Here it is, the newest instalment to 10 Things I Hate About You! I'm straying a bit from the film in this chapter, but hopefully it still fits well with the story...
Enjoy!
The Party
Rachel frowned as her sister entered her room without even knocking. Her room was white with a dark purple wall where her bed was and a lavender wall adjoining it. Her room was sparsely decorated with a towering bookshelf as the main feature. Her bed was a large circle with a circular headboard supported by her dark purple wall. Her desk was across from the bookshelf, to the right of the bed. Her laptop sat atop her desk as she was about to get up to write. But, when Tara burst in, she was on her bed meditating.
Cautiously, Tara sat on the soft black sheets of the bed, near her sister. Her only response was to open one eye and look at her sister, enough of a response to let Tara know that she was, in fact, paying attention but that she was not happy about having to do so.
After a brief moment, when Tara said nothing, Rachel snapped a curt, "What?"
"You know, you could have so much potential buried under these dark layers," she commented, "I bet Kori could give you an excellent make-over. People wouldn't know what to think."
Rachel sighed, it had been like this for the past few days since the rule change. Tara had decided a change of tactic was necessary so she had tried 'being nice'. She would try to goad Rachel into wearing something beautiful, like one of her sundresses, or offer Kori to give her a make-over. Rachel knew that it must be difficult for Tara but she couldn't help but be bothered by these requests.
"No, Tara. I don't care what people think, remember? And I'm not changing myself so I can get a guy. Believe it or not, but I don't care," she replied sternly, hoping to put an end to the discussion.
"Everyone cares a little about what others think," she commented meekly.
"I don't. You know, you don't have to be who they want you to be, either," she offered.
"I happen to like being adored," she commented, "you should try being nice as well. It's nice being liked."
Rachel snorted, "Thanks for the advice."
Closing her eyes, she eventually heard a rustle as her sister departed. She let out a thankful sigh and fell back onto her bed, thinking about it all. She was glad that Tara didn't pay attention to what she did in school, otherwise, she would have been extra persistent after hearing about Richard.
Richard...
Ugh, she groaned. Why was he making her life more complicated? She had a feeling that the display at soccer this afternoon was only the beginning. After mulling it over, she smiled to herself. She was incredibly stubborn, there was no way he would continue to ask her out after a few humiliating rejections. There's nothing to be worried about, he's only a minor disturbance that will eventually go away she thought to herself, glad that her meditations had come in handy yet again.
The next day, Rachel nearly jumped when, upon slamming her small, blue locker closed, she saw Richard leaning there. Today he wore an ensemble of lose black jeans, a black wife-beater and a dark blue button-up shirt over it. Of course, the shirt was completely unbuttoned, but Rachel got the feeling this was the most dressed up he'd ever gotten for school.
Quickly regaining her composure, she asked icily, "What do you want?"
"Go out with me?" he asked, his tone unwavering in her chilly presence.
"No. Go away," she replied, firmly, hoping to see his retreating figure. Instead, he put his forearm on the lockers above her head and, unfortunately he was about a foot taller than her, and brought his face near hers. He almost smiled at the way she tensed up at the unusual proximity.
He narrowed his eyes and darkly stated, "You know, I'm not going to stop asking until you say yes, right?"
Still very stiff looking, she all but snarled, "And, you know, I'm not going to say yes."
"So it seems we are at an impasse," he replied.
"Fine," she huffed, "You can ask me out as long and as often as you like, the answer will still be no and you'll just look like a fool. Be my guest."
With that, she ducked out of the area he had trapped her in for the conversation, disappearing among the other students in the hall.
Sitting in her AP Chemistry class, Rachel mused what the hell was that about?
She was happy for the fact that she shared the class with her best friend, Jinx. A good part of her desperately wanted to talk this situation over with Jinx, however, that would be admitting that we was, in fact, getting to her. And it had only been two days.
No, she would not acknowledge that anything had changed. Pursing her lips, she looked down at her desk with determination. She was wrapped up in her thoughts when she saw a piece of paper flutter on to her desk.
It was pink and folded into a simple origami frog. Rachel looked up at her friend, who today wore a long, floor length black and pink dress with a jean jacket. Carefully opening the small piece of paper, Rachel nearly cringed at what was written on it. Part of her was tempted to not answer, however, that would make Jinx suspicious. And when she was on to something, she would push until she had answers. Answers that Rachel wasn't sure she even had.
