Triple Drama (17)
The rehearsal...
Okay a little change of heart; I've decided to cast this guy as Jake instead because he's better for that role, at least in my mind.
*********************************************************
Blair looked around backstage with a clipboard clutched in her arms and smiled to herself. Backstage manager; now that was a good job. Easy even since nobody had the guts to argue against her. At first, she was annoyed with the stares boring into her back since the what's-her-witchy-name drama with the Cortex girl, but things were definitely coming to her advantage now.
"Somebody's enjoying herself."
Surprised, Blair swirled around but nobody seemed to be talking to her. She frowned. She was sure she heard his very familiar vo-
Something suddenly dropped down next to her. She yelped and almost fell down, but a pair of arms caught her before she hit the ground.
Reggie snickered, his eyes glittering with mischief. "You're too easy, Bailey."
Blair swatted his arm glaring at him as she straightened up. "Why are you so obsessed with trying to make me have a panic attack?" She snapped. "Where'd you come from anyway?"
"Hello to you too. Sure happy to see that you're glad to see me," Reggie said sarcastically.
"Hey, that's my tone," Blair said, but a grin tugged on her lips. "But seriously, what are you doing here?"
Reggie shrugged. "I got bored at home. Mom and Dad went out for lunch."
Blair rolled her eyes. "You should really get a hobby or something. I've never even seen you playing football or something like normal guys."
"Too much work," Reggie replied back lazily.
"So what are you supposed to be doing instead of scaring the living lights out of me?" Blair asked.
"Backstage help." Reggie grinned and made a small bow. "Meaning, your wish is my command."
Blair shove him back playfully. "You're embarrassing sometimes." But she was smiling at him. She had realized with a start how good it felt to be on speaking terms again. The last two days had really taught her that much. It was the longest she had gone without talking to him or him annoying her. Of course they had fights in the past but they only lasted for a maximum of one day. The one day fight being when they were eleven.
Imagine both their mothers' surprise when the eleven year versions of themselves went from glaring at each other in the middle school parking lot to sticking their tongues out to suddenly laughing with their arms around each other. Mrs. Collin and Mrs. McCown could only shake their heads in confusion as they watched them joking with each other.
Reggie was shrugging the comment off. "We're already cast outs so reputation really doesn't matter," he said.
"Unlike you, I do have a reputation which is really helping me out," Blair replied back. "These people are really easy to manage when they're scared."
"So is this the part where I start shaking and beg for my life?" He asked mockingly innocent.
"No," Blair replied back in the same tone. "It's a too much of a good day to watch you suffering."
"Ouch." Reggie winced clutching his heart as if shot by a gun.
Such a drama queen. He should've been Romeo, that is of course, if he wasn't so lazy.
Blair shook her head at him. She wondered sometimes...
Madame Gabrielle's familiar claps for attention reached her ears. "Listen up," Madame Gabriel called out clearly. Her eyes scanned the crowd of students. "Since everyone has now managed to keep their mouths shut," she began disapprovingly.
"We only have a week for the play's preparation." Several students looked startled by the deadline and began muttering to each other. "So you all have to be quick, punctual and by the third practice you should all have memorized your dialogs." That caused a stir in the students as well.
Madame Gabriel paid no attention to them. "So let's start now. Scene one!"
It took almost fifteen more minutes for people to actually assemble. Daniel let out a sigh; all they had to do was walk up on stage! He scanned the auditorium again. Where could she be? She could've skipped. But then he decided, that nope, she was too much of a scaredy-cat for that.
"Looking for her again," a teasing voice came from behind and a hand landed on his shoulder. Alex flopped down into the seat on his right.
"I'm not looking for Nicole," Daniel lied flatly in Alex's face.
"If my memory serves correctly, he didn't say Nicole, did he?" Another teasing voice came from his other side and T.J. slide down on the seat on Daniel's other side, the trademark grin on his face.
"And you two are here because..." Daniel trailed off, smoothly changing the subject.
"Extras," both of them chorused. T.J. continued his question, "So is our Danny boy getting all likely with the No. 2?"
Daniel gave him a questioning look that clearly said 'What the hell was that? Pig Latin?'
"T.J. asked if you're going soft for Nicole," Alex translated with a grin. "Since he doesn't know which of the three she is, he named her Redhead No. 2. Aislinn is No. 1 and Blair is No. 3."
"If you ask me, I think he brought that from another planet," Daniel muttered pointedly looking at T.J. "My guess is planet Ape."
T.J. smirked back at him which was definitely not a good sign. "Danny and Nicky sittin' in a tree. S-N-O-G-G-I-N-G," T.J. began to sing rather loudly much to Daniel's horror. Before people could turn to look at him, Daniel quickly slapped his hand over T.J.'s mouth and almost shoved him under their seats before he could start off again.
"Tell your idiot of a best friend to shut up before I make him," Daniel hissed at Alex, wrestling to keep T.J. down.
But Alex seemed to be occupied; he was singing along the irritating rhyme under his breath. Daniel gave him a sharp jab in the side with his elbow while keeping his grip on the struggling T.J.
"It's catchy," Alex replied to Daniel's dirty look. "But isn't it supposed to be K-I-S-S-I-N-G?" He asked turning to T.J.
Daniel suddenly let go of T.J. jerking away from him with a disgusted expression on his face. "Did you just freakin' lick my hand?!" Daniel half-yelled and half-whispered as he wiped his hand on T.J.'s T-shirt.
"Mate, I'm British. We say snogging. And yes, I did lick your hand." T.J. answered both questions. "By the way, Mate, do you ever wash your hands?" Even after living in America for almost five years, T.J. still had a slight hint of British accent in his voice.
Alex had to bit on his tongue to stop himself from laughing at Daniel's famous 'You-disgust-me' look which he usually kept reserved for T.J. Alex often wondered if that was the real reason to why he kept T.J. as his best friend.
He suddenly felt his seat rock a little like someone had tried to kick it. He turned around in his seat to find a vibrating Aislinn who had her hand covering her mouth struggling not to burst out laughing like a fool. Apparently she had been shaking too hard with silent laughter and accidentally hit the back of Alex's seat. She had obviously overheard everything and had even managed to control herself from hysterical laughter. "Y-you g-guys are j-just t-too m-much!" She choked out in between gulps of her silent giggling.
"Great, another addition at my expense," Daniel groaned as soon as he made out her sentence.
Aislinn sobered up and kept a straight face wiping off the tears that had come out due to her internal struggle. "Sorry but your face was priceless, Danny!"
Daniel shot another dirty look at T.J. who merely ignored it while happily humming the stupid rhyme. If only looks could kill... Daniel fantasized.
Alex and Aislinn exchanged an amused glance. T.J. was almost one of the few people who could seriously get under Daniel's skin. It looked like Daniel was going to strangle T.J. any moment, but a slight distraction made them all turn to Madame Gabriel who had abruptly yelled at the startled students on stage to stop.
She was glaring at someone at the entrance of the auditorium. Craning her neck, Aislinn caught sight of a moody Bree looking away from Madame Gabrielle's frustrated face. "Thank you for bothering to join us, Miss Mathews," Madame Gabrielle said dryly. "Please take a seat."
Bree muttered something under her breath and dragged her feet to one of the back seats. She dropped down on the nearest empty seat. When she finally looked up, she realized with a start that sitting next to her was none other than Aislinn herself.
Aislinn caught Bree looking at her from the corner of her eye. The awkwardness in the air was too much for her and she blurted out, "What role are you playing?"
Bree looked slightly surprised at being something other than ignored but she recovered quickly. "Since you obviously nailed the lead," she started bitterly looking straight ahead, "I just took the humble role of Juliet's nurse. But it was pretty expected. What else would someone expect from the perfect life of Aislinn 'Miss Perfect' King." There was something very wrong with the way she said Aislinn's name since they were so used to her always calling Aislinn 'Ash'.
A wave of unfamiliar frustration took over Aislinn. How was it her fault that Bree got the nurse's role? What did Bree think? That Aislinn didn't deserve Juliet's role? That she had bribed Madame Gabrielle for the role? She shot one side look at Bree who continued looking ahead, her face cold.
Alex shifted uncomfortably in seat, the conversation behind him easily reaching his ears. Daniel and T.J. were obviously listening in to, not willingly though. Daniel was suddenly very interested and focused on the scene happening on stage. That was pretty much expected. Alex remembered that Daniel had once told him that the most stupidest thing a guy could do was get involved between two girls. T.J. just started humming something and Alex could've sworn that he could pick out the names of Danny and Nicky.
However the next words from behind hit them each like a hammer on the head.
"I have a brother," Aislinn said somewhat wistfully while copying Bree by looking ahead.
Bree's eyes snapped to Aislinn's face startled but she refused to turn her head towards her.
"Actually," Aislinn was continuing, "Had. If he were alive now, he would've been graduating this year." She thoughtfully twirled a red lock around her finger, her head tilted on her free hand and suddenly let out a small laugh. "I bet even after hearing that people would still think I'm one of the luckiest person on earth. It's funny, really. Aislinn 'Miss Perfect' King! Perfect my foot. But I guess it's easier for you to judge, along with other people."
Alex almost let out a whistle. That was side of Aislinn that he'd never seen before. By the looks of it, so didn't Bree who had given up and was gawking at Aislinn in shock. Alex was sure he detected something like shame on Bree's face.
"Scene Four: In the Capulet's Hall, the first time Romeo and Juliet met," Madame Gabrielle's clear voice called out. "Hurry up people, we don't want to stay here all night, do we?"
Aislinn rose from her seat gracefully. "Come on, Danny. That's our cue." Daniel nodded and both of them walked up to the stage. Aislinn didn't even give Bree a single glance. She was done being nice. If Bree wanted nothing to do with her then two could play that game.
"Aren't you in that scene too?" Alex asked Bree politely.
"Huh?" Bree blinked.
"That's your scene too," Alex repeated.
"Right," Bree was on her feet.
"Buddy, I think this play just got more interesting," Alex said to T.J.
***********************************************************************
"All clear," Reggie called out lazily sitting with his back against the wall and hands behind his head.
Nicole finally got out from behind the rack of clothes she was hiding. "Just for the record," Blair commented dryly watching her, "You're being utterly ridiculous."
"No," Nicole drawled out. "I'm just interested in the costumes." Really, Nicole? Costumes? That's the best you can think of? She really needed to work on her lying skills.
Blair just raised an eyebrow at her. "I repeat; ridiculous."
Reggie stretched out on the boxes he was sitting on. "For once, I agree with Bailey. Hiding from the guy is not gonna help, Nicky."
Blair threw him an irritated look at 'Bailey' but since he was agreeing with her, she did nothing. "Now are we going home or what?" She looked at the almost deserted auditorium and by the looks of it, they were only ones behind stage.
Reggie dragged himself the boxes and dusted himself off. "Coming?" He asked Nicole.
"Yep," Nicole replied eagerly.
She fell into step behind Blair and Reggie, watching their playful and constant bickering. It suddenly occurred to her that Reggie seemed to be the only one who could openly tease Blair without the fear of being murdered. Reggie had arm around Blair while purposely yelling out a song which Blair obviously didn't like; at least that's what Nicole could guess by the way Blair had her fingers stuck in her ears.
