FictionPress.com - let the words flow
| FictionPress.com - let the words flow |
|
| Home Just In Communities Forums Beta Readers Dictionary Search | Login Register Extras |
Tongues were wagging, questions were being voiced: who would take the place, by his side, as Queen?
Brittany Marks, Tara Williams, Lola Mitchell and Haley Keaney were the most popular contenders. Brittany and Tara-the ones with the beauty. Lola-the brainy one, and Haley-Matt’s only female friend.
20th April-the day twenty students in Mr Lincoln’s film class were told to make a documentary which they had a month to prepare.
Immediately people starting whispering, some signalled to each other that they would work together.
Then Mr Lincoln said, breaking the mood, “Don’t get too excited, I’m not putting you into groups.” A deep groan ran through the class. “Yeah I saw all of you sitting there, looking around, thinking, ‘Which of these idiots is going to do all the work?”
A few people laughed and few rolled their eyes with scorn. The rest of the lesson was spent deciding the topic.
I knew exactly what mine was going to be about; the race to becoming Matt Jameson’s girlfriend and the Queen Bee of Rossmoor Academy or, to put it more simply, ‘The Queen Bee Wars.”
When I left my film class, my best friend, the aforementioned Brittany Marks, was waiting outside for me. I noticed that she had straightened her blonde hair between classes-in the morning it had been up in a ponytail. Her face was flushed with excitement; it didn’t take a genius to figure out why.
“Oh my God! Did you hear?” she squealed.
“Duh. Who hasn’t?”
She ignored my sarcasm and continued on. “He’s back, he’s back, he’s back! He’s finally going to realise we’re meant for each other, then I’ll become his girlfriend and show those dirty bitches!” I assumed she meant the rest of the competition by that.
“And you’ll become Rossmoor’s Queen,” I added.
Brittany narrowed her eyes at me. “Like I’m already not.”
I rolled my eyes. “Stop being so conceited.”
If I was anyone else I know she would’ve picked a fight with me and it would’ve ended with my reputation being shred to pieces, but since I was her best friend she let it slide, as she always did.
“Whatever,” she muttered, “but I’m still gonna get him.”
Seeing Tara approaching Matt further down the corridor I said lightly, “Well you’d better do it soon. Tara’s already there.”
Brittany turned around and swore furiously. “Come with,” she said not looking at me, “we’re going over there.”
I followed her obediently. Sometimes I wondered why we were friends-she was confident, beautiful and spontaneous. I was the reserved, predictable one. I wasn’t lacking in looks or anything, I could even be called as pretty as Brittany, but we were two different kinds of prettiness-we could never be classified in the same category. Plus I was a total nerd; Brittany was bright but she couldn’t be bothered to pick up a textbook.
I enjoyed being her friend though because wherever she went, drama followed (I had a huge penchant for scenes), and of course I got many, many benefits. I wasn’t just in it for the material stuff though; Brittany was a lovely person (to people she liked) and we had a lot of fun together.
I compared her and Tara as they vied for Matt’s attentions. Tara was a bit shorter and curvier and her hair was a honey-brown instead of Brittany’s bright blonde. Brittany’s eyes were wide and blue and Tara’s were green and almond-shaped. The similarities ended there; both of them held the same confidence stance; both put on the throaty voice they used to woo boys.
Haley was standing a few metres behind Matt, just watching, as I was doing. She was even shorter than me, with dark blonde hair and brown eyes. The thing that I noticed the most about her, though, that she was very skinny-too skinny, in fact.
I turned my gaze back to Brittany and Tara and tried to focus on what they were saying.
“…so boring without you! It’s been, like, Dullsville Academy,” Tara said. Her flunkies murmured assent.
Matt raised an eyebrow. “Really?” he asked. His voice was deeper than before-manlier, I suppose. “Surely, something excited must have happened?” His voice was a low murmur now, soft and teasing.
Tara lowered her eyes sadly; she wasn’t faking it. “Ollie Living died.”
Matt’s hazel eyes widened. “Ollie?” he choked out, “he died?”
