The Good Girl
Susie Carmichaels has it all. She's smart, pretty and nice, and she has the loveliest singing voice in school. She's the good girl, the girl everyone loves.
Still, it's annoying. After all, despite being the good girl, everyone flocks to Angelica. Angelica Charlotte Pickles.
The good girl is overshadowed by Angelica Pickles.
To be fair, there's something about Angelica that's irresistable. Despite – or is it in spite of? – the fact that Angelica can be mean, selfish, bossy and brutal, she draws attention like moths to a flame. Perhaps it's the blonde hair and blue eyes, but on Angelica, those innocent, sweet features are twisted so that she's a cutting ice queen. Angelica is temperamental and volatile, so shouldn't that annoy people? Then again, she is kind and sweet when you least expect it, if only for a moment before reverting to her awful ways.
Like her or hate her, you're just drawn to her. And that goes for Savannah, her arch rival, Harold, the geeky guy who's hopelessly crushing on her (the way Angelica treats him is outrageous. The sweet boy deserves better than that!), herself...
Even the former Rugrats, who she used to torture, they can't seem to draw away from her.
Susie used to console herself with the fact that she got better grades than Angelica and she was better liked. But what's the point of being better liked than someone when everyone ignored you to be with her. And ever since they entered high school, Angelica was continually besting her – and the whole class – in grades. Susie was suspicious. How did Angelica go from a mediocre – even awful – student, to one of the best students? Susie asked her about it.
"Oh, daddy said that if I ever become class valedictorian, then he'd give me a Porsche/Coach bag/allow me to see New York Fashion week/go to Paris, Milan, London, Venice, etc. etc." Susie was nonplussed. If she had that kind of incentive... But of course, only Angelica. After all, she had that same drive, same determination as her mother Charlotte, who decided she could no longer stay a frumpy housewife, but needed a goal, and direction (and was unstoppable once she got that goal and direction). Angelica herself was the same; once given a goal and direction, she would excel.
And she already had a goal and direction. Too bad it was the exact same one as Susie's. Now Angelica – Angelica – is outdoing her, and she can't do a darn thing about it.
Susie tries to deny it. At least she still has a beautiful singing voice that is far more powerful than Angelica's on-tune, but less melodic voice. But she can't help it. Now Angelica is better than her, and she is plain jealous. So jealous, that sometimes she has wonderful dreams. Wonderful dreams that involve putting Angelica in her place, and teach her not to step into Susie's place. Sometimes they involve a singing competition, where Susie always emerges as the winner and Angelica croaks her way to last place, sometimes it involves Angelica waking up to a face full of zits that propels her to a depression and rabid jealousy of Susie's perfect complexion, and other times the dreams involve her being downright... violent to Angelica.
On second thought, perhaps Susie was not such a good girl after all.
-Fin-