Zoe Taylor sucked in a breath as she got off of the bus and stood in front of the gates to Bullworth Academy.
No sassing or misbehaving, she reminded herself, shutting her eyes, anything that could be taken as disrespectful better be tucked away tight.
She'd been attending Bullworth for exactly one year; and would now begin her freshman year at the academy. Last year, her concluding year of middle school, the academy had appeared in the newspaper for having had the highest test scores in the state. Having read about it in the Bullworth Times, her father had insisted on spending the bulk of the money he'd earned the past two years from his disability compensation checks on getting Zoe into the academy.
Mr. Taylor proceeded as if it were no big deal, but Zoe saw the impact it made. Those compensation checks were the only thing that kept the two of them alive ever since her grandmother had passed away three years ago; after all, Mr. Taylor couldn't exactly work with a missing leg, and he wouldn't let Zoe get a job either, claiming that he rather she focus on her studies. As for Mrs. Taylor? She was too busy blowing as much money she could get away with on clothing and other stupidities. Zoe didn't like to think about her much.
It was the least she could do to stay out of trouble and avoid her father having to deal with avoidable bills.
She made her way to the Girls' Dorm, grateful that she was able to omit the visit to Dr. Crabblesnitch's office this year. Last year, he persisted on meeting with her, as she was one of very few new students. Zoe never knew that being told to keep her nose clean could be so nerve-racking.
As she entered the dorm, she waved at some of her old friends from last year—Christy Martin and Angie Ng. They stood outside the dorm conversing, each carrying decorated pink duffel bags that were undeniably from a high-end store that Zoe couldn't afford to shop from. Self-conscious, she turned away and did her best to conceal her dad's old military duffel bag with her legs.
"Hello, sweetie!"
Zoe smiled at the acquainted, heartfelt voice of the Bullworth girls' dorm monitor, Mrs. Peabody. She was elder and her face was hawk-like, but Zoe was fond of her, despite the infamous reputation she had amongst the girls for being intrusive. Mrs. Peabody reminded Zoe of her own grandmother.
"Hi, Mrs. Peabody," Zoe replied, giving her a toothy smile. She permitted the woman to give her a hug before asking for her room assignment.
"Oh yes, of course!" Mrs. Peabody countered pleasantly, glancing down at her clipboard.
"Taylor, Taylor, Taylor… Ah, yes! Room seven on the second floor, dear. Do you need any help with your bag?"
"That's okay, Mrs. P," Zoe responded mechanically, shifting the bag from one hand to the other, "I can take care of it."
Thirty steps later, Zoe halted in the doorway to her second floor dorm room. She pushed the door open and found herself looking in on her best friend, Mandy Wiles, unpacking from one of her Vera Bradley duffel bags.
"Mandy!"
"Zo!"
The two girls ran to each other and embraced, squealing and jumping up and down with joy, Zoe's long, light red hair soaring up in the air with Mandy's chocolate colored hair.
"We're like, roomies this year!" Mandy cheered, stepping back from her best friend. "Oh my god, your hair's like, so long!"
"I know!" Zoe retorted, taking a lock of her hair and examining it, "I'm… uh, growing it out!"
That wasn't exactly true. Zoe's hair wasn't long so to say… it was unkempt. Her bangs were getting out of control—she kept having to sweep them to the side—and her hair itself needed a serious trim. She tried not to think about the split ends in the back.
"That's such a good idea, Zo," Mandy replied, letting go of Zoe and going back to her bed to unpack, "anyway, you will never believe who I started dating this summer! He's so totally cute, you'll just die when you find out who!"
Zoe giggled, listening as Mandy dove into a long tale of how one day over the summer she, Christy, Casey Harris and Ted Thompson were going to hang out at the beach, but then Casey flaked because he was grounded and Christy had a stomach bug, so it was just Mandy and Ted, and how the beach thing had turned into a date and how then they'd gone off to the carnival and later the lookout point.
Zoe became a bit entangled in the clutter of a story, but she could tell there was a lot of making out involved. She didn't see much of an interesting side to it, but Mandy seemed animated.
She found herself diverted from Mandy's somewhat superficial story and instead started thinking about the differences between Mandy and Zoe.
Mandy was… girly, shallow, and trendy. There wasn't anything she adored more than attention, and she credited herself as the most popular girl at Bullworth Academy. She would get excited over something as trivial as the sophomore Junior Varsity star quarterback giving her the time of day, and she would go off on a long, enthusiastic story about how exactly it happened, down to the most clichéd details.
