Chapter 24: Prestigious sorority boy falls for poor little outsider girl

It was a nice Monday morning, the week after spring break, and everyone was back at school, assembled in their first bell locations, assimilating back to school society. Claire Prescott sat in the back row in her AP French class, waiting for the bell to ring and begin the class. In front of her sat her admirer, Jacob Brachenbury in his grey and plaid tie Beaumont prep uniform, gazing ahead. And just as Claire suspected: he was staring at new girl Joanne Koffel, who was innocently gazing out the window on the right side, revealing the drop-dead gorgeous side of her face to Jacob. Fuck! Claire thought in infuriating jealousy.

"Claire, you alright?" Claire's best friend, Mary Bass asked as she sat down at the seat next to Claire. "You look a bit down."

Claire smiled. There was always room for a good friend. At least the kids at her school still A) loved her, B) respected her with unbelievable reverence, and C) was scared of her ultimate power over the school hierarchy. "It's okay, Mary. I'm fine." she replied.

"Whatever you say," Mary murmured and flipped her gleaming walnut-brown hair. The boys in the class noticed her hair shining so brightly in the sun's eternal light and gazed at her, as if they were staring at a goddess.

Fuck, why can't they stare at me the same way! Claire thought angrily. Claire was equally or more beautiful than Mary! Besides, Mary's eyes were nothing special: just a light brown color when Claire's was a bright aqua blue that sometimes turned turquoise or even green. Mysterious and beautiful, she called it.

Claire looked back into Jacob's direction again. He was still staring at that Joanne girl with that innocent face and the Joan of Arc personality—it was disgusting. How could anyone fall for poor little I'm-too-poor-to-afford-even-J. Crew scholarship girl! Not only did she not belong in their sorority but she was also a scholarship student, an outsider and one whose parents were commoners! Commoners! Claire felt a sudden feeling of nausea sink in. Claire was a well-bred, well-rounded Prescott who inherited not only good looks but wealth and land (or at least some day she will)! She was an absolute goddess with a beautiful nut-colored mane, smooth skin, perfectly curled eye lashes, freshly waxed eye brows, and les shaven to perfection—yet she was still losing to some 20-dollars-for-mascara peasant, some poor little I-go-shop-at-department-stores-to-check-out-super-sales loser! The only thing she had was her looks. And Claire had to admit: those beautiful bright Bambi-doe eyes—they did the trick.

The bell rang, interrupting Claire from her thoughts. Claire yawned as Mademoiselle grabbed her book and started to lecture. Did it really matter? The SATs were long over: college applications were over—and she was pretty sure that despite her applying late, she had gotten into Yale. Yes, in a matter of months she'd be packing up for an elegant Ivy-league school, dressing in Ann Taylor and falling in love with boys in their Brooks Brothers. Who needed Jacob when there were thousands of gorgeous Yale boys anyways? She did!

Claire had had her eyes on Jacob Brachenbury ever since she had first laid eyes on him in the first grade. Ever since then, she had absolutely tried so hard to hang out around him, to befriend him, to go to every football game only because Jacob was the quarterback—even go as far and joining marching band one year when she had been in France and unable to try-out for cheerleading in time, and she loved him, absolutely adored him. Jacob was a god—he was her god. He was her Lancelot, her Prince Charming, her knight in shining armor.

But apparently not, since recently, he had taken interested in pretty-doe-eyes, who was sitting two seats ahead of Claire. Claire knew what to do. She had been intimidating and trying to break down every girl who even dared to lay eyes on her Jacob. It seldom worked, but now was her chance to actually succeed. Little Bambi-eyes had no friends. She was an outsider, and would probably even lie lower than the nerds on the chess team. She was lower than low—she was lower than hell. It was Claire's chance to finally follow through on her plan—to crush the poor little commoner. And what better was it to do it at school, when her whole army of sorority girls were around, when anyone was willing to expand her army, when gossip spread easily, and when everyone was on her side, especially those little freshman girls who looked up to her as their role model, who envied her yet still wanted to become her faithful disciples! Of all the more reasons to be popular!

At lunch Claire sat at her usual table of popular kids, the patricians. The Patricians "secret society" had been around ever since the founding of the school—which was actually not very long ago. They had built the school during her mother's generation. Ellen Prescott claimed that her best friend Claudia had been accepted to become a Patrician after saving the school dance for the student body president Rachel Lexington, who had also been the leader of the sorority. And because her mother had been a Patrician, Liz had been a Patrician. And because her mother and her sister had both been Patricians, Claire was accepted right away by the group. The group was split into four different ones, each for each grade. The freshman Patricians hardly had a role in the school—it was the seniors who ruled, and Claire was the leader of the senior patricians. Talk about power!

Claire furrowed her perfectly waxed eyebrows, searching with her eyes for little Bambi-eyes. Where was that wicked boyfriend-stealer with that stupid innocent girl-next-door complexion? Oh, she was in for a treat...

"Claire!"

Claire flinched. Mary had once again interrupted her thoughts. "Claire, what's wrong? You haven't talked for the whole time!"

Claire didn't have the time to deal with this. She had to get back to letting her eyes wander around, looking for Bambi-eyes! What was her real name anyways? Jenna? Joanna? Joan? Joanne! Yes, it was definitely Joanne.

