9 School is war, and we're playing a dangerous game

I took a bath and returned to my desk. I only had one thing in mind, and it was planning out my next step.

People might think that school was just a place where you study and socialize. But in school, there were various social castes, and underhanded methods to gain popularity and rise up in rank, and similarly underhanded methods to push someone to the gutter.

Like a food chain, one would push the others to be on top.

Why would you think the seniority, sense of superiority, and bullying culture continued as those bullies were becoming adults? It was because they got used to it since they were young.

I ripped a blank paper and got a pen, then I started making a caste system. This was an invisible caste system that I found after experiencing bullying for three years. We should begin with the teachers and senior students, the twelfth grade.

I gave them their own caste on top. They were simply untouchable at this point in time. Besides, I didn't have much problem with them in my first life. They were too detached from the junior, but still, they couldn't be touched.

They were the seniors, after all.

Then I ranked the sophomore…

I had observed a few who seemed to have control over the school. They were the mean girls of their generation consisting of three girls.

But the leader was the most dangerous, Barbara Cornwell, but she called herself 'Barbie' for some reason. However, I didn't see any similarities between her and that doll other than her exaggerated way of speaking, especially when she was with the boys.

She would speak so elegantly in front of the boys, but she would speak like a nasty sewer when she was with the girls.

Barbara Cornwell also had a terrible catty attitude with anyone who dared to steal any man's attention when she was around them. And lastly, she hooked up a lot with the boys in the school.

She would shame everyone and even went as far as bullying the girls who stole the spotlight from her, but she was always well protected because of her boyfriend, Jake Illyas, the current quarterback who would be Mason's senior when he joined the football team this year.

Barbara could easily reign supreme with the protection from Jake, who was also cheating on her, and she was the first one to call me a slut because of my well-endowed boobs.

'Heh, what a hypocrite,' I chuckled and put Barbara Crownwell at the top. I wanted to topple her down, but it wasn't the right time, not yet.

Then I went to the lower ranks and started ranking the ones in the same year as me.

Jessica and Cindy were always together. They were initially a group of two until more and more girls joined them. They became a big group in the senior year consisting of seven people, with Jessica as the leader.

They would call themselves the DarthMorth Queens.

Jessica was so powerful in the previous timeline that the only thing she couldn't have was Mason. Because it seemed that Mason never paid attention to her nor appeared to be interested in anyone.

He always wore the same lukewarm smile in front of everyone, even though he could get any girl… or guy if he swung the other way.

But he stayed single until my death.

It seemed that Chrissy continuously fueled Jessica's jealousy, so Jessica would hound anyone who dared to approach Mason.

Other than that, Jessica and Cindy would come at me tomorrow in the cafeteria for absolutely no reason, so I had to avoid them tomorrow.

At least, I couldn't afford to get humiliated on my second day of high school.

Then after Jessica and Cindy, I listed all the potential bullies in my grade that would join the DarthMorth Queens in the future. There was Chrissy, obviously, and there were two more. The rest came from the next batch.

So I rounded them down as my primary target.

Because to put the giant down, you have to do it by binding their leg.

There were Chrissy, Lea, and Kristen.

I didn't want to be entangled with Chrissy for now because of her constant obsession with Mason and becoming the IT girl. And I didn't have any resources to befriend Lea. Because Lea was just Ashley 2.0, they were from rich families but had different fates after the second year.

While Ashley transferred to another school after her father was arrested for money laundering, Lea's father went bankrupt in the second year.

So, Lea had to kiss Jessica's boots and turn into Jessica's lap dog because she didn't want to get bullied by the rest of the people she had bullied prior to her downfall.

They were just too much for me right now. So that left me with only one choice, Kristen.

The smirk grew on my face as I realized something important.

Kristen joined Jessica in the second semester, approximately six months from now. That was because Kristen had a dark secret, so Jessica blackmailed her.

"Perfect," I knew someone close to Kristen in middle school before, Cerise. But Kristen ditched Cerise because she was embarrassed by her antics, though I do think that Cerise was cute.

To confirm the secret that Kristen hid for so long, I had to contact Cerise.

So I took my phone and dialed Cerise's number.

Beep. Beep.

"H—Hello, Emmy?" Cerise's nervous voice rang in my ears as I leaned on the chair, crossing my legs while plotting about what I should do next to pressure Cerise to spill the beans without actually hurting my friend.

Because I did treasure Cerise as my only friend in high school in the first timeline. But right now, we were just strangers, and so I had to find a gentler method to extort some information.

"Hey, Cerise, so you saved my phone number! I'm so glad!"

"I—I'm the one who should be glad… I never thought someone would actually call me like this," Cerise replied.

"Hm? Why not? I want to be your friend after all," I replied, then paused for a moment. "Cerise, you know that I'm new in the school, unlike you who have been in the same middle school with them. Do you know some people I have to watch out for?"