Angelica was in the art room during a free period. She wasn't usually interested in art, but she was in the room specifically because her crush, Darryl, was in it. He was in there now speaking to Drew, who had come by just to talk before his next class. "I can't believe we both got nominated this year." Drew commented.
"We both got nominated last year." Darryl reminded his friend.
"Oh yeah." Drew replied in his usually lazy drawl. Then both young men laughed. Drew turned to Angelica, who was leaning on her elbow at one of the wooden worktables. "Good luck, Angelica. It's going to be a tough one this year. I don't know who I am going to vote for yet myself. Besides me."
"Well, then let me tell you-Me, of course." She said batting her eyes.
"What was the name of that other guy who was nominated? Finster?" Drew asked. He didn't hear Angelica grumble as she hung and shook her head.
"Charles...or something. That name sounds familiar." Darryl thought a moment and then it came to him. He snapped his fingers. "Angelica, isn't he your cousin's friend? The one with the braces."
Angelica rolled her eyes. "Yes. I don't know how he got nominated. I bet that Tommy is behind this."
"Wrong!" Came a female voice from behind the door. The door swung open and Lillian DeVille swaggered into the art room. She regarded them all, but her eyes fell upon Angelica. "I am." She then gave Angelica a smile of triumph.
"Lil DeVille. Well well well." Angelica tapped her fingers on the table. "I didn't think you had it in you. He'll never win. He's too much of a nobody."
"No, Angelica, that's exactly why he will win. He's going to beat out you..." She pointed at Drew. "and you." She then pointed at Darryl. The two looked at each other and laughed. It didn't change Lil's demeanor, though. "He's going to win because the people are taking back this contest."
"Whatever." Angelica sighed. "What are you doing in here anyway?"
"Making posters." Lil replied, going to one of the tables with posterboard and paints.
"It's going to take more than a stupid poster to put a crown on Chuckie's head."
"How about you, Angelica? Savannah is much more popular than you and she's got better hair." Lil said, which made Angelica quickly check for split ends in her blond tresses. Finding none, she pretended like Lil's comment about her hair didn't bother her sensitive self image.
"Making personal attacks is the first sign that you've lost the argument, Lil." Angelica rebuttled.
"Then you have never won." Lil replied and then moved to another table to be away from Angelica. Angelica was taken aback. Lillian DeVille always had sass, but she'd never been this snarky before. There may be hope for the girl yet. Angelica had no other reason to stay, other than to stare at Darryl, and so she gathered her purse and left the room.
Harold was in the hallway, almost as if he'd been waiting for her. Angelica simply dropped her purse upon him without a word and Harold carried it. He was always her willing slave. "What are you going to do about Lil DeVille?" Harold asked.
"Nothing. I could care less about what she's doing. There's no way Finster is going to beat out Darryl and Drew, so it's a non-issue. Savannah and Tiffany is what our focus is on. We have to think of something to make them look bad so that I look good by comparison."
Susie then came up from behind them and fell in line with Angelica and Harold. "Why don't you just do good things to make yourself look good instead?" She suggested.
"What?" Angelica looked at Susie like she'd just grown a third head. "But that would be sooooo hard!"
"And trying to find Savannah looking bad is easy?"
Angelica raised both of her hands as if weighing the pros and cons of each option. Finally, she looked back at Susie. "All right, making myself look good may be just a tad bit easier, but that's because Savannah is so sneaky." She then stopped and turned to her friend with her hands clasped, "But, I need your help with this one. No one is as goody good as you."
Susie rolled her eyes and then said in an annoyed tone, "I'll try to take that as a compliment."
"So you'll help me?"
"Sure, Angelica."
"Yay!" Angelica cheered, taking the moment to raise her fist in glory.
Then, out of the corner of her eye she saw Finster crossing the hallway in front of them. Her fist fell. She grumbled and said to her hallway walking buddies, "I'll be right back."
Angelica stalked down the hall behind Finster until he turned off around the corner. Now people were going to their classes so there was no one around. Chuckie knew that he'd be late for class, but even so he stopped in his tracks when he heard his name. "Finster!"
He turned around to find Angelica facing him in the empty hallway. Her hands were on her hips and her platform sandals planted shoulder width. This reminded Chuckie of a standoff. "Pickles."
"Don't think for a moment that you are going to win this..." She then started towards him, the thick heels of her sandals echoing in the empty hallway. "...Chuck. I have all of my friends voting for Darryl."
Chuckie's eyes narrowed, but he refused to let Angelica get him down. He was trusting this in the hands of Lil, and Lil had never let him down. Angelica, seeing as Chuckie had no comeback for her, assumed she was one step ahead. "I'm going to bury you, Finster. They'll have to pull you out of the sand by your braces. Though, honestly, it's barely worth the bother. The idea of you as King is laughable."
Chuckie then took a few steps forward himself. He dropped the bag held over his shoulder upon the floor. "You said so yourself that I could be cool if I only realized it."
Angelica then stopped right in front of him. If she was not wearing platform heels that made her look taller, they'd actually be the same height. "I didn't mean it. I was incoherent from lack of sleep."
"Just like you didn't mean that kiss?" Chuckie then blurted out, though as soon as he did he immediately regretted it. He put his hand over his mouth but it was too little too late. The words had already flowed forth.
"Shut it, Finster!" Angelica growled at him, her pupils dilating like a woman possessed. "I told you that if you told anyone I'd kill you."
"I didn't tell anyone." Chuckie said, more calmly now. He looked down, unable to meet her eyes.
"Not even Tommy?"
"Not even Tommy." Chuckie confirmed. No, he hadn't even told his best friend, although he really wanted to. He ached to tell Tommy. Tommy would have words of advice. Tommy at least had a girlfriend before. That gave him one up in understanding women, and being related to her also gave Tommy one up on understanding Angelica.
"Good. Forget it ever happened."
"Why did it happen, Angelica?" Chuckie had to ask in a last ditch effort to get her to talk about it. The truth was, it wasn't easy to forget. Chuckie had sat up at night thinking about Angelica's lips on his, the look in her eye, even the way she'd sat on the desk. For that brief moment Angelica hadn't been...well...Angelica. She'd been soft, caring, exciting, and wonderful. Like she had actually, kind of, liked him. She'd made him feel something that not even Nicole had made him feel. It was made even more confusing with the fact that this was Angelica. She was his best friend's cousin. She was also not the nicest person he'd ever known. Though he would say that Angelica had gotten better over the years, she was still his nemesis.
But now, with the kiss, his preteen hormonal body was forcing him to see beyond that. He looked at her now and she wasn't just Angelica Pickles-obnoxious cousin to Tommy and antagonist to them all. She was a girl. She was a pretty girl. A really really pretty girl. Beautiful even. She could even be caring and... No! Chuckie urged his mind to not go there right now.
Luckily, Angelica scolding him helped that. "Finster, forgetting it ever happened means NOT TALKING ABOUT IT! EVER!" She then turned on her heels and walked away. Chuckie just let her. He'd never figure out Angelica, and if she thought it was a mistake, it may make it easier for him to push it out of his own mind. Though, not likely.
As Angelica walked past, her nose up in the air, she hadn't noticed that Harold was around the corner with her purse, and that he'd heard everything.
