HELL-O! THANKS FOR ALL OF YOUR BEAUTIFUL REVIEWS! Especially you, Atherena. Thanks. You matter too!
Also, I'm terribly sorry to say this, but once Winter Break stops and school kicks up I'm probably not going to be able to update as often. I have a few chapters written up for y'all, but just warning you.
Oh, and time to enact PLAN MIGGY! Bwahahahahaaaaaa…
I woke to the shrill pitch of Maya screaming for me to wake up. Oh, right. She didn't have any classes on Monday. Lucky bastard.
She had an outfit laid out on the bed for me. I cringed at the sight of a turtleneck sweater thing that matched her purple one exactly, except that it was black. Ew. Luckily, the alarmingly ripped grey jeans that accompanied it were full-length, even if their fronts were all but completely torn away.
My pure black Convese high-tops had been pulled from a remote location in my room, probably from under eight feet of shitty laundry. Yep, I like my room to be a pigsty. Maya, of all people had the guts to actually dig in and find clothes for me.
"You'd better wear all of it. When you're dressed, I'm going to do your makeup… and accessorize!"
Ew, ew, ew. I really hated being Maya's dress-up doll. I suddenly wished I'd just let Nick terrorize me and ignore him for once, like I was supposed to. I'd really fucked up this time.
Yeah. I'd not only won a once-in-a-lifetime Maya Makeover, but a trip to the school shrink during study hall tomorrow. Hopefully, they would deem me sane and let me go quickly.
"Max, hurry up!" Maya screeched, banging on the door impatiently as I wrestled into the ripped skinny jeans, my toes getting caught in every hole down the leg. "At this rate, you'll only have two hours for makeup before school starts!"
Two hours? Two hours? Give me two minutes on any Monday morning and I'll be ready to go. But two hours? What exactly does her idea of "makeup" include?
"You're a madwoman," I muttered, cursing her as I tried to make sense of the fancy, slutty-looking black bra she was forcing me to wear. I don't even know why, seeing as this fucking turtleneck covers everything… but my stomach.
After five more minutes of attempting to get on the Outfit From Hell, I opened the door, to reveal Maya, who'd probably been there the whole time, listening to me struggle.
"It sounded like you were having sex in there," she said helpfully. I buried my face in my hands, hoping that if I ignored her it would all be OK.
No, it was not OK. Because having your hair blown, straightened, curled, straightened again, and then partially curled in rapid succession is awful. (And then she put it in a "messy bun" that took ten minutes to make – no one was even going to see those stupid curls.) So is being slimed with lipstick that stays on for twenty-four hours, some filmy tan liquid, and several black sticks that got way too close to my eyes. Oh, and I was also assaulted with an eyelash curler more than once.
I really wanted to disappear by the time she was seeing me off at the door, thankfully giving me a "stylish" flannel jacket to tie around my waist for "modesty". The second I was out of her sight, I untied the jacket and buttoned it up like a normal person. It did look kind of stupid because of the turtleneck, which was peeking out of the top and gagging me like some demented, knitted noose; but it was better than going to school half-naked.
I didn't have anything to hide my legs with now. I didn't know if my school had a dress code, but I did know that some of those holes definitely went above the fingertips. Ew, what about in Gym? I don't have any gym clothes, and I can't afford for my sit-up partner to see up the holes.
Legs or stomach? Legs or stomach? I'm going with legs.
I texted Nudge. Get ready to hurl your breakfast, Maya took over my wardrobe and I look awful.
She replied back: Um Maya's my role model, nothing she does looks awful.
I rolled my eyes. Tell that to me once I get to school.
"MAXMAXMAXMAXMAX OH-EM-GEE! IS THAT YOU?"
I winced at the high-pitched screech of Nudge, who stood just inside the school gates. Most of my friend group did – we were, for the most part, misfits. At least, the ones that never got popular. At my school, being weird is normally considered cool, if you can pull it off.
I will admit I'm not cut out to be popular.
Nudge is one of the only people who divides her time between the Preps and the Misfits. She's cool and weird enough to be both.
"Yes, Nudgiekins, It's me," I sighed as she squeezed me into a giant hug. "Um, you're going to kill me."
Iggy ran over. "W-w-what's th-this?" he fake-stuttered. "A prep, here? What's a prep doing over here with us weirdos?"
I rolled my eyes. "Iggy, it's me, Max," I said. "Um, the Maya-fied version of me."
He gasped dramatically as Nudge continued her shrieking. "OHMYGOD YOU LOOK SO HOT!"
"Iggles, can I borrow your hoodie?"
"Uh, no."
