Beep beep, beep beep!
Zoey's eyes flickered open to a sunlight bathed room. Her duvet was on the floor and her pillow was pushed up right against the purple wall, but these weren't the only signs she hadn't slept well. Her air was static from all the wriggling she'd done and she had circles deeper than the midnight sky underneath her chocolate brown eyes. For a moment, she propped herself up on her elbows and just stared straight ahead groggily.
"Eurgh…" A noise from the top bunk carried down the sound of someone rolling over on a mattress emitted as the candy pink duvet shifted. Nicole, with her eyes still closed, picked up her pillow and slammed it over her head, pushing it in at her ears as the beeping of the alarm clock continued. She tried to return to her dream where Jonathan Bennett (in his 'Mean Girls' get up) was profusing true love but whenever he opened his mouth a familiar 'beep' sound was all he could say. She pressed the pillow closer against her ears but it was no use. She picked it up, threw it to the floor and sat up.
"Can you hit the snooze button?" She asked, glaring down at Zoey, who appeared to just be sitting and staring blankly at the wall. She hated how now she found herself tutting and sighing at Zoey's behavior, but she couldn't help it anymore. Ever since the night before the Sinclairs and the Williams left PCA, Zoey had been hyper-emotional, super-sensitive and vulnerable. Spending any time longer than required in Room 101 was like treading on egg shells around Zoey and her crying-attacks. Once Nicole had tried to sit her down and talk about it, but Zoey just shook her head and refused to tell her anything. Nicole had probed her a bit more about why Chase was knocking on their door every night, pleading with Zoey to see him, and she was planning on asking why she wasn't opening the door either, but Zoey stayed silent. It hurt her more than anything, that Zoey couldn't open up to her, when they were supposed to be best friends. And it also insulted Nicole's intelligence.
I know I'm not known for being the sharpest tack in the box but even I can add two and two together and come up with three.
I mean four.
Obviously this has something to do with Chase and I can only assume you're crying because he broke everything off with you.
But then why would he be knocking on the door when I'm trying to cleanse and moisturize in peace?
Why won't you just explain this to me?
And then, maybe a month or so later, out of the blue, Zoey's crying fits stopped and she was suddenly a bundle of sunshine again. She'd died her hair brown over 'The Depression Era' but she hadn't done anything with it. When she'd brightened up again, she'd cut it sharp and she looked pretty again. Then, maybe a week before the morning Nicole was thinking all this, she'd gone back to her depressed self again, only she hadn't been crying, just worrying, and she was really, really dull and blank.
"Are you sick?" Nicole asked, pulling back the duvet covers and sliding off the edge of the bunk bed, "Are you ill? Do you need the nurse?"
Zoey just shook her head and turned away. Nicole padded across the room and turned off the alarm clock. It was as though touching it, she'd suddenly got an electric shock, because she jumped back so quickly even Zoey jumped. Nicole's whole face lit up and she began hopping from foot to foot.
"OhmyGod!" She shrieked, "do you know what day it is?"
"Saturday?" Zoey tried sleepily, swinging her legs around so she was sitting on the edge of the bed. She wiped her eyes and sat with her head in her hands.
"No!" Nicole smiled, "Well, yes, actually, but that's not what I meant. They're coming back today!"
Zoey tried not to let out a groan and she bit her tongue to stop her saying anything. Of course, she knew who they were. The whole of PCA were, and that's why the were all cleaning up the school and painting banners after classes yesterday. She was excited about seeing Rebecca and Nate again, after all, they'd been nothing but sweet to Zoey when they'd been around PCA. But then, when she thought of Kristen and Art returning, her stomach lurched like she'd eaten some bad oysters.
She'd finally settled things with Chase, and now suddenly the two people most likely to mess things up decide they're coming home. And Zoey always had the aching feeling Chase would not be with her if Kristen was still around.
But you haven't seen them for like a year. Maybe Kristen got in a horrible go-karting accident and now looks like Courtney Love. Or…Jay Leno.
Her brain said 'yeah right' sarcastically. It was practically impossible to deface and disfigure someone like Kristen Williams. She was indestructible and quite possibly immortal.
