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Illusion of Control
By: Kamika Farinas
Chapter One
“Complete loner girl
Flies underneath the radar,
Wanting to stay gone.”
“Once again, a regular school day begins once again. Of course, there’s a little something different. It’s the first of a new month. Which means the school does their monthly check of our things. It’s their step towards trying to clean out the school. Of course, maybe they shouldn’t really make it every month so people can prepare and put away everything they need. What stupidity. I don’t really know what Principal Brian (which is actually his last name, I might add) is thinking when he first started the entire thing.”
“Move, freak.”
Nea Montgomery rolled her eyes, shutting her journal. She looked up to find the school’s head cheerleader. ‘Wonderful. Just wonderful,’ she thought sarcastically. Sighing, she got up and grabbed her bag. The 17-year-old female stood next to her locker while the arrogant cheerleader took Nea’s previous place on the floor. Nea leaned against the locker, proceeding to open her book and continue writing.
The group that came with Arista Stillman, Ms. Cheerleader, started chattering away in loud voices.
“Did you hear what Balin Felet did to Charity?”
“Oh my god, YES! Can you believe how heartless he was?”
“He did that to his last girlfriend. You’d think all girls would know this by now.”
Brushing her black hair out of her eyes, she rolled her eyes once again. ‘What useless banter… Who cares what Balin Felet did to Charity or any of his other girlfriends?’ Nea closed her book and peered down the hallway, hoping the principal would come already and put her out of her misery. Her prayers were thankfully answered, as the principal made his way down the corridor.
“Ms. Stillman. You first.” Mr. Brian said as he examined the girl’s locker. Nea stayed leaning against her locker, peeking as little as she could without revealing her curiosity. Amide a row of books and thin folders was a massive amount of pictures taped to the sides of her locker. Stifling a groan, Nea tried to avoid looking at the many pictures of her “enemy,” Mr. Luke Penn and Arista Stillman together.
Apparently, the principal was done looking at Arista’s locker for he cleared his throat before her. Nea focused her black eyes on the principal before realizing exactly what he wanted. “Oh,” she murmured then moved to open her locker. Mr. Brian watched stoically as Nea opened up her locker.
Suddenly, giggles erupted behind her as she glanced into her own locker. Someone had placed a balloon that had popped out upon opening. A smilie face was drawn with a sign attached to it saying “Freak!” Nea gaped in astonishment at what was placed in her locker. The principal frowned at the whole spectacle, “Who placed this in Ms. Montgomery’s locker?” He asked, looking at the crowd that had gathered.
“Well, perhaps Nea Montgomery just did it to her own locker to get attention, Mr. Brian.” A voice called out within the crowd. Suddenly, the whole group parted and Nea caught eyes with the one person in the entire school that she hated. There, in all his 5’8” glory, was the school’s mister It guy, Luke Penn.
It was only him who could bring out her sarcasm and get rid of her shyness. Her eyes blazed as they met his green, “Because this is exactly the type of attention I’d like from this group. At least use some logic. That’s what your mind is used for after all, Penn,” she said.
Luke started to chuckle, walking towards Nea, “Oh, Montgomery. You really shouldn’t be one to say this. You, after all, do not currently have a mind as it is.” He stopped right in front of her, tucking a strand of her bangs behind the ear.
Once that was said, Nea couldn’t hold back her restraint anymore. She made a step even closer to him, muttering, “You as-”
Mr. Brian finally made a step to stop the argument, “Why don’t you two step into my office and continue this little fight in there?” Nea huffed and started making her way towards the principal’s office. A few seconds later, Luke followed behind her, chuckling to himself. The principal then turned to the crowd and shooed them away, “There’s nothing to see here anymore. Make your way to wherever you need to be.” At that moment, the school bell rang and Mr. Brian added in, “I’m sure some of you have classes to go to.” The crowd started grumbling as they made their way to classes.
“Is this going to take long?” Nea snapped, already angry about how Luke always aggravated her, especially in front of all those students.
