Visual Novel / Queen B

Queen B is one of the many books in Pixelberry's Choices: Stories You Play collection.

A new transfer student at a private university full of status-obsessed snobs sets out to conquer the ranks and dethrone the local queen bee.

---

Queen B includes examples of:

• Accidental Misnaming: Exaggerated with Caroline in Book 2, Chapter 9, whom Bea and the rest of the students at the bacchanalia misname no less than a dozen times, with them referring to her by just about every name that begins with a "C" except "Caroline".
• Alpha Bitch: Poppy is the #1 student of the T, the school's popularity ranking since she was a freshman, and is the bitchiest girl in school. Of course, you can turn around and be an even bitchier one than her.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • In Book 1, Poppy this to Bea who sets out to dethrone her as Queen B.
  • In Book 2, the elusive "X"^note a.k.a Selene Montmartre/Persephone Dalton is quickly set up as this, and challenges Bea for the throne.
• Bad Boss: Poppy, who bullies freshman Taylor to the point where she’s near a mental breakdown.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between Poppy and Bea. At multiple points in the story, Bea has the option to hook up with Poppy and even kiss her during their Cat Fight.
• Best Served Cold: After being the human sacrifice for last year's bacchanalia, Zoey finally gets her revenge on Poppy by making her this year's human sacrifice.
• Beta Bitch: Chloe is Poppy's second in command.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Selene Montmartre emerged as a friendly and peaceful girl until it was discovered that she was actually "X" and her old name was Persephone Dalton, as well as a manipulative, vengeful and pretentious girl.
• The B Grade: The main reason that Pete Scotch resents Bea is because when she was Kinsgley's TA, she gave a paper he wrote a B+, which he says wrecked his average.
• Broken Pedestal: Played for laughs in Chapter 8 when Bea asks for her phone back to see if any celebrities have retweeted about her embarrassing video. One singer, DaBebe, retweeted with the cry-laughing emoji and all it did was give it 500 thousand more views.
  "Note to self, remove all of DaBebe's songs from your playlists immediately."
• The Cameo:
  • Book 1, Chapter 4 has Bea and the Football Team rehearsing their halftime routine to Jaylen Riaz's new hit single. A premium choice allows you to call her in to salvage the halftime show giving a massive bump to the school rating.
  • Book 2, Chapter 12 features an appearance from Maxwell and Bertrand at the museum.
  • Book 2, Chapter 15 features an appearance from Marcus Sharpe as Poppy's escort.
• Cast Full of Gay: The vast majority of the important female characters (Poppy, Zoey, Veronica, Chloe, Kingsley if female, Lexi if Kingsley is female, Bea if the player lets her) are willing to kiss, have sex with, and/or date other women.
• Cat Fight: Chapter 16 has a premium scene that allows Bea to finally have one with Poppy after all the crap she's been put through all book long.
  • You can set one up in Book 2 chapter 15 between Poppy and Persephone to score more votes.
• Chekhov's Gun: Chapter 9 has Bea in Benji's room where she discovers he has some secret dirt on Poppy and Bradley Denborough's romance. A premium choice allows her to use it for Chapter 10 to utterly humiliate Poppy.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The premium recruits to your posse are this in later Chapters.
  • Chapter 11 Taylor tells Bea and Zoey that if they have anything planned, to do it now because of a "human sacrifice." Veronica buys Bea some time to sneak around in Poppy's room.
  • Chapter 15 is when it all comes together. Professor Roberta helps by giving Bea a reputation boost no matter what she says to the press by being a big supporter of her. Taylor is rebelling in her own way by having ordered the wrong shoe size for Poppy on purpose and ordered decaf so she's crashing from lack of caffeine. Carter introduces Bea to his friend Chester Morton and advises her NOT to mention football to him since his team was dead last in the previous season. Veronica introduces Bea to her mother who made [Veronica's] dress and that she loves it. Chloe helps Bea by introducing her to the Min-Sinclairs. Penelope helps by messing around with Poppy's music by not even hitting the Play button.
  • Chapter 16 has Thomas asking Bea an easy question during the questionnaire instead of something complicated.
• Chekhov's Skill: In Book 2, Chapter 10, due to X's shenanigans, numerous farm animals wreak havoc on campus during a charity event, including a hog. Bea finally gets to put her hog-wrangling skills she learned back in her hometown to good use.
• Content Warnings:
  • Both books open with a disclaimer that the story contains mature themes, including the option to romance a professor.
  • Book 1, Chapter 10 opens with one on depictions of harassment and intimidation.
