Chapter 8 - "Fantasy" - Gwen's Story
October 20, 1999 - Beverly Hills, California

"Everybody, Backstreet's back all right!" I sang along with the radio, as I pulled up outside TJ's house. We were becoming soooo close, like, today, I didn't even tell him I was visiting, I just turned up. He would be so pleased to see me. I could feel fell his attraction growing, the problem was, it was growing too slowly. The Halloween dance was in just over a week and TJ hadn't asked me yet. No one had asked me, probably because they knew TJ wanted me. Everyone knew TJ wanted me, everyone that is, except TJ. I hopped out of my pink cadillac, checking my reflection in the side mirror. I was such a babe. No wonder TJ and I made such a great couple. I picked a flower from the garden and put it in my hair. Romance was definitely in the air. As I approached the house I heard TJ and his sister Michaela singing loudly inside. I smiled. A chance to get TJ away from his invasive sister.
I rang the doorbell. A few seconds later Michaela opened the door. She was wearing jeans and a red top with a matching ribbon in her hair. Totally underdressed if you asked me. After all, TJ was in the house. "Gwen?" she asked, surprised and a little annoyed. "What are you doing here?"
"I was bored," I said dramatically, walking into the house. "I thought TJ could do with some company."
Michaela shut the door. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her roll her eyes. "Actually Gwen, we were just working on our composition assignment for music...."
"Kay? Who was at the door?" TJ called from upstairs.
"Gwen," Michaela answered with a slightly bitter tone to her voice.
"Right," TJ didn't sound all that excited.
"Do you want me to bring her up?" Michaela asked.
There was a pause. "Yeah, why not?"
I smiled smugly at Michaela as we walked up the stairs. I couldn't wait to see the inside of TJ's room. Michaela pushed open a door and we walked in. It was clearly a girl's room, clearly Michaela's room. Damn!
"Hi Gwen!" TJ said brightly. "Why'd you come over?" He laughed. "Not that I'm being rude or anything...."
I batted my eyelashes and smiled sweetly. "I wanted to see you... I thought you might be bored."
"Oh no, Michaela and I were working on our music assignment," TJ said.
"Well, you can keep on doing it and I'll just sit and listen," I said, sitting myself down on Michaela's bed.
Michaela sat down next to TJ and the small, black keyboard. "Of course you can sit down Gwen," she said.
"Huh?" I said, confused. I looked at Michaela. She was such a bitch. She was kinda fat too, like a size four, or six or something. She obviously had no regard for her body whatsoever. And where did she get off, sitting so close to TJ, when he was clearly MY boyfriend? She obviously thought he liked her more than me, just because she had high cheek bones and naturally blond hair. Bitch. I stood up, and walked around the room. Michaela had a few posters on her wall, mostly of bands, ones I didn't like too. Some of the posters were way old, like two years old or something and some of the posters were really new. Like, what did she do for the two years in between, that's what I wanted to know. Did she go live in a cave or something?
I walked over to Michaela's dresser. She had a few photos stuck around the mirror. There were photos of Michaela as a little girl and photos of this old lady. There were also a few photographs (taken a few years ago, cause she was almost as tall as TJ) of her and TJ. It was weird. They looked so alike.... There were also a few tubes of makeup on the dresser.
I walked over to the closet and opened the doors. Michaela had so many clothes, almost as many as I did. They weren't very good though... not a lot of pink. I checked out the book shelf. There were some old Sweet Valley books, a few really boring looking books, some text books.... There was also this blue folder. I opened it. There were tonnes of pages of writing. I read the heading, 'Tweedle-Tay and His Evil Twin'....
"Gwen! What are you doing?" TJ asked.
"Reading," I said, holding up the folder. "Do you like Manson too Michaela?"
You should have seen the looks on TJ's and Michaela's faces. "Gwen, would you stop going through my stuff?" Michaela said, sounding extremely pissed off.
"It's none of your business. I can't believe you'd be so rude!" Even TJ was angry.
"Whatever," I shrugged. "It's just a story, no need to bite my head off. I'm bored."
"Don't you have anyone else to bother?" Michaela asked.
"I wanted to see TJ," I explained.
"Well I can see we're not going to get anything done tonight," Michaela said. She turned and whispered something in TJ's ear.
"We can leave the assignment until tomorrow anyway," TJ said, a little more friendly.
"So, Michaela, why aren't you with Rod?" I asked, sitting on the bed again.
She gave me a funny look. "I don't have to be with him ALL the time."
"If I were dating him I would be," I commented. "What's he like?"
"He's okay I guess..." Michaela warmed to the subject. "I mean, he's really cute, but, I don't know... There isn't much conversation."
"He hasn't learnt to talk yet," TJ joked.
"But when you're with someone like Rod there doesn't need to be much conversation," I said. "You can do other stuff."
Michaela acknowledged me with a little smile. "But there still has to be conversation. I've only known Rod for a week or two and we're always running out of things to say. I mean sure, Rod likes to talk about his car and hip hop and basketball, yada yada yada, but it isn't all that interesting. On the other hand, I've spent years alone with TJ and we still managed to talk.... most of the time."
"So, you're saying you'd date TJ if he wasn't your brother?" I asked, suspiciously.
"Uh well, I don't know," Michaela said hastily, looking at TJ for support.
"Well, I think Rod's really gorgeous, and I'd love to date someone like him," I said enviously.
TJ groaned. "Rod. Rod. Rod. Who gives a fuck about Rod? Michaela, doesn't like Rod, Gwen, does like Rod - why doesn't Michaela give Rod to Gwen?"
"No!" Michaela said quickly. "I do like Rod!"
"Besides," I added, looking TJ meaningfully, "I like someone else."
"Really?" TJ looked surprised. "You never told me that."
"You never asked," I replied.
"Well, you really should go for it!" TJ said enthusiastically.
There was a silence. "Do you want to play a game of 'what if'?" I asked.
Michaela shrugged. "What's that?"
"Well, if your life was absolutely perfect, what would a typical day be like?" I explained.
The twins were enthusiastic. "Cool!" TJ said.
"I'll go first," I said. TJ and Michaela moved across the room so that they were leaning against the dresser. "Well..."

