Hi, I am Emily Russell. Just a regular 16 year old high school student. With tons of social anxiety and practically no friends, except for one, but we’ll get to that later. I live a pretty boring life, there’s not much to do in Riverdale.

I guess you could say I have a nice family. But I don’t think that’s true, it looks perfect from the surface but it’s messed up when you look closely. But then again, isn’t every family like that, so I guess it’s normal.

It’s the first day of school after the winter break. And trust me, if you hate people as much as I do, you wouldn’t have survived school, it’s more than enough that I showed up today. By the way, it’s 3rd of march, 2023. As per usual, I was a nervous wreck. My mom dropped me off to the school and I just hid behind the building to avoid running into other lame teenagers. And I overstayed. Even though my mom dropped me off early I still am late. Awesome. Just awesome.

Just when I thought this day is going to be terrible, I saw wu. You know the friend I was talking about before, yeah, that’s Lee Hwang wu. My childhood best friend and neighbor. Also my only friend.

He was waving at me, and I couldn’t help but smile and wave back because life just felt less terrible. By the way, wu knows everything about me and I knew everything about him.

wu is pretty popular. Mainly because he’s Korean and every girl in my class is obsessed with BTS. I’ve heard them say he looks like Jimin. But here’s the thing right, wu doesn’t care about the girls because he’s gay. And to top it all off, he also likes a guy. But there’s a small problem, the guy he likes lives HALF A WORLD APART! Yeah, my single, ******, handsome best friend fell in love with a Korean guy.

I still remember when he told me he was gay. We were 15 and he’d just gotten back from his grandparents’ place in Korea with his eyes full of longing. He was in love. The only problem was the guy he fell in love with was continents apart.

And it wasn’t like he could date the gay guys in our school, mainly because they’re all jerks and also, he hasn’t really told anyone besides me that he’s gay.

The guy wu is hopelessly in love with is named Minho. I’ve heard a million stories about Minho, and I could tell you everything about him even though I have never met him.

And did I mention that Minho doesn’t really know Wu is in love with him.

Unlike me, Wu has other nerdy-geeky-popular friends that I don’t really talk to. They’re sweet and welcoming but I just never have the guts to actually get to know them. The first time I met Wu was when we were 6, and back then I didn’t really have any problem talking to people.

Like I said, I am late. Or you know what, Mr. Charles is way too early! I was just heading to the back of the class to sit alone in peace when I hear Mr. Charles harsh voice asking me why I am late. I just turn around to look at him when he just says, “I’m letting it go because it’s the first day, go sit next to Rebecca.”

Honestly, sitting next to a complete stranger on the first day of school is the literal definition of the worst punishment ever.

Too much for letting it go. Huh?

And as I am mentally cursing my life while I sit next to Rebecca.

How the hell am I going to live?

That was before Rebecca introduced herself.

“Hey, I am Rebecca Martinez.”

And because my parents paid for pre-school where I learnt manners, I introduced myself too. Even though I’d rather sit alone.

“Hey, I am Emily Russel.”

I guess that’s how Rebecca and I became friends.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to indulge in useless small talk for the rest of the class because Mr. Charles doesn’t let anyone talk.

After class ended

I was thinking about this new girl who looked confused. Although my non-friendly instincts were telling me to just walk away, the other side of me wanted to talk to her. Who knew, what if I could have other friends?

I asked her what she had next, she just said ‘French’.

I had science, so I had no choice but to leave and hopefully never talk to her again.

Maybe the universe wants me to have no friends.

Just as I was heading towards the locker Rebecca said, “ I am new here and I don’t really know anything about Riverdale. Do you mind showing around after school? You’re the only person I’ve talked to today.” She ended with a chuckle.

Before I could process my thoughts, I instinctively said, “Yeah, sure. Why not. Meet me at the cafeteria after school ends.”

I guess the universe has different plans for me.

As I was going go towards my next class. I saw another girl that I had never seen before. She seemed new and was having a hard time opening up her locker. Being the amazing and helpful person I am, I decided to help her.

Well, I had already agreed to Rebecca around after so I thought maybe she could join us.

She introduced herself as Vivian Ryan. After I helped her with her locker and figuring out her classes. I invited her to join Rebecca and me to hangout. She agreed readily.

