A/N: Christie has been watching too many spy films clearly, if she goes around "executing plans"... anyway, I still don't own Barbie.
Admittedly, by now, Christie was desperate. With only two weeks left to the end of the half term, she was becoming acutely aware of the fact that in the majority of her classes, her grade remained way below the passing standard. She'd attempted to teach herself using her textbooks, but since she didn't know half the words they classified as 'basic' and not worth defining for idiots, all she'd gotten was a bad headache and a sense of inevitable doom.
Driven by depression, she'd been forced to reconsider Dora's proposal of a tutor. Isabelle, the only girl she was on vaguely good terms with, had been rather cold towards her after the incident with Prince Alex, and besides, she didn't seem the type to preform acts of benevolence for no real reason. Furthermore, Christie greatly valued the fact that once the torture of school had ended, she could sneak back to her room and change back into Christian, washing away the day's events with the ritual.
The last argument was the reason she had chosen who she had chosen. It seemed stupid, even to her, and she was clearly grasping out at straws, but if she wanted to be able to save her mother's life and stop her younger brother growing up on the streets, she really needed to pull this off, hence the reason she was resorting to desperate measures. Really, really, painfully desperate measures.
It was Saturday morning, which had dawned bright and early and the sun was up, meaning the majority of the students of Barbie princess charm school were all outside, perfectly positioned to see her leaving. They already despised her, so since there was nothing she could do about that fact, she'd just have to ignore them.
As it was the weekend, Christie would be thought of as odd if she went out dressed in her uniform, and besides, she had ulterior motives for dressing up other than just riling up her classmates. Wearing a leather jacket, a tank top and a skirt that was definitely bordering on pornographic, with the kind of knee-high lace up boots that you only ever saw on strippers or prostitutes, she was certainly dressed in an attention grabbing way, which was exactly what she was aiming for.
Stonily ignoring the shocked horror of her peers, who were sat around or stood in little gangs on the grass outside the school, milling about their usual, boring daily business, Christie walked down the drive way up to the school and strutted determinedly out of the school grounds. Since it was a weekend, they were technically allowed to leave the school premises, but from what Christie had observed of everyone else, no one ever did. After all, what could possibly be out there in the plain, old, boringly average city that they couldn't find in the school spa or gym?
Trained by now to be able to walk in six inch heels and not give away any signs that it completely kills, Christie relaxed a little now as she walked down the sidewalk, glad to be out of the critical eye of the students, moving with a professional grace and charm worthy of a princess, or in these heels, a hooker. When she started walking by the white-coated railings of the Prince Charming School grounds however, she became aware that the critical eye of her audience had now turned into a very curious, very interested one.
It was often regarded as 'evil' by the anti-transgendered groups of people that transgendered individuals played "tricks" on everyone else, supposedly fooling straight men into being attracted to other men. Christie smirked as she trailed her fingers lightly against the railings, bathing in the change of approach. Was she ruining anyone's life just because she dressed as another gender? None of the boys inside the grounds looked as if they were mutating into some sort of homosexual menace, nor did they look at all displeased by her arrival.
Whether her deception offended anyone or not, they were all blissfully ignorant to it, save for one individual, and since she didn't mean it maliciously, she just comfortably sauntered in through the school gate, blushing and smiling as more eyes turned to her. That reaction had taken her a week to practise and perfect, but by now she was something of a flawless actress, especially around men that she wanted something from.
Pacing down the huge driveway of the boy's school, Christie drank in her surroundings with interest, noting the subtle but definite difference between the two genders and their schools. Whilst hers was populated with gaggles of girls chatting or filing about, the boys had most of their grass taken up by a make-shift football match –she ought to congratulate them on being such men, filling their gender roles perfectly- or with boys just sprawled out, reading and talking. Christie was beginning to understand why Miss Privet thought it would be a problem for anyone here to know that there was a transgendered student attending.
Whilst getting her mind trapped in a bitter reverie would be fun, she had things to do, so as she walked down she scanned the various male faces of those gathered out on the lawn, hunting down one in particular. Most of the boys playing rugby had stopped moving about, stood there staring -their closed mouths the only things stopping them from looking like cartoon characters- but it made it much easier to check them over and identify them.
Eventually, once she'd drawn up closer to the school, Christie caught sight of 'the chosen one' and grinned triumphantly, relishing in the fact that he looked completely petrified as he stared at her. Sat with a notepad open on his lap and a biro in one hand, Alex was amongst a group of four friends, exactly as Christie had hoped.
Now of course it was time to really pull out all the stops. Tilting her body in such a manner that her hips and (fake) chest were best accentuated, she stuck out her hand and waggled her fingers flirtatiously at him before running over to him, which was pretty difficult to do in heels, but had the desired effect. Now all the boys had stopped playing rugby.
"Alex!" She squealed happily, running over to him and then neatly plopping herself down to sit beside him, not so close that she had to touch him, but close enough for it to be inappropriate. Paled and looking like a deer caught in the headlights, Alex blinked back at her, his voice stuck in his throat. Fortunately, as friends always do, his companions came to the rescue.
"Alex, won't you introduce us to your…" One boy with shaggy ginger hair and a friendly smile paused as he chose the right word, looking Christie up and down appraisingly, his eyes lingering on her short hemline and the low cut of her shirt, swallowing tightly as he did so, "friend?"
Staring incredulously at Christie, Alex definitely had no desire whatsoever to introduce her, but as his friends waited with eager anticipation, watching Christie like a pack of hungry wolves, he clearly had no choice. "This is," He began, having to force the words out slowly, seeming to require great effort, "Christie. She's my dance partner up at the girl's school."