Brittany nodded her head. “Car accident.” She looked over at me sympathetically. “Lexy was devastated for months.”
Matt noticed me standing there and darted confused looks between Brittany and me. “Lexy?”
“She and Ollie started going out just days after you left. They were the perfect couple, you know? And then…” Brittany sighed wistfully. “It was all gone…”
Why did she have to bring it up now? Just when I was finally getting over it? Just hearing his name conjured up memories of him. Happy, romantic ones and then of his death; the pain I had felt after that. The emptiness I had felt in my chest and the way it throbbed silently with despair.
“Stop talking about it, Brittany, you’re hurting Lexy,” said Haley. Her voice was small but stern.
I shot a grateful look at her and she nodded at me slightly. Brittany took no notice of this and said angrily, “Don’t tell me what to do, Haley.”
“Shut up Britt,” I mumbled.
She glanced at me and pouted, crossing her arms. “Fine.”
“I’m really sorry, Lex,” said Matt.
“Were you the one driving the truck which killed him?”
He shook his head slowly-he seemed taken aback by my question. “No.”
“Then there’s no need to be sorry,” I snapped back.
Matt stared at me for a while. I stared back at him. He really was very good-looking. Shaggy black hair and hazel eyes which could convey all his emotions within one glance. A finely-sculpted face; tall and lean. I could see why he was the king of the school; that with the added fact that his parents were rich as hell.
“Okay,” he said simply.
“I’m going to get lunch,” I said. Then to Brittany, “you coming?”
Her blue eyes were filled with concern. I knew she wanted to stay with Matt and to flirt with him but I was happy when she nodded.
We left Matt, Haley and Tara and her posse and made our way to the canteen where two of our other friends, Kim and Sharon, were sitting.
Kim was Korean and a huge risk-taker. She was probably the most promiscuous out of the four of us. The year before she had slept with her dad’s friend and now, she was having a secret affair with a cute assistant teacher.
Sharon was a tall, pretty African-American girl. She was one of the nicest people in the school and was dating Sam O’Connor, the star quarterback on the football team.
Brittany and I bought our lunch then sat down with our friends. They started gossiping about someone or the other while I took out my camcorder from my bag. I put it on and held it up in Kim’s face.
“Say hi to the camera!”
She shrieked and turned away. I rolled my eyes and turned to Sharon who grinned amiably at the device.
“Hi! I’m Sharon and, uh…”
“It’s still on me! It’s still on me!” shouted Kim.
Brittany scoffed. “God, Kim, paranoid much?”
“I’m camera-shy,” said Kim, pouting.
“Yeah, sure, or maybe you just haven’t straightened your hair today,” retorted Brittany.
“No arguing in front of the camera!” I said.
“Ew, get that thing away from me,” said Brittany, “the camera adds like ten pounds.”
Kim muttered, “Hypocrite,” while Sharon said in defence, “You’re too skinny, Britt. You need to gain ten pounds.”
“Why thank you,” said Brittany.
Sharon looked confused. “That wasn’t a compliment,” she said, “I meant it.”
“Whatever.”
Kim, forgetting the camera, leant forward eagerly. “Speaking of thin people, have you seen Haley lately?”
Brittany, frowning, said, “Yeah, even thinner than me. I bet she’s anorexic.”
I turned the camera off and put it back in the bag. I didn’t want anyone to see my friends and I bitching about others.
Kim shook her head. “No, she’s bulimic.”
Brittany’s eyes widened. “No way!”
“Yeah, I saw her with one of those sticks in the girls’ room and she smelt of vomit too…”
“But why would she do that?” asked Sharon.
“Isn’t it obvious?” asked Kim, voice laced with loathing, “it’s because she wants be like all of other King Matt’s whores.”
“You can’t be saying-“ said Brittany.
“Yep,” confirmed Kim, “Haley slept with Matt.”
Brittany stared down at the table forlornly. “How do you know?”
Kim’s mouth was in a grim line. “Liam told me.” Liam was one of Matt’s best friends, along with Sam.