"You're just embarrassing yourself!" Blair yelled at him.
"Oh baby, baby, baby! Ohh!" Reggie continued going awfully off tune. Nicole almost giggled out loud when people started to stare the two who didn't even notice the slightly disturbed gazes they were getting.
"I swear, I've no idea why your Mom hasn't disowned you yet," Blair muttered while jabbing her elbow at him in attempts to shutting him up, still covering her ears with her hands.
Nicole couldn't hold it back and let out a laugh. It was amazing how soft Blair was towards Reggie. She doubted that anyone else could have gotten away with the same teasing.
Nicole was silent on the way; only speaking up to direct them to her house. As expected, her parents weren't home yet and probably wouldn't be until an hour or so. She waved the two good-bye and went up to her room, collapsing onto her bed.
She stared up to the ceiling, the events of the day running through her mind. Avoiding and ducking away from Daniel, finding out that she got the role of Juliet's understudy, yelling at Daniel, Blair's blunt confession, Justine girl-fanning about Daniel, Megan's knowing glances, talking to Alan, Daniel bringing her pizza, yelling at him yet again, getting kicked out of the library, sneaking through the backstage curtains when Daniel came in, watching him kiss Aislinn on stage while almost everyone oohed and aahed...
The last image burned like fire and lingered in front of her as if mocking her. She felt the unexplainable rage again which she had when that had actually happened. She couldn't explain it and that's what annoyed her the most; not knowing the reason behind it. Scowling, she rolled to her side when she suddenly caught sight of the picture on her side table.
It was a picture of herself with her parents. She had been five at the time and they were all smiling. She had smiled at the camera while her parents smiled at each other.
Her mind drifted to her parents. Their marriage had been easy. They'd both met in law school. After many conversations and tutor sessions later, they'd simply gone up to their parents and a few years later, gotten married.
It had been so easy for them. They were alike in almost every single way and Nicole had always thought of them as made for each other. In short, a simple but perfect love story. A few seconds later, Daniel's arrogant face came to her mind yet again. She almost felt like slapping herself.
Why was she think about him? Why did she feel angry when he kissed Aislinn? Why?!
A few seconds later, the answer suddenly hit her like a slap across her cheek, making her jerk up from the bed with her eyes popping out of her eye sockets.
No way.
It couldn't be.
It wasn't possible.
Scratch that; just the idea of it was unthinkable.
Yet, it rang in her mind like a billion bells ringing all at once.
She, Nicole Stanley, had somehow fallen for Daniel Clifte, the egoistic, arrogant, irritating play boy...
Holy shit.
***********************************************************************
Author's Note
I know what you're all thinking. It's either one of two:
1. She is so late!
Or
2. It's about Nicky and Danny... again.
Yes, I'm sorry on both parts. I had a major writer's block so I'm really sorry! Writer's block seriously sucks! And I had to add more about Danny and Nicky to shape the story for the next part so please stick with me. Your support, comments and votes mean a lot more than any of you can imagine.
Triple Drama (A dram and romantic story english)
Re: Triple Drama (A dram and romantic story english)
Triple Drama (18)
Aislinn King, Nicole Stanley and Bailey "Blair" McCown are red-haired, hazel-eyed, identical triplets. Separated at birth by fate and reunited at seventeen by destiny. When three extremely different lives clash, there's bound to be three times the drama. Will the Nerdy Nicole, Popular Aislinn and Loner Blair ever be able to face reality when the truth of their separation comes out, tying them together in a life and death bond?
Enlarge Image Megan took one step at a time, trying not to keep looking over her shoulder like some paranoid creep. One... two... three, she started to count inside her head, focusing on her feet. It was technique she had used countless times to clear her head of all thoughts.
Four, don't look back.
Five, only desperate idiots do that.
Six, God, it's so hard!
Seven, he's not gonna sho-
"What are you doing?"
Almost falling on her own two feet, Megan felt a hand on her shoulder, steadying her and a low gurgling which sounded suspiciously like a chuckle. "Aghhhh! Why do you always do that?!" She complained slapping his broad shoulder harmlessly with an irritated scowl. Why was it that she always turned into a total klutz whenever he was around?
"Don't blame me," Alan said holding his hands up in surrender with that slight trace of a smile on his face. "Your face was scrunched up like you were making some life-changing decision."
"I was just thinking about the history report that I have to finish today," Megan lied quickly. She was hoping from the bottom of her heart that the sudden heat on her face was just the sun. "What, no lectures about walking alone today?" She asked swiftly changing the subject as they started walking up the busy streets.
"You're not alone. You're walking with me," Alan corrected her.
"You know what? You remind me of the classical young gentlemen in old movies," Megan said with a half-annoyed, half-impressed expression. "Only you're not wearing those white and black tux." Instead he was wearing his basketball jersey and looked like he'd just had gym in his last period.
"Thank you?"
Megan laughed. "It was a compliment."
"Anyway just out of curiosity, exactly why are you walking alone lately?" Alan asked.
Megan frowned. "What do you mean 'lately'?"
"I walk the same way as you since day one. You used to walk with Nicky until a few days ago," Alan explained.
Megan stared at him blankly. Did he just say Nicky? "Nicky who?" She asked for conformation.
Alan raised an eyebrow at her looking amused by her, as usual. "You know, that pretty, smart redhead Nicky that you hang out with?" He prodded.
Megan had always thought that Nicole was pretty and obviously smart but when the heck had he noticed that?! "She had to stay back for rehearsals. She's Juliet's understudy," Megan answered vaguely.
So vaguely that she almost had a heart attack when Alan suddenly burst out laughing. "Juliet as in his Juliet," he gasped out in between.
Megan felt the Courage the cowardly dog with her eyes ready to pop out and fall to the ground. "Is there something that I'm missing out on?"
Alan composed himself quickly but still had a small grin on his face. "Yeah, actually, you should really ask Nicky about the most awkward scene in the library. I don't think I'll ever forget Nicky's crimson flushed face from that day," he stated.
There! There was the nickname again! Wait- "What awkward scene?!" Megan asked frantically. Nicole was hiding something from her! Something about Alan!
"Why don't you ask your friend?" Alan said shrugging.
Megan scowled at him. "You're the meanest nice guy I know," she declared.
Predictably, he just grinned even more amused.
*****************************************************************************************
Nicole gripped her pencil so tightly that it was almost on the verge of breaking. She couldn't help it. The stupid geometry problem made no sense! Actually she couldn't get herself to concentrate long enough to figure it out... which was saying a lot because it was one of her favorite subjects.
She knew exactly what was wrong. What was wrong was a certain blue-eyed blonde who just wouldn't get out of her mind.
Suddenly her phone rang and the voices in her head stopped. She scooped up her phone from her bed. Without bothering to check caller ID she said, "Hello, Nicole here."
"You like him, don't you?!" Megan's voice called out to her accusingly.
Startled and almost deaf for a moment, Nicole held the mobile away for her ear. Then cautiously brought it back to her ear. "Megan, what are talking about?" She asked worried.
"Not what, who!" Megan corrected her impatiently. "I'm talking about a certain guy! You know who!"
"You know who as in-" Nicole started to joke about Voldemort when her eyes fell on her geometry homework and a blonde head popped into her head. She gasped; Megan knew! "How did you know?!" Nicole asked shocked.
On the other side Megan was crestfallen. "It's true?" She asked sadly.
"Well, I, um," Nicole stammered. Then she suddenly asked, "But how did you know?"
"Alan told me, himself." Megan answered tonelessly.
Nicole's mind swirled in circles. How did Alan know? Then it struck her. "Of course, in the library!" She exclaimed aloud.
"What the flapjacks happened in the library that everyone seems to know except me?!" Megan cried outraged.
"We got banned, him and me, for, well um, for inappropriate behavior," Nicole blurted out the last part, remembering the librarian's red face and her own livid face color. For the millionth times. she wondered how she'd let the anger take over her common sense.
Megan felt like someone had kicked her in the stomach. "Inappropriate behavior?" Megan asked weakly.
"Believe me, it was all his f-" Nicole started furiously about the incident but she got cut off by Megan's wail.
"But that's not fair! I liked him first!"
"What?!" Nicole almost fell off her chair. Megan liked Daniel?! Was she in the same parallel dimension as last week?!
"Yeah! He's supposed to be my knight in shining armor!" Megan continued to wail.
"Huh?" Nicole let out. Knight in Shining Armor? Then suddenly it hit her. "You're talking about Alan?" The relief knocked the air right out of her lungs and she fell back against her cushioned study chair.
"Of course, I am!" Megan cried. Then she froze. "I was talking about Alan and you... you weren't?"
"Yeah..." Nicole drawled out.
There was an extremely awkward silence on both ends.
Until Nicole couldn't resist. "So, um, your knight in shining armor, huh?" She asked with a huge grin spreading on her face.
Megan face-palm on the other end. Damn her big mouth! "Shut up," she mumbled. What the hell was wrong with her? To think that she thought that Nicole liked Alan. Wait? Megan suddenly thought. She jerked up and said excitedly, "Hold on! I was talking about Alan-"
"Yeah," Nicole snickered, "You made that pretty clear."
Megan ignored the comment and continued excitedly, "That totally means that you were just talking about - about someone you like! Correct me if I'm wrong but were you talking about Daniel freakin' Cl-" Before she could finish squealing over the phone, Megan heard a click.
Megan stared at the phone for a whole second.
Back in her own house, Nicole felt like there was a huge knot in her stomach. Her phone beeped. Opening it shakily, she saw that it was a text from Megan.
Megan: You do know that we have every single class together, right?
*****************************************************************************************
Reggie slammed his gym locker shut and glad to walk out of the boys' locker room. Gym was by far his most hated period. All that work and sweat was way too much work. Coach Miller had gray hair as evidence for his fruitless efforts of trying to make Reggie take more interest in sports. But Reggie would always end up being the last in every race because quote Reggie "walking is good for health, too much exercise is good for heat attacks".
If Coach Miller retired earlier, Reggie's classmates knew that Reggie would probably to be blamed.
As usual he changed out of gym uniform as quickly as he could, eager to escape. However just as he was about to leave, something made him hesitate.
"He did what?!" Jake Gibson's enraged scream could be heard clearly to anyone within half a mile radius. Jake charged towards Daniel, who looked up at him unfazed by Jake's murderous face, his face only mildly curious.
"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today," Daniel commented nonchalantly, looking up steadily at Jake.
Jake grabbed him by the front of his shirt. "Did you," creative swearing, "kiss my girlfriend?!" He screamed in Daniel's face.
Ah! Reggie thought. That explains a lot.
Fights between Daniel and Jake were quite common in the locker room. The rivalry was so intense that it is hard to believe that one of them hadn't killed the other... yet. The fact that Aislinn had been dating or currently dated both the two, just added to the other things like triumphing each other in basketball, being first in races, biggest abs, etc.
The school's basketball team, the Avon Tigers, usually tried to keep them away from each other in the court, so Daniel and Jake usually made up for it in the locker rooms. But this time, the calm taunting look on Daniel's face was begging for trouble.
