Disclaimer: I don't own the BSC or any characters,
Teenage Whore
Marilyn Arnold.
I stared at my neat, cursive handwriting at the top of the page. I wondered about whether or not Carolyn was doing her own project. Carolyn is my twin-sister and we're both in the eighth grade. A part of the eighth grade tradition at SMS, is to write a letter to our seventeen year old self for when we graduate high school. I was nervous. In two weeks, I was graduating. I'd be moving onto Stoneybrook High School and I would turn 14. Everything seemed like it was going good, until it was announced last week that Carolyn wouldn't be graduating with me or our class. She had completely failed. She'd have to repeat the eighth grade next year instead of going to high school. Carolyn wasn't always bad. She used to be into science and working out how things worked and then I don't know. We moved to middle school and she had one thing on her mind – boys. She went through most of the boys at our school, before going for high school boys. I heard horrible rumours and Carolyn and I kind of drifted apart. She hung out with the burnouts and I tried out and joined the cheerleadering team, which helped me get into the 'popular' crowd, not that didn't stop me with my studies and extracurriculars. Carolyn was complete opposite to me. When we were younger, we were so identical and together. We were known as 'the Arnold twins' and now we're known as 'Carolyn-the-burnout' and 'Marilyn-the-cheerleader'. The house is quite. Mom and Dad are still out at work and won't be home for an hour or so. I don't know whether or not Carolyn is home yet. I get up and walk out my room. Carolyn's room is just down the hall, I pop my head in and check if she's in there. Nope. Her room is a mess, her floor is completely covered in clothes and various items. I remember when we were kids, Carolyn was the neat freak and I was the slob. Times had changed.
/
Margo Pike is waiting at my locker first thing. She's a little odd, I guess it's from growing up with seven brothers and sisters. She's kind of a try-hard. She follows Cindy, the head cheerleader like she's Jesus and copies anything that's "in". Margo Pike annoys me a lot. "Marilyn!" She called as she saw me. "I need to tell you something!"
"What Margo?" I asked, as I pushed past her and spun the dial on my locker. 31-59-20. I've had the same locker for three years. I couldn't imagine having to move to high school and having to remember another combination. "I don't have a whole lot of time."
"Haven't you heard?" Margo asked. She pulled the strap of her handbag around her shoulder tighter.
"Heard what?" I put my maths notebook in and took my social studies one out.
"About your sister. Benny Ott hit home-run with your sister."
Not exactly what I wanted to hear first thing on a Thursday morning. Not exactly what I wanted to hear about my own sister. "Margo, go away." Margo raised an eyebrow, but took off. How the hell would Margo Pike know something like that? Benny Ott is a dope-smoking skateboarding junior at SHS. No exactly your prince charming. Not that I believed Margo at all. I closed my locker and walked down the hall. Carolyn wasn't at her locker. I wanted to ask her if it was true. But how was I meant to ask? "Hey Carolyn, Margo Pike came up to me and told me that, apparently you and Benny Ott had sex. Is that true?" Not exactly the greatest dinner topic. How are you meant to ask someone that? As I turn the corner, I see the back of Carolyn's head. I watched as she pushed her away into the bathroom. I ran to catch up and pushed the door open. "Carolyn?" I asked. No one else was in here.
"Yeah?" I heard from the furtherest stall down the back. "Who is it?"
I walked up towards the end. "It's me, Marilyn."
"What do you want?" I could smell smoke. Great.
"I...heard..."
"Heard what?" The door swung open and Carolyn was standing there, taking a drag on her cigarette. "What did you hear, Marilyn?"
"That you slept with Benny Ott." I blurted out. Carolyn's expression didn't change except for her eyebrows frowning a little bit. "Is that true?"
"Maybe. I don't have to tell you whether or not it's true." She took a long drag and flicked the cigarette into the toilet.
"I don't want to have to listen to Margo Pike that my sister apparently slept with some dropkick junior."
"Because he's not some brainac or football player, I'm not allowed to associate myself with someone like that? Will it ruin your perfect reputation?"
"I don't have a perfect reputation! I don't care whether or not you do something. It just hurts me that you can't come and tell me anything anymore and I have to find it out from the biggest snitch in school."
"It's not like you tell me anything either. You haven't exactly been so forthcoming with me either. Just face it Marilyn, we aren't eight years old anymore and we aren't trying to act like the same person." She looked at me, through the heavy eyeliner and bangs. "We're not the same person anymore. Get over it." She turned on her heel and stormed out. The door banged heavily.
I turned around and stared into the mirror. I flattened the skirt of my cheerleader uniform. Tears threatened to fall. What Carolyn had said hurt. Had our relationship soured that much? Who knew my own sister would hate me?
/
"I have a situation." I said into the phone receiver. I was on the phone to Charlotte Johanssen, who would properly be considered my best friend. We didn't exactly grow up together in elementary school but since seventh grade, we've been inseparable.
"A situation about what?" She replied.
"A situation."
"Is it about the rumour that's going around that Carolyn slept with Benny Ott?"
I paused. Charlotte wasn't going to tell anyone anything if I told her something. But something was kind of holding me back. "Yes. That."
"Do you think it's true? I mean, I'm not trying to say I think Carolyn would act that way or do something like that, but, she's changed a lot since we started middle school and I know she's your sister and everything but..."
"I don't know. Honestly. People make things up all the time and if it is a rumour, then it's pretty nasty. She doesn't talk to me about anything and she hasn't for a long time. I don't know what to think."
"But think. Your deep-down honest opinion about it. Deep down you know your sister better than anyone else. Do you seriously think she'd do it."
