. Tell them, Claire. Tell them what you thought about Mr Darcy?"

Claire's eyes darted nervously between Jess,  an expectant Ms. Plumb and the rest of the class. She looked back at Jess, seemingly looking for another pointer. 

Jess took her cue brilliantly, "You know Jess, about Mr Darcy being a wonderful scientist and Miss Bennett being his greatest creation, you know ... a cyborg?" Jessica's charm and genuine tone seemed to also work on her former peers as Claire took the bait. 

"Oh yes!" she gushed, clearing her throat and standing up from her chair. Apparently she relished the opportunity of taking the spotlight. "Well, Mr Darcy right, well at first he's this mad scientist right, with all his prejudices and all," and again, an encouraging gesture from Jess spurned her on. "Well, of course with Miss Bennett, well it was different, wasn't it. The way he created her out of all that metal and spare parts and how he made her, like. Well it was amazing, all those prejudices went away." 

"Tell them how you felt about the love affair he had with Miss Bennett and the prejudices they faced?" Jess said, without a trace of a smile or sarcasm.  The class, however became increasingly amused by Claire's confident protestations, perfectly aware that her ignorance was being played out in a brilliant and entertaining manner for their enjoyment. 

"Well," Claire confidently began, seemingly impressed with her own ability to wing it, or so it would seem, "Well of course it was frowned upon, a man getting off with a machine, even if it was the hot Miss Bennett. Well he was proud, wasn't he? PRIDE and prejudice and all, so he proudly showed the world that men and cyborgs could live together in harmony. I thought the ending was brilliant too!" 

"Tell us about that!" a voice piped up at the back. It appeared Jessica's game had taken on a pace of its own, with audience participation now playing a clever twist. The rest of the Clones remained impassive throughout proceedings, but Michelle had taken it upon herself to start flicking through her copy of the book. 

Claire again looked to Jess for a signal, for some guidance about the conclusion of the book she had clearly not read. 

Jess saw an opportunity to up the stakes and took it with relish. She made several quick gestures for Claire to interpret. Guns firing, heartache, crying and praying sadly. Beth watched her in amazement and drew the conclusion that Jess was indicating there was a gun battle, one of them was killed, the other was heartbroken at the funeral, the end. Claire shared Beth's interpretation and began to practically reenact the final sequences of Pride and Prejudice otherwise known as a mash up of I, Robot,  Bladerunner and Romeo and Juliet. 

Claire threw herself into the anguish she felt at the conclusion of the book, even remarking how underrated a science fiction writer Jane Austen was. 

The class erupted into spontaneous applause and Claire bowed. She proudly walked back to her chair looking back at Jess and winking, almost defiantly. Beth detected that Claire appeared to be offering a truce to their spat but never let her defiant guard down while doing so. 

Ms. Plumb, dumbfounded by the lesson's unusual twist took the floor again, "Uh .... thank you Claire for your ... unorthodox interpretation of the text. I am not sure if you were using street slang analogies or if you actually read another book by mistake. More HG Wells than Austen, I suspect."

"Unorthodox means good, right?" Claire asked.

"Um ... not in this case, no Claire. I thank you for your contribution, but it seemed very clear to me that you haven't read the text which means I am suspecting I shan't be collecting an assignment from you later?"

"Yeah, I will. Jane the Pain finished writing it for me this morning, it's in my bag." Claire responded without thinking what she was saying and immediately put her hand to her mouth, too late to censor herself. 

"Really?" Ms. Plumb asked looking directly at a mousy, timid looking girl in the front row. 

Beth recognized her immediately, they used to go to primary school together. She recalled she was fiercely intelligent then, only interested in studying and when Beth wasn't around, she was a prime target for bullies. It seemed she too suffered at the hands of the Clones only they used her brains as manipulation. Abject cruelty was their weapon of choice for Beth and she wondered which one of those she'd have preferred. 

"Is this correct?" Ms. Plumb asked, a little more softly to Jane, apparently responding to her timidity appropriately. 

Beth couldn't hear the response it was made so quietly, but from the teacher's reaction it was obvious she had confirmed Claire's inadvertent confession. 

"Can I suggest in future you refrain from "helping" your fellow pupils in this way, Jane? Yes?"

Jane nodded and remained in her seat with her shoulders slumped and head firmly pointing downwards. 

"Now, Claire. I shall continue with this lesson but you shall come to see me at the end for details of your detention, do you understand that? Or shall I get the cyborg, Miss Bennett to explain it to you?"

The class erupted into fits of laughter at their teacher's sarcastic tone and delighted that one of the Clones had been humiliated in such a way.

"Payback's a bitch, aint it?" Jess whispered to Beth with a self-satisfied grin spread across her perfect face. "Lucy next!"

For the remainder of the lesson Claire shot icy cold glances towards Beth and Jess at the back of the class. Michelle, having flicked through the book silently presented page after page to Claire. She was apparently demonstrating to Claire the true nature of the book, revealing the true stupidity of her actions at the front of the class. The more pages Michelle showed her, the more glances were shot Beth and Jessica's way. Beth became uneasy with the prospect of rattling one of the Clones' cages, but the determination and defiance of Jessica's face and jaw gave her strength.