"Don't throw tantrums now," he replied to Jake easily removing Jake's fists from his shirt. "If you're so insecure about a little stage kiss, then I guess Aislinn was better off with me."
Ouch, Reggie thought. That surely touched a nerve.
Before anyone could so much as take a step closer, Jake and Daniel were already rolling on the floor, throwing fists at each other.
While the other guys tried to stop or help one of the two, Reggie had disappeared.
*****************************************************************************************
"... like, seriously! I cannot believe that girl!" Sally was saying. She had just finished the latest tale of a very thick-headed cousin of hers.
"I think it's romantic," Caroline Preston contradicted with a dreamy sigh. "It's true love!"
Aislinn and the girls at the table laughed at the way Sally rolled at Caroline a.k.a. Sally's best friend. As usual, both girls completely disagreed with each other and to this day, nobody knew how they ended up as best friends. While Sally Hart carried herself with gracefulness of royalty that few could manage to pull off, seeing as Sally had inherited it from a hundred generations of the filthy rich Harts, Caroline on the other hand wasn't exactly the sharpest knife around with her bubbly nonstop chattering personality.
The girls, mostly consisting of Avon High School's cheerleaders, were sitting behind the huge old tree in the school's courtyard and catching up on the latest gossip, movies and almost everything under the sky. It was Aislinn's and few of her other friends' study hall period while the other had just bunked Mr. Joel's class i.e. the Drooling Dwarf of Planet Boredom's History class.
At that exact moment, Sally Hart's attention suddenly diverted and her eyes lit up. She nudged Aislinn and whispered excited, "Isn't that your sister's cute friend?"
Aislinn knew who she was talking about even before she turned around and sure enough, she met Reggie's gray-black eyes as he signaled her to come. Aislinn frowned a little noting that her usual cheerful friend looked a bit frantic. She stood up from the grass, dusting off her jeans.
"Talk to you guys later," she said waving at them.
Behind her she heard Sally's disappointed voice saying, "He's not even going to come over to say 'hi' or something?" An amused grin twitched on Aislinn's face.
"What's up?" She asked him coming up next to him.
"No time, you gotta come quickly before it gets too messy!" Reggie instantly grabbed Aislinn's wrist as he pulled her along with him.
"Whoa," Aislinn said trying to keep up with him. "What are you talking about?" They were almost jogging now.
Reggie didn't answer and after a few more turns suddenly stopped. They were just outside the gym and Aislinn's eyes widened at the sight before her. Students were rooting two boys, screaming their names. It took her a moment to recognize both of him.
Daniel and Jake.
At the moment they were trying to pin the other under them. She instantly rushed to get to them, but they were bound in tight circle formed by the guys. She spotted Alex who was trying to pull Daniel away from Jake with a few other guys. But the flying fists made it almost impossible to touch the two boys without getting hit while doing so. Few others bothered to try stop them.
Nothing like a fight to lighten up their day, Aislinn thought sarcastically as she tried to pry some space between two stout boys.
"Alex!" She yelled over the rooting. "Get them to stop!"
Alex looked up at her, mildly surprised to see her there. "I'm trying!" He yelled back in a duh tone. "Dude, help me," he said to T.J., who was cheering for Jake. T.J. didn't hear him over the noise around them. "Come on, anybody!" No one even batted an eye at his yell. "Oh God, my friends are useless!" Alex said to himself. "Dan," he yelled into Daniel's ear, "if you don't stop, Coach Miller's gonna ban you two from the season even before the season starts!"
That would really suck since Jake Gibson and Daniel Clifte were easily known as the best players on the team.
"Tell him to get a life first!" Daniel yelled back, aiming a punch at Jake's stomach.
"T.J.! Do something useful!" Alex yelled as loud as he could.
"Like what?" T.J. asked frowning.
"Anything, you idiot!" Aislinn yelled at him, feeling like strangling him. "Just do any god damned thing to stop them!" She had finally managed to get through the circle of sweaty guys but she had no idea how to get close to Jake without getting hit.
"Anything?" T.J. confirmed.
"Anything!" Alex and Aislinn yelled back together, exasperated.
"Okay!" T.J. yelled back enthusiastically. He slipped back from the circle and ran around the closest turn.
"How is that helpful?!" Aislinn cried.
"I'm sure it's helpful somehow!" Alex defended his best friend, his words sounding more convincing than how he felt.
Luckily, he was right. An alarm abruptly screeched out and T.J. appeared a second later accompanied by a huge smirk and a water hose.
At any other moment, the look of horror on Aislinn's face would have been hilarious, but Alex was pretty sure he had the same look on his face.
"Tell me he isn't..."
"Out of my way!" T.J. called out. Some boys who'd heard him, jumped away just in time, leaving Jake, Aislinn, Alex and Daniel in the way of the huge wave of water that shot out.
That was how four drenched teenagers; Alexander, Daniel, Jake and Aislinn were ordered to go to the nurse's office by an enraged Coach Miller, Alex supporting Daniel and Aislinn supporting Jake.
The nurse's tiny office vividly reminded Alex of a boxing ring. He and Daniel sat on one corner while Aislinn and Jake sat in the opposite one. Jake and Daniel were both engaged in a glaring competition and stubbornly refused to waver from their outraged demeanor. Nurse Willow was brutally dabbing at Daniel's swollen wounds while he tried not to wince between the glare he was giving over her shoulder.
Truthfully, it hurt like hell and the only thing that stopped him from groaning in pain was the satisfaction of seeing that Gibson was just badly bruised as him.
Aware of the tension in the suffocating room, Aislinn wringed her wet ruffled shirt and lightly commented, "You don't suppose that there's any chance that this shirt might ever be wearable again?"
Jake finally tore away from the glaring game the two oh-so-mature boys had been playing to look at her. She'd been successful she knew as Jake fought to keep his face straight. Humor was one of the many qualities that he admired in Aislinn King. "Not really," he replied, now calm enough to even joke along with her. "Is there any chance of your dad being able to suing T.J. Morgan for collateral damage?"
Aislinn frowned thoughtfully as if actually considering the suggestion. "Hmm, I hope so; it's one of my favorite shirts after all."
Both of them exchanged a grin until Jake's face fell into a serious one. "I know you're aching to ask why I'm going to be purple and black for the next few days, Ashley," he said softly. Jake was the only one who called her Ashley. When they'd first met, she's introduced herself as Aislinn and he'd assumed she went by Ashley. She detested the name, but he loved annoying her with it and she'd eventually grown used to him using it.
Aislinn gave him a lopsided grin. She had to give him some credit; he could read her mind sometimes. "You're right. What happened this time?" She perched forward like an eager gossiping 13-year-old.
He sighed and ran a hand through his longish hair. "It's just," Jake started slightly frustrated, "why didn't you tell me that Clifte got Romeo and I'd have to deal with my girlfriend kissing that asshole?" As much as he tried to control himself, half of his sentence came out as a harsh accusation.
For a moment a strong unfathomable emotion flashed brightly in Aislinn's eyes but before he could interpret it, it was gone and Aislinn's face was unreadable. She simply raised an eyebrow. "Firstly, how can you not know who got the leads? It's all anybody could talk about yesterday," she teased and rolled her eyes. "Secondly, just relax. I still think Dan's a pain in the neck." She purposely said the last part more loudly.
Daniel narrowed his eyes at her before sticking his tongue out at her. "Real mature, Danny," Alex muttered shaking his head at him.
"It's just for the play," Aislinn continued turning back to Jake, simultaneously lowering her voice down. "Besides, Dan and I both agreed to-"
Before Aislinn could finish though, Nurse Willow cut her off. "Hey, you two," Nurse Willow interrupted, looking between Alexander and Aislinn, "You can head off to your next classes now since these two knuckleheads are goin' to the principal's office after I patch 'em up," she said in her southern drawl, looking sternly at the two bruised athletes. Aislinn badly wanted to finish her sentence, but Nurse Willow was looking between her and Alex expectantly.
Despite his total lack of guilt at starting the fight, Daniel felt a surge of alarm flow through him while Jake looked just as worried. The season was just a month away and there was no way either of them wanted to spend it on the bench instead of the court.
Nodding at Nurse Willow, Aislinn and Alex stood up and left the room. The corridors were empty with only some late students rushing to their class.
"Was your idiot of a best friend always like that?" Aislinn asked Alex, pissed off by the way her slightly wet shirt stuck uncomfortably to her skin. She knew it would dry off soon in a mere minuets but she still felt like a drowning cat.
She expected him to lash out a snappy comment but when she turned towards him, he had a faraway look in his eyes and had obviously not heard her. "Anybody in there?" She snapped her fingers in front of his face, bringing him out of her reverie.
"You're not even a little bit angry or insulted or - or something?" Alexander blurted out.
Aislinn looked at him blankly, wondering whether she had heard him correctly.
Incorrectly interpreting her expression as confusion, he elaborated further, hardly concealing his exasperation, "Your boyfriend of two years basically accused you of cheating on him with Danny, your ex of what - five hours? - and you didn't even want to slap some sense into him?"
Aislinn's face hardened and a cold look dimmed her bright hazel eyes. "Did anyone ever tell you that eavesdropping isn't a very nice thing to do?"
"It's a small room and your voice carries," he dismissed. "But you're still not answering my question."
"Probably because it's none of your damn business," Aislinn snapped before quickening her pace and sharply turning to the corridor on her left for her next class of the day.
"I asked you a simple 'yes' or 'no' question three times and none of your replies were a 'no'. You might wanna think about that." Alexander's normally spoken voice seemed much louder to Aislinn's ears in the empty corridor.
And Aislinn hated him for it.
*****************************************************************************************
Okay, I know your first thought on seeing this chapter was something along the lines "Oh, so now she posts..." I would update earlier but I had a hard time writing the last scene and it still came out a bit awkwardly. Can I also just take time to mention that I stayed at my Nani's (Mom's mother) house for almost a week and it's like staying in a village... cut of from the rest of the world (I don't even own a mobile either) so maybe, just maybe, you'll forgive me?
*****************************************************************************
Aislinn King, Nicole Stanley and Bailey "Blair" McCown are red-haired, hazel-eyed, identical triplets. Separated at birth by fate and reunited at seventeen by destiny. When three extremely different lives clash, there's bound to be three times the drama. Will the Nerdy Nicole, Popular Aislinn and Loner Blair ever be able to face reality when the truth of their separation comes out, tying them together in a life and death bond?
Enlarge Image Megan took one step at a time, trying not to keep looking over her shoulder like some paranoid creep. One... two... three, she started to count inside her head, focusing on her feet. It was technique she had used countless times to clear her head of all thoughts.
Four, don't look back.
Five, only desperate idiots do that.
Six, God, it's so hard!
Seven, he's not gonna sho-
"What are you doing?"
Almost falling on her own two feet, Megan felt a hand on her shoulder, steadying her and a low gurgling which sounded suspiciously like a chuckle. "Aghhhh! Why do you always do that?!" She complained slapping his broad shoulder harmlessly with an irritated scowl. Why was it that she always turned into a total klutz whenever he was around?