"Dance partner huh?" A blonde boy with a long face and quite the impressively creepy leer on him repeated, raising an eyebrow suggestively and earning himself an elbow in the chest.
"Alex, what about Marian?" A smaller, ashy haired boy with large chocolate brown eyes inquired quietly, blinking over at him innocently. Whilst Alex look set to answer, Christie interrupted on an outburst.
"So you two are dating?" She questioned, now realising that perhaps she had spoken out of turn back at dance class.
"They're not dating exactly…" The ginger mused, giving Alex a cheeky grin before earning himself a swat over the back of the head from a dark haired male sat a little bit behind them all, just outside the circle, who had yet to say anything and was the only one not eying up Christie.
"Will you lot cut it out?" Alex snapped irritably, his hackles up in response to Christie's presence and whilst his comment quietened his friends, it didn't stop them goggling at Christie or grinning like imps.
Sighing in exasperation, Alex looked back over at Christie, the only one who was eying her chest with caution rather than badly hidden lust. "Is there something you want?" He inquired hesitantly, perfectly able to read the real message behind her sweet, charming smile, which widened in response to his question.
"There most certainly is," She beamed, leaning forward so she was sat on her knees, her skirt hitching up another centimetre. "I was hoping that you would tutor me," She professed cheerfully, her voice filled with the perkiness of the dumb slut she was trying to play. Assuming a stereotypical persona always made this easier, less real to her so it didn't matter so much.
"No," He snapped quickly and bluntly, "No way," He then elaborated, not exactly putting it gently for the sweet, young, innocent girl who's heart he was breaking. Christie did her best to look completely dejected and forlorn. Now was where the sympathy of his friends was going to come into play.
"Alex?!" The blonde exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air in a very theatrical gesture, "What exactly are you doing?" He demanded disbelievingly, his eyes very wide as he stared at his friend.
Awkwardly put on the spot, Alex fidgeted and shot a scowl in Christie's direction, who let a small smirk escape amongst the act of being all heartbroken. "I don't have the time," He reasoned, clearly having just pulled that excuse from his ass.
"Time?" The ginger repeated, his expression matching that of the blonde's. The other two were also watching Alex, looking a lot less outraged than the other pair although the ashy haired one was frowning.
"Your priorities clearly need some reshuffling," The blonde laughed jokily, patting Alex on the shoulder before gripping it and fixing his eyes, gesturing towards Christie. "Will you not look at this poor, downtrodden young lady, a damsel in distress who asked so politely for your assistance?" He inquired in an over the top, distraught tone that was probably overdoing it, but it at least made Alex look over at the excellent acting job Christie was doing.
Definitely going beyond his station, the blonde stood himself up, placed his hands on his hips and frowned down at Alex. "Alex my friend, we are the future princes and gentlemen royals of the realm. If we will not save young princesses in need, then who will?" He demanded of an imaginary audience, holding his arms out to the side as he begged the question. The ginger beside him had dissolved down into hysterics at his antics, whilst Alex was half smirking, half glowering, unable to make up his mind about how to approach this bizarre act.
Giving Christie a sideways glance, he sighed and shook his head. "Fine, I'll tutor you." He shrugged, actually awfully casual about it compared to how outraged he'd been earlier. Grinning gleefully at the new consensus, the Blonde sat himself back down in the grass and gave Christie a well-earned appreciative once-over. Giggling, still playing the easy, flirtatious role in case it would come in handy later, Christie smiled back at him. "Why thank you, brave knight." She teased lightly, internally condemning herself to hell for being so cheesy, but it seemed to go down well with the two more enthusiastic gentlemen, who each gave her a wicked grin back.
Souring from his previous indifference, Alex was clearly not pleased with her flirting with his friends, the thought of her being a male in sex probably violating his hetero-normative box, or some equally fancy term that Christie would care more about if she were studious like that. "Of course, if this idiot is ever rude to you again, I would be happy to extend my services to you," The blonde offered smoothly, leaning over and taking her hand and kissing it in a traditional manner. "I am Sir Jeremiah Collins, prince in training, at your service." He announced, even doing a little bow to complete the act.
"I'm Caine," The ginger supplied, giving her a loose wave whilst still watching Jeremiah, grinning in amusement.
"Logan," The dark haired male murmured from his spot at the back of the circle, the first word he'd spoken since Christie had arrived.
"I'm Ash," The platinum blonde supplied with a small, half-shy smile and a glance back at Logan.
Standing up and dusting the grass and dirt off of herself, Christie gave them a little mock curtsy, which was impressive considering how her skirt barely passed as anything over then long underwear and she had to hide what it concealed. "It was a pleasure to meet you all," She smiled easily, receiving enthusiastic grins back from Caine and Jeremiah, and despite how idiotic she was acting, neither Logan nor Ash seemed to disapprove of her. It was odd how complimented she felt by their acceptance, despite having been acting the whole time.
Lastly, she turned to give her goodbyes to Alex, who was now definitely trying to kill her with his eyes. "Will you meet me at four then?" She requested politely, pouting a little just to show she was ready to go back into her forlorn act if he dared to say no. She needed this, and his prejudice wasn't going to screw it up.
"Sure," Alex shrugged dully, looking away from her with forced disinterest. Still, she'd gotten what she'd wanted, so his rudeness didn't really matter now.
"Bye then!" She called, giving them another delightfully stupid wave before practically skipping off, admittedly being genuine as she grinned this time. A perfectly executed plan felt good.