Looking back at the note, which read Saw you chatting to Grayson, what's going on with you guys? she contemplated how to go about answering it. She could just call him crazy or warn Jinx not to push the issue, however, part of her wanted a person on the inside who knew what was going on. Plus, this gave her the out her pride needed-she was, after all, only telling Jinx because her friend was curious. It had nothing to do with the fact that she needed someone to talk to.
Sighing, she hastily scribbled The dork asked me out on a date. After a moment, she decided to add Twice. on to the end of her message. Crumpling the paper into a ball, she quickly threw it at her friend when the teacher was writing on the whiteboard.
Looking at Jinx's face as she read the note, Rachel could see the surprise as her eyes widened. She looked up and mouthed 'Really?' at Rachel. Rachel just shrugged in response, as if to say she was in the same boat of surprise.
The rest of the day passed by without incident. At the end of the school day, Rachel decided that a trip to the local dvd store was in order. Now it wasn't common knowledge, however, Rachel couldn't deal with horror films. They gave her nightmares. Especially when a film claimed to be 'based on a true story' because it meant that someone that crazy had once existed and could still be out there. No, she much preferred to not scaring the shit out of herself. So, instead, she was a big foreign film fan.
Grabbing the well-known Korean classic, 'Old Boy', she headed to the counter to rent the film. It wasn't until she was outside that she saw Richard making his way toward her. She was suddenly glad that she grabbed her oversized grey sweater and had put it on after school.
"Are you following me?" she asked, unable to keep her voice from showing her distress. The last thing she needed was a stalker.
He held his hands up defensively, "I was in the convenience store across the street and I saw your car and decided to come over and say hello."
She released a breath she didn't know she had been holding before replying in her usual monotone, "Oh. Hi."
She then pulled the hood of her sweater over her face, hiding almost everything but her piercing eyes.
Leaning against her car doors to prevent her from getting in just yet, he remarked, "You're not a big talker, are you?"
As if to prove his point, she just raised her brow at him. After a moment she added, "It depends on the topic. A quick hello doesn't, in fact, whip me into a verbal frenzy."
Damn, this is so much more difficult that I would have thought mused Richard, deciding to change tactics.
"You know," he mused aloud, "people who don't talk much just live in their heads."
"And?" she asked, and after hearing his response, immediately regretted asking the question.
"And so, I bet you've thought about me naked," he commented, using his sexy-sultry voice he'd used when he tried to pick her up at soccer practice.
Rachel was grateful for the hood, she did not do well talking about these topics. She was fairly inexperienced, that much she knew. And, despite not having thought about it, she could feel a blush crawling up her cheeks, making her look guilty.
She gave a fake gasp, "Am I that transparent?" She then added an eye roll for good measure.
Not wanting to have to dig herself out of another awkward situation, she, using her hips, knocked Grayson out of the way enough for her to pull her door open. She was of a petite stature, and therefore, was able to squeeze into the driver's seat without much difficulty.
At that point, Roy Harper had been driving by and saw the unmistakeable beat up red and white car that belonged to the menace. Grinning, he parked his car in the middle of the street, blocking her from leaving her parking space. He could hear her yell "Do you mind?" over his blaring music as he jumped out of his convertible.
Turning to her with a wink, he replied, "Not at all."
Rachel huffed in annoyance, today was not going as planned. Narrowing her eyes dangerously and grinning wickedly, Rachel decided to do the one thing Roy had banked on her not doing. Revving up her car engine, she backed straight into his car. When she pulled forward to reposition her car, she noticed the large dent in the side of his driver's seat door.
"YOU BITCH!" Roy screamed, rushing over to his car to inspect the damage.
Seeing Richard laughing quite hard, she felt her spirits rise, enjoying the scene before her. She chuckled a bit before saying 'Whoops', trying to feign remorse, an antic that made Richard laugh further.
Had she known how much trouble ramming into Roy's car would've caused later, she might have rethought it.
Her father towered over her as she tried to read. He said in a distraught voice, "'Whoops'?! My insurance doesn't cover PMS!"
After a moment, she shrugged, "Tell them I had a seizure."
After a moment, he asked, "Are you punishing me because I want you to go to a university close to home?"
For the first time in the conversation, Rachel looked up at her father. His hair was graying but still covered most of his head. He was a bit pudgy, not too fat or slim. His plum coloured button up shirt made him look like the professional he was, but, Rachel couldn't help but notice a sliver of sadness in his demeanour.
"Does what I want not matter?" she retorted.
"You're 18, you don't know what you want. And you won't know what you want until you're 45. And, even if you get it, you'll be too old to use it."
She rolled her eyes, "I want to go to an East Coast school and I want you to trust me to live my life and make my own decisions!"