******************

"Gwen! Gwen! It's time for your daily weigh-in!" David Hasselholf called from across the office.
Gwen Mendelson walked obligingly over to the scales and stepped on. "Very good Gwen," David said, sounding impressed. "You only weigh 92 pounds and ten of those are the breast implants you got last month. You mustn't have been eating much...."
Gwen smiled. "No, I only ate a packet of raisons and some celery sticks yesterday."
"It shows," David said, patting Gwen's backside. "Keep up the good work. You have an interview with TVHits now, in the next room."
Gwen walked into the Green room and adjusted her red swimsuit before sitting down. She smiled when she saw the male reporter looking at her with awe.
"Gwen!" the reporter said excitedly. "We just had to tell you. You've been voted the Hottest Woman on Earth for the third year in a row. How does that feel?"
"Well, some people say that Baywatch isn't hard work and too much focus is placed on the body, but it really is hard and expensive to look like this," Gwen said, nodding enthusiastically.
"Gwen, do you have any idea how desired you are? This year's hottest man, Nick Carter, said that you'd be his ideal woman. Would he be your ideal man?" The reporter continued.
"While Nick is certainly desirable, I'm seeing someone," Gwen said, thinking of her boyfriend, the love of her life. He was so beautiful, with his long blond hair, deep blue eyes, good bone structure, and symmetrical face.
"There's also been much discussion about your newly enlarged breasts, have you had implants?"
"No. It's all me. It's the Miracle Bra. Miracle Bra, that's the real secret."