• Cue the Flying Pigs: In Chapter 14 if Bea recruits Chloe, if she asks if Poppy will ever put aside her feud with Bea to be [Chloe's] friend again, the narration gets snarky about that.
  "Yeah, once hell freezes over and Winds of Winter is published."
• Destroy the Evidence: Book 1, Chapter 13 has Bea do this to any evidence Poppy has about her affair with Professor Kingsley, whether it's happening or not. It only involves finding the physical pictures, but also the negatives, the backups off of Poppy's phone and also off of her cloud backup.
• Destructive Romance: Carter and Poppy’s relationship is hinted at being this by Professor Kingsley. While Carter genuinely cares for her, he is “happier when she isn’t around to cut him down.”
• Didn't Think This Through: In Book 1, Chapter 4 if Bea chooses to backflip off the throne during rehearsal, the narration makes it clear she's never done one at all and it's only thanks to Ford she doesn't get hurt.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In Book 2, Chapter 6, it's revealed that BellowVelvetBabe21 (real name: Maisie Pine) has systematically targeted countless students for revenge. While it's understandable that she would want to get revenge on Poppy and the girl who uploaded her humiliation online, some of her victims were only guilty of slights such as not liking her social media posts, cutting in line in front of her, and humming an annoying tune. All of these students were the subject of a series of nasty rumors by Maisie, some of them potentially life-ruining.
  • Most of X’s disciples are this
    • 2fingerguns (real name: Pete Scotch) was angry Bea got TA position with Kingsley and furious she gave him a B on a paper she graded for their class. Which was why he exposed their texts to Bea when she was avoiding them last year.
    • CrossculturalxLeakey (real name: Caroline Springfield) felt that she was better than a c student in Kingsley’s class and instead of acknowledging that she wasn’t handing in particularly good papers blames Bea for monopolizing Kingsley’s attention and steals quotes from their notebook.
    • Packinleader (real name: Wilson Laguna) was furious that he was saddled with an Embarrassing Nickname and angry at having lost the presidency of his frat to Liam because he wanted the frat to go back to what they were originally designed for so he tricked them into violating the day time party ban and getting all parties banned for the rest of the year.
    • throwaway1989 (real name: Lexi Montgomery) was Green-Eyed Monster over Bea’s relationship with Kingsley and got them fired and Bea nearly expelled as well as forging an application at her workplace for Kingsley so they’d work together and she could try to seduce them.
• Disgusting Vegetarian Food: In Book 1, Chapter 8, Zoey gets her and Bea vegan smoothies made with matcha and kale.
  "She strides away, and you follow with a sigh, scooping up your smoothie on the way. It tastes awful, BTW. Matcha and kale? Unnecessarily green.''
• The Diss Track: A premium scene in Book 2, Chapter 3 has Bea and Zoey record one about X. Among other things, the diss track calls X out for being an unoriginal Dirty Coward who's just emulating Poppy's tactics from the previous book while being too scared to make themselves known, as well as a spiteful hypocrite who's not as clever as they think they are.
• Don't Celebrate Just Yet: Book 1, Chapter 2 can have Bea climbing the rankings of the T by not only playing flip cup but throwing Poppy in the jello pool until an anonymous source reveals Bea cheated her way into Belvoire, and she's up for official review.
• Drama Queen: Poppy, who freaks out and starts screaming her head off if you take the premium option to shove her into the jello pool. In Book 2, she wears a funeral outfit to mourn the loss of her status as Queen B.
• Dumb Blonde:
  • Chloe is semi-intelligent at the beginning of Book 1, but she gets dumber and ditzier as the series goes along, to the point where she's barely functional as an adult by the end of Book 2.
  • Trixie and Ohio are also routinely mocked for their lack of intelligence, especially in Book 2.
• Enemy Mine: In Book 1, Chapter 6, Bea has to work together with Poppy after they are paired together for an assignment. When Chloe steals the Number 1 spot from Poppy, the latter agrees to a temporary truce for as long as Poppy is no longer Number 1.
• Fake Relationship: Poppy and Bradley are only dating because she's bribing him with a movie deal, with their relation not only notarized by a lawyer with an NDA and to have at least 12 public makeout sessions per month.
• Flanderization: Chloe goes from a normal person who's a bit ditzy in Book 1 to so dumb in Book 2 that she can barely function, struggles to understand simple sentences, and it is surprising that she hasn't failed out of college.
• Freudian Slip:
  • Book 1, Chapter 7 has Professor Kingsley call a random student named Caroline Bea by mistake, especially if you're romancing them. You get reputation points by saying they were preoccupied by the lecture. Since they have so many students coming into their class, they defaulted to their TA, in this case, Bea.
