Other than the little review fight, thanks for the reviews, they're all taken to heart :)
Le Baccarat Hotel
Suit 1268
Wednesday, September 17th
11:09 P.M.
"I just don't get it!" Monica yelled, still wide awake from all of the sugar free Red Bulls Claire had witnessed her chug once she returned from Liam, Derrick, and Cam's new room one floor below them.
Claire had refused to go and hang out with them, afraid that Cam might try and talk to her, and even if he didn't try to, there would be the awkward 'You broke my heart and I embarrassed you in front of everyone by moving on to someone else the same week' feeling in the room, which was just as bad as talking. And even though Monica had offered to stay in the room with her and see Liam later, Claire told her to go, knowing that it would kill Monica knowing Liam was around and she couldn't see him.
Instead, Claire decided to go and sleep in Massie and Dylan's room although it was just Dylan since Massie and Derrick were nowhere to be found after they supposedly got back together. But she left once Massie finally came back, gave them every detail, and ordered Claire to get out of her bed.
"Get what?" Claire asked with her eyes still closed, after all it was two o' nine in Westchester.
"Why does Worthy hate the fact that we're good?" Monica starred up at the ceiling and rolled over on her side to look at Claire, "She can't stand it when we win and it's almost as if she tries to make us look bad."
"Maybe she just doesn't know what she's doing." She yawned.
"Why would the school hire someone who is underquilified to coach a team that won nationals for the past four years in a row?" Monica sighed, obviously frustrated that the team she had dedicated the past three years to was being taken over by someone else before she was ready to give it up, or at least that was the best explanation Claire could think of.
Monica grabbed her phone off of the nightstand, and typed something into it as Claire rose out of her bed, and sat on Monica's, knowing she was up to something.
"What are you doing?" Claire questioned while she herself sat up.
"Calling Britta."
"Put it on speaker."
"Monica?" A groggy voice came from the phone, "Do you know what time it is? IT'S TOMMORROW!"
"I know, I'm sorry." Monica apologized, "But I'm kind of having an emergency…"
"What? Did Liam finally knock you up?" Britta joked, Claire couldn't help but giggle as Monica's face turned bright red, one of the few times she's seen Monica embarrassed since Monica was the type of person who would run down the main hall of BOCD naked, if dared to, and still not be embarrassed.
"No!" Monica screeched.
"Then what?"
"Britta, you have to get any dirt you can about Annette Worthy." Claire said to the phone lying on her back next to Monica.
"Have you Googled her name?" Britta asked, sounding impatient.
"Yea, but none of them were her." Monica sighed.
"I'll do what I can."
"Tell Cayden that-" Claire tried, but Britta muttered what sounded like a 'bye' before hanging up.
BOCD High
Annette Worthy's Office
Wednesday, September 17th
1:03 P.M.
"What if we get caught?" Kristen screeched as Britta and Natalie dragged her into the varsity cheer coach's office that was surprisingly filled with trophies even though Worthy sucks at coaching… or so she's been told.
"I told you we're not going to get caught!" Britta said, and even though the lights were shut off and Kristen couldn't see a thing, she knew Britta rolled her eyes.
"What are you doing?" A voice came from the door.
"They made me do it!" Kristen yelled before turning around and turning bright red once she saw that it was only Cayden, Hayden, Nolan, and Josh… and not Principal Sanders.
"Uh ok?" Josh chuckled.
"What are you doing?" Natalie asked the same question Kristen was about to ask. She thought that Josh had algebra II this period, but that was in D hall, and that was in the west wing of the upper level, they were on the lower level in a small section of offices connected to the field house (gym) and the old gym. It was practically impossible for him to be there unless:
He skipped class and left campus with the clones and Nolan, sneaking back in through the field house doors.
Decided to leave class early and walk around
A teacher sent him to get something from one of the coach's offices
She had no idea why. CHECK.
"Wecamefrompottery." Hayden mumbled so fast it came out sounding like another language.
"What?" All three girls blurted.
"We're coming back from pottery." Nolan sighed in shame. Everyone knew that Ms. M, the young ditzy blond pottery teacher was the girlyist person alive. You could paint a ball of clay pink, and she would give it an A, and the only reason Kristen knew that was because she saw Cara Gredford do the exact same thing last year, not to mention the class was mainly freshmen girls.
"Pottery?" They laughed.
"We have to take it or else we won't get an art credit!" Cayden defended.
