Beneath the beauty
The cafeteria was crowded with laughing and shouting kids. The noise was unbelievable. Claira was happily gossiping away with the other "popular" kids as she ate her perfect lunch. But even as she talked and laughed and ate, she could not help but notice out of the corner of her eye one girl who was sitting all alone. Her head was bent down low, her long black hair and think round glasses shielding her sad eyes. The girl looked up and locked eyes with Claira before swiftly looking away. Claira felt a stab of guilt about what she had done to poor Asha Stuart.
It had all started a month ago, when the official date for the semi formal had finally been set. Claira and her friends walked into their sixth period class and sat down in their usual seats, at the very back of the class. It was history class with Mr. Bra. Everyone thought he should have become a math teacher, however, as his full name was Al G. Bra. Mr. Bra was extremely boring. He would spend the entire class droning on and on about roman wars, hardly ever lifting his nose out of the textbook. Everyone knew that this was the perfect time to have any conversations with their friends that they wished, as long as they kept their voices down. Which was exactly what Claira and her friends were doing.
"So Claira did you pick out your dress for the semi yet?" Lory, Claira's best friend, asked.
Claira neatly tucked her blond hair behind her ears and smiled. "Duh, and it's so totally hot! You so need to come over after school to see it!"
She seemed as excited about this dress as a little kid would be about a new puppy. She turned to Taylor. "So, I've heard your going with Dominique?"
Dominique, sitting across from her, turned and looked at Claira with a look of amusement on his face. Taylor rolled her eyes and laughed, "No way!"
Then, she added with a smile, "But I know who wants to go with you!"
Jonathan brushed non-existent dirt off his shoulder and grinned slyly. "The entire female population wants to go with me!"
Taylor looked at him, and, after a bit of a chuckle, added, "Including Asha Stuart. She was staring at you all through calculus!"
Jonathan's face went blank. "Who's Asha Stuart?" Then, he added, slightly hopeful, "Is she hot? Wait is she the new student that has nasty accent. "
George, Dominique's "home fry", who shared the same look on his face, said, "Yeah, is she?"
Lory and Taylor both laughed cruelly and said in unison, "she isn't the accent one but look for yourself," as they pointed across the room.
The two boys looked across the room. Asha appeared to be the only one who was paying any attention to the lesson. She was taking notes furiously, scribbling very fast while looking at the notes she just made. She had long, oily, scraggily black hair, big, round, think, pop bottle glasses (complete with duck taped center) and had a serious acne problem all around her face. George let out a loud snort of laughter as Dominique screamed as if someone was about to brutally murdering him. Every head in the class whipped around to look at them, who were now howling with laughter. Everyone, that is, except Mr. Bra, who was still droning on, slightly louder, from the text book, not even having looked up at the students.
When they had stopped laughing, Dominic whispered, "She has absolutely no chance with me! That thing is a hideous beast from under a rock. She isn't a girl that…that thing is an it!"
George, trying to be nice, said, but, as though he did not believe it, "Oh, come on, that's not nice…I mean…she isn't that bad…" and then, trying to hold in his laughter, "Ok, well, maybe she is pretty bad, but still..."
Claira burst out laughing. "Nice try, George. You always try to be so nice but it will hurt you someday!"
As the bell rang to signal lunch break, the cool crowd exited the classroom, laughing and talking loudly. It wasn't until they were halfway to the cafeteria that George realized he left his binder in the classroom. He told his friends he would catch up with them later and headed back to find it. When he reached the classroom, he noticed a note sitting on top of his binder. He curiously picked up the note and unfolded it. The following was written in pink pen, with writing that was barely legible:
"Meet me at your locker. NOW."
George flipped over the paper, looking for more writing, or even a signature, but there was nothing else. He thought for a moment. Well, he had to go to his locker anyway to put his binder away, so he thought, "Why not?"
