I think my friend crush hates me

There isn't enough space in the title. Basically I have a friend crush on someone but me and his best friend are enemies. This is a really long read I'm trying to make this entertaining ;-;
How did I get in this situation you may ask? Trust me, this entire conundrum feels like a joke.

The story begins in 2024. Our friendship group was fine, sharing secrets and facing GCSEs together, until (DUN, DUN, DUNNN!) it wasn't.

For anonymity purposes I won't use real names.

I'm very close with Sandra. We've been friends for a while. She introduced Rochelle into our friendship group since she'd been ditched by another group of girls, and we had similar interests. Rochelle is incredibly confident and outgoing, so it shocked me to know that she'd fallen out with her previous friendship group, but hey, maybe they just didn't get on well. I didn't question the friendship break up because I know how painful they can be.

As a result of this, Rochelle isn't secure about friendships and needs constant reassurance, which is fine. I get that.

However, her actions weren't "fine" at all, and looking back, I'm grateful that we're no longer friends.

It started slowly. Unnoticeable. I'd tell her about my crushes and she'd yell them "as a joke", sometimes telling them to their faces, only for me to be rejected. "Okay", I thought at the time, "That's fine. She just has a big mouth. I won't tell her anything compromising in the future".

Then it was her actions. When we were changing in the changing rooms for PE, she'd gr*nd on us, pin us against walls, make lewd jokes and show us her bare t*ts. "Okay", I thought at the time, "That's strange. She's just a bit touchy. I'll just avoid changing next to her". I transferred PE groups to get away, but there was only one space, meaning that I'd essentially trapped her with my friends. I feel bad now, but you must understand, it was self-preservation.

Then I realised pretty fast how narcissistic she was. She'd never ask you about your day, even if you were visibly upset. No. Instead she'd complain, and complain, and complain about herself. I remember one time I got an 8 in an English literature mock. I was incredibly proud, since I'd revised hard, but I wasn't feeling confident, since I HATE 'An Inspector Calls' with every fibre of my being, and the poem that came up (My Last Duchess from the Power and Conflict anthology), wasn't my strongest. I didn't feel prepared at all. I told her about my 8, she looked me in the eye and then burst into tears. Like, LOUD TEARS. The class was in silence so everyone heard. I know I didn't say it in a condescending way. I'm an incredibly logical and matter of fact person, and I didn't even know that she got a 3. I tried asking my English teacher for feedback, but she just wouldn't let it happen (this is one of her nastiest traits. You'd think that someone who's been socially excluded numerous times would know how painful it feels and stop, but apparently not). Every time I tried striking up a conversation with him, she'd interrupt me and say "You don't even need the help, look at me, I failed", basically turning all the attention to herself.

Like my bad for wanting to improve? Maybe it's because I've never failed a standardised test before so I don’t get how it feels but even then I don't think that what she did was okay. I mean, no wonder you got a 3, you only revised 1 poem out of the 15 (which didn't compare well, AQA English lit struggles). [for content for those who might not understand, My Last Duchess is a poem about a Duke who murdered his wife. Rochelle only revised Checking Out Me History, which is about a guy who feels oppressed since he only knows about colonial history. It could’ve been a perceptive analysis, but if you unironically write “The Duke is lowkey an opp” in an exam then you deserve the fail] This was the turning point for our friendship. This was when I realised that I never truly like Rochelle. I just talked to her out of convenience, and no one else seemed to have a problem with her.

That was until Sandra and Rochelle started to drift apart, tearing our friendship group into two.

Once again, it started small.

Rochelle sent Sandra a text asking if they were still friends since she was acting "distant", when in reality, Sandra was just trying to work harder for her exams since she didn't do that great in her set of mocks so she was going to interventions every break time and lunch time.
I'll admit that Sandra shouldn't have left her on read for 2 weeks, but she was feeling pretty overwhelmed - she was leaving everyone on read.

Then Rochelle's charm went missing. This wasn't just any charm. This was a CUSTOMISED, HELLO-KITTY CHARM. so naturally, the only correct course of action was to corner her, giving her no route out, yelling at her about this UGLY CHARM.
I wish I could say that I was on Sandra's side at the time, but she gaslighted me making me believe that Sandra was essentially bullying her, "rallying the troops against her [her words not mine]", and making her seem bad. Since Sandra and Rochelle used to walk home together, Rochelle threatened to jump her, since she essentially knew where she lived. I'm very grateful she never acted on this.

Looking back on this now, I realise that she could never name anything specific since Sandra was never in the wrong [also, 3 months after the incident, I did look through Rochelle's bag and I found the ugly charm, meaning that she accused Sandra for NO REASON, other than to make her look like a bad person].

