-1Fat. Ugly. Freak.

I won't tell nobody

I'll just scream it in my mind

-Love Will Keep You Up All Night, Backstreet Boys

ALL THE WORDS used to describe Rachael summed up together. Freak. At her school, being a size 5 and weighing 140 meant that you were huge. In the world of perfect Barbie-doll bimbos where everyone was a size 0, it left you as an outcast and a loser. With her round cheeks, too big lips and slightly blemished face, Rachael felt like the ugliest person at her school.

But not tonight.

She danced around her minimalist room in her blue satin gown. It was cheap, bought in a second hand store, but still in good condition and played up her curves. The slow-paced song drew to an end but Rachael kept dancing. She laughed when she made herself dizzy.

Tonight was her night.

Her velvet royal blue mask concealed her blemished face and her light brown hair piled into a tight bun, she looked like a new person. She thought she looked stunning.

And she was.

She ran out into the living room, where her older mom was putting away groceries. While starting to help put them away, Rachael gave her tired mom a poke.

“Oh, honey, you look stunning!” Her mother, Linda, cried, putting the milk on the counter to encircle Rachael in her vice-grip hug. She took a step back and admired her daughter. She knew her daughter hated her school. She hoped things tonight changed her mind.

Her mother had been like Rachael in high school. Unlike her daughter though, it was her personal choice. She wasn’t a big fan of people; her daughters the only two she really cared about.

Her youngest toddled in the room and was momentarily stunned by her older sister. She ran on her short chubby legs and tried her hardest to get the dress.

Rachael swiftly stepped away and back from the hands of her grimy three-year-old sister, Gracie. Gracie scrunched her face and let out an angry whimper. Their mom looked bemusedly down at the blonde head.

“I want to touch pwetty dwess, Momma! Make Rachie let me!” Gracie whined.

“Not tonight, baby. We do not want to ruin the pretty dress, do we? Besides, I thought we could play dress up tonight.”

“Dwess up?” Gracie seemed worried she heard wrong. When their mother nodded, she let out an excited yelp and charged into the playroom.

Mother and daughter shook their heads and laughed, amused by Gracie’s childish behavior.

Rachael took one last look at herself in the grimy kitchen mirror. She turned half way, liking the feeling of her full skirts on her ankles. She smiled. Her mom looked adoringly at her older daughter. Whatever happened, she hoped that her eldest would get out of this terrible neighborhood. She wished she had enough money to move them off right them, but that wouldn’t be happening anytime soon. Linda hated the neighborhood they lived in and constantly griped to her therapist about it. She hated the risk of shootings. She wanted better. Gracie came running back into room, decked out with a tiara, a stained gown and a wand.

“Do I look pwetty like Rachie Momma?” Gracie asked, big eyes gazing up at her family. She seemed content with a simple nod, and wandered off to go poke the cat with her fairy-princess wand.

Rachael took a deep breath and stepped through the threshold of the door. She hurried out to her small trashy car, ignoring her mother’s cries of the ten o’clock curfew.

When she got to the dance, no one recognized her as the girl she normally was. She drank her punch quietly, slightly swaying to the latest pop song playing. A guy on her left looked at her and smiled.

Rachael failed to notice his appreciative look.

“Normally, I don’t come to these things. It’s just to much. But since tonight’s was a masquerade, I thought why not.” He chuckled and his blue eyes danced beneath his plain white mask. “Would you like to dance?”

They danced for a couple of songs when he pulled away with a sigh. He quickly wrote his number on her hand with a pen he pulled out of his pocket. He winked and then walked away in the crowd.

Rachael giggled and looked down at her hand. Normally, she hated having anything written on her hand. But she made an exception for this stranger…

She smiled and the room seemed to light up the entirely for the handsome stranger who was watching her from a distance away. He wanted her so much. Too bad he was such a chicken and would never do anything to get her. He was glad he made her happy. He recognized Rachael under her pretty mask, but it didn’t matter that night that she looked different. He always thought she looked pretty.