“She’s stupid,” said Sharon, “having sex with him. He’s not even worth it!”
Brittany’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Don’t say that!”
“C’mon Britt!” I said. “You know how it works. He sleeps with a girl, they go out for a few days, and he dumps her. It’s happened to you countless times! Matt Jameson is a bastard Britt; it doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.”
Brittany looked like she was about to cry. “But what about him and me?” she asked quietly.
Kim shook her head. “It’s not gonna happen, Britt,” she said softly. “You’d better just give up on him.”
“Or I could-“ started Brittany.
“Get him to fall in love with you?” I continued. “How many times have we tried to do that? How many times have we tried the jealousy plan, the avoiding plan, the accepting plan…and how many times have they failed? Each fucking time, Britt!”
“He’s good in bed,” said Kim, who had slept with him a few times before just for fun, “but he’ll could never be in a real relationship.”
And thus began our new plan: Operation Get over Matt.
At the end of the day, Brittany and I went back to the room we shared. It was quite big, with a microwave and a mini-fridge, two Queen beds, two identical desks and two identical wardrobes, a round coffee table and a few extra cupboards. The walls were a tranquil blue to match the carpet.
Brittany flopped down her bed and stared up at the ceiling. “What did Kim say was first stage of OGOM?”
I swilled on my desk chair as I replied, “Fall for someone else.”
“Who?”
“Whoever takes your fancy, I guess.”
Brittany sighed. “I’ve liked Matt for two years, Lexy. It’s not like I can just grow out of my feelings for him in a snap.”
“I know, but you’ve got to.”
The door burst open and Kim and Sharon walked in.
“Get ready, ladies! There’s a movie marathon down in the senior lounges!” said Kim enthusiastically.
Each ‘house’ had a few lounges. Our house, ‘Westley,’ housed only seniors so we had two senior lounges. We lived on the ground floor and were right opposite from the lounges. In total, there were around sixty students living in our dorm-thirty guys on the first floor, and thirty girls on the ground floor. The rooms were big, but the amount of people was small so these were the most expensive dorms for seniors; therefore, only the richest resided there.
I groaned. “Too tired.”
“Come on!” said Sharon, “it’ll be fun!”
Brittany flipped over so that she was laying face-down on the bed. Her voice was muffled slightly as she spoke. “Matt might be there.”
“So?” asked Kim.
“I’m supposed to be getting over him,” replied Brittany, “I can’t do that if I’m going to be seeing him all the time.”
Kim rolled her eyes. “Like that’s possible. You travel in the same cliques.”
“And plus,” intervened Sharon, “you’ve gotta show him you’re getting over him! Otherwise there’ll be no satisfaction!”
“I guess,” said Brittany, “but only if Lexy goes.”
Everyone looked at me expectantly. “Fine,” I said.
“Great,” said Kim, “we’ll meet you down there at seven.”
Brittany and I got ready in record time-none of us felt like dressing up. I was just wearing jeans and a tank top and Brittany put on white shorts and a t-shirt.
We quickly applied our makeup-just a hint of eyeliner and lip gloss-and left for the movie marathon.
Kim and Sharon were waiting for us by the doorway. “Matt’s in there,” said Kim, “just walk by him, Britt and nod. A small, cosol nod of acknowledgement. Then without turning to look back at him, carry on walking.”
Brittany squared her shoulders. “I can do this.”
Kim nodded approvingly. “You can. Sharon, Lexy and I will talk to that lot and you go and talk to someone else-a guy, preferably.”
“Isn’t this similar to the jealousy plan?” I said, frowning.
“Slightly, but this time she won’t be looking at him while she flirts, and this time she won’t be going back to him,” answered Kim.
“This is gonna be so fun!” said Sharon excitedly, grinning.
“…and off we go,” Kim whispered and entered the room. We all followed her. Senior Lounge #2 was big and airy with a Plasma on one side with various game consoles and a DVD player connected to it. Today though, a projector had been set up so the films appeared on one whole wall. All the couches had been moved to the side and the majority of the floor was covered in blankets for people to sit on.
