Campus Cafe - Afternoon
The afternoon sun streamed through the cafe windows, casting warm light across the table where the five girls sat. It was a peaceful scene: Naila half-asleep on the couch, Chima scrolling through her phone, Fatimah reviewing her notes, and Alice munching on chips with reckless abandon.
Wony was in her element, carefully editing a photo for Instagram. Her fingers moved with precision, adjusting the lighting, perfecting the contrast. She was a master of her craft.
Then Chima started laughing.
It wasn't a polite chuckle. It was a full-on, wheezing, tears-streaming-down-her-face cackle that made everyone at nearby tables turn and stare.
"Chima, what's so funny?" Fatimah asked, not looking up from her notes.
Chima shoved her phone toward Naila, barely able to speak. "Look at this! Alice uploaded a meme collection of Wony's greatest hits!"
Naila cracked open one sleepy eye. A slow smile spread across her face. "Oh wow... the one where she fell into the drainage ditch while buying fried tofu?"
On Chima's screen was Alice's post in their group chat:
[ALICE]105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3dfd9DyYNu
"Wony's Greatest Hits"
Photo 1: Wony falling into a drainage ditch, her one leg still on solid ground, her expression pure horror105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY7ODpdGUar
Photo 2: Wony crying hysterically while being chased by a Chihuahua105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6tuXiiIHjJ
Photo 3: Wony getting her finger nibbled by a piranha at the aquarium
Wony's face went from calm to crimson in approximately 0.3 seconds. Her perfectly manicured hands trembled with rage. "A... ALICE?! THOSE ARE PRIVATE PHOTOS!!"
Alice continued munching her chips, completely unbothered. "But they're so funny! Look, they already got 500 retweets~"
Wony rose from her seat slowly, deliberately. The air around her seemed to chill. A dramatic soundtrack might as well have started playing in the background.
"Alice," Wony said, her voice dangerously calm, "you have made a terrible mistake."
Alice finally looked up, a chip halfway to her mouth. "Uh... Wony? You're scaring me a little."
"Good," Wony replied. "You should be scared."
***
The Next Morning - Alice's Apartment
Alice woke up to the sound of her phone buzzing incessantly. She groaned, rolled over, and grabbed it with one sleepy hand.
Then she screamed.
"WHAT IS THIS?! WHO UPLOADED THIS?!"
Her Instagram feed (the campus-specific one that everyone followed) was flooded with new posts from an anonymous account.
- A photo of Alice falling off the stage during a school performance (polka-dot underwear visible for the world to see)105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeaDW523GPY
- A video of Alice screaming hysterically when she encountered a cockroach in the bathroom105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHMkKhkzKL5
- A candid shot of Alice drooling in her sleep at the library, with the caption: "Sleeping Beauty - The Real Version"
Alice scrambled out of bed, running to the living room where her friends were already gathered. "GUYS! SOMEONE IS TARGETING ME!"
Fatimah studied the posts, her brow furrowed. "Hmm... the account is called @anonim_truth. But these photos... only the five of us have them."
The room went silent.
Slow motion. Dramatic zoom. The camera panned to Wony, who was sitting peacefully on the couch, sipping her smoothie with an expression of angelic innocence.
Wony smiled sweetly. "Karma is a cat~."
"WONY!" Alice shrieked.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Wony replied, her voice dripping with false innocence. "I'm just sitting here, enjoying my smoothie, and being elegant."105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeNqViUjqPT
Chima was laughing so hard she had to hold onto the wall for support. "This is the best thing that's ever happened!"
Naila nodded sleepily. "I can't wait to see what happens next."
***
A Week of Chaos - Montage:
Day 1:105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMlBrnTzA2A
Alice retaliated by creating a meme that edited Wony's face onto the character from The Conjuring. "LOOK! WONY THE DEMON!" she posted triumphantly.
Wony responded within the hour, uploading a video of Alice screaming on a roller coaster, set to the sound of mating cats. The video went viral in the campus group chat.