As he made his way towards his locker, he began to feel worry of as to whom was waiting for him there. What if it was a rapist? Or a druggy? Or, and to him, this was the most terrifying suggestion of all, Barney the dinosaur? As he turned the corner, he was absolutely petrified. His heart was beating in his throat. That short turn seemed to take an eternity. Then, he was around the corner as he braced himself for who would be standing there waiting for him. And he saw…no one. No one was there. George breathed a sigh of relief. Good, it had only been a joke.
He walked over to his locker and did his combination. He opened it up. Then, he jumped back in horror. Sitting in his locker was the ugliest looking girl he had ever seen. He screamed. "AHHH!!! RAPIST IN MY LOCKER! DRUGGY IN MY LOCKER! OUT OF MY LOCKER! OUT OF MY LOCKER! AHHH, THIS IS SCARIER THAN BARNEY! AAAAHHHH"
Yes, the girl certainly was scarier than even Barney. She made Asha look gorgeous in comparison. She had distorted features and big, thick, bushy eyebrows that met in the middle (aka unibrow). Her face was covered with the most disgusting, pus-filled zits George had ever seen that leaked puss and blood. She had thick, even had old womens' like glasses than Asha's (which is really saying something) covering her eyes, which were puke green with hints of brown. Her messy hair was a muddy brown color and was cut unevenly, making it stick out in odd angles. It was extremely frizzy. But that wasn't all. She was obviously trying to be hot and beautiful, but was failing desperately (but she did not appear to notice). She was wearing a short leather skirt that had some odd looking fungus around the bottom and fishnet tights with rubber rain boots. She was quite a sight to see.
She smiled, reveling crooked, yellow stained teeth. "Hello, Georgey!"
George all of the sudden dropped all signs of being afraid. "Georgey? What the-?"
"I saw you looking at me today in class, Georgey-kins!" He noticed that she seemed to have more saliva than most people, it collecting on her lips and spraying at him when she spoke. She advanced on him, and he back up into the hall, looking even more scared then before.
"Oh, I-I wasn't l-looking at you. Wait, hold up," George stopped moving back and starred at her, with a look of disgust on his face. "Georgey-kins?"
She began advancing on him again. This time, it was the look of hunger in her eye that freaked George out. He backed up, absolutely terrified. She was still coming closer. He backed up more. She came closer. He backed up. She came closer. He backed up. She came closer. He backed up…right into a locker. He had no where to go. She was getting closer to him. He now realized that, not only she was spitting as she talked, but she was also very smelly. She pressed her body up against him. He felt like she was invaliding his personal space VERY much. She leaned in closer to him, and whispered, "You know, it was the fact that you snort when you laugh that attracted me to you in the first place. I do too." She then snorted. "See?"
"Well..I…eh…I d-don't always snort, just sometimes when something it r-really funny…" George tried to push her off of him, but she had latched on and was not letting go.
She snorted/laughed again. "Oh, you're silly. But enough talk." She then leaned closer. Her face was coming ever closer to his. He began to panic. He could see she had a piece of broccoli stuck in her teeth. He was disgusted. He could smell her foul breath. It was enough to make anyone barf. Kissing that would be like a gas chamber! How could he not kiss this foul creature? How could he escape?
She was even closer now. Her breath was even more horrible than ever. He had to do something about it! George reached into his pocket and held up a pack of tic tacs. He shook them. "Umm…excuse me, but could I interest you in a tic tac?"
She frowned. "What's a tic tac?"
He looked at her, dumbfounded. What kind of freak doesn't know what a tic tac is?
"It's a type of candy that freshens your breath, " he explained.
"Really, now? May I see these, oh, what did you call them, tic tacs?"
He hastily handed her the tic tacs. Luckily for him, her fascination with the tic tac package lasted long enough for him to make his escape. As soon as he reached his friends he told them what had happened. While Lory, Taylor, and Claira thought it was hilarious, him and Dominique thought it was terrifying.
"You just don't understand!" Dominique said, just as the bell to signal the end of lunch rang. "If you were a boy, you would. But not if you are a girl! Which you are…" Then, he added with a grin. "Aren't you?"
Taylor smacked him upside the head. "OW! What was that for?" Dominique yelled glaring at her.
"For being you…for just being you…" she smirked.