“Small crowd,” I commented. There must have been about twenty-five people in the room we were in. The rest were probably in the other room for the Star Wars marathon while we were going to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy (our dorm advisors had very…nerdy tastes) but I doubted any of us were actually going to watch it properly.
We spotted Matt immediately. As usual, he was around a group of friends and his posse. Brittany nodded at him slightly and went off to speak to some guys in our math class. Kim grinned at me and I grinned back, when we saw Matt watching Brittany, confusion written all over his face.
Sharon led the way over to the group and kissed her boyfriend on the cheek. Tara, who was wearing a miniscule skirt, glared at us. “Where’s Brittany?” she asked.
“Around here…,” Kim replied, gesturing with her hands, “somewhere...”
“I’m surprised she didn’t come here to see Matt,” continued Tara, “considering she’s practically in love with him.”
I drew my brows together. “Hmm, that’s a good point…” I shrugged. “Maybe her feelings have changed.”
Kim winked at me and I smirked slightly. Matt seemed to have caught these interactions though because he asked, “What’s going on?”
Kim shot a scared look at him. She looked back at me and mouthed, ‘do something.’
I spotted Brittany and yelled, “Hey Brittany!”
“Yeah?” she called back.
“What’s going on?”
She beamed. “I’m just getting to know these guys a bit better. You?”
She was with a bunch of nerdy-looking guys but having past experience of speaking to them, I knew that they were, in fact, pretty hilarious. The guys were all enjoying Brittany’s company tremendously and were staring-or rather salivating-at the v-neck of her t-shirt.
“Someone,” said Kim, glancing at Tara momentarily, “is being a bitch.”
Brittany caught the look and grinned. “No surprise.”
“What the hell? Did you mean me?” demanded Tara, turning to us.
Matt nudged her in the side. “Shut up, Tar, the movie’s starting.”
Immediately she settled down and inwardly I thanked Matt. The power he had over others were very intimidating and very wrong but it did help…a lot.
Kim and I sat down on one of the blankets near the back of the room. Brittany came almost immediately after and sat next to me. Then, next to Brittany sat Sharon then Sam, Matt and Liam. In front of us sat Tara, Haley, another popular guy Michael, and his slightly ditzy girlfriend Lisa.
The movie began.
Next to me, Brittany sighed and stretched out her legs. I noticed that this action did not go unnoticed by Matt and Liam. Matt caught me looking at him and I raised an eyebrow. He grinned back cockily. I ignored him and nudged Brittany who turned to face me.
“What?” she whispered.
“Matt was staring at your legs,” I replied.
“Oh my God, no way!” said Brittany, too loudly.
I shushed her and she shut up and mouthed ‘sorry.’
“Yeah,” I said, “and so was Liam.”
Brittany looked surprised but then she burst into a huge smile. “Liam? He’s a really sweet guy…”
I nodded. “Yeah, and he has a fair share of admirers too.”
“Puh-lease,” said Brittany, flipping her hair, “like I haven’t had the practice.”
A few more minutes passed then Michael and Lisa turned around and began to talk to us. Soon, Brittany went over to sit next to Liam and although I didn’t know what they were saying to each other they both looked pretty happy. Sam and Sharon started to make out, and Kim went to flirt with some football players. Tara and Haley, I noticed, had also turned around and each seemed desperate in trying to catch Matt’s attention.
Michael followed the direction of the gaze and said, flipping imaginary hair at the base of his neck, “Like, oh my god! Matt Jameson is so hot! I, like, totally have to get him to fall in love with me! And I’m like, totally, gonna beat the other five hundred girls who also like him!”
Lisa and I burst out laughing and the people sitting at the front who were avidly watching the movie, turned around to shush us.
“Did someone say my name?” asked Matt.
Michael, instead of blushing as I would have done, said, “Oh yeah! We were just drooling over your über-hotness.”
“If you weren’t so smitten with your girlfriend, I would’ve thought you were gay,” remarked Matt, grinning humorously.