Beth studied her new friend's face. The faint lines on the sides of her eyes showed that she smiled and laughed a lot and she'd not noticed them before now. Her teeth were perfectly straight and impossibly white. Her button nose, straight and petite whilst her rosebud lips gave her the appearance of a porcelain doll. Perfection, yet, to Beth now she had never looked more beautiful because the events over the last few days, the courage she had shown in the face of her impossible situation with the pregnancy and breaking away from her group, this all brought a new dimension to her character and a sense of humour that linked into Beth's like a key in a lock. Like her lips locked into Miles' ... and then she started picturing their kiss in the corridor, the one where she took control and her heart began racing again, with colour inevitably returning to her cheeks.

"You're thinking about him again, aren't you?" Jess teased, suddenly bringing Beth back into the room. Somehow the lesson had finished without her noticing. Lunch time loomed after their next lesson, science. Usually Beth didn't look forward to science very much but today was different. She'd be seeing Miles. She chuckled to herself wondering if he'd still be stood in a daze outside his classroom and then reminded herself that whilst she was apparently quite a good kisser as it happened, she wasn't magic and this wasn't a Disney movie. "If this was a Disney movie I'd be the baddy in the Little Mermaid or they'd skimp on the ink and make me slimmer" she thought to herself. 

A few people came up to Jess afterwards, congratulating her on the wonderful prank she'd played on Claire. Danny from their music class, who shared English with them too even ventured to ask her, "So are you not friends with that lot then? I thought you guys were tight?" Beth focused on Jessica's response wondering what she would tell them. 

Jess didn't flinch with her response, flicking her beautiful hair over her shoulder giving Danny and the assembling group at the back of the class a waft of her perfume. 

"Well, you see there's a time you need to start growing up and this was the time for me to realize that there's more to life than bitching, backstabbing, bulimic purges and laxative induced weight loss."

"I'm bulimic," Beth blurted out, "But I forget to purge!" The group laughed and made their way to their next lesson. 

"Funny!" Jess giggled, "Forget to purge ..." and then as others left them, Lucy and Claire walked to the back of the class for what looked like an impending stand off between Jess and her former group. 

"Fuck off fatty. We want to talk to Jess." Lucy spat venomously at Beth. The cutting dismissive nature of her tone almost caught Beth off guard, but for the first time, her feet remained firmly planted and she would not allow them to treat her this way any more. 

"I'm fine here thanks!" she replied in a friendly tone. Her grandmother's wise words suddenly leaping to mind, "you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar" and whilst her Grandma's house usually attracted many flies due to the heat from the permanently set central heating and her inability to part with rotting fruit, she was sure the saying was meant to demonstrate that if you're nice to people you will get more back than if your horrible.

The group studied her suspiciously, but resigned themselves to having the conversation with Jess with an audience of one. Beth realized her presence was probably meaningless to them as they too regarded her as meaningless. She was invisible and irrelevant to them, unless they wished to unleash cruelty on an unsuspecting victim for their own entertainment. 

"You can say whatever you want in front of Beth, she's a pal." Jess replied sweetly to them. The Clones shrugged nonchalantly confirming Beth's suspicions of her irrelevance to them.

"Well, that's what we're here about" Lucy began, looking back at Beth in disgust, "We're concerned about you and wanted to know if there's anything we can do. You're not behaving like yourself, Jessie."

Beth flinched at them calling her that and apparently Jess did too, "I've told you before, stop calling me fucking Jessie. I hate it."

"OK!" Lucy whined, "Have it your way. Well, this behaviour, it's damaging your reputation and we're willing to overlook this morning's little prank. I'm sooooo over it, aren't you Claire?"

Claire nodded with as much enthusiasm as Beth would if her dad asked her if she wanted to watch the golf with him. 

"Overlook?" Jess asked in amazement, "Overlook? Who the hell do you think you are? The fucking Queen? I do not wish to associate myself with your poisonous company again. The last few days have been like breathing pure OXYGEN and I'm going through some pretty heavy shit at the moment and I'm still feeling the most positive, in control and ... HAPPY than I have done in a very, very long time."

Claire, not understanding the context of Jessica's reference to "heavy shit" ventured into the conversation or the confrontation as Beth could see it turning into. 

"Look, Michael leaving you for .... Lucy ... well it's sad for you, we get that. But you guys were only dating for like what ... a few months. Yeah, your relationship got physical and he seemed to lose interest in you afterwards so ... well, we can draw our own conclusions from that.. Maybe a copy of The Joy of Sex wouldn't be a bad idea for you to read for your next boyfriend. But ... if you hang around with this monstrosity for very much longer, any boyfriend prospects will diminish with your stocks and shares which have already taken a hammering!"

Jess stood staring at them, processing the inference that Michael dumped her because her performance under the covers was less than satisfactory and Beth saw tears welling in her eyes. Without thought and acting entirely on instinct Beth stepped forward in between Claire and Jessica. As she took a deep breath she felt the years of torment she'd suffered at their cruel hands spill out of her. Each cruel note, tripping up, jokes in a changing room hiding her clothes in the shower making her walk home in wet clothes after gym, every single hurtful comment and action had provided her with a profound sense of injustice and a desire to stand up to their torments once and for all. She glared at them, aware of her massive body compared to their tiny frames but rather than the feeling of disgust and shame at the comparison, she felt strong, like a Valkerie or Amazonian warrior, towering over them. She could physically overpower them in a heart beat and she already knew that her intelligence and wit would enable her to outsmart and out-talk them in any situation. Something she was about to put to the test. 

With her vulnerable, cowering and weeping new friend behind her and two of the most despicable people she'd ever met in front of her, Beth prepared herself for the biggest confrontation in her sixteen years on the planet and began to tell them precisely what she and the rest of the school thought of them.