"Why? Please." I pleaded with him.
"No," he said, but then I started chasing him. Foolishly, he ran away from me. Poor little Iggles didn't know that I used to run in track and still could run, sorta fast.
We ran across the campus, out to the soccer field. He made it halfway up the steep hill when I tackled him, jumping onto his back.
"Piggy-back ride!" I screeched, locking my legs around his waist. Grumbling in defeat, he hooked his arms under my legs and I wrapped mine around his shoulders. We'd done it many times before – that's what accompanies ten years of strong friendship (and, I suppose, a semi-strong Iggy, even though I only weigh 105 pounds).
"What's it like being tall?" he said, smirking up at me. "Do you now wish you weren't a midget?"
"Well, it's vaguely uncomfortable, but otherwise nice," I said, wiggling in his grip. "And you know perfectly well I wish I was taller." I held on hard as he loosened his hold on me.
"I'll drop you," he warned as we made our way past a large crowd of giggling preps.
"You would not dare, Igneous James Griffiths. I would tell your mother."
He gasped. "You would not!"
Right then, I saw a certain black-haired bastard approach us.
"Asshole at 9-o'clock. Watch out," I said, tugging his hair to steer him away.
"Well, well, well," Nick said, approaching us with a strange look on his face. "Maxiekins, what's the occasion?"
I glared at him from my perch on Ig's back. "A girl can look pretty sometimes, you know."
"Pretty?" he snarled, but it sounded almost half-hearted. "Pretty slutty, yes, but not particularly pretty."
Cue girl wearing a crop top that cropped before her bra even stopped, and a skirt that did a similar thing with her underwear; who latched onto his arm and batted her eyelashes at him.
"You were saying?" I said sweetly.
He rolled his eyes. Iggy took that as a cue to eject me from his back.
"Iggy!" I yelled, picking myself off the ground. But Iggy was stepping towards Nick with a horrible look in his eyes.
"How dare you?" Iggy roared. Nick looked back at him with a disappointingly calm expression on his face.
"How dare I speak the truth? Maxie looks slutty. That's the truth."
I saw Ig's fists curling and I quickly dragged him away from Nick. "Look, I don't need some shining knight to save me from a lowly scumbag. I'm not a fucking damsel in distress. I can beat the shit out of him any time I want to."
"But – "
"Are you sure about that, Maxie? I'm a pretty strong person."
"Shut your face, Nick. I've put you on the floor crying more times than I can count on two hands and a foot."
"By playing dirty," he said.
"Yeah? Want to see what damage I can do, besides making you unable to have children? Believe me, Nicholas, I can do much worse."
His eyes widened. I know right? What could be worse than breaking his dick?
"I can embarrass you in front of your friends," I said. "I can seek revenge upon your face…" I was circling him now.
"For every… single… petty… thing… you've ever done to me," I whispered, close to him. I was slightly surprised at how collected he was, because right then, in that moment, I felt like some unstoppable, sexy, dangerous thing I'd never felt around him before. I'd always felt insignificant and unable to fight before today. Sure, I'd fought with words, but I'd never threatened him back.
Thank you, Maya.
"I can finally show everyone that I'm more than your little victim. I can tell people all of your secrets. I know what makes you twitch, Nick. Two years of trying to stand up to you can tell me things like that."
I opened my mouth but I was stopped.
"Shut the fuck up," he said. Sure, I was bluffing a little bit. I didn't really know what made him twitch, except for being stood up to like this. But saying it made me feel more important.
I leaned in close. "So, what's it going to be? Are you going to back down and look like a little bitch in front of your friends? Or are you going to be broken under my hands for once?"
He finally snapped. "You're the little bitch," he said.
It was then that I heard the "FIGHT!" chant ringing through the crowd that had gathered around us. It fueled me even more.
"WHOA! Whoa, whoa, whoa. Break it up, kids," said some man I'd never seen before in my life. "You know fights aren't permitted on campus."
I glared at Nick. He returned the notion.
"We're finishing this," he said as I took a step back. "Tonight at the old hangar."
I nodded in confirmation.
God, what had I gotten myself into?
dUN dUN dUN… they're going to fight! Hehe…
OMG THAT CHAPTER WAS ALMOST 2,000 WORDS WHICH IS LIKE SO LONG CAUSE I CANT WRITE SO YAY!111111ONEONEoneone
Luce xx
(Btw, HAPPY EARLY NEW YEAR! Here's to having great friends, being yourself, and getting older (but not too fast). And also, sounding really stupid and cheesy.)
Self Promotion: Read "Baking Cookies" by... ME! Just fluff. Stupid fluff...