THE BEAUTIFUL ONES
Epilogue: Now I belong...
It had been fairly easy to explain Alex's death. Gaz had killed her and killed herself, though while that wasn't necessarily true it did prevent Jessica from going to prison. She was left with little outside of it, however. Alex's little stunt with the will had meant that technically all of Jessica's posessions now belonged to the IRS. The Police, rather more concerned with cleaning up the mess left behind by the massacre at the Police station than comforting one little girl, dumped her in an orphanage and sent for the next case.
Jessica entered skool the following monday. The weekend had been spent cleaning Ms. Bitters' classroom and finding a suitably morbid substitute, and surprisingly enough things weren't really too dissimilar to what had gone before, except Jessica. She entered the cafeteria, wearing cheap, second-hand clothing that the orphanage is obliged to supply, and showing several scars across her face that meant that she no longer seemed the proto-fashion model she was destined to be only a few days ago.
She received her standard tray of processed crap from the skool cook. Usually she received a bag lunch straight from her parents full of exciting and exotic tastes, at least compared to this muck. But she was no longer in a position to choose. Jessica turned towards her traditional table, where she usually had praise heaped on her, but things had indeed changed more than she realised. She sat at the edge of the occupied table, and things immediately went into motion.
"What are you doing here?" asked an irritated Aki, who was as far as Jessica could fathom the last of the old Beautiful Ones still alive, and the core of this new group that had sprung up in her absence, "this table's for the cool and the popular only, loser." Jessica seemed hurt.
"What did I do?" she asked out of all innocence. The others treated her with nothing but scorn.
"You ran off with Dib! Leader of the freak squad!" accused Penny, a freckled girl who Peg would've picked on only a week ago, "and you turn up now with crappy clothes and your face all screwed up? You've changed, Jessica."
"You've gone from cool to zero in the space of a weekend!" said Smeedge, the latest recruit to fill out the depleted numbers, "you're a nothing! A loner! A freak! And you're not welcome at this table." Jessica was stunned, not just by this flat out rejection by people who would've kissed the ground she stood on until recently, but by the clear, ringing overtones of Alex in almost EVERYTHING these people said. It was like a curtain had been drawn from her eyes and she could finally see what complete bitches these people were.
She stood up slowly from the table, backing slowly away in case of some last-minute chance of reconciliation, but seeing none coming she instead looked around the room for an alternative place to sit. Everyone seemed to have a friend, but no one would even THINK about considering about her. Dib had been right before. They only liked her because of her popularity. Now it was gone, she had no one left to talk to, no one to relate to. She stayed motionless in the centre of the cafeteria, completely lost.
She looked desperately for some place to fit in, but at every table she approached, she was turned away. She had pissed everyone off, and they picked now of all times to take their revenge. She nearly broke down in tears, she had never been so alone. Even the loser's table was deserted, perhaps understandably considering she had practically killed them all. She looked around and eventually saw Dib, patting the seat next to him and staring at her with a sly look on his face.
Jessica reluctantly sat down next to Dib. She didn't so much as touch her food, merely staring at it looking mournful. She was just wishing the processed goop on a tray in front of her would just come alive and eat her face off or something. She had always been popular, if she wasn't that, then what could she be? Her one raison d'etre had been to piss everyone off and still have friends, and she had failed at that. Dib simply took a sip from a juice carton.
"So how does this go?" Jessica asked, "take this one step at a time and learn to move on and all that shit?" Dib remained impassive.
"Actually, my plans don't really extend beyond checking out this address after skool," Dib explained. Jessica couldn't help but crack one last, humourless jibe.
"What, you tracking down a yeti or something?" Jessica joked. Her face remained impassive throughout, contemplating past glories.
"Actually I'm thinking it's a cadre of Atlantean refugees, could be right, could be wrong, hours of fun for all the family," Dib joked back. He looked at Jessica as she looked back, smiling for the first time in many days. They talked and joked, not as some pre-determined social clique, but as friends...
THE END
...or IS IT!? ......mmmyep I think it is...
Written by a batch of perverted trained monkies under the mind-control of Rasputin.
All characters (C) Nickelodean and Jhnen Vasquez, a match made in hell.