Day 2:105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYsk7DfQanC
Alice photoshopped Wony's face onto a crying baby. Wony responded with a compilation of Alice falling asleep in increasingly ridiculous places: the library, the cafeteria, a parked car, and, somehow, inside a shopping cart.
Day 3:105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLDO42c2BJt
Chima joined the war. She couldn't resist. She uploaded a meme of both Alice and Wony as fighting cats, complete with cartoon bubbles and dramatic editing.
Day 4:105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ364LqtaYhJ
Naila, to everyone's shock, posted her own contribution: a meme of Alice and Wony doing a dramatic face-off, but with their faces swapped onto wrestlers. "Fight! Fight! Fight!" she captioned it.
Day 5:105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡALvSu0NgCS
Fatimah was losing her mind. She'd become the reluctant moderator of their group chat, deleting memes and trying to restore peace, only for new ones to appear moments later.
"CAN WE PLEASE STOP?!" she messaged the group.
Alice: "Never!"105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrvIq28Kodj
Wony: "She started it."105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgxu6lsHuAw
Alice: "You started it!"105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQMPOKZq3fQ
Wony: "Your memes aren't even funny."105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcQKkfTFBXw
Alice: "YOUR FACE ISN'T EVEN—"105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTVLpXyMEAn
Fatimah: "ENOUGH."
Day 6:105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV5mI2FWnUD
The war reached its peak. Someone (no one would admit who) had posted a meme featuring Alice, Wony, and the campus principal. The post had been up for exactly seventeen minutes before a faculty member saw it.
Day 7:105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsUTHIxNpdT
They all received the same email. A summons. The principal's office. Immediate meeting.
***
The Principal's Office - The Same Day
Mr. Didi, the principal, sat behind his imposing desk, his expression stern. The five girls stood in a line before him, heads bowed. Well, some heads were bowed. Alice was still trying to hide a smirk.
"Do you think you're influencers or students?!" Mr. Didi's voice echoed off the walls. "This behavior is completely unacceptable!"
Fatimah stepped forward, taking the lead. "I'm so sorry, sir. This was just—"
Alice cut her off, unable to help herself. "But sir, our engagement rate went up 300%! This is great for personal branding!"
Wony threw an eraser at Alice's head.
Everyone froze.
Mr. Didi pinched the bridge of his nose. "All of you. Clean the toilets. For a week. Clean them all. Every single stall. Every single sink. And you will do it together, with NO fighting."
"The toilets?" Alice whispered in horror.
"You heard me."
In the hallway outside the principal's office, the five girls stood in stunned silence.
"I can't believe this," Wony muttered. "I have to clean toilets. With MY hands."
"It's your fault," Alice shot back.
"IT WAS YOUR FAULT FOR POSTING THE MEMES FIRST!"
"You deserve everything that happened to you!"
"Do not make me throw another eraser!"
The others watched the argument unfold with varying degrees of amusement.
Chima nudged Naila. "This is the best week ever."
Naila yawned. "I'm kind of... excited to see the toilets. I've never cleaned one before."
"I don't think you're supposed to be excited about cleaning toilets," Chima replied.
"Maybe I'll fall asleep in one."
"That's disgusting, Naila."
Fatimah turned to the bickering duo. "ALICE! WONY! STOP!"
They froze mid-argument.
"We are going to clean those toilets," Fatimah declared. "We're going to do it together. And after we're done, we're going to apologize to each other. And then we're NEVER going to do something this ridiculous again. UNDERSTOOD?"
"Yes, Fatimah," they muttered in unison.
But even as they walked away from the principal's office, Chima was already pulling out her phone.
"What are you doing?" Fatimah asked suspiciously.
"Nothing," Chima said innocently. "Just... documenting this moment. For posterity."
"Chima!"
"It's for the MEME ARCHIVES!"
The group chat notification chimed. Alice checked her phone and groaned.
Chima: "The Toilet Warriors - Coming to a bathroom near you"
Naila liked the post.
Wony threw her hands up in despair.
Fatimah just walked faster, refusing to look back.
Some things, she realized, were never going to change. And maybe, just maybe, that wasn't so bad.105Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdGhkmFnSRX
and then Add to home screen.