"Why not take metal arts like every other guy in the school?" Natalie asked even though she was laughing so hard Kristen thought she was going to pee her pants.
"We did, but was too full." Josh explained.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Kristen asked seriously. She thought that the late night texts and skypes with Josh all summer had made them close, close enough for him to tell her everything, even taking an embarrassing class (for a guy), but apparently not…
"Because of that." He pointed to Britta and Natalie, laughing so hard that they were leaning against each other so they wouldn't fall to the floor.
"I only thought it was funny because of the ashamed look on your face." Kristen giggled, "I would've understood."
"I know." He assured, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his expensive Ralph Lauren jeans, which probably could cover the cost of a hundred plus vaccines for children in a third world county, and smiled, "I guess I'm still used to all of Alicia's lies and schemes."
Kristen smiled back although she wasn't sure if he was being flirtatious or saying that as a friend.
"So what does having pottery have to do with you guys coming through here?" Britta asked after taking a deep breath to compose herself even though she managed a small giggle at the end.
"It's easier to come through here, go up the back stairwell and into main hall then it is to plow your way through freshmen." Hayden answered for all of them, "But enough about us-"
"-Why are you here?" Cayden finished. It still surprised Kristen how creepy it was how Hayden and Cayden always seemed to know what the other was thinking.
"Monica and Claire called Britta last night asking if she could find anything on Worthy." Natalie said to Cayden, Nolan, and Josh, completely avoiding Hayden's eyes.
"They called again this morning and apparently Liam flew out there and brought Derrick and Cam with him." Britta noted.
"That's awesome! They're parents are going to KILL them!" Josh laughed and high fived Hayden. He was about to high five Nolan until he noticed his face had turned bleach white, "Dude, you okay?"
"Yeah." Nolan murmured and swallowed hard.
"Cam went to California?" Cayden asked worriedly. Kristen suddenly felt the urge to pull out her phone and text Claire that she might be getting a jealous or paranoid text from Cayden in the future, but kept her hands to her sides instead.
"Whatever, so the three dumbasses went to L.A., that doesn't change the fact that we have a lot of work to do." Britta said, shooing the guys out the door and into the hall. Josh gave her what might have been a wink and then a smile before Natalie closed the door behind them, looking out the small window in the door to keep a look out.
Kristen knew her job: check all of the filing cabinets while Britta searched Worthy's desk. She opened the top drawer of the a tan colored metal cabinet, but when she pulled a few files out, they just looked to be like the same things her soccer coach documented. Kristen put the files back where they originally were, closed the drawer, and pulled on the handle of the one below it, but it refused to open.
"Are there any keys over there?" Kristen called over to Britta once she noticed that there was a lock on the drawer. Her heart sped up as she anxiously waited as Britta stopped rummaging through Worthy's desk and searched for any sign of a key. After all, people only lock things when they want to hide or protect something.
"Look behind that plant." Britta ordered. Kristen scotched the small exotic plant in a boring and plain orange pot over and grabbed a tiny gold key.
"How'd you know it would be there?" Kristen asked as she placed the key into the lock and Britta came to her side just as she turned the key, and pulled on the handle, the drawer easily opening for her.
"Lucky guess." She shrugged, reaching in, grabbing one of the files and opening it, "What the hell?"
"What is it?" Kristen asked, trying to peek at the file in Britta's hands, but when Britta angled the folder so she could see better, she couldn't help but gasp, her hands flying to cover her Dior vanilla flavored glossed lips (gloss courtesy of Annie's Amex).
"Sanders!" Natalie whisper shouted and turned off the lights, running to Worthy's desk and ducking behind it, Kristen and Britta followed, the evidence still in hand.
"Is he with someone?" Natalie squinted out the window on the door.
Kristen watched out the window as Principal Sanders opened the door to the office across from Worthy's, she could see a dark shadowy figure but the lights in hall were too dim to see who. Finally, he flipped on the lights…
"Ehmagawd!" She silently shrieked once she saw the face of the mystery person's identity…
Santa Monica, CA
Santa Monica Pier
Thursday, September 18th
8:22 P.M.
To everyone else walking below the lights of the pier, it was just a normal slightly warmer than usual Thursday night. To Claire, it was an awkward way to end an extremely awkward day.