"What am I going to wear?" Nicole flung open the wardrobe and started throwing clothes wildly in the air, stopping only to hold up a garment for closer inspection before saying things like 'too girly,' 'too old,' and 'he's seen me in that!' Of course, it was only natural for Nicole to be so excited, after all, how often does it happen that a girls' first and possibly true love returned to PCA?
Well, not often, incase you're wondering.
Michael rubbed his hands together and breathed deeply. His breathing techniques were calming, he looked up to the ceiling of Room 32 and muttered a silent prayer under his breath. The room was silent, anticipatingly waiting for his next move. He let out a deep sigh.
This is it Michael.
He wrapped both his hands around the handle in front of him.
This.
Is.
It.
"AHHHHHHHH!" Chase yelled out in pure, undiluted pain as Michael struggled behind him, desperately trying to pull the comb through Chase's mini-fro. Every tug Michael did sent a new, sharp pain across Chase's scalp and he writhed in discomfort on the seat. Logan was sitting across from them, finding it vaguely amusing and wondering why there wasn't a show like this on TV. He noticed Michael's arm-muscles straining as Michael lifted a leg to the chair and pulled back with all his might, the comb handle still in his hands, but the comb wouldn't budge.
"You should try some conditioner," Harry Onslow said, leaning against the doorframe coolly, his own perfect hair flopping into his eyes again, "I'd recommend John Freida, Frizz-Ease. Then maybe some leave-in conditioner, then a finishing cream. And maybe some hair perfume," Harry produced a bottle from the bathroom and squirted it a couple of times around his head, "just to give the finishing touch."
The only upside to the Sinclairs and the Williams leaving PCA a year back was that Michael, Chase and Logan had all made a new best friend in the process. Since Harry shared a room with Nate and Art, he managed to do a bit of 'poor little pretty boy' by complaining to the Dean how lonely he was, and how upset he was he'd lost his girlfriend (though he didn't specify that his girlfriend was either Rebecca or Kristen. His girlfriend, was in fact, Shannon Sewell, a walking Barbie Doll in the year above who had left for early college because she was surprisingly smart) and how he was going to start suffering depression if something wasn't done immediately. Since the Onslow's were so influential over the PCA budget (donating large sums each year), Dean Rivers immediately had it seen to Harry was moved to a room where he had some friends. And since Harry was a little scared of Jackson Rennison, and the rest of the Good-Looking Popular Athlete Clique annoyed him with their misunderstanding about hair products, Harry chose to move into Room 32.
And since then, the boys had bonded in the way that only boys could.
Sports and punching each other.
"Why are you trying to comb your hair anyway?" Logan asked while Harry returned to the bathroom, "Have you ever combed it in your life?"
Chase shook his head, his teeth gritted together with pain.
"Then that comb isn't going anywhere," Logan said, standing up to admire his reflection once more. He'd opted for the casual look, the low-slung jeans and a loose polo. He knew he looked hot (a total of nine girls told him this so on his way down to get a Coke) but he had a habit of checking himself furtively, in case there were any mistakes anywhere. He wanted to look perfect for Rebecca's return. He'd missed her so much it was surreal.
Michael's hands slid off the handle with sweat and he was propelled so far backwards he hit the door. As he slid down it, he was panting heavily, trying to catch his breath. Chase turned around in his chair to see Michael exhausted, collapsed against the door, twisted with his head around, glaring at Chase's hair.
"That hair," Michael panted, "has got. To go."
Chase touched his hair tenderly, wincing whenever his fingers touched his scalp. It was still red and raw from Michael's 'savage attack.'
"But she loves my hair," he said absent-mindedly, checking it out in the mirror.
"I thought Zoey said you'd look cute with a cut?" Harry shouted through from the bathroom.
"Uh yeah, yeah…that's what I meant," Chase mumbled, getting up from his chair and looking out of the window so no one could see his reddening face. He wasn't sure if he'd just slipped up or not.
Did I mean Zoey?
Or did I mean Kristen?
He looked down on the crowd and commotion outside where everyone was getting ready for the big arrival. He reminded himself Kristen and him were over. And had been for a while now.
And that's why she's with that guy.
And that's why you're with Zoey.
He felt his face cooling down. It was safe to return to the conversation without awkward questions being asked.
Michael was still on the floor, wiping beads of labor-induced sweat off his forehead weakly. Logan stood and prodded the brush sticking up in Chase's hair.