At lunch time

I saw Vivian and Rebecca looking for a place to sit. I usually don’t sit in the cafeteria during lunch because I don’t really have anyone to sit with. Wu usually just sits with his other geeky friends.

But today I had made two new friends (well, not really, kind of).

I invited them to come sit with me. The looked extremely relaxed after that. We made plans to meet up after school so I could show them around Riverdale.

And the next thing I knew, Wu was excitedly pulling me across the cafeteria. I asked him what’s up.

He excitedly said, “He’s coming. He’s coming.”

“Who? Voldermort? Harry Potter? Harry Styles?” I asked laughingly.

He glared at me for a second but the his face resumed to the excitement he was feeling.

“Minho. He’s coming.”

He paused and took a long breath in longing.

I had a million questions running through my head. Why? When? How? What are you going to do?

But I refrained from bombarding him with those. Instead, I decided to scream….. internally in my head. Because if I screamed loudly I would attract attention.

If no one was around we would’ve danced.

I said, “I have a million questions, but before we get to that, we need to have a Taylor Swift dance/karaoke party.”

He laughed and said, “Sure. This deserves a whole concert. But just the happy songs this time.”

I laughed and said, “Yeah.”

The last time we had a Taylor Swift marathon was when he had returned from Korea, completely heartbroken. We listened to ‘all too well’ and screamed it on top of our lungs almost every day.

Eventually he recovered and regained hope that maybe someday he could actually tell Minho that he was hopelessly in love with him.

I was so happy for him.

We decided to talk it all out at a sleepover at my place tonight.

The evening

Vivian and Rebecca had agreed to meet me at café 1997 at 04:30. And the whole evening was so much fun.

Turns out that Vivian and Rebecca were actually pretty cool and talkative. It was just the new environment that prevented them from talking in school.

They were very cool too.

Vivian was into One direction and read a lot. Rebecca loved a bit of everything.

And I think I had seen Vivian checking out Wu earlier in school, turns out that she almost thought she saw Jimin from BTS because he looked so much like him.

While we were at it, I told them that Wu was my best friend. (I skipped the only friend part because that would’ve sounded pathetic). And anyways, I technically now have two new friends.

It was getting dark now, so I called Wu to come pick us up. As it turns out, I forgot to tell him I had two other fully grown people with me. (Because I am dumb, I know). And although both of them offered to go by themselves, I convinced them to stay because Wu would drop them off in his car.

Yeah, I know. I am dumb.

And to top it all off, Wu showed up in a motorcycle. Yeah, bad things always happen to good people, like me.

And when we were waiting for him to show up we were talking about our old lives, that’s when we realized that none of us had ever had a boyfriend.

We were laughing when Wu showed up in his motorcycle. And I realized what a horrible mistake I had made.

And we argued, in a funny way though. It was clearly an honest mistake, but people don’t need to know that, right. I just nagged him a little bit.

But we still had no solution to the problem.

It was almost dark now, Wu offered to go back and bring his car but he lived too far away. The buses were mostly gone too.

The only sane solution, which was offered by Wu, was that he could call some of his other friends on their bikes because they were all hanging out nearby.

It sounded okay.

We all agreed to it.

A few minutes later, Dominick, Robert and Ben showed up. They were all Wu’s close friends.

We decided to split up. I sat behind Wu, because we were neighbors and our houses were the farthest from there. Dominick offered to drop Rebecca, even though their houses were nowhere near, but I guessed he just had a crush on her. Robert and Vivian lived in the same locality so they paired up. Ben was just third wheeling. He lived around our area so he stayed along.

We were on the main highway when an idea struck me. I asked everyone to stop. Everyone still had almost an hour left before curfew. And there was nothing important for them to do. It was the first day, so there wasn’t any homework too.

I gave them the idea to go check out the horror house near Greendale Avenue. It was a few miles away.

They were a bit hesitant at first. But Dominick convinced everyone. Did I mention he was a horror freak? Well as it turned out, he had always wanted to go there.

Maybe he was just looking for ways to impress Rebecca. Who knows?

All that matters is that everyone eventually agreed.

In the house

It was scary. Very scary. We were all freaked out. At least we had our phones for flashlights. So we could see stuff.

The house was very creepy though.