"Don't blame me," Alan said holding his hands up in surrender with that slight trace of a smile on his face. "Your face was scrunched up like you were making some life-changing decision."
"I was just thinking about the history report that I have to finish today," Megan lied quickly. She was hoping from the bottom of her heart that the sudden heat on her face was just the sun. "What, no lectures about walking alone today?" She asked swiftly changing the subject as they started walking up the busy streets.
"You're not alone. You're walking with me," Alan corrected her.
"You know what? You remind me of the classical young gentlemen in old movies," Megan said with a half-annoyed, half-impressed expression. "Only you're not wearing those white and black tux." Instead he was wearing his basketball jersey and looked like he'd just had gym in his last period.
"Thank you?"
Megan laughed. "It was a compliment."
"Anyway just out of curiosity, exactly why are you walking alone lately?" Alan asked.
Megan frowned. "What do you mean 'lately'?"
"I walk the same way as you since day one. You used to walk with Nicky until a few days ago," Alan explained.
Megan stared at him blankly. Did he just say Nicky? "Nicky who?" She asked for conformation.
Alan raised an eyebrow at her looking amused by her, as usual. "You know, that pretty, smart redhead Nicky that you hang out with?" He prodded.
Megan had always thought that Nicole was pretty and obviously smart but when the heck had he noticed that?! "She had to stay back for rehearsals. She's Juliet's understudy," Megan answered vaguely.
So vaguely that she almost had a heart attack when Alan suddenly burst out laughing. "Juliet as in his Juliet," he gasped out in between.
Megan felt the Courage the cowardly dog with her eyes ready to pop out and fall to the ground. "Is there something that I'm missing out on?"
Alan composed himself quickly but still had a small grin on his face. "Yeah, actually, you should really ask Nicky about the most awkward scene in the library. I don't think I'll ever forget Nicky's crimson flushed face from that day," he stated.
There! There was the nickname again! Wait- "What awkward scene?!" Megan asked frantically. Nicole was hiding something from her! Something about Alan!
"Why don't you ask your friend?" Alan said shrugging.
Megan scowled at him. "You're the meanest nice guy I know," she declared.
Predictably, he just grinned even more amused.
*****************************************************************************************
Nicole gripped her pencil so tightly that it was almost on the verge of breaking. She couldn't help it. The stupid geometry problem made no sense! Actually she couldn't get herself to concentrate long enough to figure it out... which was saying a lot because it was one of her favorite subjects.
She knew exactly what was wrong. What was wrong was a certain blue-eyed blonde who just wouldn't get out of her mind.
Suddenly her phone rang and the voices in her head stopped. She scooped up her phone from her bed. Without bothering to check caller ID she said, "Hello, Nicole here."
"You like him, don't you?!" Megan's voice called out to her accusingly.
Startled and almost deaf for a moment, Nicole held the mobile away for her ear. Then cautiously brought it back to her ear. "Megan, what are talking about?" She asked worried.
"Not what, who!" Megan corrected her impatiently. "I'm talking about a certain guy! You know who!"
"You know who as in-" Nicole started to joke about Voldemort when her eyes fell on her geometry homework and a blonde head popped into her head. She gasped; Megan knew! "How did you know?!" Nicole asked shocked.
On the other side Megan was crestfallen. "It's true?" She asked sadly.
"Well, I, um," Nicole stammered. Then she suddenly asked, "But how did you know?"
"Alan told me, himself." Megan answered tonelessly.
Nicole's mind swirled in circles. How did Alan know? Then it struck her. "Of course, in the library!" She exclaimed aloud.
"What the flapjacks happened in the library that everyone seems to know except me?!" Megan cried outraged.
"We got banned, him and me, for, well um, for inappropriate behavior," Nicole blurted out the last part, remembering the librarian's red face and her own livid face color. For the millionth times. she wondered how she'd let the anger take over her common sense.
Megan felt like someone had kicked her in the stomach. "Inappropriate behavior?" Megan asked weakly.
"Believe me, it was all his f-" Nicole started furiously about the incident but she got cut off by Megan's wail.
"But that's not fair! I liked him first!"
"What?!" Nicole almost fell off her chair. Megan liked Daniel?! Was she in the same parallel dimension as last week?!
"Yeah! He's supposed to be my knight in shining armor!" Megan continued to wail.
"Huh?" Nicole let out. Knight in Shining Armor? Then suddenly it hit her. "You're talking about Alan?" The relief knocked the air right out of her lungs and she fell back against her cushioned study chair.
"Of course, I am!" Megan cried. Then she froze. "I was talking about Alan and you... you weren't?"
"Yeah..." Nicole drawled out.
There was an extremely awkward silence on both ends.
Until Nicole couldn't resist. "So, um, your knight in shining armor, huh?" She asked with a huge grin spreading on her face.
Megan face-palm on the other end. Damn her big mouth! "Shut up," she mumbled. What the hell was wrong with her? To think that she thought that Nicole liked Alan. Wait? Megan suddenly thought. She jerked up and said excitedly, "Hold on! I was talking about Alan-"
"Yeah," Nicole snickered, "You made that pretty clear."
Megan ignored the comment and continued excitedly, "That totally means that you were just talking about - about someone you like! Correct me if I'm wrong but were you talking about Daniel freakin' Cl-" Before she could finish squealing over the phone, Megan heard a click.
Megan stared at the phone for a whole second.
Back in her own house, Nicole felt like there was a huge knot in her stomach. Her phone beeped. Opening it shakily, she saw that it was a text from Megan.
Megan: You do know that we have every single class together, right?
*****************************************************************************************
Reggie slammed his gym locker shut and glad to walk out of the boys' locker room. Gym was by far his most hated period. All that work and sweat was way too much work. Coach Miller had gray hair as evidence for his fruitless efforts of trying to make Reggie take more interest in sports. But Reggie would always end up being the last in every race because quote Reggie "walking is good for health, too much exercise is good for heat attacks".
If Coach Miller retired earlier, Reggie's classmates knew that Reggie would probably to be blamed.
As usual he changed out of gym uniform as quickly as he could, eager to escape. However just as he was about to leave, something made him hesitate.
"He did what?!" Jake Gibson's enraged scream could be heard clearly to anyone within half a mile radius. Jake charged towards Daniel, who looked up at him unfazed by Jake's murderous face, his face only mildly curious.
"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today," Daniel commented nonchalantly, looking up steadily at Jake.
Jake grabbed him by the front of his shirt. "Did you," creative swearing, "kiss my girlfriend?!" He screamed in Daniel's face.
Ah! Reggie thought. That explains a lot.
Fights between Daniel and Jake were quite common in the locker room. The rivalry was so intense that it is hard to believe that one of them hadn't killed the other... yet. The fact that Aislinn had been dating or currently dated both the two, just added to the other things like triumphing each other in basketball, being first in races, biggest abs, etc.
The school's basketball team, the Avon Tigers, usually tried to keep them away from each other in the court, so Daniel and Jake usually made up for it in the locker rooms. But this time, the calm taunting look on Daniel's face was begging for trouble.
"Don't throw tantrums now," he replied to Jake easily removing Jake's fists from his shirt. "If you're so insecure about a little stage kiss, then I guess Aislinn was better off with me."
Ouch, Reggie thought. That surely touched a nerve.
Before anyone could so much as take a step closer, Jake and Daniel were already rolling on the floor, throwing fists at each other.
While the other guys tried to stop or help one of the two, Reggie had disappeared.
*****************************************************************************************
"... like, seriously! I cannot believe that girl!" Sally was saying. She had just finished the latest tale of a very thick-headed cousin of hers.
"I think it's romantic," Caroline Preston contradicted with a dreamy sigh. "It's true love!"
Aislinn and the girls at the table laughed at the way Sally rolled at Caroline a.k.a. Sally's best friend. As usual, both girls completely disagreed with each other and to this day, nobody knew how they ended up as best friends. While Sally Hart carried herself with gracefulness of royalty that few could manage to pull off, seeing as Sally had inherited it from a hundred generations of the filthy rich Harts, Caroline on the other hand wasn't exactly the sharpest knife around with her bubbly nonstop chattering personality.
The girls, mostly consisting of Avon High School's cheerleaders, were sitting behind the huge old tree in the school's courtyard and catching up on the latest gossip, movies and almost everything under the sky. It was Aislinn's and few of her other friends' study hall period while the other had just bunked Mr. Joel's class i.e. the Drooling Dwarf of Planet Boredom's History class.
At that exact moment, Sally Hart's attention suddenly diverted and her eyes lit up. She nudged Aislinn and whispered excited, "Isn't that your sister's cute friend?"
Aislinn knew who she was talking about even before she turned around and sure enough, she met Reggie's gray-black eyes as he signaled her to come. Aislinn frowned a little noting that her usual cheerful friend looked a bit frantic. She stood up from the grass, dusting off her jeans.
"Talk to you guys later," she said waving at them.
Behind her she heard Sally's disappointed voice saying, "He's not even going to come over to say 'hi' or something?" An amused grin twitched on Aislinn's face.
"What's up?" She asked him coming up next to him.
"No time, you gotta come quickly before it gets too messy!" Reggie instantly grabbed Aislinn's wrist as he pulled her along with him.
"Whoa," Aislinn said trying to keep up with him. "What are you talking about?" They were almost jogging now.
Reggie didn't answer and after a few more turns suddenly stopped. They were just outside the gym and Aislinn's eyes widened at the sight before her. Students were rooting two boys, screaming their names. It took her a moment to recognize both of him.
Daniel and Jake.
At the moment they were trying to pin the other under them. She instantly rushed to get to them, but they were bound in tight circle formed by the guys. She spotted Alex who was trying to pull Daniel away from Jake with a few other guys. But the flying fists made it almost impossible to touch the two boys without getting hit while doing so. Few others bothered to try stop them.
Nothing like a fight to lighten up their day, Aislinn thought sarcastically as she tried to pry some space between two stout boys.
"Alex!" She yelled over the rooting. "Get them to stop!"
Alex looked up at her, mildly surprised to see her there. "I'm trying!" He yelled back in a duh tone. "Dude, help me," he said to T.J., who was cheering for Jake. T.J. didn't hear him over the noise around them. "Come on, anybody!" No one even batted an eye at his yell. "Oh God, my friends are useless!" Alex said to himself. "Dan," he yelled into Daniel's ear, "if you don't stop, Coach Miller's gonna ban you two from the season even before the season starts!"
That would really suck since Jake Gibson and Daniel Clifte were easily known as the best players on the team.
"Tell him to get a life first!" Daniel yelled back, aiming a punch at Jake's stomach.
"T.J.! Do something useful!" Alex yelled as loud as he could.
"Like what?" T.J. asked frowning.
"Anything, you idiot!" Aislinn yelled at him, feeling like strangling him. "Just do any god damned thing to stop them!" She had finally managed to get through the circle of sweaty guys but she had no idea how to get close to Jake without getting hit.
"Anything?" T.J. confirmed.
"Anything!" Alex and Aislinn yelled back together, exasperated.
"Okay!" T.J. yelled back enthusiastically. He slipped back from the circle and ran around the closest turn.
"How is that helpful?!" Aislinn cried.