“Ms. Montgomery, do calm down,” The man, then, removed his glasses and rubbed his forehead. After few seconds of attempting to gather his thoughts, Edward Brian looked up at the two students that seemed to constantly snap at each other whenever they came face to face. “You two have been particularly troublesome this year. Almost every week, I find the two of you in this office after being sent down by your teachers for disorderly conduct,” he sighed, adding in, “I just don’t understand why you two can not get along at all.”
Luke smiled cheekily at Mr. Brian, “We don’t get along? Whatever do you mean by that? I absolutely adore Nea Montgomery. Couldn’t you tell?”
The principal chuckled before stopping suddenly, “I don’t appreciate the jokes, Mr. Penn.” At those words, Nea snickered under her breath. “And you, Ms. Montgomery. You’re as much to blame for this arrangement as Mr. Penn is.” He folded his hands before continuing, “I think I have a solution for this entire thing. You two have to learn to get along with each other so I’m arranging for a little project in order to have some time together.”
The only female in the room started to sputter at even the idea of spending time with Luke, “What… What kind of idea is that?! We’ll just kill each other, Mr. Brian!” She stood up angrily, “There’s got to be some other way. Just… Something else! I can not spend time with Luke Penn.”
Before Mr. Brian could tell her to sit and quiet down, Luke stood up and matched her anger, “I don’t exactly like you as well! It’s not that great of an idea to me… Spending time with those that are under my class, pathetic low life,” he spat at her. Nea flinched at the words, wishing she could have hidden her reaction from Luke.
Mr. Brian slammed his hands on the table, catching the attention of the two students. “SIT DOWN NOW!” He yelled angrily. Immediately, the two sat down and gave Mr. Brian their full attention. “Now, you two are supposed to be above this bickering with you, Luke, being 18-years-old. And you, Nea. You’re 17-years-old on the verge of turning 18 this month. For this exact reason, you will be spending time together to help out in a tutoring center for kids between the ages of 11-14, middle school students.” The two instantly started to stutter and mumble, which caused Mr. Brian to start talking loudly, “You will both take on this job happily and willingly. AND you will like the idea of being around each other and soon will become the best of friends. Do you understand me?” The two students kept to themselves and when Mr. Brian didn’t get a response, he put in a louder voice, “Do you understand me?”
Grudgingly, they both nodded in affirmation.
“Good. Now, you two are suspended for the rest of the day for that little scene in the hallway this morning. So, I would rather you two leave the school and go on home.” He placed his glasses back on his face before concluding, “Now, I will expect both of you in my office first thing next morning in order to straighten out exactly how this tutoring arrangement will occur.” He stood up, moved around his desk to open his door, and concluded the meeting by saying, “ Now, have a good day.”
Sighing, Nea got up to leave the room. Beside her though, Luke quickly rushed past Nea in order to leave the room first. Nea snorted before following behind him and smiling at the principal before leaving. Luke and Nea looked at each other in anger before walking in separate directions down the corridors.
However, the day was to get even worse. Nea heard the main door slam open and her mom’s voice echoed throughout the apartment, “Dulcinea Katarina Montgomery!” Dulcinea shot up from her position on the bed and sirens seemed to go off in her head. ‘Oh god. What’s mom doing home so early?’ she thought in a hurry, panicking as she tried to figure out what position would make her look the most innocent.
Her door shot open and Nea’s mom entered the room, her face full of fury and anger. “Dulcinea Katarina Montgomery. I have just spoken with your principal and he says you’re suspended for the rest of the school day and how this kind of thing will be placed on your permanent record,” she said angrily.
Nea stared at her mom numbly, “Wh-What?” she muttered incoherently.
“I don’t understand why you and that kid can’t seem to get along. It’s causing you so much trouble! And now with a single suspension. It may wipe out all the hard work we’ve been doing all these years to get you through college! I need you to stop causing so much trouble! Get along with this boy. Become his friend. I do not care! Just. Stop. Fighting!” Alicia Montgomery ranted to her only daughter. Without waiting for a response from Nea, she swiftly walked out of the young girl’s room and out the apartment’s door.
