Disclaimer: I do not own the Clique.
Disclaimer: I do not own this story, it was written by my friend Darling Juju.
BOCDHS
Guidance Class
April 12th
11:22 A.M.
"They
are going to be here too..." Alicia Rivera
whisper-hissed into Olivia Ryan's elf-like ear, angrily clamping her
hands together and sighing.
Kemp Hurley leaned Josh Hotz to
glance at the two hot girls and whisper.
"It's okay, I bet she won't pay attention," Olivia Ryan assured her, quickly taking a seat in the front.
Alicia followed her reluctantly, looking around the small room, Room 104.
"Is this guidance?" A small, chipmunky voice spoke from the doorway, nervously scanning the classroom and gulping as she clamped her small hand over Chris Plovert's.
Claire Lyons, everybody.
"Move
it Lyons, "Kristen Gregory rolled her eyes, adjusting her
mini-skirt and hiking down her totally clichéd cheerleader outfit.
Her posse, Coral McAdams and some unidentifiable blonde girl, giggled
and pushed past Claire and Chris without as much as a hello.
"Excuse
me, these are our seats." Kristen's butter-blonde ponytail swung
annoyingly as she stood with her hands on her hips, standing above
Olivia and Alicia demandingly.
Alicia was about to open her
mouth and tell the once-bookworm to stuff it but Olivia, not wanting
to start a scene, dragged Alicia back a row.
"Is this room
304?" Dylan Marvil, who had dyed her hair black to match her
artsifartsiness, asked, accompanied by her new biffles, Layne Abeley,
Heather Stalks, and Meena Farkas strolled in, all wearing hair
mascara and giggling loudly.
"Yes it is," Ms. Hanover,
the Guidance Counselor, rushed in, her eyes wild and her hair
frazzled."Sorry. I had a meeting with a senior parent who was
insisting I send some silly Academy a good reputation." She
assembled her papers and strolled up to the desk at the
front.
Derrick Harrington had rushed in with her, Cam Fisher
several meters behind him.
"Okay. Ms. Abeley?" She
peered up, her hazel eyes looking at the teacher and nodding.
"Miss
Block?" Ms. Hanover looked up, and everyone looked at their
fingernails, their hearts beating and thumping in their chest like
Cookie Olsen at Danny Robbin's party last week.
"Here."
Massie stepped in, and Ms. Hanover pursed her magenta-colored lips
then shook her head, calling out attendance while everyone stared at
Massie.
Kristen snickered. Alicia struggled to make eye contact.
Claire shivered. Dylan pretended to scribble.
"So today,
we're going to talk about grudges-no not the movie."
Claire
managed a weak smile at the cheesy and crappy joke, and Ms. Hanover
smiled at her encouragingly.
The teacher removed her Prada
glasses and stood at the board, reclining up against its chalky
surface confidently. "We're also going to be talking about
regrets and revenge." She announced.
Everyone seemed to shift
in his or her seat. Even Kristen stopped obnoxiously talking to Kori
and Coral to look at the scuffed desk in front of her.
"Great."
Alicia sighed, breezily glancing at Massie, who caught her eye. A
spark lit up in both of their spines, but they turned away like it
was a mosquito bite.
"I want you each to write about your
deepest regret. No names. Anonymously...and throw it in this bucket
when you're done." She motioned to the pink, glittery
bucket.
Everyone stared at it, and Ms. Hanover clapped her hands.
"Get working."
They all looked out the window, refusing
to write their regrets in their own penmanship.
Massie was the
only one who wrote like her life depended on its length.
"Why
is no one writing or throwing it in the bucket?" Ms. Hanover
asked impatiently after ten minutes had passed. "I'll give you
all five more minutes, or I'll take more drastic actions."
Kristen
and her all-blonde posse sniggered, and Kristen winked at Derrick,
who grinned a floppy smile back.
No one picked up his or her
pens. No one looked at each other after that. No one moved. No one
breathed.