"I'm sure it's helpful somehow!" Alex defended his best friend, his words sounding more convincing than how he felt.
Luckily, he was right. An alarm abruptly screeched out and T.J. appeared a second later accompanied by a huge smirk and a water hose.
At any other moment, the look of horror on Aislinn's face would have been hilarious, but Alex was pretty sure he had the same look on his face.
"Tell me he isn't..."
"Out of my way!" T.J. called out. Some boys who'd heard him, jumped away just in time, leaving Jake, Aislinn, Alex and Daniel in the way of the huge wave of water that shot out.
That was how four drenched teenagers; Alexander, Daniel, Jake and Aislinn were ordered to go to the nurse's office by an enraged Coach Miller, Alex supporting Daniel and Aislinn supporting Jake.
The nurse's tiny office vividly reminded Alex of a boxing ring. He and Daniel sat on one corner while Aislinn and Jake sat in the opposite one. Jake and Daniel were both engaged in a glaring competition and stubbornly refused to waver from their outraged demeanor. Nurse Willow was brutally dabbing at Daniel's swollen wounds while he tried not to wince between the glare he was giving over her shoulder.
Truthfully, it hurt like hell and the only thing that stopped him from groaning in pain was the satisfaction of seeing that Gibson was just badly bruised as him.
Aware of the tension in the suffocating room, Aislinn wringed her wet ruffled shirt and lightly commented, "You don't suppose that there's any chance that this shirt might ever be wearable again?"
Jake finally tore away from the glaring game the two oh-so-mature boys had been playing to look at her. She'd been successful she knew as Jake fought to keep his face straight. Humor was one of the many qualities that he admired in Aislinn King. "Not really," he replied, now calm enough to even joke along with her. "Is there any chance of your dad being able to suing T.J. Morgan for collateral damage?"
Aislinn frowned thoughtfully as if actually considering the suggestion. "Hmm, I hope so; it's one of my favorite shirts after all."
Both of them exchanged a grin until Jake's face fell into a serious one. "I know you're aching to ask why I'm going to be purple and black for the next few days, Ashley," he said softly. Jake was the only one who called her Ashley. When they'd first met, she's introduced herself as Aislinn and he'd assumed she went by Ashley. She detested the name, but he loved annoying her with it and she'd eventually grown used to him using it.
Aislinn gave him a lopsided grin. She had to give him some credit; he could read her mind sometimes. "You're right. What happened this time?" She perched forward like an eager gossiping 13-year-old.
He sighed and ran a hand through his longish hair. "It's just," Jake started slightly frustrated, "why didn't you tell me that Clifte got Romeo and I'd have to deal with my girlfriend kissing that asshole?" As much as he tried to control himself, half of his sentence came out as a harsh accusation.
For a moment a strong unfathomable emotion flashed brightly in Aislinn's eyes but before he could interpret it, it was gone and Aislinn's face was unreadable. She simply raised an eyebrow. "Firstly, how can you not know who got the leads? It's all anybody could talk about yesterday," she teased and rolled her eyes. "Secondly, just relax. I still think Dan's a pain in the neck." She purposely said the last part more loudly.
Daniel narrowed his eyes at her before sticking his tongue out at her. "Real mature, Danny," Alex muttered shaking his head at him.
"It's just for the play," Aislinn continued turning back to Jake, simultaneously lowering her voice down. "Besides, Dan and I both agreed to-"
Before Aislinn could finish though, Nurse Willow cut her off. "Hey, you two," Nurse Willow interrupted, looking between Alexander and Aislinn, "You can head off to your next classes now since these two knuckleheads are goin' to the principal's office after I patch 'em up," she said in her southern drawl, looking sternly at the two bruised athletes. Aislinn badly wanted to finish her sentence, but Nurse Willow was looking between her and Alex expectantly.
Despite his total lack of guilt at starting the fight, Daniel felt a surge of alarm flow through him while Jake looked just as worried. The season was just a month away and there was no way either of them wanted to spend it on the bench instead of the court.
Nodding at Nurse Willow, Aislinn and Alex stood up and left the room. The corridors were empty with only some late students rushing to their class.
"Was your idiot of a best friend always like that?" Aislinn asked Alex, pissed off by the way her slightly wet shirt stuck uncomfortably to her skin. She knew it would dry off soon in a mere minuets but she still felt like a drowning cat.
She expected him to lash out a snappy comment but when she turned towards him, he had a faraway look in his eyes and had obviously not heard her. "Anybody in there?" She snapped her fingers in front of his face, bringing him out of her reverie.
"You're not even a little bit angry or insulted or - or something?" Alexander blurted out.
Aislinn looked at him blankly, wondering whether she had heard him correctly.
Incorrectly interpreting her expression as confusion, he elaborated further, hardly concealing his exasperation, "Your boyfriend of two years basically accused you of cheating on him with Danny, your ex of what - five hours? - and you didn't even want to slap some sense into him?"
Aislinn's face hardened and a cold look dimmed her bright hazel eyes. "Did anyone ever tell you that eavesdropping isn't a very nice thing to do?"
"It's a small room and your voice carries," he dismissed. "But you're still not answering my question."
"Probably because it's none of your damn business," Aislinn snapped before quickening her pace and sharply turning to the corridor on her left for her next class of the day.
"I asked you a simple 'yes' or 'no' question three times and none of your replies were a 'no'. You might wanna think about that." Alexander's normally spoken voice seemed much louder to Aislinn's ears in the empty corridor.
And Aislinn hated him for it.
*****************************************************************************************
Okay, I know your first thought on seeing this chapter was something along the lines "Oh, so now she posts..." I would update earlier but I had a hard time writing the last scene and it still came out a bit awkwardly. Can I also just take time to mention that I stayed at my Nani's (Mom's mother) house for almost a week and it's like staying in a village... cut of from the rest of the world (I don't even own a mobile either) so maybe, just maybe, you'll forgive me?
*****************************************************************************
Re: Triple Drama (A dram and romantic story english)
Triple Drama (19)
So any comment on the cover I made?
Aislinn King: Live for the moment!
Nicole Stanley: Think before you leap!
Bailey "Blair" McCown: Life sucks, deal with it!
When these three turned out to be identical triplets, life just got three times the drama with friends, family, high school and maybe young love too?
*****************************
Blair chewed on the end of her pencil in intense concentration. You know this, you know this... The three words rang desperately in her head like a chant. She couldn't afford flunk another test but chemistry was a major weak point. It had been going fine until she got to the stupid equations. The guy who sat next to her was obviously going through the same dilemma given that he'd started doodling on the back of his paper.
Not that he would help her. She'd sat next to him for weeks now and they hadn't even exchanged a single word, which was exactly Blair's intention. Truth to be told; she didn't even care that she didn't know his name.
Long ago she had decided that she wanted to be a mere shadow in the school and that's exactly what she was. She was always careful not to draw any attention to herself. She always wore Reggie's dark gray hoodie, at least two sizes larger, which effectively hid her livid red hair and kept her face partially in the dark. It was practically hers since Reggie never asked for it back, for some reason best unknown to her.
Beside the hoodie, she went well out of her way to remain a part of the wall. She never spoke aloud in class unless necessary. She always sat in the middle back, not too close to be in center of the class and not too close to the back to be assumed as one of the troublemakers who dominated the back of the classroom. It was hard in the beginning but after a while, she simply seemed to fade into the walls. Evidence; almost none of her teachers and most definitely none of her classmates knew her name.
The only time she had drawn attention to herself was during the Brenda situation. Since then, the students had hoped to see "Blair" in their classes, but they had no idea that "Blair" was a certain Bailey McCown, the invisible girl. The only other time she communicated with the other students was during the rehearsals after which she would disappear once again.
As Blair finally decided to skip to the next question, a girl suddenly knocked on the door. After a brief glance, the students went back to their test sheets while the girl handed Mr. Wallace, the bespectacled Chemistry teacher, a paper and quietly spoke a few words before walking out.
Mr. Wallace loudly cleared his throat, squinting at the paper in his hand. Everybody, including Blair, looked up at him impatiently. "Um, Bailey McCown?" He called, his eyes darting around the room, obviously not knowing who she was. Blair almost laughed at the fact.
She stood up and walked to the front of the class, wondering if she was in trouble. "Yes, sir?" She asked.
Mr. Wallace gave her a quick look, frowning slightly as if forcing himself to remember her. "The principal wants to see you in the office now." He noticed that few students were doing their test so aloud, he declared, "Five minutes left!" Hastily, the students scrambled back to their tests and Bailey McCown was forgotten.
Blair quickly nodded and took the pass as she headed outside. She wondered if she should be worried. There was a possibility that the Cortex girl had ratted out on her, but Blair decided to rule that out since she was sure that the Cortex girl wouldn't have waited this long to get back at her and also because she struck Blair as more an underhanded, sneaky and manipulative type. In other words, a backstabber who wouldn't go for her head on.
"Bailey McCown?" Mrs. Barbra, the secretary inquired as Blair stepped into the room.
Blair nodded her face impassive. Mrs. Barbra casually but unmistakably cast her a thorough look over and what she saw clearly left a mark. She quickly composed back into a business-like façade and said, "Mrs. Hastings is waiting for you inside." She pointed toward the office door.
Blair strolled toward it, mystified and more than a little wary. "You called, Ma'am," she said politely as she stood just inside the light and open office. Mrs. Hastings was seated behind her tidy desk. She looked to be in her late thirties or early forties with her light brown hair streaked with gray and a pair of rectangular spectacles rested on her nose. All in all, she looked like a typical scholarly principal.
Principal Mary Hastings nodded, looking up at her, and said, "Sit down, Miss McCown."
Blair sat down opposite to her, her face unreadable but her heart pounding. "Have I done something bad?" She asked bluntly, trying not to let her impatience show on her face.
A brief emotion passed on the elder woman's face, maybe surprise at her bold tone, Blair guessed. "Not bad exactly," Principal Hastings replied, "But it has been brought to my attention that your record of attendance is highly disapproving and your grades below average. At this rate, I'm afraid you will not graduate this year."
'Oh.'Blair felt a bit more relaxed until the words sank down. She jerked up in her seat, alarmed, an emotion finally appearing on her face. "Not graduate?!"
"That's my concern, young lady. I suggest you to not miss another school day." It was an order not a request. "I know that most seniors prefer to skip school and 'hang out' but your attendance is by far the most disappointing I've seen."
You try working two different shifts, get your homework done, learn for some stupid tests and have the strength to wake up the next morning, the snarky reply flashed inside Blair's mind, wanting to lash out any second. "I see," Blair replied instead, cold but polite.
Principal Hastings studied her demeanor which was far too hard for someone so young, a look of concern dawning on her slightly wrinkled face. "Do your frequent absences have something to do with home problems?" She asked hesitating. "Because if-"
A sudden jolt of panic shot through Blair's body. Her heart was definitely pounding now. "Of course not," she interrupted quickly, forcing herself to look at ease, not even caring how rude she had sounded. She succeeded; her face remained unreadable and her voice, the epitome of nonchalance.
Principal Hastings nodded slowly but Blair couldn't tell if she believed her or not. "You can leave now but take this as a stern warning and do not miss another day or fail another test," she paused before adding, "or I might have to talk to your parents."