Since at this point in the story I hadn't unfriended either Rochelle or Sandra, I had the option of being a double agent. And I played the role of being a great friend to Rochelle, whilst in reality I was telling Sandra everything she said to grow a case against her to report her to our school's pastoral department.
Rochelle did NOT take being ignored gracefully. I get that it can be incredibly hurtful to feel neglected in a friendship but I genuinely can’t defend her next set of actions.
Rochelle made a group chat about throwing a “revenge party” against Sandra [No, I didn’t go. It got cancelled], and Rochelle sent me a video calling Sandra a backstabber. Rochelle even called Sandra a “stupid f*cking b*tch” for ‘stealing her friends’, whilst in reality, no one wanted to be associated with her, since people started taking Sandra’s side. Sandra was incredibly strong throughout this entire process. She never blamed Rochelle for what she did, and wasn’t mad at our friendship group for still talking to her. Instead, she told us that she wasn’t trying to restrict our connections, and that we could talk to whoever we wanted. It felt less suffocating to be around Sandra, so people naturally gravitated towards her.

Eventually I felt like I had enough information against Rochelle to give to Sandra, and I was done hanging out with her after she tried digging up some old friendship drama for content for her TikTok account. So in a moment of pure pettiness and genius, I decided to unfriend her 5 minutes before our English literature mock, in front of everyone [She got a 3 in that mock too]. Since she loves being the centre of attention, I didn’t think she’d mind everyone staring at her, whilst she flung herself at me begging for another chance. But like I said before, I never considered her to be a friend.

Me and Sandra reported her to our school’s pastoral support system. But they were genuinely so useless. The counsellor said that we should’ve “reported her earlier”, and when we tried to explain that Sandra felt as if her life was at risk, the counsellor treated us as if we were liars. Have you ever started talking to someone about something important, but you can just tell that they don’t believe you / aren’t taking you seriously? That was essentially what happened for that 5 minute appointment. That’s right. We were kicked out after 5 minutes because the counsellor double-booked. With Rochelle, of course. That’s just my luck.

I should’ve known that something was up when I found out Rochelle had been ditched by 4 other friendship groups within 4 years. She didn’t act this way with just us. One time, she had a crush on this guy, so she followed him around, repeatedly tried kissing and touching him (non-consensually), and guilt-tripped him into going on a date with her. I know what she did to our friendship group was bad, but I hadn’t even considered the fact that she could do that to other people, especially to someone she was romantically interested in. My heart goes out to anyone who’s friends with someone like Rochelle.

I learned about the multiplier effect in geography. An initial injection of spending into the economy leads to a proportionally larger increase in overall economic activity and income. Since Rochelle kept injecting hatred into our friendship group, a larger proportion of people left her. She still hangs out at our bench. I’m not sure why. Maybe she just doesn’t get the hint that she isn’t wanted there. Or she just likes making people uncomfortable. I try not to let it affect me.

But how does this relate to my friend crush? I’m getting to it.

There’s this one guy in my English and Science classes. He’s really nerdy which makes him really cool in my opinion. We’re both socially anxious, so we struggle to maintain long conversations, but we’re making progress! Since I didn’t want to approach him (I thought it’d be awkward), I got my best friend to ask him to talk to me. He didn’t know my name last year but now we wave at each other in the corridors. Also we sit next to each other in PSHE and we talk about our interests. I’ll give him a fake name (Daniel).

But Rochelle is very close to Daniel. Like they’re attached at the hip. Given our history I do mind a bit, but I’m not actively trying to break up their friendship. If they genuinely make each other happy then I wish them the best.

Rochelle however, has a major problem with us being friends. Honestly I don’t even think me and Daniel are friends (yet!), but she doesn’t want us to be near each other at all.

For example, last English lesson, we were talking about the overlaps between Economics and Business GCSE (for example, both curriculums talk about globalisation, but Business focuses on international competition and exchange rates, whilst Economics focuses on international trade and the global economy). It sounds like a boring conversation, but we’re both passionate about our subjects so it was really fun. Until Rochelle came out of no where and interrupts my rant about how much I hate exchange rates (I always get the questions wrong) and says that she's “really interested in economics” (SHE ISN’T. She wants a medical career), meaning that me and Daniel couldn’t talk. And since we sit on other ends of the classroom (Rochelle’s doing, she asked our teacher to move him), we can only talk at the start and end of the lessons. Rochelle is even going out of her way to interrupt our walks.

Basically, once a week, me and Daniel walk around the school and talk about random stuff. Rochelle has MEMORISED our route, meaning that she is literally 2 steps ahead. And our school has a small campus, meaning there's no alternative. We’re both busy for the rest of the week (interventions, clubs, etc.), so it’s not like we can choose another day.

I was expecting revenge. Rochelle isn’t the type of person to just let things go. But why can’t we just be mature young adults. I apologised for being brash about unfriending her both in person and via text. I’m not being spiteful towards her. Some of my friends still talk to her and I don’t interrupt their conversations. So clearly I’m missing something.

I just want to be friends with Daniel. Why is she making this harder than it has to be.
What’s a girl to do? I need (legal and reasonable) advice.

Thanks for reading <3