By the end of her comment she was standing and her voice had risen to a near yell.
"You know what I want?" her father began, but was, as many times before, cut off by his company's pager alerting him to come into the clinic.
"We'll talk about this later," he called, rushing to his room to gather his things.
She just closed her door in response.
About two minutes later, her sister rushed in (again not bothering to knock), shrieking "Did you maim Roy's car?"
Her cell phone was in her had and her distraught sister had clearly just heard the news.
"Yeah, looks like you'll have to ride in one of his older cars when you want a ride home," she drawled.
"YOU'RE INSANE!" Tara screamed, rushing back out of the room wondering how she and her sister were related. If her sister ever had a chance at dating anyone, that chance was long gone. No one wanted to go out with a girl who had no qualms about destroying a guy's things. She groaned, no one is extreme enough to date her! She felt like crying, why couldn't her family just be normal?
Richard walked over to his locker, seeing Roy waiting there for him. He had his hair slicked back as usual and wore a dark blue polo and jeans. His stance made him look incredibly arrogant, almost as he felt like he could control Richard. At this realisation, Richard growled. He didn't like the idea that he could be manipulated. Noting Roy's unhappy expression, he sighed what now?
"When I shell out money, I expect results. Watching that bitch run into my car doesn't count as a date," he snapped.
"I'm on it," Richard replied irritably.
"Good. Just think about it this way," Roy said smoothly, "If you don't get any, then I don't get any. So get some."
He began to walk away when Richard called out, "I've just upped my price."
Richard wasn't sure why he did it, but Roy's slimy comment made him crawl. Plus, Rachel was on to something, annoying Roy wasn't difficult and was entertaining.
"What?!" shrieked Roy, returning to Richard, who was now leaning against the lockers coolly.
"A hundred and twenty-five bucks a date," said Richard with a smile.
"Are you out of your mind?" Roy asked in disbelief.
Richard shrugged, "I don't see any other takers for your little deal."
"Forget it," huffed Roy, turning to leave.
"Then you can forget her sister," he informed, satisfied when Roy stopped in his tracks at the comment.
"You better hope you're as smooth as you think you are," commented Roy, disgruntled.
He then handed Richard the difference he now owed before stalking off angrily. Part of him wanted to see Richard fail and fall on his ass, something that, in Roy's opinion, Richard could do with. He was way too cocky for his own good. He knew Rachel, she was a different tier of human and Richard's arrogance would be his undoing. If I don't get Tara, I can at least humiliate Richard with his little failure. I could make him pay me back in front of the whole school and we can see how many women he gets with after that he thought smiled in satisfaction, either way the chips fell, he would come out on top.
Richard looked up to see the two dorks come into his shop class yet again. He groaned, the point of his reputation was to keep people from bothering him. Why had he signed up for this? If only he'd have known that the hundred and twenty-five bucks came at the price of his peace, he might have reconsidered.
Richard had to fight back a laugh at the pair, one was fairly short (for a guy, anyway) and scrawny while his friend was all muscle and a football player. It was even funnier since he could overhear their little conversation before approaching him.
"Go," whispered Gar when he noticed they were both standing side-by-side, not moving ahead.
"You go," retorted Cy, also in a whisper.
"You go first, I went last time," mumbled Gar.
"No way, man. It's not my girlfriend," he retorted, pushing Gar ahead of him.
A last "No fair" could be heard from Gar, before he descended on Richard's workspace.
"Um, we know what you're trying to do and we're here to help," offered Gar.
"What?" asked Richard, confused beyond belief. He noted that this was a feeling he had been experiencing often as of late.
"With Rachel," offered Gar.
"Oh yeah, why are you guys going to help?"
"You see," explained Cy, "We set this whole thing up so Gar can get the girl. Roy is just paying you and, while he's busy with that, Gar's going to spend time with Tara and ask her out."
"I see," commented Richard, "So what's so special about this Tara chick?"
"Hey!" snapped Gar, almost lunging at Richard, "She's not a chick."
Richard was amused that this skinny green bean would lunge at him when he was heating up a long metal rod on open flame. It didn't seem to make a lot of sense-and people call me crazy mused Richard.
Richard shrugged, responding nonchalantly with, "Whatever. I'm just in this for the money. Roy can plow whoever he wants."
"There will be no plowing!" snapped Gar, in a louder tone of voice.
Vic pushed his friend away with an, "Ignore him. We're going to help you get all the information you need on Roth."
"So you two are going to help me tame the wild beast?" asked Richard with a relieved smile.