Parents? What parents? A sarcastic, cynical voice taunted Bailey.
Blair nodded, breathing deeply as she stood up. She quickly turned on her heel and almost fled out, past the startled secretary sitting outside and into the hallway. Once she was out of sight, she leaned against the wall, releasing a long breath. Despair, an old friend, washed over her and it took her a few moments to calm herself down.
She drew her hood back and ran a hand through her hair, thinking hard. She had to cut her shift short if she wanted time to study more, but she had to cut her studies short if she wanted to pay her bills in time.
There was the play too. She desperately needed the extra credit, now more than ever. With numb resolution, Blair dug her hands deep inside her pockets and strolled back to finish her Chemistry test after pulling up her hood again.
****************************************************************************************
"Justine," Megan said after she had stopped banging her head on the table.
"Hmm?" Justine asked her cheek resting against the table top.
"I hate you," Megan said monotonously.
"Same here," a tired looking Nicole agreed, her face cupped in her hands.
"Couldn't agree more," Justine replied with a sigh. "Now I get why there were only nine other people there. Sorry guys."
They all had a free period and decided to spend it on one of the tables in the school's courtyard. Only a few other seniors were sitting there too, while the rest were God-knows-where doing God-knows-what.
"Hey." Blair's monotonous greeting made the three girls look up as she sat down. It took her a moment to take in their mood. "Did somebody die?"
"Yeah," Megan snorted. "Half our brains, maybe?"
"Justine, that's Blair. Blair, Justine." Nicole left the whining to Megan as she gestured back and fro Blair and Justine.
Blair gave Justine a brief nod. "Hi." Justine's meek answering smile was almost comical to Blair.
Without warning, Justine suddenly jumped up from her seat. "Ah, gotta go. See you guys later and nice to meet you, Blair!" Nicole and Megan watched, baffled as she practically ran off.
"What's up with her?" Megan questioned.
"It was me." Blair shrugged nonchalantly. She could tell. She'd already seen it happen half a dozen times before.
"I'm sure it wasn't you," Nicole said hesitantly.
"Right," Blair drawled with a wry lopsided grin.
"She's just really shy," Megan said in a way of explanation.
"So why are half brains dying?" Blair discarded the topic swiftly.
Both Megan and Nicole shared a long suffering sigh. "Justine convinced us to volunteer for tutoring students with her in the tutor club since they were low on staff," Megan started to explain.
"We didn't think much about," Nicole added. "Boy, was that a mistake!" The only good thing that had come out, to Nicole at least was that, Megan had gotten sidetracked from her relentless efforts of getting Nicole to admit who her crush was, although Nicole was sure Megan had pretty clear idea who.
"Basically," Megan answered in reply to Blair's questioning look, "the people we tutor are, as lightly as I can put it, complete and utter idiots!"
"They're hopeless!" Nicole added. "The grade aren't very pretty, but it's like they don't even care of they fail! We just spent this precious free period in almost useless tutoring!"
"You people actually have time to help other people?" Blair asked, almost shocked. She and Reggie hardly got their assignments handed back in time. To be frank, they copied whatever crap sounded half legit.
"Now I don't, with the play rehearsals, the tutoring, Chess Club and the usual school stuff," Nicole was answering, ticking the things off on her figures.
"I joined the same things, minus the play of course. Which might actually be a good thing now," Megan reflected.
"Who the hell joins Chess Club voluntarily?" Blair asked.
"Me, Megan, Justine, Amber Laurence, Kendall O' Brien, Natasha McCarty, Lakshmi Patel, Nico Penrose, Naomi Winthrop, Eric Jefferson and a group of shy sophomores," Nicole said promptly expelling out the familiar names.
Megan laughed loudly at the look on Blair's face. "That was a rhetorical question, Nicky!" Megan exclaimed laughingly.
"Oh."
A brief grin passed on Blair's face at the sight of Nicole's genuine naivety. "For a smart girl you sure don't know enough about sarcasm." Blair's eyes automatically started scanning the courtyard before she realized that she was looking for Reggie. "Hey, do you two know where Reggie is?" She asked Nicole and Megan.
Megan was the one who answered. "Speaking of Reggie, I heard he was the one who brought Aislinn to the fighting spot."
"What fighting?" Nicole and Blair asked simultaneously, the latter in the mild interest and the former in concern.
"Honestly," Megan declared with an exasperated sigh. "Didn't you two hear that Jake Gibson, Aislinn's boyfriend and Danny got into a huge fist fight today during the last period? There was something about a water hose and another guy too, but I didn't get that part."
"I was with you the whole day so why didn't I hear that?" Nicole questioned.
"I heard it from one of the two idiots I was tutoring."
"Reggie had Gym in the last period," Blair said vaguely, almost to herself.
"Then he was probably with Aislinn," Megan concluded. After a brief scan around, she added, "Neither of them are here anyway."
Just then, the bell rang out.
"Ol' Miss Coleman's gonna break a fuse if we're late," Megan commented, quickly getting on her feet for her History Class.
Nicole nodded, standing up as well. "See you later, Blair!"
****************************************************************************************
By the time Aislinn got to her history class, Miss Coleman had already started her lecture. "Thank you for coming late and interrupting my lecture, Miss King," she said sarcastically when she heard Aislinn knock before coming in.
"I'm sorry but I got held up," Aislinn answered politely, trying not to roll her eyes at the teacher's sarcasm. It took some time for her to find a decent outfit in her mess of a locker and before she knew it, the bell rang for the much-dreaded History period. She put the pass Nurse Willow had given her and Alex when they were walking out and headed for her seat at the back, fully aware of the whispers and stares directed at her. The only people who weren't staring at her seemed to be the front benchers, which included Nicole and Megan, and Bree whose head was down, busily scribbling down notes.
"Pssst! Hey, is it true that Danny Clifte and Jake Gibson got into a huge fight over you?" Malory Becks twisted back in her chair toward Aislinn as soon as Aislinn's bottom hit her seat.
Aislinn smiled widely, secretly wishing she could slap the girl's mouth shut. "I have no idea where you got that one, Mal," she answered back innocently.
Before Malory could shoot another question, Miss Coleman's voice rang out, "Miss Becks, if want to continue talking, please feel free to take it outside my class."
"Sorry, Ma'am." Malory turned back to the front of the class, her face flushed as a few snickers broke out.
"Thank you." Miss Coleman gave Malory one last glare before continuing with her lecture. Aislinn hardly had time to think, as she tried to keep up with the merciless teacher's rapid explanations, hastily writing down barely readable words.
Half an hour later, the bell finally rang, mercifully giving the students time to rest their sore wrists. "Bree Mathews, Aislinn King, Nicole Stanley, Megan Stewart and Blake Wesley, I want the five of you to stay back for a few seconds." Miss Coleman called the startled fives' names while the rest of class rushed out, a few of them sending sympathetic looks at the five.
"Are we in trouble?" Blake Wesley, a ginger who usually fell asleep during each History class without fail, asked wide-eyed.
"Not yet," Miss Coleman answered him. "You two are in the tutor club, right?" She turned toward Megan and Nicole. The two nodded back with a dreadful sense of what was going to follow. "These three are going to need your help." She gestured the other three whose fearfully puzzled faces changed to doom-looms-upon-us faces.
"Miss Mathews, your grades have been satisfactory but I noticed that they're dropping lately," Miss Coleman told Bree. Something in her usually stern tone was akin to - to softness, Nicole noted with curious surprise. "Mr. Wesley, I'm sincerely hoping that you'll be able to graduate this year with the grades I'm being forced to give you." At this point, Miss Coleman's face was almost hopeless. "Your grades haven't been up to the mark either, Miss King," Miss Coleman said turning to Aislinn, "and your last three assignments clearly say that you didn't understand the last chapter."
Before any of them could protest, Miss Coleman cleverly dismissed them all with a get-out-my-classroom-before-you-get-detention wave.
"I already have two idiots while you have one," Megan immediately negotiated as she and Nicole quickly gathered up their things, "So you get two out of the three of them!"
"Fine," Nicole agreed grudgingly as they walked out. "But you get the sleepy ginger!" She quickly countered. Megan nodded reluctantly as she glanced over Blake Wesley's huge lanky back.
"Okay, so as routine, you guys fill in these so that we know what periods you have free and we match them up with our own so that we can meet regularly," Megan briskly told Bree, Aislinn and Blake, handing them each a separate sheet out of her bag. "You're with me," Megan said pointing at Blake before turning to Bree and Aislinn, "While you two get Nicky."
"Um, I've been hoping to talk to you about the pl-" Aislinn began, while Megan took Blake aside to quickly arrange for tutor sessions, but was cut off by Bree.
"Yeah, you two can chat later," Bree interrupted rudely, turning to Nicole with a disdainful look. "Listen, I don't need these stupid sessions, especially at the moment, so here's the deal; you report back to Miss Coleman about me when she asks and I, in return, don't waste any of your precious time by studying on my own."
"I'm afraid I can't agree to that," Nicole replied quietly but firmly, looking straight into Bree's pretty brown eyes penetratingly. "If Miss Coleman says you need tutoring, then you need tutoring. If you have a problem with that, talk to Miss Coleman." Even though the last part may have sounded rude, surprisingly Nicole's softly spoken voice did not.
For a second Bree's eyes widened in shock at Nicole's blunt refusal and she felt a little unnerved by Nicole's penetrating hazel eyes. But she quickly regained her posture. "Fine," Bree spat bitingly. She turned to leave but stopped in mid-step and turned back as if remembering something. "Oh, and by the way, Aislinn," the sweet smile on her face didn't match her scathing tone, "Congrats. Two boys? Wow. But then again, I wouldn't expect any less from you."
I wouldn't talk like that about things I know nothing about if I were you. And speaking of boys, which one of us dated and broke up with half a dozen guys each month since freshman year," Aislinn retorted in barely concealed spite. The two former best friends locked in a brief glaring competition before simultaneously breaking off as Bree stalked off to her next class, leaving behind a seething Aislinn.
"You shouldn't be so hard on her," Nicole's quiet voice brought herself into Aislinn's attention again.
"Are you kidding me?" Aislinn demanded. "Did you not just see the look she gave you? Or that she basically passed you off as a lying cowardly nerd?"
"Just shut up and open your eyes, Aislinn!" Nicole suddenly lost patience, partially due to the fact that she was still pissed at Aislinn. Aislinn was left stunned for a moment. Never had anyone in Aislinn's seventeen-year-old life spoken to her with such an open anger. Subtly, tauntingly and discreetly yes, but not so openly. Nicole nodded toward Bree's retreating back and continued, failing to take in Aislinn's expression, "Look at her carefully and tell me what you see."
The sheer maturity in Nicole's voice made Aislinn quickly snap her head toward Bree, who had stopped to talk to a friend. "She looks the same to me," Aislinn answered immediately.
"She's swaying on her own two feet. Even with the thick layers of face powder on her face, I could see the dark circles on her face. Miss Coleman seemed unusually soft while talking to her." Nicole quickly ratted off.
