I AM SO SORRY FOR SLACKING! High school is so stupid! Plus, I had writer's block...which sucks! This chapter is shorter, and kind of rambly. But only but because all the action happens in the next one. I promise!
To anyone who I kept waiting, I am so sorry! Please read and enjoy the latest chapter to this story!
They know I'm keeping a secret.
The thought kept swirling through Yumi's head like a butterfly on Red Bull. She checked her already-perfect nails to make sure they were chip free, smoothed her glossy side-part until nawt even a tornado could mess it up, crossed her bell-fringed, tan moccasin boots over one another, but her eyes always wandered nervously back to her friends.
Sutton was tapping her nails on the frosted glass table, reading a text. Elle was flipping through the newest issue of Teen Vogue. Cory sat on Elle's left, oohing and ahhing at the designer outfits Elle was pointing out. And Cecilia was on Elle's right, next to Yumi, twirling a piece of hair around her finger while fixing the slogan for this year's Holiday Bash; the fabulous, yearly Christmas/New Year's party OCD threw every year.
Everyone seemed normal and calm, but Yumi knew that these girls could keep their feelings bottled up like a can of Coke. And if anything was even slightly shaken, they would start fizzing out of their air-packed cans.
And that would nawt be pretty.
"Uh, girls…" she cursed herself for sounding insecure, wasn't that feeling supposed to be reserved for LBRs?
The answer was yes.
"Yeah, Yumi?" Sutton prompted.
She looked around the lunch table nervously, seeing nothing but warmth and trust in her friend's eyes. They wouldn't be so sure about trusting her if they knew she was hiding a huh-yuge secret…
The words left her mouth in a burst, "Well, I was on the computer last night and—"
"Hey, ladies!" someone purred from next to their designated table.
Speak of the Devil! Yumi cringed, turning around to face Monica. Monica stood, her hair pulled into a ballerina bun, while Monique stood behind her, arms crossed, eyes bored. The beta suddenly locked eyes with Yumi…and winked.
The gesture was so blasé that Yumi couldn't even be sure it happened. She decided to turn back to Sutton and Monica and listen to the alphas' intense convo.
"Well?" Sutton's eyes were wide and curious, "How did it go?"
"It?" Monica cocked an eyebrow.
Sutton looked at Cory and rolled her eyes, making everyone gasp at Sutton's confidence.
"You know," Sutton spoke like Monica was a hearing-impaired eight-year-old, "Your date with Aaron?"
"Shh!" Monica hissed, placing one finger to her lips, "Nawt everyone needs to know about that!"
Sutton smirked, "Why? He's just another victim of your microscopic attention span. We awl know you'll done, done, and done by next Thursday."
Monica looked like she was going to shove Sutton's turkey burger up her pert nose, but she was stopped by Principal Bunkelman—a large, red-faced woman who over-abused wearing camo prints—huffed to a stop next to them.
"Girls," she wheezed, her chin rolls gathering on her flushed neck as she grabbed for a tissue somewhere in her no-brand-name jeans pocket, "I—" she held up a finger and gasped for breath, delicately dabbing her sweaty face with the hankie she had just found.
"Uh, Principal Bunkelman," Sutton was starting to wonder if she should be dialing 911, stat! "Did you run all the way from your office?"
The older woman managed a nod.
Sutton widened her eyes at her friends, Monica and Monique. What could have been so important that Principal Bunkelman moved faster than a snail to get to them? Sutton decided World War Three must have started. That was the only explanation.
"I am nawt signing up for the army!" she cried, suddenly realizing what the principal wanted, "Me plus bulky uniform plus boot camp training equals opposite of a good idea!"
Principal Bunkelman gave her a what-are-you-talking-about? look, "I don't…want you to join the army, girls. I'm here for Cecilia. The student council wants to see you for some award."
Cecilia looked curious, "What kind of award—"
"I don't know!" Principal Bunkelman cut her off, waving her pudgy hand into the air, "And I honestly don't care! But they wanted me to give it to you personally…so here." She thrust the small certificate into Cecilia's orange-and-lilac moisturized hand, "'Bye, girls!" she huffed, plowing through the throng of kids waiting to get their food.
"Um, I think she was in a hurry." Monica raised an eyebrow, earning a laugh from everyone.
"Maybe she was just dying to get back to those Hershey's bars we know she has stashed under her desk," Elle slapped her hand against the table and cracked up at her own joke.
"Hey, wait!" Sutton snapped her fingers, "You never answered my question; how was your date with Aaron? Did it go okay? Does he like you?" for a minute, she felt like a toe-dal LBR for begging for info. But then she remembered that Monica was the one who needed her.
And that made her feel ten times better.
Monica scratched the tip of her ski-slope nose, deep in thought, "It went nicely." She finally decided, finishing the statement with a crisp nod of her head.
Sutton internally wiped her forehead; thanking Gawd that Phase One of the plan had been as smooth as her hands after a spa-waxing treatment.