And to add to that, I accidently locked myself in an abandoned room. Yup, that proves it people, bad things happen exclusively to good people only.

I was almost about to cry when the door just wouldn’t budge. Because it was originally my idea, I assumed everyone would just think I went exploring alone. I thought to scream for help but that would freak them out. We’re in a horror house, and me screaming would just end up in them running away.

I was super scared. My heart was beating at a million miles per hour. I was still trying to open the door but it wouldn’t budge.

After almost ten minutes of futile attempts, it opened. A sense of relief took over me and I sighed. That’s when I saw Dominick coming towards the hallway of the room I was stuck in. He had his cell phone in his hand and the flashlight was on. I could see him but he couldn’t see me.

What I was about to do next is nasty and not a good thing to do, but I don’t care, I just wanted to have fun.

Sorry but not sorry.

I decided to scare him.

While we’re in a damn horror house.

And he has a crush to impress.

Yes, I know, I am evil. Very evil.

And that’s exactly what I did. I quietly approached him from the other side and placed my hand on his shoulder in a creepy way.

His reaction was priceless.

The next thing I knew, he started screaming and broke into sweat. Honestly, for a second, his eyes lost all colour. He genuinely thought he was going to die.

And I just laughed hysterically at him.

Talk about being rude.

Now you might want to reconsider me claiming that I am a good person. But come on, it was completely worth it.

I don’t care what karma has to give back but I wouldn’t change a thing.

Everyone came in the hallway we were in after they heard Dominick scream. When they realized what had happened, they laughed too.

The whole time Dominick was glaring at me like he’d kill me and won’t regret doing it.

I eventually apologized.

But I wasn’t really sorry.

I know, you get it, that’s why Dominick wanted to kill me.

We went home after that.

My parents were home and I just told them Wu was staying over. Which they were completely okay with. We’d been having sleepovers since we were in second grade so our parents were cool with it.

That’s when Wu started explaining everything.

Apparently, Minho was moving here to study and his family knew Wu’s family so they’d decided to send him here. Minho was going to live with his aunt and he was joining in a week.

I was extremely happy for Wu. But Wu looked a bit nervous. I asked him what’s wrong. And he just said, “What if he doesn’t like me?”

To which I just replied, “Then it’s his loss. And anyways, he’d love you. You’re amazing. And even if he isn’t gay, we’d make him question his sexuality.” I said, laughing.

I reassured him that it’ll be okay in the end.

Wu is an amazing dude. Everybody loves him. Minho will too.

The next day

We had all decided to go to the school in Wu’s car. Did I mention that Wu’s parents are hella rich, like super wealthy. I bet he has a private jet too. He has an 8 seater SUV. Which was enough for the seven of us.

But as it turns out, Nick (Dominick) wanted to impress Rebecca with his motorcycle.

He said something about girls liking bad boys with motorcycles. I was totally against it but when I asked the girls if it was okay if we ride on the boys’ motorcycles again, they were okay with it.

So, we decided to do the same.

Nick actually went 3 miles in the opposite direction from where he lived to pick up Rebecca. Rebecca had protested and told him not to but the dude just didn’t budge.

Which if you look at from a feminist’s point of view, is wrong. At least that’s what Vivian had to say about it. And I low key agreed. Nick was trying too hard.

But like Viv said, “Rebecca is into him too, so maybe she wants him to do that? I guess. So I am okay with it as long as Rebecca is comfortable.”

Well, that’s fine too.

In conclusion, we went to the school with the boys. This time, I sat with Ben because, why not.

I know what you’re thinking, till yesterday, I had no friends, but today I showed up with the hottest gang of boys in the school.

Well, that’s true, I didn’t have any friend except Wu. But I hung out with the boys sometimes too. Not in school but otherwise. But we didn’t really have an actual friendship. They knew me as Wu’s friend and I was okay with it.

However, this time, they were just sticking around to help Nick impress Becca. Or that’s what I thought. And it would be creepy if everyone except Nick didn’t hang out with us. They were there to support Nick.

They’d all had girlfriends in the past and this behavior wasn’t new.

As for Rebecca and Vivian, they didn’t really have a choice but to stick with me because I was the only person they knew right now. And they had just moved here.

