The New Girl
One month later—lunch time
"Josh! Did you see the new girl Rhoda Simmons? She is soooo totally hot!" Drake went
on to describe her long and lush blonde hair, more than ample breasts, sparkling eyes,
and well toned legs.
She was the most beautiful woman that he ever saw.
And although he has thought and said that line many, many times before this was the
first time he might have actually meant it.
"You've said this before." Josh replied matter-of-factly as he stirred his blueberry yogurt.
"She won't give me--ME! The time of day. I mean come on. I cancelled my date with
Tina just to ask her out and she said 'no', but with a little sneaky grin and turn of her
heels. I know the game and she's driving me crazy." He pushed away his sandwich he
couldn't finish it, he was too excited to eat.
"Drake, Mindy transferred to Marian Catholic and is suddenly too busy to spend time
with me so pardon me if I don't get excited about a girl that once you 'catch' her you are
only going to dump when you get bored. I'm sorry that I can't be happy about that."
"I'm not looking for 'the one'. Maybe you wouldn't be so miserable Josh if you went out
with different girls? I know that you love Mindy, but in my opinion there are better options
for you than that Creature Mindy Crenshaw."
"You said you don't like half of the girls you ever dated!"
"Ssh! Keep your voice down. Need I remind you we're in a school cafeteria?"
"And you have a rep to protect, right? Drake, there are many things I admire about you,
but this part of you I am not jealous of one bit. There's such a thing as quality over
quantity." Josh left with his empty tray before Drake could respond.
"Hi, Drake." Rhoda waved as she walked by.
Drake left his garbage on the lunch table and ran to catch up to the mysterious new girl.
"Hi, Rhoda. Where are you going in such a hurry?" He looked at his watch, "We have
fifteen minutes left."
"Drake Parker! Throw away your trash or I will send you to the Principal."
Ugh. Mrs. Hafer. She had the worst timing ever.
"Looks like you are going to be busy. Bye, Drake."
"You know you have lousy timing, Mrs. Hafer."
"I hate you."
"I know."
By the time Drake went back to his table and disposed of his garbage he couldn't find
Rhoda anywhere. They had no classes together. He would have to wait for three long
hours to catch her by her locker, which was conveniently across from Josh's, and they
shared last period together. It was an art class elective which wasn't bad for the end of
the day.
"I can't believe you can't shut up about Rhoda today after what I told you at lunch today."
Josh put the books he didn't need to take home in a neat little stack on his locker
organizer shelves that he got at the mall.
"Just accept the fact that we're two different people, Josh. And I don't want to hurt
Rhoda. Just so you know. It's not like I set out to hurt anyone."
"Yeah. Drake do we have to fight?"
"Who's fighting with you?" Drake grabbed onto his brother's arm.
"Here comes Rhoda. How does my hair look?"
Josh didn't know what came over him, but he took his hand and tousled Drake's hair.
"Fine."
"Remind me to get mad at you later," Drake smoothed his hair down with his hands and
made the transition to Rhoda's locker. She was a recent transfer from Clairemont High
or an Angel sent from Heaven. Drake wasn't sure which.
"Hey."
"Hi, Drake," Rhoda put what she didn't need into her locker and closed the door with a
purpose, "I'm sorry I can't stay and chat. Maybe later."
She put her backpack over her shoulder and spun around like the rest of the female
crowd. It was driving him absolutely bonkers.
Rhoda smiled despite the pain coming from the dressy slip on mules and continued to
walk until she was out of the door and into the fresh air and into an air conditioned car.
"How was your day in school, Rhoda?" asked an older female about mid thirties with
wavy brunette hair.
"I can't wait to take this horrible make up and SKIN off," she looked at her face in the
rear view mirror, "I can't believe he finds this attractive! I just wanted to be myself. I hate
that mousy faux Southern voice. The dye from the salon almost burned my scalp and my
toes hurt from these stupid shoes. Along with these itchy hair extensions and these
fashion tinted contact lenses are killing me."
"You are doing an awful lot of complaining."
"I'm sorry, Gigi. I couldn't do this without my big sister's help and I do appreciate it. I'm
just going to tease Drake a little while longer before I accept his offer to go out on a
date."
"You're welcome. I can get you more supplies from the theater workshop."
"Good."
"You really like this Drake Parker." Gigi liked the photos that her sister emailed her last
week. He was a stunner.
"Yeah. I never realized it before. Josh is a nothing compared to him. It's so ironic—Josh
loves the real me, but Drake can't stand me," She started to cry, "I just wanted to be
myself. Drake's going to hate me more once he finds out and don't get me started on
Meg----"
"Woah! Little sister—think, honey, think. Don't tell him. Take your new identity to places
the old one holds you back. Honesty all the time is a severely overrated concept."
"Rhoda Simmons taken from my favorite element Rhodium and the street we used to
live on in Los Angeles. I suppose that's a better persona than Mindy Crenshaw."
Gigi held her younger sister's knee, "There you go. Do you want to stop for some pizza
once you take all the Rhoda off?"
There was a Marian Catholic High School uniform in a garment bag in the trunk.
"I'm not hungry now. Maybe later. At any cost no matter how long it takes, I just want
Drake Parker to love me, but most importantly I wanted him to love the real me."
"It'll work out honey. After you take your shower just take a long nap. You'll feel better
when you wake up."
Rhoda/Mindy cried all the way home. All she wanted was for Josh to stop loving her and
for Drake to start.
At any cost.