Epilogue: Now I belong...
It had been fairly easy to explain Alex's death. Gaz had killed her and killed herself, though while that wasn't necessarily true it did prevent Jessica from going to prison. She was left with little outside of it, however. Alex's little stunt with the will had meant that technically all of Jessica's posessions now belonged to the IRS. The Police, rather more concerned with cleaning up the mess left behind by the massacre at the Police station than comforting one little girl, dumped her in an orphanage and sent for the next case.
Jessica entered skool the following monday. The weekend had been spent cleaning Ms. Bitters' classroom and finding a suitably morbid substitute, and surprisingly enough things weren't really too dissimilar to what had gone before, except Jessica. She entered the cafeteria, wearing cheap, second-hand clothing that the orphanage is obliged to supply, and showing several scars across her face that meant that she no longer seemed the proto-fashion model she was destined to be only a few days ago.
She received her standard tray of processed crap from the skool cook. Usually she received a bag lunch straight from her parents full of exciting and exotic tastes, at least compared to this muck. But she was no longer in a position to choose. Jessica turned towards her traditional table, where she usually had praise heaped on her, but things had indeed changed more than she realised. She sat at the edge of the occupied table, and things immediately went into motion.
"What are you doing here?" asked an irritated Aki, who was as far as Jessica could fathom the last of the old Beautiful Ones still alive, and the core of this new group that had sprung up in her absence, "this table's for the cool and the popular only, loser." Jessica seemed hurt.
"What did I do?" she asked out of all innocence. The others treated her with nothing but scorn.
"You ran off with Dib! Leader of the freak squad!" accused Penny, a freckled girl who Peg would've picked on only a week ago, "and you turn up now with crappy clothes and your face all screwed up? You've changed, Jessica."
"You've gone from cool to zero in the space of a weekend!" said Smeedge, the latest recruit to fill out the depleted numbers, "you're a nothing! A loner! A freak! And you're not welcome at this table." Jessica was stunned, not just by this flat out rejection by people who would've kissed the ground she stood on until recently, but by the clear, ringing overtones of Alex in almost EVERYTHING these people said. It was like a curtain had been drawn from her eyes and she could finally see what complete bitches these people were.
She stood up slowly from the table, backing slowly away in case of some last-minute chance of reconciliation, but seeing none coming she instead looked around the room for an alternative place to sit. Everyone seemed to have a friend, but no one would even THINK about considering about her. Dib had been right before. They only liked her because of her popularity. Now it was gone, she had no one left to talk to, no one to relate to. She stayed motionless in the centre of the cafeteria, completely lost.
She looked desperately for some place to fit in, but at every table she approached, she was turned away. She had pissed everyone off, and they picked now of all times to take their revenge. She nearly broke down in tears, she had never been so alone. Even the loser's table was deserted, perhaps understandably considering she had practically killed them all. She looked around and eventually saw Dib, patting the seat next to him and staring at her with a sly look on his face.
Jessica reluctantly sat down next to Dib. She didn't so much as touch her food, merely staring at it looking mournful. She was just wishing the processed goop on a tray in front of her would just come alive and eat her face off or something. She had always been popular, if she wasn't that, then what could she be? Her one raison d'etre had been to piss everyone off and still have friends, and she had failed at that. Dib simply took a sip from a juice carton.
"So how does this go?" Jessica asked, "take this one step at a time and learn to move on and all that shit?" Dib remained impassive.
"Actually, my plans don't really extend beyond checking out this address after skool," Dib explained. Jessica couldn't help but crack one last, humourless jibe.
"What, you tracking down a yeti or something?" Jessica joked. Her face remained impassive throughout, contemplating past glories.
"Actually I'm thinking it's a cadre of Atlantean refugees, could be right, could be wrong, hours of fun for all the family," Dib joked back. He looked at Jessica as she looked back, smiling for the first time in many days. They talked and joked, not as some pre-determined social clique, but as friends...
THE END
...or IS IT!? ......mmmyep I think it is...
Written by a batch of perverted trained monkies under the mind-control of Rasputin.
All characters (C) Nickelodean and Jhnen Vasquez, a match made in hell.