"Is it going to come out?" Chase asked nervously. Logan glanced over at Michael wheezing and panting against the door. He looked back at his and Chase's reflection.
"Well I'm not going to try."
"How are you doing? Do you feel sick again?"
Kristen's face contorted into an angry expression as she bit her bottom lip.
"I told you," she hissed, "I'm fine. I only threw up because of that massacred animal at the side of the road, okay?"
Rebecca reclined her seat, fully aware it'd crush her brother's knees in the backseat but she didn't really care that much. She was glad Nate had insisted that he drove and not Kristen. Of course, that meant Kristen had more times to complain about things now that she wasn't concentrating on the road, but it was a small price to pay when it came to moaning girls in the backseat or your head splattered all over the windscreen as she crashed into a tree.
"Rebecca can you turn the music up?" Kristen called from the back of the huge 4 by 4 Nate got for his birthday, "I totally love this song."
Rebecca grimaced.
"Are you kidding?" she wrinkled her petite, perfect nose in disgust, "Lindsay Lohan?"
"Um no, should I be?" Kristen wrapped her finger around her new long extensions and examined the ends of them for about the millionth time. To her complete and utter horror, since the 'hair straightening accident,' Kristen's hair was growing so painfully slow it didn't once pass her shoulders. And she missed having long, glossy hair she could toss behind her shoulder when she was irritated, so she got everyone to stop off in New York so she could get the best extensions before returning to PCA.
"Okay okay," Rebecca turned in her seat, "here's a deal. You choose the song, I choose the volume, okay?"
"Fine," Kristen dropped her extension, "Number 5 please."
Obediently, Rebecca changed the song to number five, but no one in the car heard the opening beats. Rebecca had turned the volume dial round to '0.' Nate laughed appreciatively and Kristen almost protested, but was silenced when Nate reminded her,
"You made a deal Kris."
Art shuffled uncomfortably in his seat. Rebecca's seat was so far backwards he had hardly any leg room. He knew she was getting him back for the plane-seat incident but this seemed a million times worse.
"Can you shuffle your seat forward?" He asked. Rebecca didn't even turn around.
"Oh but I have such long legs, I need the space, you know? To stretch. Got to keep that blood circulation going you know."
He could hear her snigger maliciously under her breath and Kristen joined in a for a moment, forgetting Rebecca's sly trick with the music. Art sighed and sunk back in his chair, looking out of the window. He watched the world fly by him as Nate cruised down the road. He heard the luggage in the boot jiggle around whenever they turned or hit a speed bump. He smiled. All of this didn't matter. Soon he'd be home.
The plane landed with a slight bump – Parker Montgomery was used to it, after all, she'd probably spent more of her life in the air than the ground. What did that make her? An Air Chick? She liked the sound of that, constantly reminded herself of that, while buckling her seatbelt and getting ready for the in-movie flight. While the jet soared over country after country, continent after continent, but none of that really bothered Parker. Nothing really did - Parker had came from a family of uptight, cool-keeping rich brats who kept their composure at all times, and the Montgomery's youngest daughter really wasn't any different.
So what, the Montgomerys were on the move again? Parker didn't know her family really very well, she'd spent the last ten years of her life in somebody elses care. Whether it was 24/7 Nursery or Arlington Academy she was never really part of the Montgomerys. But she considered herself lucky : she knew her parents were immature, selfish and irrational, but at least they allowed her back for holidays. Her older sister, Sahara hadn't seen the threshold of the last seven Montgomery Manors. But her parents did love at least one of their children, namely Adam, Parker's year-older brother. Parker and Adam got on secretly. They both socialized together and were the closest of friends when they were at Arlington or Braughen or whatever-the-most-expensive-boarding-school-in-the-city was at that time, but at home, they both knew their parents preferred to think they didn't get along, like a nice dysfunctional family, and after all, who were Parker and Adam to ruin this for them?
While Parker knew little about family relationships, she knew she was lucky. She was rich, smart and beautiful : with flawless ivory skin and deep, glossy black, poker-straight hair that fanned out like a shampoo commercial when ever she turned her head. Not to mention her scarily green eyes that intimidated many and lured a million more, her oddly defined bone structure. She'd been popular everywhere she went and she knew that the destination she and her family were on the way to now was going to be no different.