  • Book 1, Chapter 8 has this as an option for Bea where can congratulate Professor Kingsley on their oral skills, though she means to say oration. Depending on Professor Kingsley's gender, Ian knows what she means and says he gives good diction, while Ina says that the key to good public speaking is all in the tongue exercises.
• Fun with Acronyms: After Penelope shows Bea the collection of flash drives she has containing essays she has written for various students, Bea sees one labelled PMS and asks why she is keeping a record of her cycles. She isn't; the initials on the flash drive actually stand for Poppy's full name (Poppy Min-Sinclair).
• Gender-Blender Name: Averted with Professor Kingsley, unlike most Choices stories with gender-customizable love interests. Kingsley's first name is Ian if male and Ina if female.
• Girl Posse:
  • Poppy has one that consists of Veronica and Chloe.
  • Bea also assembles her own over the course of the story. Zoey joins automatically, while Penelope and others must be recruited by spending diamonds.
• Glasses Are Sexy: Bea can comment that Professor Kingsley looks hot in glasses.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: As with each Choices game, your character's name is decided by player choice. The default name is Bea and her hometown is Farmsville. (Bea's last name of Hughes cannot be changed.)
• Hollywood New England: Book 1, Chapter 12 takes place in Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.
• Humiliation Conga: Book 1, Chapter 11 reveals that Zeta House's annual bacchanalia has a "human sacrifice" where one guest has their past dug up and utterly humiliated, especially because they're not old money like Poppy Min-Sinclair. In this chapter, it was Zoey getting dragged through the mud.
• Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: Just as it looks like Bea and Poppy might be friends, if not lovers in Book 1, Chapter 7, Poppy says "the truce is over" and posts a video from Bea's childhood of her hogcalling^note A contest that involves calling out to pigs.
• Lame Comeback: Over time, Poppy calling Bea "Farmsville" or any form of country insult barely even phases Bea to the point Bea is quite bored of it.
  Bea: "Yeah, yeah, old Bea Hughes had a farm. Why don't you E-I-E-I-Eat my ass, Poppy."
• Lemony Narrator: The game's narration can go from snarky to bitchy. Character names are also changed until they're known, with Penelope being introduced as "Who's This Bitch?" until Professor Kingsley says her name for example.
• Meaningful Name: Poppy’s last name Sinclair means "renowned, illustrious,” alluding to her status as #1 in the school.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: If you choose the diamond option in Book 1, Chapter 5, Taylor will ally herself with Bea instead of Poppy.
• The Narcissist: Poppy, who is explicitly described by Professor Kingsley as this and demonstrated by her need to stay #1.
• Naughty Under the Table: In Book 1, Chapter 9 while Bea hides under Professor Kingsley's desk as they talk with Dean Steinhelm, Bea can give them a couple gropes to their legs, though a premium choice allows her to take it even further with the Dean unaware of the action.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Face 1 for Ian bears a resemblance to Markiplier.
• Not Helping Your Case: The trope name is said in Book 1, Chapter 13 when Bea calls Professor Kingsley by their first name begging Poppy not to release photos of them during her trip to Martha's Vineyard.
• Noodle Incident: Book 1, Chapter 5 ends with Poppy threatening Bea telling her that people who don't follow her warnings end up like Persephone Dalton. It's not until a premium choice in Chapter 13 you can find out what it was about. Poppy says it was about "following her passion to study moose" and she transferred to Juneau University in Alaska. That's when Ohio says she slipped ipecac into Persephone's beer, which makes Chase dump his drink. Hayley then says Persephone's mom made her drop out and go to rehab cause she thought her daughter was a drunk.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: In Book 2, Chapter 1, The T has been taken over by X, Dean Steinhelm announces that both the ranking system and the Person To Watch award have been abolished, former Queen B Poppy is now utterly powerless, and Bea and Professor Kingsley are no longer allowed to be near each other.
• Nouveau Riche: Bea is this, having come into her money from a dead aunt which allows her to enroll into Belvoire. Zoey is this as well, which helps her bond with Bea.
• One-Steve Limit: Played with. The story features both a Poppy and a Penelope. While it hasn't been mentioned yet if it is the case here, the former is usually short for the latter.
• Overcomplicated Menu Order: Chapter 5 has Taylor give one of these at a frozen yogurt shop on orders for Poppy. A zero sugar/carb/fat froyo with almond milk, five sprinkles and half an Oreo off-center. The waiter says they don't make almond milk froyo until Taylor says it's from Poppy so it's either make it or deal with her lawyers.
• Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat: Wilson Laguna ended up suffering from this when he tried to give a speech in front of the Alphas in Book 2, Chapter 11, grossing out the other members, embarrassing himself and earning the nickname "Pit Stain". In a premium scene later on, Bea confronts him over getting the Alpha's charter revoked as revenge, and he sweats himself silly a second time.
• Pass the Popcorn: Book 1, Chapter 16 has Veronica loving Poppy's Villainous Breakdown.
  Chloe: "Somebody call the police!"
  Veronica: "Screw that, somebody call a waiter over with a bowl of popcorn and a glass of champagne."
• Playing Cyrano: Poppy's plan in Book 1, Chapter 7 is to have Bea feed lines to her boyfriend Bradley as he romances Chloe before pulling the rug from her. Chloe thinks Bradley is being romantic about her when really it's about Poppy.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: In-Universe, Benji's article about Poppy and Bradley shows he couldn't come up with a decent one for them with things like Bradpop, Popley, Brappy, Pradley, Podley.
• Previously on…: Each Chapter starts with an In-Universe recap from The T about everything that happened in the previous chapter based on how you play.
• Punny Name: Many of the names seen on the student rankings list are pun-based, including students named Ayre Bender, Howard Deduque, and Burlington Coet-Faqtorite.
• Quote Mine: At the end of Book 2, Chapter 7 (and the start of Chapter 8), X publishes Professor Kingsley's notes that seemingly demonize Bea, saying that she embodies Belvoire's elitist culture, and that she would be nothing without Poppy around to motivate her into taking her down and becoming Queen B in the first place. After talking to Kingsley, it turns out that X just cherry-picked quotes from Kingsley's notes and put them out of context.
• Railroading: The plot of Book 2 hinges on Bea being the Queen B, so the new Big Bad can challenge her for the throne. If Bea didn't win the title at the end of Book 1, the winner (Chloe) essentially gives her the position, the only difference being that Bea starts out with less support than if she had won the title herself.
• Revenge Before Reason: Chapter 11 has Bea in this mindset before going to the Zeta party, especially after the Dressing Down outfit was given to her in the mail by Poppy, even moreso if you've taken more Bad Girl choices. It comes to a point when Poppy does her "human sacrifice" to Zoey by exposing her past.
• The Roast: Chapter 15 has Bea show her act for the talent portion of the Person to Watch Award is one of these on each of her competition.
• Rule of Pool: A premium choice in Chapter 2 to humiliate Poppy is to push her into the jello pool.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Poppy escapes punishment due to her family being huge financial supporters of the school. The staff turns a blind eye to what she does.
• Sequel Hook: Book 1's ending: A mysterious person named X hijacks The T, locking Thomas out and removing the anonymous submissions page... who then posts the incriminating photo of Bea and Professor Kingsley, even though Bea removed any physical and digital evidence held by Poppy earlier.
  • Also, if all posse members are recruited, a bonus scene will unlock of Bea spending summer break in Miami with either Professor Kingsley or Zoey. Bea learns that Dean Steinhelm is putting Kingsley before a disciplinary hearing because of the pictures from the T, and if that's not enough, Bea gets a message from X that says they're watching, who sends a picture of Bea and her love interest on the beach right there.
• Shout-Out:
  • Several names on the T's list of student rankings refer to characters from the Marvel Universe, including Karol Denver, Steven Roget, Natalia Romanoffa, and Clint Burton.
  • Book 1, Chapter 8 has one user name on The T be named Rasengan69.
  • The premium hairstyle you can buy in Chapter 9 is called The Waldorf.
  • Book 1, Chapter 10 has The T call Benji "a total You situation."
  • If you don't take the premium choice to meet with Chase McGovern to make up with Zoey, Bea will attempt to serenade her with a boombox.
  • Book 1, Chapter 14 is called "Designer & Decorum." Taking a premium scene with Professor Kingsley is "Sexty And I Know It." Chloe's act for the talent show is the wine glass section from Miss Congeniality.
  • In Book 1, Chapter 16 during Poppy's Villainous Breakdown, once she turns her attention to Bea...
  "Ruh Roh, Raggy..."
• Stalker Shrine: In Book 1, Chapter 9, it's revealed that Benji made one of these for Bea.
• Stunned Silence: If Bea exposes Poppy's sham relationship with Bradley in Chapter 10, she not only has a good explanation, but she does the "white guy blinking" face.
• A Storm Is Coming: More in the figurative sense in Chapter 9.
  The T: Other than that, Thoroughbreds, all is quiet on the East Coast front. Too quiet, if you ask me... We all know what that means. A storm's brewing, but who's going to be caught in the downpour? We're not scared of a little thunder and lightning, are we?
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Taking the premium scene with Professor Kingsley in Chapter 13 gives the achievement of "'Study' Buddies," the achievement description saying "Yeah, that's what we'll go with."