******************

I finished the story with a big smile on my face.
"That's the guy you like?" Michaela asked.
"Who is he?" TJ asked.
"I can't tell you," I said, mysteriously.
"Well then," TJ said, looking pissed off. "I guess I'll take my turn then..."

*******************

Tweedle-Tay Manson walked down the red carpet, waving to all his screaming fans. Some were screaming screams of joy, happy to see their idol, but some were annoyed when they saw the girl he was with. Tweedle- Tay's career had had a miraculous recovery since his disappearance from the music scene five years ago. Although Tweedle-Tay was now a solo artist, he had almost as many fans as he did when he was part of Manson.
Tweedle-Tay and his girlfriend walked into the auditorium, where they took their seats. He was so excited, he had been nominated for five Grammy Awards. While he was happy to be nominated, the excitement mostly stemmed from the chance of winning an award. He looked around him at all of his favourite musicians. No Doubt, Jewel, Alanis Morissette..... They were now not only people to admire, but competitors. He saw Aretha Franklin several rows in front and got a little too excited. He clutched his girlfriend's hand and smiled.
The night drew on and Tweedle-Tay had not won any awards. Finally his last nomination was called. Cameron Diaz was up on the stage. "The nominees for Song of the Year are Alanis Morissette, Bob Dylan, Savage Garden and Tweedle-Tay Manson." She paused. "And the winner is..... Tweedle-Tay Manson!"
Tweedle-Tay pretended to look shocked and walked up onto the stage to accept his award. "Hi!" he said. "I can't believe this is happening to me. There are so many people I'd like to thank. Obviously not my parents, nor my brother Neuton, but I would like to thank my fans and the people who worked on the record. And thank you God. But most of all I'd like to thank my girlfriend, the one who understands me best. When I've been at my lowest points she was there to support me, and now she's here to enjoy the good parts too. Thank you darling, I love you and I hope we spend another five years together!"

*******************

"That is the most beautiful story," I told TJ, trying to hold back my tears. He loved me just as much as I loved him! I looked at Michaela. She looked decidedly uncomfortable and was twisting her hair and biting her lip. Why did she have such a problem with my relationship with TJ?
"Glad you liked it," TJ said.
"It's your turn now," I told Michaela.
"Oh, right," she said. "You know what Gwen, I really don't feel like playing."
"Why not?" I asked. "Are you jealous?"
Michaela looked confused. "Of who?"
"Of me," I said, as though it was obvious.
"Why would I be jealous of you, Gwen? Look, I'm tired, it's 11:30pm. Shouldn't you be leaving now?" Michaela said impatiently.
"It's 11:30? Oh my god! I'm not allowed to drive the car after 11pm!" I said, as though I had not planned this all along.
"Well, that's a problem, isn't it?" Michaela said, pretending she didn't know where I was heading.
"I guess I'll have to stay here...." I continued.
"You can stay in Michaela's room," TJ suggested.
"No!" Michaela said quickly. "I mean, there's not enough room. You can stay in one of the spare rooms, okay?"
"Okay," I said nonchalantly.
"I'll just go set up," Michaela said, walking out of the room.
"So TJ," I said, "have you heard about the Halloween Dance?"
"Yeah, Michaela's going with Rod. Who are you going with?" he replied.
"No one. At the moment. Say, TJ, since I'm not going with anyone and you're not going with anyone, why don't we go together?" I continued. TJ looked surprised. "As friends," I added.
"Okay. If that's what you want. But Gwen, you really should ask that guy you like. I'll bet he'd say yes," TJ said, not sounding altogether enthusiastic.
"Oh no, I'd rather go with you," I said, touching TJ's hair. It was soooo soft. My heart fluttered.
TJ shrugged. "Whatever. Who do you like anyway?"
"TJ, I love -" I began.
Michaela walked into the room. "Gwen, I set the room up. Come on, I'll show you where it is."
Damn that girl! Why'd she have to spoil everything?