"But," the eighth-grade alpha spoke up again, "We've only flirted. Nuh-thing relationship-worthy came out of that little meeting. Plus, he was picking up his little sister," she said "little sister" like someone less worthy might say "rotten eggs". "He wasn't actually coming to see me personally. And that brings us directly into Phase Two." With a quick snap of her lean fingers, Monica leaned in secretively to the rest of the girls, "Phase Two is awl about getting him to notice moi." She put a hand to her chest.
"Notice what about you?" Cory popped a fry into her mouth.
Elle gasped, "Cory," she stage-whispered, "You know those disgusting, café fries add, like, ten pounds to your figure!" the strawberry-blonde girl pinched her non-existent stomach fat and stared at Cory with widened eyes.
Sutton rolled her eyes at the exchange and waved her hand in a circular motion to let Monica know she should get on with it.
"Sorry," Cory said, looking half-amused and half-annoyed; Elle only glanced at the fries one last time and then started to listen.
Monica smiled fondly, "I need him to ask me on a real date. Nawt just some oh-hey-you-happen-to-be-near-my-sister thing; he has to be legitimately interested in me. No ifs, ands, or buts."
Vague, much? Sutton had no idea how to make Aaron ask Monica out, "But how am I supposed to—"
"Didn't I just say no buts about it?" at Sutton's betrayed look, Monica put a moisturized hand on the younger alpha's cashmere-clad shoulder, "You can do it, darling. You're Sutton Minchew." With a quick hair-flip, she and her beta were off to take on the rest of OCD—and maybe the world.
Sutton felt like ripping her Pantene deep-conditioned hair right out of her head. Why did Monica have to be a class-A jerk? And then suddenly turn into Glenda the Good Witch in the flesh!
"Sutton," Yumi spoke up from the other side of the table, "About what I was going to tell you earlier—"
"Nawt now, Yumi." Sutton wasn't exactly in the mood to hear about how some girl farted in the locker room; or any other type of gossip Yumi had to offer. She was too absorbed in making a mental-checklist of things that attracted Aaron to care about anything else.
"Oh…" Yumi looked down at her fat-free blueberry-covered frozen yogurt.
Cecilia—known for picking up on her friend's moods quickly—spoke up, "It's almost time for third hour." she adjusted her lavender scarf so it hung perfectly on both shoulders, "And if we don't get going, we'll be going to detention!"
Elle and Cory nodded, picking up their bags and stuffing their lunches into the eco-friendly trash bags next to them. Sutton only sniffed, looking down at her phone intently; while Yumi gave Cecilia a grateful smile and stood gracefully from the table.
The four betas exchanged an affectionate glance. Sutton may be acting cold and a little paranoid, but they knew she was doing it to keep them at the top. She was being an alpha, and sometimes you had to be a leader before you could be nice.
But Yumi still felt the weight of her secret sitting on her chest like deep-fried KFC. And she couldn't stop the feeling that someone was watching her—closely.
::
"Time to address the second part of this plan." Sutton kicked her fuzzy-sock covered feet on Elle's lap and took another giant bite of raw cookie dough from the metal scooper poised above the bowl. The five girls were having their annual Saturday night sleepover at Cory's house…for obvious reasons. After stress-thinking all of Thursday, Friday, and half of the morning, Sutton had come up with the perfect plan.
To reward herself for the hard work, she was stuffing herself with unhealthy, comfort food. She had made the girls pinky-swear they would neh-ver eat this much again; and that were taking extra cardio workout sessions for the next month. But a job well-done was a job well-done, and no one knew that better than Sutton herself.
Cecilia finished braiding a piece of Cory's hair, and they both looked over expectantly. Elle came back from Sutton's mini-fridge with a can of Mountain Dew in her hand—diet of course. Sutton wasn't willing to bend on everything. Everyone was staring at her with wide eyes.
Sutton took a deep breath and started, "Aaron is into sports, right?"
Cory nodded, "He loves them, he'd marry any sport if he had the chance!"
"Let's hope he doesn't marry anything…for Monica's sake." Yumi remarked slyly.
"He even likes track and field?" Cecilia scrunched her nose up in distain at the sport.
"Even that," Cory said seriously.
"Well, now that we're sure he luh-ves sports ah-lot; we can be sure my plan will work!" Sutton clapped excitedly.
"It would be nice to know the plan." Elle murmured to Cecilia, who smirked, but never glanced away from her alpha.
Sutton couldn't wait to wipe those smug smiles off her friends' faces. At first she had planned to make her finalized scheme drawn-out and witty; but she realized the best thing to do would be just to spill the info like uncontrollable diarrhea. So that's what she did, "Monica's going to be a cheerleader!" she squealed, waiting for her friends to jump and down and praise Sutton her ability to fix anything.
But when she looked from zit-free face to zit-free face, all she saw was a mixture of confusion, doubt, and worry.
"Well…?" her LBR senses were tingling; awkward silences and even more awkward glances were nawt good by any means.
"Well…" Cory was the first to speak; "It's sort of…" she trailed off, fingering the braid Cecilia had given her.
Elle cleared her throat, "Wouldn't Monica hate you for making her join something she's nawt even into?"