After their early practice at the training center in L.A., the entire team took a fleet of taxies to Santa Monica to escape the wrath of Worthy, afraid she would change her mind about letting the team pick their old and best routines for the competition Friday afternoon. The getaway was going perfectly until Claire had spotted a certain blue/green eyed guy looking at her, making her feel like she was going to throw up, and it defiantly wasn't from the roller coaster she had just stepped off of. After, she spent the rest of the day trying to look as if she was having fun without him, running into the waves with Monica, Annie, Dylan, and Alicia while Massie sat on the beach with Derrington with Cam between him and Courtney. Whenever she caught him looking at her she didn't know what to do, all she could do was freeze.
Thankfully they were finally going to put her out of her misery and go back to the hotel after buying dinner from a small pizza restaurant Dylan knew from a Daily Grind special held in Santa Moncia last spring break.
"Claire?" Monica waved a manicured hand in her face.
"Huh?" She asked, not realizing that they were already there, all of the girls from the team that hadn't left early were picking tables in the little fenced in area on the sidewalk as the others went inside to order their own slices of pizza.
"You okay?" Monica asked, sitting down in the chair Liam pulled out for her at a table for two. Claire sat at the table next to hers.
"I'm fine." Claire played with a piece of her hair, which had been lightened by the sun and given extra natural waves from the salt water of the ocean. She had no idea if the Pacific had done her hair a favor or completely destroyed it, but she decided to stop caring, even if Cam thought it looked bad, oh well.
"No you're not." Layne slapped a tray with two slices of pizza down onto the table. Claire grabbed the plain cheese pizza off the tray, knowing it was meant for her since the other had just about every topping imaginable.
Claire stayed quiet for the rest of the time, only talking to Alicia and Dylan when they sat down at her and Layne's table and when Massie and Dylan decided to go walk around the stores while everyone finished eating.
"Have you talked to Cayden today?" Alicia asked, reapplying her gloss.
"Yeah, but he called before practice." She answered carefully, glancing over at the table that Cam was sitting at with Derrick, Courtney, and Mikayla. He was watching her more closely than he had been earlier in the day, and Derrick clearly noticed by looking back at her and then punching him in the shoulder…
"Should I go back and buy it?" Dylan asked as Massie pushed open the glass doors of Bloomingdales and they continued down the sidewalk.
"If you want it." Massie shrugged although she desperately hopped Dylan wouldn't want it bad enough to go back. The real reason Massie had wanted to leave dinner and 'walk around' was to see if there was anywhere she could buy the new issued of A&NY. No one except a small group of people at work knew who was going to be on the cover, and Massie was dying to know who it was.
After about another block, Massie saw a small news/magazine stand like the light at the end of a tunnel.
"Can we slow down?" Dylan complained, but Massie's legs couldn't stop, she knew she would be tormented by her boss, one of the column writers, if she were the last one in the entire office to know, "Where are we going any way?"
"We're already here!" Massie said, looking around to see if the white bearded guy who she guessed owned the stand, sold it.
"What the hell?" Massie picked up a copy of A&NY from the magazine rack and looked at the picture of a gorgeous young blonde. Massie didn't know if she was just seeing things or if this was a nightmare.
"Is that Kuh-laire?" Dylan gasped, confirming Massie's worst fears, "She looks like she's seventeen or eighteen!"
Massie stared back down at the picture, Dylan was right, and it wasn't because of the photoshop, since Monica's mom refused to photoshop any pictures of anyone who did a photo shoot for the magazine due to the "fakeness, lack of credibility, and sending the wrong message".
"Oh my gawd!" Massie heard a girl behind them gasp. She turned around and saw a twelve-year-old brunette girl with another copy in hand with her mom and another girl point over to the small pizza restaurant they had eaten at, "That's her!"
"Ugh!" Massie sighed angrily. She didn't know what to be more angry about: the fact that Claire didn't tell her she was going to be on the cover, or that she was actually on the cover!
She flipped to the page the cover said Claire's interview with Massie's boss's boss, Vendela Thomas, would start on and stared at another picture of Claire before skimming over the first part of her interview.
"What does it say?" Dylan asked.
"That Claire is thinking of getting back into acting after high school, maybe going to college for it." Massie angrily flipped the page.
"That could be a fall ad campaign." Dylan noted calmly, almost as if she was happy that Claire was on the cover of one the most prestigious fashion magazines. Massie looked at the picture for a few more seconds before looking over at the interview and gasping.
"What?" Dylan asked, anxiously grabbing another copy off of the rack and flipping to the page Massie was on.
Massie pointed to the section before reading the part over, still in shock:
Vendela: You talk about your friends a lot. Care to say what they're like?