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: It happened twice during the story.
  • Zoey was the subject of human sacrifice, being humiliated in Book 1, Chapter 11. In Book 2, Chapter 9, Zoey pushes Poppy into the pool with fake blood in retaliation for being the victim of this prank the previous year.
  • In Book 2, Chapter 11, Lexi sends pictures of Bea along with Kingsley, causing the Professor to be fired. In the next chapter, Bea and Zoey sabotage Lexi's work at the natural history museum causing Lexi to be fired.
• Teacher/Student Romance: Bea finds out that the stranger they meet at the bar and can potentially have sex with in Chapter 1 is their teacher the next day at school.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: Defied in Chapter 15 before Bea goes out on stage.
  Bea: "This little piggy's gonna blow this ballroom down. Here, hold my phone so I don't have to slip it between my boobs."
• Villainous Breakdown: Chapter 16 is one long one for Poppy after Bea wins the Person to Watch Award. Even moreso in the Bad Girl route if Bea leaks out her family history to the point she's BEGGING Bea to stop!
  • Then Persephone in Book 2, Chapter 15 after she's disqualified from the running.
• Wacky Fratboy Hijinx: Chapter 2 involves Bea getting into Alpha House's Welcome Week Bash. You get points with them for not only wearing a hot new outfit with school colors and playing them in Flip Flop, but also throwing Poppy in the jello pool.
• Wham Shot: At the end of Book 2, Chapter 8, after Poppy betrays Bea during the murder mystery challenge and X commends her for it, while denouncing Bea, Bea opens the student ranking, only to be greeted with the sight of Poppy in her place, meaning that the fight for the throne is now between Poppy and X, while Bea has been cast out.
• Wham Episode:
  • Book 1, Chapter 9 reveals that Benji has a Stalker Shrine for Bea and he's been stealing things from her room using his position as RA to do so.
  • Book 1, Chapter 11 has Poppy's bacchanalia have the "human sacrifice" be her utterly humiliating Zoey by digging up her past, including her sealed juvenile record which gets the party throwing tomatoes at her. Even after Bea airs out Poppy's credit cards on the T and gets Zoey out, far as her friend is concerned, she's turning just as bad as Poppy.
  • Book 1, Chapter 12, whether Bea has sex with Professor Kingsley or not, it doesn't look good when Poppy texts her a picture of them looking quite close to her.
  • Book 2, Chapter 8 is a massive one, bordering on Mid-Season Twist. After convincing Bea to team up with her during the murder mystery challenge of Apoidea, Poppy betrays Bea by luring her into a trap and making her fail the challenge, costing her the chance to get in. That's bad enough by itself, but it gets worse when X takes advantage of this development, convinces everyone that Bea wasn't the all-powerful queen of the school everyone thought she was, and replaces her with Poppy (who has proved she's still got it) on the two-person ranking.
• Where's the Kaboom?: A more figurative sense in Book 1 Chapter 14 after Bea goes through so much effort to destroy all of Poppy's blackmail about her relation with Professor Kingsley, whether it's happening or not.
  "Poppy crosses her legs, leaning closer. She settles her chin on her fist as she gives you a simpering smile, batting her eyelashes. Wait, where's my shock and awe, dammit?"
• Would Rather Suffer: In Book 2, Chapter 12, after finding out that Lexi got them fired out of petty jealousy towards Bea (and then forged an application for the company she works at, just to get closer to them), Professor Kingsley gives this statement to Lexi:
  Kingsley: "Today will be the last time we ever see each other. Lose my number, forget my address, and don't ever utter my name again. And just to be absolutely and irrefutably clear, if the Earth ever stops spinning and the crops die off, and the only way to save humanity is to rekindle a relationship between us, then I'd rather embrace the darkness with open arms than even look in your direction!"
• World's Smallest Violin: Referenced in Book 2, Chapter 2 if Bea complains about having to compete with X to get into Apoidea. The achievement that pops up name-drops this trope, and the description reads "Apoidea want winners, not whiners".
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Book 1, Chapter 10 is this for Benji. He learns the hard way that no woman is not only gonna like a creepy stalker who breaks into their apartment to steal their things as well make a rotten food shrine, but he also came after her to the point she could just as well beat him down, followed by Professor Kingsley giving him just as much of a punch in the face, being arrested by police and thoroughly expelled from school.
• You Do Not Want To Know: While snooping in Penelope's room in Chapter 3, Zoey has this reaction to whatever was under her bed.
  Zoey: Nothing under the bed either except a box that I beg you not to open. Mistakes were made today.

---