Aislinn frowned at Nicole in Are-You-For-Real way before looking back at Bree. The first thing that struck her was that Bree's skin tight jeans, Aislinn remembered buying them with her, were loose. And she was swaying a little; it was hardly noticeable unless you were looking for it. Bree was 5'3 and probably the shortest senior Aislinn knew, not to mention one of the slimmest.
Aislinn was catapulted back a week or two when she and Bree were practically attached at the hip and one thought stood out: How the hell could anyone that short get even thinner?
"So you think..."
"Yep," Nicole replied with a nod. "That girl is in deep trouble."
****************************************************************************************
Blair swung her bag across her chest, looking for a certain head full of shaggy black hair. Speaking of the Devil.
An arm suddenly came around her shoulders just as Reggie's cheerful voice came out, "Hey, Buddy!"
Blair scowled at him as she shove him away. "Oh no, no, no," she said. "You don't get to be all 'Buddy, Buddy' after avoiding me all day."
"Why? Is something wrong?"
"I don't always need you when something goes wrong, you know?"
Reggie narrowed his eyes. "True, but something is wrong, isn't it?"
It was amazing how he could always read her like an open book. Amazing, yet slightly creepy and unnerving for Blair. "Well, I did get called to the office today," Blair admitted reluctantly.
"What?! Why?"
Blair shrugged. "Nothing too serious. She just wanted to see me about my grades and stuff so I can't bunk school anymore." They started walking toward the auditorium.
Reggie swung his arm around Blair as he asked, "So 'no' to bunking school?"
"I guess." Blair shrugged. "It's okay though. The assignments and tests are starting to rain in any way. By the way," she said as she narrowed her eyes at him, "where were you in the free period? Megan told me that you saw the fight."
"I got ambushed after that," Reggie answered flatly.
"Ambushed?" Blair repeated.
"By girls," Reggie added.
Blair suddenly stopped walking as her eyebrows shot up. "Girls?"
"It gets insulting when you say it like that," Reggie said in a mock hurt tone.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Blair said impatiently. "Get back to the story! What girls?"
"You remember Ash's friend, Sally?" Reggie asked.
"How could I not," Blair replied, recalling the slim gorgeous brunette. "She's the most irritating person I know."
Reggie smirked at her reply. "I thought I was the most irritating person you know?"
"Well, you still are if you don't tell me what happened next!" Blair said, rolling her eyes.
"So after Alex and Ash took Jake and Danny to the nurse's office, I was gonna wait up for Aislinn but other students started to come and ask what was going on. Sally and her friends came up to me and then... she asked me out."
"What?!" Blair exclaimed, astounded. "What did you say?"
"'Oh'," Reggie answered flatly. "I said 'Oh' and ran away when the bell rang."
Sufficient to say, Blair had never laughed as loudly or as for as long until that moment.
************************************************************************
Sorry this took a little longer than it should have, but this stupid cold won't go away! Seriously, who gets sick with a cold in the middle of summer?!
And the poll question is kind of personal, but please don't get offended or something. I've just been wondering about it, so yeah, I'm curious.
So any comment on the cover I made?
Aislinn King: Live for the moment!
Nicole Stanley: Think before you leap!
Bailey "Blair" McCown: Life sucks, deal with it!
When these three turned out to be identical triplets, life just got three times the drama with friends, family, high school and maybe young love too?
*****************************
Blair chewed on the end of her pencil in intense concentration. You know this, you know this... The three words rang desperately in her head like a chant. She couldn't afford flunk another test but chemistry was a major weak point. It had been going fine until she got to the stupid equations. The guy who sat next to her was obviously going through the same dilemma given that he'd started doodling on the back of his paper.
Not that he would help her. She'd sat next to him for weeks now and they hadn't even exchanged a single word, which was exactly Blair's intention. Truth to be told; she didn't even care that she didn't know his name.
Long ago she had decided that she wanted to be a mere shadow in the school and that's exactly what she was. She was always careful not to draw any attention to herself. She always wore Reggie's dark gray hoodie, at least two sizes larger, which effectively hid her livid red hair and kept her face partially in the dark. It was practically hers since Reggie never asked for it back, for some reason best unknown to her.
Beside the hoodie, she went well out of her way to remain a part of the wall. She never spoke aloud in class unless necessary. She always sat in the middle back, not too close to be in center of the class and not too close to the back to be assumed as one of the troublemakers who dominated the back of the classroom. It was hard in the beginning but after a while, she simply seemed to fade into the walls. Evidence; almost none of her teachers and most definitely none of her classmates knew her name.
The only time she had drawn attention to herself was during the Brenda situation. Since then, the students had hoped to see "Blair" in their classes, but they had no idea that "Blair" was a certain Bailey McCown, the invisible girl. The only other time she communicated with the other students was during the rehearsals after which she would disappear once again.
As Blair finally decided to skip to the next question, a girl suddenly knocked on the door. After a brief glance, the students went back to their test sheets while the girl handed Mr. Wallace, the bespectacled Chemistry teacher, a paper and quietly spoke a few words before walking out.
Mr. Wallace loudly cleared his throat, squinting at the paper in his hand. Everybody, including Blair, looked up at him impatiently. "Um, Bailey McCown?" He called, his eyes darting around the room, obviously not knowing who she was. Blair almost laughed at the fact.
She stood up and walked to the front of the class, wondering if she was in trouble. "Yes, sir?" She asked.
Mr. Wallace gave her a quick look, frowning slightly as if forcing himself to remember her. "The principal wants to see you in the office now." He noticed that few students were doing their test so aloud, he declared, "Five minutes left!" Hastily, the students scrambled back to their tests and Bailey McCown was forgotten.
Blair quickly nodded and took the pass as she headed outside. She wondered if she should be worried. There was a possibility that the Cortex girl had ratted out on her, but Blair decided to rule that out since she was sure that the Cortex girl wouldn't have waited this long to get back at her and also because she struck Blair as more an underhanded, sneaky and manipulative type. In other words, a backstabber who wouldn't go for her head on.
"Bailey McCown?" Mrs. Barbra, the secretary inquired as Blair stepped into the room.
Blair nodded her face impassive. Mrs. Barbra casually but unmistakably cast her a thorough look over and what she saw clearly left a mark. She quickly composed back into a business-like façade and said, "Mrs. Hastings is waiting for you inside." She pointed toward the office door.
Blair strolled toward it, mystified and more than a little wary. "You called, Ma'am," she said politely as she stood just inside the light and open office. Mrs. Hastings was seated behind her tidy desk. She looked to be in her late thirties or early forties with her light brown hair streaked with gray and a pair of rectangular spectacles rested on her nose. All in all, she looked like a typical scholarly principal.
Principal Mary Hastings nodded, looking up at her, and said, "Sit down, Miss McCown."
Blair sat down opposite to her, her face unreadable but her heart pounding. "Have I done something bad?" She asked bluntly, trying not to let her impatience show on her face.
A brief emotion passed on the elder woman's face, maybe surprise at her bold tone, Blair guessed. "Not bad exactly," Principal Hastings replied, "But it has been brought to my attention that your record of attendance is highly disapproving and your grades below average. At this rate, I'm afraid you will not graduate this year."
'Oh.'Blair felt a bit more relaxed until the words sank down. She jerked up in her seat, alarmed, an emotion finally appearing on her face. "Not graduate?!"
"That's my concern, young lady. I suggest you to not miss another school day." It was an order not a request. "I know that most seniors prefer to skip school and 'hang out' but your attendance is by far the most disappointing I've seen."
You try working two different shifts, get your homework done, learn for some stupid tests and have the strength to wake up the next morning, the snarky reply flashed inside Blair's mind, wanting to lash out any second. "I see," Blair replied instead, cold but polite.
Principal Hastings studied her demeanor which was far too hard for someone so young, a look of concern dawning on her slightly wrinkled face. "Do your frequent absences have something to do with home problems?" She asked hesitating. "Because if-"
A sudden jolt of panic shot through Blair's body. Her heart was definitely pounding now. "Of course not," she interrupted quickly, forcing herself to look at ease, not even caring how rude she had sounded. She succeeded; her face remained unreadable and her voice, the epitome of nonchalance.
Principal Hastings nodded slowly but Blair couldn't tell if she believed her or not. "You can leave now but take this as a stern warning and do not miss another day or fail another test," she paused before adding, "or I might have to talk to your parents."
Parents? What parents? A sarcastic, cynical voice taunted Bailey.
Blair nodded, breathing deeply as she stood up. She quickly turned on her heel and almost fled out, past the startled secretary sitting outside and into the hallway. Once she was out of sight, she leaned against the wall, releasing a long breath. Despair, an old friend, washed over her and it took her a few moments to calm herself down.
She drew her hood back and ran a hand through her hair, thinking hard. She had to cut her shift short if she wanted time to study more, but she had to cut her studies short if she wanted to pay her bills in time.
There was the play too. She desperately needed the extra credit, now more than ever. With numb resolution, Blair dug her hands deep inside her pockets and strolled back to finish her Chemistry test after pulling up her hood again.
****************************************************************************************
"Justine," Megan said after she had stopped banging her head on the table.
"Hmm?" Justine asked her cheek resting against the table top.
"I hate you," Megan said monotonously.
"Same here," a tired looking Nicole agreed, her face cupped in her hands.
"Couldn't agree more," Justine replied with a sigh. "Now I get why there were only nine other people there. Sorry guys."
They all had a free period and decided to spend it on one of the tables in the school's courtyard. Only a few other seniors were sitting there too, while the rest were God-knows-where doing God-knows-what.
"Hey." Blair's monotonous greeting made the three girls look up as she sat down. It took her a moment to take in their mood. "Did somebody die?"
"Yeah," Megan snorted. "Half our brains, maybe?"
"Justine, that's Blair. Blair, Justine." Nicole left the whining to Megan as she gestured back and fro Blair and Justine.
Blair gave Justine a brief nod. "Hi." Justine's meek answering smile was almost comical to Blair.
Without warning, Justine suddenly jumped up from her seat. "Ah, gotta go. See you guys later and nice to meet you, Blair!" Nicole and Megan watched, baffled as she practically ran off.
"What's up with her?" Megan questioned.
"It was me." Blair shrugged nonchalantly. She could tell. She'd already seen it happen half a dozen times before.
"I'm sure it wasn't you," Nicole said hesitantly.
"Right," Blair drawled with a wry lopsided grin.
"She's just really shy," Megan said in a way of explanation.
"So why are half brains dying?" Blair discarded the topic swiftly.
Both Megan and Nicole shared a long suffering sigh. "Justine convinced us to volunteer for tutoring students with her in the tutor club since they were low on staff," Megan started to explain.
"We didn't think much about," Nicole added. "Boy, was that a mistake!" The only good thing that had come out, to Nicole at least was that, Megan had gotten sidetracked from her relentless efforts of getting Nicole to admit who her crush was, although Nicole was sure Megan had pretty clear idea who.
"Basically," Megan answered in reply to Blair's questioning look, "the people we tutor are, as lightly as I can put it, complete and utter idiots!"
"They're hopeless!" Nicole added. "The grade aren't very pretty, but it's like they don't even care of they fail! We just spent this precious free period in almost useless tutoring!"