‘Huh… Don’t even know how to react to that,’ Nea thought with a frown. She groaned then proceeded to collapse onto her bed. Well… Home wasn’t as safe as she had originally thought.
Arista pouted as she leaned towards him, placing her head on his shoulder. She started to twirl a strand of her black hair, replying in a hurt voice, “I heard about your day suspension. I just thought I’d come and we could…” She smirked before planting a kiss right beside his lips. She then added, “Just have a little fun to pass some time.” It was then that she moved from beside his lips to where she really wanted to kiss.
Letting her kiss him for a few seconds, Luke then pushed her away, sighing, “Arista, now is not the time.” He said. “Besides, how did you even hear about my suspension? It JUST happened.”
“Oh, a girl’s got to keep a couple of her secrets.” Arista said, smirking. She leaned against his car with her arms wrapped around herself, “Let’s just say I have my sources around the principal’s office.”
Luke rolled his eyes and walked over to the driver’s side of his vehicle. He entered, started the engine and looked to Arista. Upon Luke’s lowering the window, the 18-year-old female leaned over the open window, “Will I see you tonight?” she asked.
“Maybe. I’ll call.” He said coldly before starting to close the window. Arista backed up from the car and watched as Luke drove away from his spot in the parking lot.
Luke sighed inside the car, wondering exactly where he could go now. Home was definitely not a choice, especially when he knew what would happen when he arrived. It took him just a few seconds before he made his way towards his best friend’s house.
“So what exactly are we watching?” Luke asked, grabbing a handful of popcorn.
Thane chuckled, “Just a video of one of my plays.”
Rolling his eyes, Luke grabbed the remote from Thane, “Man, you watch yourself too much. One would almost think you’re self-centered.” He stopped the video and started pressing buttons in order to get to the cable.
“They shouldn’t think it. I am. Easy solution.” Thane quipped before snatching the remote back from Luke and proceeding to press the right buttons. “There you go… Apparently you’re so incompetent that you can’t even figure out how to change the video.”
Huffing, Luke took the remote again, “It’s not exactly the easiest television to work with. You have almost 100 videos screens. I don’t even understand what you need so many for,” he complained.
“Whiner.”
“Smart-ass.”
“And proud of it too. The ass part especially. ” Thane said, smirking at his friend.
Silence passed as the two friends sat back and just watched the basketball game that Luke had found. Luke broke it by asking, “So why’re you home?”
With a laugh, Thane responded, “Never went to school today. Of course, you wouldn’t know that since you spent less than a half hour there before getting suspended. Good job on that one, man.”
Luke rolled his eyes and brushed back his blond hair before explaining, “You know how it is between me and Nea Montgomery. We fought again in the hallway. Just my luck that Principal Brian was right there to see the entire thing… Now we have to spend time helping out at a tutoring center.” He leaned against the bed, sighing.
Shaking his head, Thane tsked. “I don’t even understand why you fight with the girl anyway. What do you have against Nea Montgomery?” he asked a question that never got answered, no matter how many times he asked.
“I don’t know!” Luke groaned, “No matter what I do, she just rubs me the wrong way and whenever we run into each other… She makes me snap! It’s so infuriating to go through this entire thing… Now my father’s going to go crazy at the whole idea.” He imitated his father, “Look at this trouble you’re causing. It’s going to look terrible to anyone who looks at your record. How do you expect to make a living when you have a stain?”
Thane started to laugh at his friend’s fairly accurate imitation of his father, “Well, maybe this whole thing will help out in mending out whatever troubles the two of you have.” He put in.
“Or perhaps we’ll just fight the entire time and never patch our troubles,” Luke said. “There’s only one thing that I know for certain.”
Turning to look at him, Thane asked curiously, “What’s that?”
“It’ll be a very interesting couple of weeks…” Luke concluded with a sigh.