He knew he should have beat them up for coming near him, however, as much as he hated to admit it, he needed help on how to woo Rachel. So far, he was getting nowhere. Some inside information, however they planned on risking their necks to get it, would be immensely helpful.
Perking up considerably, Vic replied with a smile, "Yeah, man. We'll do some research and find out what she likes. Just leave it to us, we're your guys."
"And he means that in a strictly non-prison type of movie way," clarified Gar, still clearly fearful of Richard despite their new alliance.
Vic then handed a blinding yellow flyer to Richard, pulling him away from Gar's stupid antics for a second time.
"There's a party at Greg's on Friday. Invite Rachel. It's a good, low-key first date. It's the perfect opportunity, man."
Richard just nodded, expecting Vic to add a corny 'we'll be in touch' or another stupid conversation closer that referenced their 'secret mission'. Thankfully, Vic had enough tact to just leave, dragging his scrawny friend out of the room with him.
"Dude, I thought Greg's party was only for the MBA society?" squeaked Gar, stopping at one of the landings between staircases to look at his friend.
Vic grinned evilly. Deciding that Gar meant no harm and was, in fact, trustworthy, Vic decided to let him in on the secret.
"I'm getting my revenge. I've altered the posters," he mentioned, showing Gar the blinding yellow posters that read 'FREE BEER', "And given Richard a low-key event to take Rachel to, to start off slow."
"Watch and learn," said Vic before tossing the flyers down the stairwell. Papers drifted everywhere, some on the stairs, many fell to the ground floor. People bent down curiously to pick up the fallen flyers and, by lunchtime, Gar was amazed to find out that many of the students had heard of the party and were planning on attending. He hoped that included Tara.
"Do you think Rachel will go?" Gar asked his friend over lunch.
"I don't know man, but I thought this might be better than dinner and a movie or something," explained Vic, "Starting with that right off the bat seems like a good way to scare her away."
Gar nodded, impressed with Vic's planning, "Let's hope it works."
Vic nodded in agreement.
They looked up to see Tara sitting at her lunch table, looking happier than she had in a long time. Cautiously, Gar gave her a small wave and was elated when she waved back.
Unbeknownst to them, however, Tara had been talking to Kori, Courtney and Karen about her recent encounter with Roy.
"He asked me to choose between two of his polaroids for a shoot application," shrieked Tara, "He said he trusts me!"
"Is that a direct quote?" asked Courtney, her green eyes widening in awe while plaiting her long, chestnut tresses.
It was the only way she ever really wore her hair since it was incredibly long and difficult to tame otherwise.
"Uh-huh, but that's not all!" she continued.
"There is more, friend?" asked Courtney's sister, Kori. Her jaw had dropped open and she was waiting for the rest of the story.
"He asked if I was going to Greg's party. When I said 'I think so' he told me, and this is a direct quote, 'Good, because I'm not going to bother going if you're not going to be there'," she squealed.
"No way!" replied Karen, "Damn, I can't believe it!"
"I know, our friend is about to have a friend that is a boy!" chirped Kori.
Tara blushed, feeling elated and pleased with herself. Now she had to make sure that Gar found a date for her sister so she could go. She couldn't blow off Roy forever.
"Friend, do you know what you will clothe yourself with for this occasion?" asked Kori.
It wasn't something she had given much thought to, but clearly for a party of this...well magnitude...called for more than her usual clothes. Normally, like today, Tara went for cute fashions that complemented her natural beauty, but made sure not to cross the line into risque. Tonight, however, might be the time to up her sexiness level, after all, everyday she proved she could do cute. She needed to have variety.
"No," she groaned, "But I don't think I have anything that says 'wow', you know?"
"We feel ya," replied Karen, "Trip to the mall after school tomorrow?"
Tara grinned, with her friends she would be ready come Friday. "Hell yes," she responded, feeling grateful for her close relationship with her friends.
She was also grateful they hadn't asked to do anything after school today. She had, in fact, agreed to spend time with Gar. During their tutoring session he'd looked so hopeful and, since he was doing an immense favour for her, she thought it wouldn't kill her to spend some time with him. Secretly, of course. She wasn't stupid, she wouldn't risk her reputation for him. Still, it helped that she didn't have to come up with a lie to her friends.
What did you all think? Please drop a review if you get the chance! In your reviews if you have ideas for Richard and Rachel's first real date (after the party) let me know! I'm not sure what I want them to do, but I want it to be unique (and maybe fluffy?)...If I pick your date idea, I'll dedicate the next chapter to you!
~RR