Claire: Most of friends are my amazing support system… without them, I probably would still be afraid to stand up for myself. They're always there for me, I can only hope I return the favor half as kindly as they do.
Vendela: And your other friends?
Claire: As mush as I love them, I can't handle them sometimes. They mostly mean well, it's just that they'll sometimes risk everything just to win, even everyone's trust.
Vendela: Almost every teenage girl can relate to that type of friendship, but they choose to stay friends with them. Why do you think that is?
Claire: I guess it's because you've been friends with that person for so long, and they might have been different before, but after they change, you almost don't want to believe it. You just don't want to sacrifice that close friendship you thought would last forever, and even though you know letting go will be better in the long run, you just can't get yourself to do it.
Massie stopped reading, not wanting to read about Claire and Vendela talk about Claire's struggle about her breakup with Cam although the magazine names him just as Claire's "long-time boyfriend".
"So?" Dylan rolled her eyes, "What's wrong with what she said? To me it sounds like she's talking about Alicia."
"She's talking about us!" Massie said through gritted teeth. Even if Claire wasn't talking about her, Dylan, or Kristen, she had to try and convince Dylan that she did. The sooner everyone turned on Claire, the sooner her popularity would fall, and Massie would finally be back to her normal self when Claire would decided to come crawling back to her rightful place as Massie's beta.
Le Baccarat Hotel
Suit 1260
Thursday, September 18th
11:10 P.M.
Opening the cap of her red O.P.I. nail polish, Alicia listened to the chorus of Beyonce's Love On Top come from the headphones of her ipod She watached her roommate, Layne, walk out the door before carefully stroking the brush across her left index finger.
By the time she was done, she decided to ignore the 'Don't touch anything with wet nails' rule and picked up her phone, thumbing through all of the old photos she had uploaded. Most were of her and the PC during eighth grade and the summer before freshman year, when everything was perfect.
"Alicia." She heard Layne call her name but she turned up the volume of her ipod, wanting some time to think.
"ALICIA!" She yelled, ripping her earbuds out of her ears.
"Gawd!" Alicia huffed before looking up into the cold brown eyes looking down at her, "Ehmagawd."
"No 'Hello Tiffany, it's been forever'?" Tiffany crossed her arms across her chest and raised a freshly waxed brow.
"Sorry, I-I thought you were L-layne." Alicia twisted a strand of hair tightly around her finger until her skin started to match the color of her nail, "But what are you doing here?"
Tiffany rolled her eyes as if it was obvious, "To ask you who the hell you think you are!"
"Huh?" Alicia glanced at her phone beside her on the bed, just incase Tiffany decided to make her permanently apart of the room décor.
"I know what you're doing. You're trying to become friends with them again!" She spat in disgust, just the way she had last year when Alicia's neighbor's dog peed on her shoes.
"So what if I am?" Alicia stood up, placing a hand on her hip.
Tiffany grabbed her phone off of the bed and looked at the old pictures Alicia had left open, "Let me guess, you miss your old loyal, caring, and popular best friends?"
Alicia looked down at the floor, trying to search for an answer.
"Believe me, they're different now, and they'll never go back to the way they used to be!" Tiffany started to delete the pictures from Alicia's phone, but stopped at the one of Alicia and the rest of the PC on the first day of school last year in the Block's Range Rover, all of them squished together and smiling as if nothing else could make them happier. Tiffany held the phone in Alicia's face so close that the picture slightly blurred, "Nothing will be the same ever again."
Alicia fought the need to tackle Tiffany as she deleted the picture.
"I told you what happened between Monica and I, but apparently you didn't listen."
"That was years ago!" Alicia screamed, "So she won, but that doesn't you lost. The only thing you lost was her and all of your other friends, just because you couldn't let go of your jealousy. And then you talked me into making the same mistake!"
"I'm not the one who made you write that note last year!" Tiffany smirked, knowing she hit a nerve, "All I did was take you under my wing after they made you the outcast of the entire school."
"That doesn't change the fact that what we tried to do at homecoming was wrong, not to mention evil." She calmly said although her hands had balled into fists.
"Alicia, it's their fault no one likes us anymore! All we did was try to give them what they deserved!" Tiffany cupped her hands around her shoulders and shook her a little, "Just think of how great it would be to finally be an alpha!"
Alicia sighed, her entire life she's been the beta, maybe it was time she was in command…
Since anonymous people can't vote on the poll, just leave a review saying who you want to win homecoming. And if I suspect double voting, i'll turn the anonymous reviews off :)
