Rita, Elena and Mucia are a trio – they have been best friends for six years now. (In fact, Samantha used to be one of them, but that’s beside the point.) Best friends usually have something in common, and ironically their most obvious thing in common happens to be their fake smiles.

Rita is the oldest of the three (older than Mucia, the youngest, by five months), yet has the youngest mental age. For one thing, she does not appreciate intense sarcasm. Her friend Demelza never stops making silly sarcastic comments – Rita can usually cope with them, but when they get too over the top, she would do a fake smile. The first time she did it was quite a shock to Demelza.

“Whoa, what was that?” She asked.

“My fake smile. I do it whenever I don’t find a joke funny. I wouldn’t normally tell people this,” she said, even though people would have realised anyway, “but we’re friends so it’s OK.”

“It wasn’t a joke though, it was sarcasm.”

“Still. It was cheesy.”

“But I like cheese.”

“See? You’ve just proved my point.” Ding! Another fake smile.

Demelza smiled too. It’s hard to find people this simple nowadays… people that are so innocent even when they lie. The whole point in faking something is so that people would think it was real. Now what’s the point in faking a smile and pointing it out? Maybe Rita just does it for the joy of it, who knows, who cares, as long as things are all good.

Elena’s fake smile is vastly different in nature. Once upon a time, the three of them, together with Samantha, were a very close group of friends that resisted any change. However one day the horrible new girl Demelza came along and messed it all up. Rita, Mucia and Samantha were all nice to her, which was understandable, seeing how they were generally very friendly people anyway. But no, Demelza took it personally, and thought that they wanted to be friends with her. Whywould they want to be friends with anyone other than each other? They had everything they needed.

So just to show Demelza she would never be accepted into their group, Elena does her own things to repel her. She stares at Demelza all the time, trying to make her self-conscious; she is cold to her and never has facial expressions when Demelza tries to start a conversation; she leaves conversations whenever Demelza joins in; she refuses to have lunch with the remaining three when Demelza is with them… She makes this obvious to her friends as a protest, as if saying “it’s either me or her”. But tut-tut, they are all too nice and indecisive to just reject Demelza the way Elena did. And Rita even seems to be having fun with her, commenting on sarcasm, something she has never shown interests in before. What is wrong with everyone? Can’t they just let things stay sweet and simple?

Elena smiles to everyone else, though – to Rita, Mucia and Samantha – even after Samantha had become Demelza’s best friend, to show that Samantha is not problematic, Demelza is. She even smiles to people like Dee, who she constantly bitches about. Occasionally, though, she would smile to Demelza too. “Melz,” she would call her, as everyone else did, “have you had the chemistry test on ammonia yet? Do you have to know about equilibrium and Le Chatelier’s Principle? Oh my God, I don’t understand it at all!” She grimaced. Demelza, the silly, silly girl would think that Elena had decided to be nice to her, and happily help her, “basically, it means that if you change any conditions of an equilibrium reaction, the equilibrium would oppose it. So for example…” But surprise surprise, when the explanation was done, Elena would go away without even saying thank you, knowing that the next time, Demelza would gladly do the same.

People love Elena, but she seems inapproachable. Her smile is inviting yet surreal. People love Demelza too, because of her willingness to help people out, and her sarcasm that doesn’t really know when to stop. As a result, some people find themselves confused and trapped in the middle. Mia, for instance, was invited to Demelza’s for a sleepover. She suggested inviting Elena too, and Demelza said Elena hated her. “Why? She’s really nice, I’m sure she doesn’t. We sit together in English and have a lot of fun.” Demelza didn’t know what to say. Elena is beautiful… Elena is perfect. Elena can do whatever she wants to, and Demelza cannot even attempt to explain what is going on.

And finally, Mucia is the quiet one. She’s kind to everyone, but half the people in the year don’t know she even exists, because she never talks to people apart from Elena, Rita and Samantha unless it’s absolutely necessary. Like when Demelza has lunch with them, she would of course try to make conversation, and smile.

Oh, and the smile is genuine, because it’s always there, and you just can’t fake something all the time. Unless you’re really hypocritical, which Mucia isn’t. She does feel unhappy sometimes, but never shows it, because she doesn’t like making other people worry.

She, Rita and Elena were having lunch the other day, and Demelza and Samantha suddenly appeared in the canteen. They asked to join, and then sat down around the table. Elena didn’t object out loud – instead, she finished her sandwich in a hurry and left quietly. “I have to go to IT, sorry.” She said. Rita suddenly remembered that her IT coursework was, too, overdue, so she volunteered to go with Elena, apologising loudly and hastily before she left. And then, Mucia was left alone with Samantha and Demelza. Much as she wanted to, she was too nice to leave them. She ate her lunch slowly, allowing them time to catch up. She knew what Elena left for, but was too shy to protest. She looked at Demelza.

When Demelza felt the stare, she looked up. Mucia smiled.