"He just makes me so mad." Sabrina said to her friend Gemma as they floated on loungers in the town pool. True to her word, she had gotten the short side of her hair shaved close, and the hairdresser took advantage of her sort of naturally curly hair and fluffed it in a way the shagginess was barely noticeable. It would take months for her hair to go back to normal, unless Daphne did manage to learn that one hair-growth spell hat was used on Rapunzel.
She ran her hands through the short hairs on the right side of her head as Gemma spoke. "Don't do anything rash Bri."
"Honestly, what counts as rash at this point?" She asked. "I just want revenge."
"That's gotta be your fatal flaw." Gemma was a rich spoiled little thing, who, once in an attempt to broaden her horizons, took a philosophy class. It did nothing but cause her to toss around the terms she learned in it.
Sabrina adjusted her bikini top. "What is?"
"Your need for revenge." Gemma gave a calculated hair toss. It was the type to make boys melt, if any had been around. She did it so much it was subconscious now, although it did work. So many times had someone came up to Sabrina in the halls asking for Gemma's number. It was sort of irritating, especially when it was your crush.
"I'm not sure what you mean." She checked to see if she needed more sunscreen.
"Okay, remember when you were at that one party I invited to you, and you were in that absolutely stunning dress I got for like, Christmas or something that never fit me but made you look like a million bucks?"
In fact, Sabrina did remember that dress. She remembered it well, with how the laces and zippers were so hard to figure out she just sort of ended up pouring herself into it. She also remembered strapping a dagger to a garter to wear under it, just in case.
"And remember how that one old creep was like, rubbing your knee? God, that was the weirdest shit. He was like, forty! Ugh, so gross. Anyway, remember how you just took your tea and poured it over his hand?"
That was one of Sabrina's fondest memories.
"And while it totally burned the crap out of that creep with a widow's peak, like honestly, his name had to be Vlad or something. Anyway, while it totally burned him and he had to leave, you also had to pour the tea over your leg since that's were his hand was, and we had to go treat the burns in the bathroom?"
One of the worse things about the self-defense.
"Anyway, like, you're so caught up in making people pay for their wrongs that you also end up making yourself pay."
Sabrina really hated that one philosophy class Gemma had taken now.
"Gemma, I really don't think-" Her sentence was cut off by a loud splash and water shooting over her, drenching her in seconds. She sat up straight on her lounger. What sort of jerk just jumped in without thinking about splashing people? She didn't mind, as she had fallen off her lounger earlier and was still wet, but it was still inconsiderate.
Besides, she and Gemma had a monopoly on the pool. The community pool had two pools: one family pool, which had a heater and was always jam-packed with enough people that you could see a layer of sunscreen floating on the surface of the water, and the Olympic pool. It wasn't heated, and no one but the swim team and Sabrina and Gemma ever swam in it.
She lowered her shades and groaned. "It's Puck."
"Shirtless?"
"Gemma, he's a jackass." She honestly didn't understand Gemma's attraction to Puck.
"He's still hot. Let me at least look. I don't have to admire his personality, just his pecs."
Sabrina let her head drop to the pool lounger. She closed her eyes and let out a soft groan, and got doused with a jet of water. She opened her eyes and glared at Puck, who was lowering a pool noodle from his lips.
She laced her fingers together, dropping them into the pool to collect water and create a makeshift watergun. She aimed for his eye and shot. A few drops got into his eye, and he raised his palm to it. Success.
"Come on Gemma, let's go tan or play badminton or something."
"Oh, come on Bri, you love the pool. Are you really going to let some egotistical man-baby ruin your day?" Sometimes Gemma really hit the nail on the head, and this was one of those times. The words bounced around in Sabrina's head, before she came to a decision.
"No. And I'm not going to let him ruin my summer either."
"Atta girl!" Gemma cheered.
Puck turned onto his stomach and kicked water at Sabrina. She gave him an impressive glare. "Hey, if you're gonna do nothing but splash us, get out of our pool, douchecanoe."
He turned and gave her a stare. She solidified her face into and impassive mask, and thanked herself for letting Gemma pluck her eyebrows. They were shaped turning downward slightly, which seriously added to her glare, even if the process was painful.
Puck grumbled. "It's not even that fun in here anyway."
He climbed out and walked away with loping strides.
"Hon, that was the best stare-off I have ever seen. There is hope for you yet." Gemma broke in.