Little knew why Parker moved from Texas. She remembered, a little too clearly, the sort of memory that slowed down half way through so you could pace about it, looking for new details you hadn't realized the first time through. It had all happened when she was a student at Olivia Kensington Academy. Parker was assigned a room with the then 'Miss Popular,' an all-American-California blonde with a big chest and a tiny brain called Sarah-Jane Krinonsky; Sarah-Jane K's best friend and faithful sidekick Cindy-Sue Jannley (known like Sarah-Jane K was Cindy-Sue J) who was just like a Sarah-Jane K clone; and a tall, willowly girl with all the potentials of being popular - but obviously dismissed by the common-looks of the current 'Ruling Class' - Grace Margreth.
Parker's dormitory was never empty because of Sarah-Jane K's presence. Whenever Parker would come back in from a lunch on the green with Grace or an 'extra-lesson' with a particularly good-looking guy, she'd find the dorm full of identical blondes (Jeanette-Lou A made up the rest of the three most-popular, but the extended clique included other girls who all looked like Sarah-Jane K with name's like Darla-Star and Samantha-Jo) giggling in unison, discussing the 'hot and not' list and throwing numerous sly compliments Sarah-Jane K's way. One afternoon, when Parker was eating in the caféteria with Grace and another girl built of Grace and Parker's stature called Marina, she had a brainwave. It didn't take long to overthrow Sarah-Jane K and the other Something-Something-Single-Alphabet-Letter's once they found out enough about them. It was a step-by-step motion that won Parker the title of Miss Popular, and Grace and Marina of second in command. They were the new generation of the Ruling Class, and there was nothing Sarah-Jane K and her friends could do about it. Parker's new squeeze became Sarah-Jane K's ex-boyfriend, a typical all-American jock with floppy hair and a winning smile. It was all going perfectly well, amazingly well with Steve, surprisingly well, but all good things come to an end, she supposed. Parker came home to the dormitory to find him making out with Marina. While he tried to win her back, she found out Marina clearly wasn't only the one in the wrong. That night, she threw a bedside table at Grace who was sent to the hospital immediately. Parker moved into Adam's dormitory, much to the pleasure of Adam's friends. She spent most of her time with them : she was surprised, her plan was starting to fall apart. One lunch, Sarah-Jane K began to hatch a plan to regain the throne. She provoked Parker all week in hope of her turning. Parker ignored her and continued her life as usual, with two new second in commands (Katy and Rose). Sarah-Jane K didn't give up easily enough. Parker walked in on Sarah-Jane K and Adam in Adam's dormitory and she went insane. Sarah-Jane K's plan was working, but she had no idea it was falling apart as much as Parker's. Parker - who had had enough of keeping her composure around people - launched herself at Sarah-Jane K, pulling out tufts of blonde hair between clenched fists. She ignored Adam's arms around her trying to take her off Sarah-Jane K and continued attacking. Adam managed to pull her off long enough for a reasonably bald Sarah-Jane K to run out of the dormitory for her life. Parker sunk her teeth into Adam's arm and raced after her, down the corridors, following only the sound of Sarah-Jane K's cries and heels clicking on the hardwood. It was only until she turned the last corner did she finally see Sarah-Jane K at the top of the stairs. And that's where it slowed down...
Parker leaped at Sarah-Jane K, slapping, spitting, punching, inflicting as much pain as possible. Sarah-Jane K fought back, but she wasn't nearly strong enough. She managed to resist long enough to get a hook in at Parker's face, but Parker pushed forwards, causing the two to plummet down the stairs and in the direction of the Olivia Kensington ancient stained glass window the school prized the most. The two sailed through it, landed on the ground two storeys down and that was all Parker remembered...dramatic? Yes. Over the top? Yes. Necessary? Probably not, but Parker wasn't the type of girl to take things lying down. She had such a violent temper that it was like creeping about on egg-shells around her.
Blythe pressed the 'eject' button on her seatbelt, slowly slid out of her seat and departed the plane. She didn't worry about the bags, she had people that carried her things for her. She shielded her eyes as she stepped into the harsh sunlight.
So far so good, looks like PCA wasn't going to be so bad after all with all this sunshine.
Parker wasn't nervous about moving at all - because Parker was going to become the most popular girl at PCA, and have the best-looking guy there as hers. And if she had to push another person out of another window…
Then so be it.