I was totally okay with this arrangement. But Vivian was not on board with us riding motorcycles. She was not okay with the boys riding them. It had something to do with men using this to exert dominance and feel powerful and it was a part of the deep rooted toxic masculinity for girls to find dudes who rode bikes and wore leather jackets hot.

She had a whole speech. And it kind of made sense to me.

Robert just straight up looked at her in the eye and said laughingly, “You don’t need to blame toxic masculinity if you don’t like sitting behind me, just say it to my face. I know another 50 girls who’d happily take your place.” He added with a cocky grin.

“See, this is what I am talking about.” Said Vivian, clearly, annoyed.

I-have-50-other-girls-who’d-love-to-take-your-place she said mockingly.

“And I don’t have a problem sitting behind you.” She added in an angry voice.

Robert looked he was going to say something cocky but Wu told him to shut up.

Thank god he didn’t say anything. Vivian would have eaten him alive. She was sweet but fierce. And just say a little something about feminism, it’s like she’d memorized a speech on it.

At school

We arrived on time and everyone was looking at us like we’d landed from another planet. Which was something Wu and the boys were used to. I on the other hand was not.

The day wasn’t really special except for the fact that Robert had gotten into a fight with someone. Which wasn’t surprising. He had a thing for getting into trouble. And Wu bailed him out like he always did.

The fight occurred in the last period so Robert couldn’t get his wounds tended by the school nurse. He wasn’t that badly hurt but I heard that the dude he was fighting with went home with a broken nose.

Robert was already near the parking area when we came. He looked beaten up but not severely injured. Vivian just couldn’t stop nagging him about it and that annoyed him, a lot. Did I mention that Robert had a really bad temper. He was trying to control it so bad. I had never, I repeat never seen him trying to control his rage for anyone.

Wu and Nick had their jaws on the ground when Robert didn’t try to kill Vivian. He didn’t really back off for girls too. He was a very angry dude. Sweet but angry.

Wu was signaling me to stop Vivian from getting herself killed. But I was enjoying it. Really enjoying it.

That was before Robert’s knee wound opened up and started bleeding. It’s like something took over Vivian when she saw that. Although Robert said it was no big deal, Vivian was now determined to help him.

Surprisingly, she took out her handkerchief and some cotton from her backpack and commanded Robert to roll up his pants and sit on the bench nearby so she could clean his wound.

Robert smugly said, “Well I’d hoped we’d be in a different setting when you’d tell me to take off my pants but this is fine too.”

Vivian stopped for a second and gave him the I-can’t-believe-you’re-this-dumb look.

And wait, was Robert, I was surprised to even think that, flirting with Vivian?

That’s huge. Just a second ago he was pissed but now he’s all smug and cocky.

What is up with this boy?

Apparently, everyone else was surprised too.

He did what Vivian told him to do. And let’s just say he never takes orders, never. Especially not from someone whom he was pissed at.

We all helped Vivian clean his wound and wrap a bandage around his knee. And the whole time Vivian was down on her knee cleaning it up Robert didn’t shut up about how someday she’d be on her knee again but with a ring.

Jokes aside, this dude was actually good at flirting. Like really good. Now I get why he’s such a playboy, he’s got moves, really smug and cocky moves.

But unlike most other girls who’d been cast with Robert’s flirting spell, Vivian was completely ignoring it. Which was driving him mad.

While we were tying Viv’s hanky round his wound he said, “By the way, why is nobody talking about how you had a first aid kit in your bag on a random Tuesday school afternoon. Who’re you? A paramedic?” He said laughingly.

Vivian just looked at him with a mean grin and said, “For situations like these. Blood freaks me out. That’s the reason why I tended your wound not because I care.”

Robert just said, “That’s a weird detail. I never said you’re doing this because you care about me.”

Vivian had nothing to say to that, for the first time in the two days I’d known her, she was speechless.

However, it didn’t last long. She rebounded making a weird face and said, “Just so that you don’t have any delusions. It must be hard for you to not have a girl going crazy over you.”

I don’t even remember what they said after that. I was stunned by seeing Robert flirting with Vivian. Vivian was not at all his type.

And because I was a good friend, I had to warn her. But she seemed to be doing fine. It’s not like I don’t like Robert, but I just don’t want Viv to get hurt.

I bet they fought the whole ride back home too.