Beauty and the Beast, the classic fairytale. It had been told and re-told, performed, read at elementary schools across the country. This story is kind of like that, but the characters are off. Beast is the handsome, strong, muscular football player with friends that are just waiting for their chance to ruin his life. Beauty is the unpopular goth girl with issues and a stalker on the football team. How, may you ask, is the story of Beauty and the Beast? Truthfully, it's a lot darker, more like real life, with scenes that not everyone will like. But it has a happy ending, so read on.
-orangekangaroo
Grace and Matt were friends when they were young, mostly because they lived two doors down from each other. When they were little, they would play outside together and their parents were quite happy with their friendship. But people change, and they both changed as they grew apart. Grace's father became rich when his company promoted him, and her family moved to a bigger house in the same school district. Matt discovered an incredible talent at football, one that his father was quick to exploit, placing him in every summer camp and league he could find. And so the two friends grew apart, both changing as they went.
Because of her new found wealth, Grace found it hard to tell why people were trying to friendly. Then her mother died, and her father became distant and busy with work. Grace dressed in an eclectic mix of black and purple "goth" clothes and had some tattoos. She was very unpopular with regards to the school hierarchy, but she was a kind person with a large heart and ears that would always listen and therefore had many friends. Grace was one of those people who could make a laptop do pretty much anything she wanted, and with it she had started her own small app store, adding to her already considerable family money.
Matt became a football star, the quarterback of every team he ever joined. When he and Grace became juniors in high school, he became the varsity starting quarterback. He had many "friends" that only put up with his self-important attitude because of his popularity. Matt didn't realize it, but his so called "friends" all hated him, and were just waiting for the right time to bring his life crashing down. But as it was, he and his friends tortured any students too unlucky to be in their path, including Grace. Matt still remembered their long-ago friendship, but he dismissed it as a childhood phase.
This story actually begins at the beginning of their senior year, amidst the scramble of college apps and prom preparations. At this point, Grace and Matt never spoke unless Matt was bullying her. So when they were paired up in biology 2 as lab partners, neither was happy. This was the beginning of a new chapter for both of them.