"And," Cecilia piped up, "You wouldn't be the alpha of cheer anymore. Monica would try and take over your territory!" she looked at Sutton in disbelief, "Doesn't that bother you?"
Sutton remained calm, her face only turning more and more relaxed by each second, "There are simple solutions to over-thought-out problems. Although I like it that you were analyzing each step; making sure nuh-thing was wrong—you were a little off, but let me explain."
The girls all stared in awe at Sutton's ability to turn the situation so she was in charge. Of course, that's what alphas do. And they all suddenly felt lucky times a billion that she was their alpha; and that they were her best friends.
"First off, you have a point Cory." She looked at the athletic blonde coolly, "Monica isn't really into cheerleading, so it might seem odd that I want her to start cheering. But you forgot one little thing: Monica likes Aaron. He's older, wiser, hotter, and harder to get with than any other guy she's ever gone out with before. It's all about the chase; and, trust me; your brother is one of the hardest to catch up to. She's nawt desperate, but she wants him. And that's enough."
Cory nodded, understanding washing over her face like a waterfall.
Sutton then turned to Cecilia, "You have a good reason for being suspicious too. Buuut, you didn't think one thing through: OCD has two cheer teams. One is for competitive cheer—the only acceptable kind of cheer, may I add—and the other is for girls who want to be with the guys all the time. Aka, sporting cheer. And that's the one Monica is going to join. So I'll be the alpha of the cheering that matters, Monica will flip and flirt to her heart's content, and she'll get Aaron in the end. Plus, I'm still an alpha. Done, done, and done."
With a victory flip of her chestnut hair, Sutton picked up a bottle of Smart Water, tilted it toward her Burt's Bees-coated lips, and watched as the sunny yellow of the water met her lips in glistening waves. This was one of the times where she felt one hundred percent alpha. Her loyal, ah-some betas trusted and admired her, and she had found a solution to a big problem.
"Okay, girls," Sutton giggled, feeling light and free, "Now that the seriousness is over, let's have some fun!"
Someone's phone started blasting "I'm Sexy and I Know It" from over in the corner. Everyone started cracking up, trying to figure out whose phone it was.
"Don't hate, appreciate!" Elle bounded over to the LG touch screen phone and opened a text with ah-mazing speed. Her eyes were glued to the screen for a minute, getting wider and wider until they looked like they might burst out of her head.
"I have to know this!" Yumi let her dancer's body twist into a pirouette across the room, landing right next to Elle.
"Here," Elle shoved the phone toward Yumi, letting the dark-haired read it. When she was done reading, Yumi was bouncing up and down in her seat like she had to pee.
Cecilia and Cory stood slightly behind Sutton, glancing at her warily. They were probably regretting nawt reaching Elle first and reading the text; but Sutton was just happy that they were still at her side, waiting to see what she was going to do.
"Alright," Sutton said, her voice neutral, "Tell us, we don't want you to die because you were hyperventilating over a text."
"You might just have a heart attack when you read what he just sent Elle!" Yumi covered her small mouth and let out a muffled squeal, "He's ah-dorable!"
"Oh, so it's a 'he'," Cecilia used air-quotes for the last word, going cross-eyed at Cory to show how odd she thought Elle and Yumi were acting over this.
Sutton fought the urge to laugh along with Cory, but decided on just staying still faced, "So…"
"It's Tyler. Tyler Manson! You know, the cute one from Briarwood," Elle started excitedly.
"We know who he is, Elle." Sutton said calmly.
"Okay, good!" the beta didn't seem to be affected by anything other than her speech, "Well, he just texted me—"
"We got that, already," Cecilia muttered. Yumi stuck her tongue out at her, Sutton bit back a giggle.
"—and it said…oh, here, just look!" she shoved the phone at her other three BFFs.
Sent from: Tyler Manson
Hey, Elle ;) Just making sure you still remember me. I'm with my friends and they mentioned you and your group. You guys seem pretty cool…and cute. All the guys agree we should hang out soon or something. Well, bye!
Sutton had to smile to herself; the text was kind of cheesy, forced, and a tad too flirty for her expert taste, but it was still cute. Plus, nawt only did it make Elle happy, it included Sutton in the invite!
She wasn't desperate or anything. But cute, nice guys are hard to find…especially a package deal; so all of your friends can have one.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Sutton handed Elle her phone back, "Text him back! Make plans! But be subtle. And sexy."
"How can I be sexy through the phone?"
"I don't know, just do it!"
As the girls spent the rest of the night texting, gossiping, and getting ready to enroll a new cheerleader in OCD's sport squad, Sutton felt her heart lift inside her Victoria's Secret Pink pajama T-shirt; so what if she had to be Monica's little dating service for a while? She was about to get a boy of her own! Take that!
But wherever boys are involved, there's bound to be drama. And no one knows that better than an alpha…
See what I mean? But, the action is coming up in the next chap! Okay, I really need you guys to answer this: In your review, give me your OC's weakness. It can be anything: Chocolate (ugh, that is totally mine!) prone to anger fits...I don't know! Just something they would rather nawt have held against them. Please tell me his in your review!
Alright, thanks for reading, and I'll be back soon ;)