"You people actually have time to help other people?" Blair asked, almost shocked. She and Reggie hardly got their assignments handed back in time. To be frank, they copied whatever crap sounded half legit.
"Now I don't, with the play rehearsals, the tutoring, Chess Club and the usual school stuff," Nicole was answering, ticking the things off on her figures.
"I joined the same things, minus the play of course. Which might actually be a good thing now," Megan reflected.
"Who the hell joins Chess Club voluntarily?" Blair asked.
"Me, Megan, Justine, Amber Laurence, Kendall O' Brien, Natasha McCarty, Lakshmi Patel, Nico Penrose, Naomi Winthrop, Eric Jefferson and a group of shy sophomores," Nicole said promptly expelling out the familiar names.
Megan laughed loudly at the look on Blair's face. "That was a rhetorical question, Nicky!" Megan exclaimed laughingly.
"Oh."
A brief grin passed on Blair's face at the sight of Nicole's genuine naivety. "For a smart girl you sure don't know enough about sarcasm." Blair's eyes automatically started scanning the courtyard before she realized that she was looking for Reggie. "Hey, do you two know where Reggie is?" She asked Nicole and Megan.
Megan was the one who answered. "Speaking of Reggie, I heard he was the one who brought Aislinn to the fighting spot."
"What fighting?" Nicole and Blair asked simultaneously, the latter in the mild interest and the former in concern.
"Honestly," Megan declared with an exasperated sigh. "Didn't you two hear that Jake Gibson, Aislinn's boyfriend and Danny got into a huge fist fight today during the last period? There was something about a water hose and another guy too, but I didn't get that part."
"I was with you the whole day so why didn't I hear that?" Nicole questioned.
"I heard it from one of the two idiots I was tutoring."
"Reggie had Gym in the last period," Blair said vaguely, almost to herself.
"Then he was probably with Aislinn," Megan concluded. After a brief scan around, she added, "Neither of them are here anyway."
Just then, the bell rang out.
"Ol' Miss Coleman's gonna break a fuse if we're late," Megan commented, quickly getting on her feet for her History Class.
Nicole nodded, standing up as well. "See you later, Blair!"
****************************************************************************************
By the time Aislinn got to her history class, Miss Coleman had already started her lecture. "Thank you for coming late and interrupting my lecture, Miss King," she said sarcastically when she heard Aislinn knock before coming in.
"I'm sorry but I got held up," Aislinn answered politely, trying not to roll her eyes at the teacher's sarcasm. It took some time for her to find a decent outfit in her mess of a locker and before she knew it, the bell rang for the much-dreaded History period. She put the pass Nurse Willow had given her and Alex when they were walking out and headed for her seat at the back, fully aware of the whispers and stares directed at her. The only people who weren't staring at her seemed to be the front benchers, which included Nicole and Megan, and Bree whose head was down, busily scribbling down notes.
"Pssst! Hey, is it true that Danny Clifte and Jake Gibson got into a huge fight over you?" Malory Becks twisted back in her chair toward Aislinn as soon as Aislinn's bottom hit her seat.
Aislinn smiled widely, secretly wishing she could slap the girl's mouth shut. "I have no idea where you got that one, Mal," she answered back innocently.
Before Malory could shoot another question, Miss Coleman's voice rang out, "Miss Becks, if want to continue talking, please feel free to take it outside my class."
"Sorry, Ma'am." Malory turned back to the front of the class, her face flushed as a few snickers broke out.
"Thank you." Miss Coleman gave Malory one last glare before continuing with her lecture. Aislinn hardly had time to think, as she tried to keep up with the merciless teacher's rapid explanations, hastily writing down barely readable words.
Half an hour later, the bell finally rang, mercifully giving the students time to rest their sore wrists. "Bree Mathews, Aislinn King, Nicole Stanley, Megan Stewart and Blake Wesley, I want the five of you to stay back for a few seconds." Miss Coleman called the startled fives' names while the rest of class rushed out, a few of them sending sympathetic looks at the five.
"Are we in trouble?" Blake Wesley, a ginger who usually fell asleep during each History class without fail, asked wide-eyed.
"Not yet," Miss Coleman answered him. "You two are in the tutor club, right?" She turned toward Megan and Nicole. The two nodded back with a dreadful sense of what was going to follow. "These three are going to need your help." She gestured the other three whose fearfully puzzled faces changed to doom-looms-upon-us faces.
"Miss Mathews, your grades have been satisfactory but I noticed that they're dropping lately," Miss Coleman told Bree. Something in her usually stern tone was akin to - to softness, Nicole noted with curious surprise. "Mr. Wesley, I'm sincerely hoping that you'll be able to graduate this year with the grades I'm being forced to give you." At this point, Miss Coleman's face was almost hopeless. "Your grades haven't been up to the mark either, Miss King," Miss Coleman said turning to Aislinn, "and your last three assignments clearly say that you didn't understand the last chapter."
Before any of them could protest, Miss Coleman cleverly dismissed them all with a get-out-my-classroom-before-you-get-detention wave.
"I already have two idiots while you have one," Megan immediately negotiated as she and Nicole quickly gathered up their things, "So you get two out of the three of them!"
"Fine," Nicole agreed grudgingly as they walked out. "But you get the sleepy ginger!" She quickly countered. Megan nodded reluctantly as she glanced over Blake Wesley's huge lanky back.
"Okay, so as routine, you guys fill in these so that we know what periods you have free and we match them up with our own so that we can meet regularly," Megan briskly told Bree, Aislinn and Blake, handing them each a separate sheet out of her bag. "You're with me," Megan said pointing at Blake before turning to Bree and Aislinn, "While you two get Nicky."
"Um, I've been hoping to talk to you about the pl-" Aislinn began, while Megan took Blake aside to quickly arrange for tutor sessions, but was cut off by Bree.
"Yeah, you two can chat later," Bree interrupted rudely, turning to Nicole with a disdainful look. "Listen, I don't need these stupid sessions, especially at the moment, so here's the deal; you report back to Miss Coleman about me when she asks and I, in return, don't waste any of your precious time by studying on my own."
"I'm afraid I can't agree to that," Nicole replied quietly but firmly, looking straight into Bree's pretty brown eyes penetratingly. "If Miss Coleman says you need tutoring, then you need tutoring. If you have a problem with that, talk to Miss Coleman." Even though the last part may have sounded rude, surprisingly Nicole's softly spoken voice did not.
For a second Bree's eyes widened in shock at Nicole's blunt refusal and she felt a little unnerved by Nicole's penetrating hazel eyes. But she quickly regained her posture. "Fine," Bree spat bitingly. She turned to leave but stopped in mid-step and turned back as if remembering something. "Oh, and by the way, Aislinn," the sweet smile on her face didn't match her scathing tone, "Congrats. Two boys? Wow. But then again, I wouldn't expect any less from you."
I wouldn't talk like that about things I know nothing about if I were you. And speaking of boys, which one of us dated and broke up with half a dozen guys each month since freshman year," Aislinn retorted in barely concealed spite. The two former best friends locked in a brief glaring competition before simultaneously breaking off as Bree stalked off to her next class, leaving behind a seething Aislinn.
"You shouldn't be so hard on her," Nicole's quiet voice brought herself into Aislinn's attention again.
"Are you kidding me?" Aislinn demanded. "Did you not just see the look she gave you? Or that she basically passed you off as a lying cowardly nerd?"
"Just shut up and open your eyes, Aislinn!" Nicole suddenly lost patience, partially due to the fact that she was still pissed at Aislinn. Aislinn was left stunned for a moment. Never had anyone in Aislinn's seventeen-year-old life spoken to her with such an open anger. Subtly, tauntingly and discreetly yes, but not so openly. Nicole nodded toward Bree's retreating back and continued, failing to take in Aislinn's expression, "Look at her carefully and tell me what you see."
The sheer maturity in Nicole's voice made Aislinn quickly snap her head toward Bree, who had stopped to talk to a friend. "She looks the same to me," Aislinn answered immediately.
"She's swaying on her own two feet. Even with the thick layers of face powder on her face, I could see the dark circles on her face. Miss Coleman seemed unusually soft while talking to her." Nicole quickly ratted off.
Aislinn frowned at Nicole in Are-You-For-Real way before looking back at Bree. The first thing that struck her was that Bree's skin tight jeans, Aislinn remembered buying them with her, were loose. And she was swaying a little; it was hardly noticeable unless you were looking for it. Bree was 5'3 and probably the shortest senior Aislinn knew, not to mention one of the slimmest.
Aislinn was catapulted back a week or two when she and Bree were practically attached at the hip and one thought stood out: How the hell could anyone that short get even thinner?
"So you think..."
"Yep," Nicole replied with a nod. "That girl is in deep trouble."
****************************************************************************************
Blair swung her bag across her chest, looking for a certain head full of shaggy black hair. Speaking of the Devil.
An arm suddenly came around her shoulders just as Reggie's cheerful voice came out, "Hey, Buddy!"
Blair scowled at him as she shove him away. "Oh no, no, no," she said. "You don't get to be all 'Buddy, Buddy' after avoiding me all day."
"Why? Is something wrong?"
"I don't always need you when something goes wrong, you know?"
Reggie narrowed his eyes. "True, but something is wrong, isn't it?"
It was amazing how he could always read her like an open book. Amazing, yet slightly creepy and unnerving for Blair. "Well, I did get called to the office today," Blair admitted reluctantly.
"What?! Why?"
Blair shrugged. "Nothing too serious. She just wanted to see me about my grades and stuff so I can't bunk school anymore." They started walking toward the auditorium.
Reggie swung his arm around Blair as he asked, "So 'no' to bunking school?"
"I guess." Blair shrugged. "It's okay though. The assignments and tests are starting to rain in any way. By the way," she said as she narrowed her eyes at him, "where were you in the free period? Megan told me that you saw the fight."
"I got ambushed after that," Reggie answered flatly.
"Ambushed?" Blair repeated.
"By girls," Reggie added.
Blair suddenly stopped walking as her eyebrows shot up. "Girls?"
"It gets insulting when you say it like that," Reggie said in a mock hurt tone.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Blair said impatiently. "Get back to the story! What girls?"
"You remember Ash's friend, Sally?" Reggie asked.
"How could I not," Blair replied, recalling the slim gorgeous brunette. "She's the most irritating person I know."
Reggie smirked at her reply. "I thought I was the most irritating person you know?"
"Well, you still are if you don't tell me what happened next!" Blair said, rolling her eyes.
"So after Alex and Ash took Jake and Danny to the nurse's office, I was gonna wait up for Aislinn but other students started to come and ask what was going on. Sally and her friends came up to me and then... she asked me out."
"What?!" Blair exclaimed, astounded. "What did you say?"
"'Oh'," Reggie answered flatly. "I said 'Oh' and ran away when the bell rang."
Sufficient to say, Blair had never laughed as loudly or as for as long until that moment.
************************************************************************
Sorry this took a little longer than it should have, but this stupid cold won't go away! Seriously, who gets sick with a cold in the middle of summer?!
And the poll question is kind of personal, but please don't get offended or something. I've just been wondering about it, so yeah, I'm curious.