"Fine. Seeing as Miss Block has been the only one,
and considering that tomorrow I have the joy of having guidance with
you all again, I want you to write A PAGE of this assignment. And
tomorrow you're all reading them aloud. Have fun," she said,
smiling sweetly as she heard the very loud and obnoxious
groans.
"Why? I have physics homework!" Kristen lied
thoroughly.
Ms. Hanover narrowed her hazel eyes and clicked her
heels over to where Kristen was seated. "Miss Gregory, right?"
She said, strangely knowledgeable.
Kristen nodded and flipped her
blonde hair. Dylan clutched her fists, as if restraining herself from
whacking Kristen right in the head.
"You don't take physics.
You take Chemistry," Ms. Hanover said, and Olivia giggled
delicately, earning herself a fairly wicked glare from Kristen.
"I
mean-Chemistry homework. You see, I was helping my friend Skye
Hamilton with her physics homework last period." Kristen said,
clearly not used to being ragged on my teachers.
"How would
you know if you had homework? I see you ditching while everyone
else has chemistry," Ms. Hanover fired back, and everyone held
their breath.
Kristen turned bright red, then picked up her
knock-off Fendi and stormed out, her group quickly behind her.
"I'm
outta here," Kristen slammed the door shut, and the room seemed
to shake for a few minutes. Silence.
"Anyone else want to
make false excuses, or will I see everyone's assignments here with
them tomorrow?" She asked, and everyone nodded
slowly.
"Perfect." She smiled sweetly, a dab of dark red
lipstick streaked across her otherwise perfect teeth, and the bell
rang, shrill and cutting.
"Whoa, did you see that?" Josh
Hotz said, talking with Kemp and knocking over Alicia accidentally.
"Oh shit." He looked like he wanted to run away.
"Shit."
Alicia cursed loudly as her books tumbled to the floor. She picked up
her English notebook and then looked up. "Livs, can you get my
lunch? The usual."
Olivia nodded and darted out. Kemp
smirked.
"Well howdy Miz Rivera. I thoughts youse were
dead," he mocked loudly.
"Shut up." She glared
ferociously at him as some sophomores entered the room. She picked up
the rest of her books and dashed to the cafeteria.
Olivia had
already retrieved both lunches and was seated at the very small Table
2. Alicia slid in next to her and glanced across the cafeteria.
"Do
you love my painting or do you love it?" Meena asked, proudly
displaying her painting of baggy cargo pants and white stained
tee-shirts.
"Um, ew, someone call the fashion police."
Dylan spat out before she could hold her tongue. She felt the color
rising to her hot cheeks and took a sip of her water to try to cool
off. "I mean-"
Layne's olive eyes glared at her. "Did
you just say a Massieism?" She scold-barked angrily. "Are
you freaking kidding me?" Dylan brushed her arm across her jeans
and sighed." It slipped. I'm sorry. Very nice painting." She
apologized to Meena, whose eyes were getting blurry with
tears.
"It's hard being popular." Kristen sighed,
earning herself a round of agreeing sighs from Coral and Kori.
"That
was sick, what happened in guidance." Kemp dug into a plate
lobster mac 'n' cheese happily, cheese oozing out the sides of his
mouth.
"True." Derrick kissed Kristen on the mouth, but
it felt all-wrong. It tasted like malice and wine and that weird
grape Vitamin Water she loved.
Kristen looked around herself and
felt a pang of something she couldn't quite remember.
Massie sat
at the farthest table away from them, watching them and feeling like
a ghost. Her amber eyes were red-rimmed thanks to her lack of sleep
last night, and the night before, and she yawned and bit into her
ham/Swiss sandwich, it down with some Perrier, watching all her
friends.
Ex-friends.
She took out a sheet of loose-leaf and
began to write, dissolving herself in the story. Except this wasn't
some stupid fairy tale for her cousin or a short story for English.
This was her life. Her story.
"My
friends and I used to be the Pretty Committee, all fabulous and
beautiful and rich. And friends. We all loved each other, the best of
friends. Until my birthday party in August, when I caught a member
making out with my boyfriend at the time.