I stared down at my open English textbook. Charlotte had offered something to consider. I heard the front door slammed shut. Footsteps stomped up the stairs. Carolyn's door slammed shut, shaking the whole house. "She's home. Sounds like she's in a pissed off mood."
"Ah, well, I'm gonna go." Charlotte said. "I have heaps of homework to do."
"Yeah, same. I'll see you tomorrow."
"'Kay, bye."
"Bye." I put the phone down next to my textbook. The house had gone back to being quiet. It now felt awkward. It was 4.30 and Mom or Dad didn't come home for another hour or so. Should I get up and go down the hallway to Carolyn's room and demand that she talks to me? Should I just continue on with my English homework? Should I just sit here and procrastinate about what I should do? I dropped my head onto my desk with a loud bang. "Ow."
/
Five days past and Carolyn hasn't said one word or even glanced at me. She spent the whole weekend over at Sara Erickson's house. Sara Erickson was a freshman at SHS. I have no idea how Carolyn met her but when I asked Mom where Carolyn was on Saturday, Mom told me she was staying there. Good thing was that Margo Pike wasn't waiting at my locker again, but Charlotte was. "Hi." I said as I walked up. "What's up?"
"Nothing." She said, leaning against the lockers. "Did you go to the party?"
I looked at her. I usually got invited to parties and dragged Charlotte along. Not the other way around. "Whose party?"
"I don't know, some senior at the high school. I heard that pretty much the whole eighth grade went. Not me though."
"No, I didn't know. I heard something was going on but I had a huge headache and I didn't feel well."
"I heard that Margo Pike was a cadbury and vomited everywhere."
"Ew. Gross. I can't stand vomit."
"Do you know if she went?"
I paused. Carolyn properly had gone. She enjoys people and parties and all of that. I mean, usually every party that happened, she went. Even high school ones. "Properly. I still haven't spoken to her."
"Are you going to?'
"I don't know."
/
CAROLYN ARNOLD GAVE JORDAN PIKE HEAD.
I stared at the horrible black marker etched into the side of the stall in the girls bathroom. Charlotte had passed me a note in Maths, our only class together, telling me that she had seen it during third and fourth period. I asked for a bathroom pass and now, I'm staring it. Fury burned in my body. I clenched my fists. Then I frowned. Why was I so angry? Just because it wasn't about me, doesn't mean... It was because it was about Carolyn. Despite everything, I was still going to stand up for her.
"Oh my god. Did you hear about that Carolyn Arnold?"
I froze. I hadn't heard the bathroom door open. "Yes! Oh my god! What a slut!"
"Two different guys in less than one week. What kind of girl does that?"
"A whore. A dead-set whore."
"I can't believe her, seriously. She's getting a bad reputation."
"I bet after this weekend, we'll hear that she was with a different guy."
"I bet Jordan Pike told everyone. I heard that his sister puked everywhere!"
"I saw that! She literally had one drink and was like, 'Oh, I'm drunk!'. I was like, bullshit!" Footsteps suggested that they left.
I leaned backwards and breathed in deeply. "Fuck." I muttered.
/
I walked up the front steps and walked into the house. Someone else had been home. The mail had been left on the small table in the foyer and I could hear the whirl of the air-conditioner. "Anyone here?" I called out, kicking my shoes off and putting them into the closet. I froze at the sound of glass breaking. I rushed up the stairs, towards the sound. I pushed open Carolyn's door, it re-coiling from the force back towards me. Carolyn stood in the middle of a pile of glass. "What are you doing!"
She looked up at me. "What does it look like?" She sneered. "I'm smashing things."
I looked at her empty dresser top. All of her photo frames were gone. "Why?"
Carolyn stared at me. Her eyes red-rimmed. "Because. I can destroy things so easily. Just like I ruined my reputation." I gulped. "Yes, I know what everyone's been saying behind my back."
"So, you've seen..."
"Yes." She said, her shaking slightly. "I've seen it."
"So have I." I said, looking around. "Is any of it true?"
"Do you want to go and ask Jordan how Saturday night went?" Tears began to fall. "Because I guess he'll tell you everything that happened. Even stuff people don't know, because I bet you he's the one who went around telling everyone I gave him head."
"Oh Carolyn." I said, moving forward catching her in a hug. We dropped towards the ground. Glass crunched underneath my knees. I knew there was cuts there now. "I don't care what everyone thinks."
"But I'm a whore!" She wailed into my shoulder. She clutched at my hair. "I'm the freaking whore of Babylon! Just wait till Mom and Dad find out! They'll properly send me to boarding school!"
"Mom and Dad won't send you to boarding school. Don't be silly. You're not a whore." I stroked her hair the same way Mom does whenever I have an upset stomach. It's one thing in the world that makes me feel loved and comforted than any other way. "A whore gets paid for sex."
"Then I'm slut."
"No. How many people have you slept with? Two? At the most? It doesn't make you a slut."
"I'm thirteen, Marilyn. I thought by sleeping with Benny and Jordan that it would make me seem cooler. I don't want to be some dorky awkward freshman. I want to know people before I go there. I don't want to be an outsider."
"You could never be a outsider. You could never let yourself be like that."
"That's why I did what I did." She grabbed my hand. "What happened to us, Marilyn?" She traced the outline of my knuckles. "We used to be so close. I know we're sisters, but, we were best friends right?"
"Yes, we were."
"What happened then?"
I stared at Carolyn. I loved her but sometimes, maybe your sister isn't meant to be your best friend and that you'll never fully understand the reason for which she acts. "We grew up."