She was his princess.

“Dean?” A soft feminine hand rested on his arm. “You ready to go?” The girl, Katie, followed him out of the door, with catcalls and the clichés about the star football player and head cheerleader following them out. Somehow Rachael didn’t hear these.

Rachael glanced at the clock and let out a sigh. It was nearing nine thirty and she needed to leave. She gathered her blue skirt and left the building. On the way back to her house, she thought of the night and the handsome man she danced with. She giggled when she remembered how he kept her laughing with his various commentaries. He seemed honestly glad he got to dance with her. She was shocked with that, especially since under that mask appeared to be handsome features and under her hands a nice body.

She parked the car in her ramshackle driver and let out a sigh. The beauty was disappearing and it was time to be an outcast again.

Across town, Dean lay in the arms of the pretty cheerleader, Katie. He absently stroked her blonde hair while in his head she turned to the brunette bombshell he danced with earlier.

He knew who Rachael was. He knew who she was before high school, before he started football and was expected to live up to his fellow peers expectations. He loved football, but hated the pressure. And he wasn’t thinking about the pressure his coach or father puts on him to win. He was talking about social pressure.

Dean was lucky in a way for this pressure. If he didn’t have this pressure, he never would’ve gotten the wonderful girl in his arms. Rachael was his dream, but Katie was a reality. And a damn hot reality too

Katie reached up and stroked his face, smiling as she recognized his far off look. He closed his eyes for a second then opened them up and looked at the cheerleader.

“Hey, babe.” Her hand rested on his chest and traced light circles. “I was wondering…if we could make our relationship official. Now, I know you aren’t allowed out that much while football is on, but I’m happy just happy holding your hand.” She smiled shyly and cuddled closer into his chest. Dean’s throat restricted, before he nodded his agreement and Katie yelped.

She planted her lips onto his jaws, working her way up to his mouth. He returned the kiss. Katie didn’t notice how little he was paying attention. She braided her fingers into his hair.

Dean grimaced when he realized what he did. Katie stopped the kiss with a contented sigh and laid her head on his arm. Although they had different reasons, both him and Rachael fell asleep thinking of the other and with a wish to live the day again.

The next - and last- day of school, Rachael heard about Katie and Dean. Although she wasn’t that impressed, she wasn’t surprised. She went through the day, ignoring everybody except for her normal small group of acquaintances.

Dean watched her that day.

He ignored his pretty girlfriend clinging to him and watched as Rachael laughed at some joke one of her geek friends made. He was jealous. His jealousy increased when the geek had the nerve to touch his Rachael. He turned to Katie and slightly pulled away. He didn’t want Rachael to see him with her.

Rachael, who was talking to her cousin Mark, was laughing. Mark was her one friend, and, although he was leaving this year, the one who would always be there for her. He draped an arm over her and walked with her passed the cuddling couple (which just so happened to be Dean and Katie).

“So, gorgeous, would you like to go to the movies with me tonight?” Mark asked his cousin. Dean stiffened.

“Of course, handsome.” Rachael answered, then giggled. It was a game they played since childhood, calling each other ridiculous endearments. Her mother was slightly crept out by it, but seeing Rachael laugh was worth it.

That meaningless, dorky, pervert had asked his girl on a date! Dean was staring off at the (related) pair going off into the school, the guys arm around her the entire time. He was going to kill him. He was going to make him eat each one of his toes and then his fingers, he would drag out his life until it meant nothing. He was going to make this guy regret ever looking at his beautiful crush.

“That Rachael chick just got a date! Who knew? Haha, pigs must be flying somewhere in this world.” Dean glanced down at his girlfriend’s friend. He didn’t even bother trying to remember her name. He’d see it on her tombstone when he was done with her.

“Um…dude, that’s her cousin.” Katie looked at her friend. “And don’t talk about her like that. She is so nice! She helps me out so much in math. Like, you wouldn’t believe how smart she actually is. And totally pretty, if she would try a little harder.”

Dean only had to kill one person, it seemed.