I
kicked her out of the Pretty Committee, and she was SO pissed that
she exposed some of my deepest secrets to the others. My best friend
found out that her at-the-time boyfriend had been cheating on her
with yet another member of the Pretty Committee. My friend from
seventh grade was so scared; she took the ex-member's side. The
ex-member then ditched her, ridiculed her in front of everyone, and
became a cheerleader. My best friend forever scorned my other friend,
broke up with her boyfriend, and started hanging out with one friend.
My other friend never pursued that boy, and she became an artist. My
seventh grade buddy became sort of a loner, like me. Somehow, all the
boys and girls hated me. My deepest regret? Losing them all.
Actually, seeing them so different in a matter of months-and losing
them in the process."
Massie
looked up and faced the crowd the next day in guidance, and she was
surprised to feel the tears sliding down her eyes, and Ms. Hanover
staring at her and handing her a tissue.
"I have a feeling I
know this story well, which is why we're going to stop here and move
to our next topic." Ms. Hanover picked up a purple piece of
chalk and wrote a word on the board in all caps.
FORGIVENESS
"Forgiveness is the key to solving regrets," Ms. Hanover explained. "Forgiving yourself, forgiving others. So for our next-"
"Wait.
Are you telling me that you made me write this for nada?" Kemp
slammed his paper down, pouting and coating his puffy butt-lips in
lemon-moisturized chapstick.
"Yes Mr. Hurley," she
smiled. "For nada."
"Bullshit," he mumbled,
tearing it up.
"So for our next activity, I want you all to
'I'm sorry' to yourself in a letter. It must be done by the end of
the period," she continued.
To avoid getting homework once
more, everyone scribbled like mad. But they felt eyes watering and
hearts leaking.
Dear
Kristen,
I'm sorry for making you not do your homework. For losing your scholarship, for trying that cigarette from Debby Reynolds. For dating your ex-best friend's boyfriend and making out with him. For laughing at other people's pain...
Dear
Dylan,
I'm
sorry for making yourself lose who you are and for joining those
dorky "artistes". For dying your hair and dating Josh and
hurting Alicia. I'm sorry...Dear
Derrick,
I'm
sorry for making you leave Massie, for dating Kristen, for never
speaking out like you used to, for quitting soccer for football, for
losing every value you have...
Dear
Josh,
I'm sorry for being so horrible to Alicia and for cheating
on her with the fat-ass. And I'm sorry for calling people
fat-asses...
Dear
Kempost,
I'm sorry for looking up Kori's skirt and blaming it on
Josh. I'm sorry for cursing at Kristen when she ditched me. And I'm
sorry for blaming my Playboy subscription on Dad...
Dear Alicia,
I'm
sorry for whatever I've done to exclude Massie Block. For making fun
of Dylan. And for slapping Meena in gym that one time. /But I swear
that was an accident...
Dear
Olivia,
I'm sorry for making you take over Alicia's weakness and
making her your friend when the PC was done and done. I'm...
Dear Claire,
I'm
sorry for making you become the person you are today, and I'm sorry
for stealing Chris Plovert from Kristen and making her date Derrick,
which led to the end of the PC. I'm sorry for changing myself just to
fit in...
Dear
Chris.
I'm sorry for making you leave Kristen for Claire, and for ditching Derrick's crew, and for making fun of everyone...For changing so rapidly...
Dear
Cam,
I'm sorry for making you stay quiet and be like Switzerland
and not take a side. Screw you, but I'm really sorry for
everything. And for looking down Alicia's shirt that one time...
Dear Kori,
I'm like sorry for ditching my old buddies and everything else. BUT YOU HAVE AH-MAZING HAIR...
Dear
Layne,
I'm
sorry for making you make Dylan so uncomfortable when it's so obvious
she misses her old friends. And for cheating off her on your U.S.
history exam...
The girl who loved to write dearly had the least to say, and in truly oxymoronic fashion, had the most to say.
Dear Massie,
I'm sorry.