Zoe, on the other hand, misrepresented herself. She did her best to act like Mandy—girly, shallow, and trendy—but she knew deep down inside that she wasn't really any of those things. She'd been a tomboy since she could speak, and if her dad was right, she was more down-to-earth than shallow. As for trendy? Well, maybe she'd be trendy if she could afford to be. But the fact was she couldn't, so she wasn't.
It wasn't like Zoe could even really talk to Mandy, either. She couldn't tell her that she'd spent her summer working at the docks, or that the reason she washed her uniform every night wasn't that she was a neat freak and that instead it was because she simply only had one uniform. She couldn't even tell Mandy about the haircut trouble.
Once, Zoe had confided in Mandy that she couldn't accompany Mandy on a ski trip because her dad couldn't afford to send her. Mandy had given the thin response of, "Oh… well, why doesn't he just get some more money?"
"Zoe! Are you listening?!"
"Huh?" Zoe asked, hauled back into reality by Mandy's high-pitched voice.
Mandy stood in front of her, hands on hips whilst drumming her foot. "I was telling you about my slumber party next week?" She went back to her bed, turning to her duffel bag and fancy, preppy clothes whilst shaking her head in dissatisfaction at Zoe's unawareness.
Slumber party? "How are you gonna have a slumber party? We all already live here."
Mandy stopped, turning to look at Zoe in a mixture of impatience and disbelief. She studied her for a moment, as if a bit hesitant in regard to if Zoe had really just spoken.
Zoe noted the stare and bit her lower lip in apprehension. She knew better than to go against Mandy's biddings and notions, especially when she was as eager for them as she was about this slumber party, no matter how dumb Zoe thought it was.
Which, happened to be the case frequently.
"I mean…" Zoe tormented her brain for an excuse, feeling the pressure of Mandy's imposing stare, "h-how are you gonna keep that groady chick Beatrice from nerding it up?"
Mandy stared at her for a beat longer before shrugging a little and turning her back to her things. Zoe let out a sigh of relief.
"That's a good point. I don't know, I guess we'll have to make it super obvious that that loser isn't welcome.
Zoe nodded, quickly setting away her small assortment of clothing. "Yeah. Super obvious. Are we gonna have it in the attic?" she asked, thinking back to the cobweb filled third floor. Rumor had it, a girl's ghost lingered there and could be seen each evening at midnight. Zoe hadn't seen it yet, but maybe she could convince Mandy to move her slumber party upstairs so that she could?
"Are you kidding me?" Mandy asked, laughing a little bit, "It's totally gross up there. No way, we're just gonna have it in the common room, I already talked to Mrs. Peabody about it and everything's all set."
Sighing, Zoe did her best to channel an attitude of interest. "Sweet, I was worried that we'd be stuck with those icky spider webs and stuff. Are you get snacks?"
She frowned a little after she spoke, the words and the voice tasting odd on her lips. They just weren't… her.
Mandy didn't notice. "Of course! I'm gonna get enough strawberry yogurts and sushi for everyone. Can you do me a favor?"
Zoe stopped, unsure. Mandy's 'favors' usually consisted of something that violated the rules, something that Mandy didn't want to risk getting in trouble for. Zoe couldn't exactly endanger herself as to getting caught for anything, and she'd been hoping that Mandy would wait at least a month before asking something of her. Last year, she'd come pretty close to trouble with a Beatrice-related prank, and she didn't want a repeat of that scare.
"I don't know…" Zoe said finally.
Mandy scoffed, rolling her eyes. She reached into the desk behind her, pulling out a small pile of invitation cards.
"Stop being such a baby, I just need you to pass out some invites. I already made them, and there's a couple blank ones in case you meet any new girls who seem cool enough. Hand them out for me, please?"
Zoe took the pile, studying the first invitation. 'Pinky Gauthier', it said in Mandy's curly handwriting. She looked back up at Mandy, preparing to tell her no. Mandy knew she didn't like Pinky.
"Pleeeasee?" Mandy repeated, batting her eyelashes. "I'll be your best friend!"
Sighing, Zoe shrugged. She understood that what that really meant was that if she didn't, Mandy wouldn't be her best friend. And if anything, Mandy made Zoe's life at Bullworth much cooler.
"Fine," she said at last, caving in, "I can hand them out during class, I guess."
"Sweet!" Mandy praised, pulling her into another hug.
"Now come on, I've got so much to tell you about how Ted kisses."