“Smitten?” said Michael, “Who’s the gay one now?”
Another chorus of laughter, but this time, at the end, Tara and Haley entered our little circle and Tara asked what was going on.
“We’re discussing Matt’s…homosexuality,” I answered.
“Eww, Matt is so not gay-he’s like the opposite of gay,” said Tara.
“Or maybe that’s just what you think,” said Matt. He wiggled his eyebrows at Tara suggestively.
“Yeah, but no gay man would have had sex with me forty-two times,” replied Tara condescendingly.
Matt looked slightly disgusted. “You counted?”
Tara’s eyes widened, probably realising what she had just said. “No of-course not…it’s just an estimate,” she squeaked.
Then Haley, who as usual had been silent the entire time, asked, “Forty-two times?”
Tara nodded an affirmative. “Forty before he came back, and two after,” she replied.
Haley’s eyebrows went up-way up. “Two?” Then she looked at Matt and her brown eyes seemed to be filled with anguish and I could tell her heart was breaking. “B-but you promised!”
“People can’t always keep promises,” said Matt slowly.
“Fuck you!” screamed Haley.
The entire room went silent. Sharon and Sam stopped kissing, Brittany stopped her deep conversation with Liam, and Kim stopped flirting with the football players. Everyone turned to Haley with surprised faces. She never shouted, she never swore at people and especially not at Matt, the person she was in love with.
The nerd at the front paused the movie. “Out!” he shouted to us at the back of the room, “We are trying to watch a movie here and we do not want to hear other people talking so get out before I tell a teacher.”
Haley ran out of the room before anyone could say a word and Matt stared at her back. I nudged him in the side. “Go after her you idiot.”
He glanced at me. “Do you think I should?”
“Yes,” I said, “otherwise something terrible will happen and your friendship will be ruined, if it isn’t already and…yeah…so go.”
Matt started off then looked back at me. “Thanks Lexy.”
“No problem now vamos!” I waved him off with my hand.
When I turned back, the aforementioned geek was shouting at Sharon and Sam who sometime during the confrontation had resumed kissing.
“This isn’t a place to make-out! Go to your dorms or something!”
Sam got up and pulled Sharon with him. “Fine,” he said, “it was a rubbish movie, anyway.”
“You did not just diss Lord of the Rings!” said the geek angrily.
“Oh, I think I did,” said Sam, looking amused.
“You want some beef? You want some beef?”
“No actually,” drawled Sam, “I would prefer some chicken.”
I caught Brittany’s eye and we grinned at each other. Then she nudged one of the ‘Math’ people near her and whispered something in his ear. He blushed bright red then he went over to his worked-up friend.
“Carl, I think you should shut up,” he said.
Carl turned on his friend. “Don’t tell me to shut up! Just because you got 2 higher than me in Advanced Algebra doesn’t give you the authority to tell me to shut up!”
‘Math guy’ (I think his name was Kenny) rolled his eyes. “Whatever Carl, come on. They’ll be quiet and we can watch the movie again.”
“Fine,” snarled (I’m not kidding-he actually snarled) Carl.
“Actually,” interrupted Liam, “I think we’re just going to go.”
Carl’s eyes brightened. “Better.”
Then, about half of the people in the room left, leaving the other half to watch the movie gleefully with no additional sounds.
Once we were outside, Brittany came over to me and looked around then asked, “Where did Matt go?”
I hit her on the back of her head lightly. “You’re not supposed to care where he is, remember?”
“Oh. Yeah,” said Brittany, shamefaced, “but where is he?”
“He went running after Haley,” I replied.
Brittany was looking dejected. “So they did have sex.”
“Yeah,” I said, “But you don’t care do you? Because you’re getting over him!”
She smiled weakly. “Yeah. Getting over him,” she said, but the doubt was evident in her voice.
I put an arm around her shoulders as we walked back to our room.
“It’s gonna be okay, Brit,” I said, “It’ll be fine.”
anyway, as always reviews are much, much appreciated!