"Claire...?"

Claire glared in annoyance, then snapped, "Fuck off!"

The other girls glanced around at each other. What was wrong with Claire, and why had she been so cruel to her best friend? The boys were also curious too, even Jacob. Well, at least he noticed her for once!

Claire instantly regretted her last comment. "Sorry," she said, "I'm just not in a good mood today."
From across the table, Katie Bellingham formed a grin with her lips. "Wanna tell us why?" she asked excitedly.

How rude! "No, I'd rather not." Claire muttered coldly. Besides, Jacob, the whole nucleus of her topic was sitting right there!

Katie frowned, and examined Claire's expression. And you'd had to admit—Claire didn't look so well. Although stress, anger, nausea—all those things were only felt in the inside, Claire's friend was able to tell it from Claire's external features. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Claire was in a bad mood. And when Claire, aka bitch-of-a-queen-bee was in a bad mood—nobody wanted to mess with her.

From a few tables away, Veronica Charleston, queen bee of the freshman Patrician lot gathered her girls around, like Mary Poppins gathering around the little children. "I heard she tried to run away with this older guy on his motorcycle. In the middle of the ride she got so obnoxious he kicked her off and drove out of town!" Veronica said in her exclusive, gossiping tone.

"No way!" Meredith Berkeley exclaimed, "What I heard was that she and that hot Jacob Brachenbury actually were together, and then he dumped her for her sister!"

The other girls laughed. "Sorry Mer, but her sister got married to some sexy Abercrombie model from Delaware!"

"I thought he was from New York!" one girl chimed.

"I thought he was from Georgetown!" another girl joined in.

"And I thought you'd shut the fuck up!" one of the boys growled.

All the sorority girls rolled their eyes, and the other boys shook their heads at the rude one, informing him of his mistake. No one interrupted the sorority girls' gossiping—it was what they were best at besides taking tests, cheerleading, and shopping.

"Anyways," Veronica said, "I also heard another story that she was just up all night last night drinking beer and watching Marilyn Monroe movies."

"I thought it was vodka!" one of the girls exclaimed.

"It doesn't matter," Meredith corrected, "Drinks are all drinks."

"Hypocrite," one of the girls whispered to another's ear, "Mer's the one going around running campaigns against certain drinks and making speeches about the exquisite quality of fine chardonnay and debating against beer, which she claims is just for drunk poor people who can't afford anything else!"

And oh, boy wasn't gossip a joy?

Anyways, back to the seniors! "I heard the people from Cosmopolitan came over during the wedding and took pics to put in the next issue!" Katie gushed. "Isn't that oh-so-wonderful!"

"No one cares about my damned sister's fuck-ass wedding!" Claire mumbled. Looks like somebody's got an attitude problem to adjust!

"What was so pathetic was that we weren't originally invited to the wedding!" Katie continued on, ignoring Claire. "Claire had to practically beg her parents to let us come! Isn't that sad! And after all those years of my dad working side by side with hers..."

"Hello, I'm right here!"

Katie rolled her eyes. "I mean, seriously, what's Cosmo gonna think of that!"

"I totally understand why my parents were originally not invited though," Mary chimed in, "That big bitch fight between my mom and Mrs. Prescott—that was pretty huge!"

Just then, Claire spotted little Joan of Arc, sitting an empty table in the little corner of the dining hall. And what perfect way to exit, to create a scene, to leave the other girls to ponder! She quickly got up, grimaced, then said in her meanest tone, "I don't need to fucking hear this!"

Then she walked on like a fashion model going down a runway towards little Bambi-eyes. When Claire sat down across from her, Bambi looked up from her food. Maybe it was some welcoming student-mentor girl with plenty of hospitality and will to become her friend! Oh, Bambi-eyes, you are far wrong!

"Hi," Claire said, staring out casually. "I'm Claire Prescott." she had stressed her last name to intimidate her to, to belittle her and to show who the boss was. If only Bambi knew anything about Treegap, Connecticut or any of the kids at this prestigious prep school!

"Um, hi." she said timidly. "I'm...Joanne."

What a loser, Claire thought, she even hesitates when she says her own name! Her own fucking name!

"Well, Joanne, tell me a little about yourself!"

Joanne wondered if Claire was some school reporter working for the school paper and was interviewing her. Filled with nervousness, Joanne choked out the following words, "I'm Joanne Koffel, I just moved to Treegap—I used to live in New York—I'm not used to this school yet but I'll be joining some—err, activities so—so that I can you know, um...uh—"

"Assimilate into our fine school society?" Claire snarled.

"Y-yeah." Joanne answered in such embarrassment that she started to bite on her forefinger nail.

Claire couldn't stop herself from laughing! How could she lose to this barbarian, who not only had trouble speaking but also had a nasty habit of biting on her fingernails!

Joanne flushed. This wasn't going to be a very good first impression (that is actually recognized)...she won't be making any friends for the rest of the year!

"So, what brings you to Beaumont!"

"W-well, this one girl who used to g-go here recommended me...so they gave me a scholarship. She goes to Yale now, I've heard. W-when I went there for a tour; s-she was my guide."

Recommended? Who'd recommend some bitch who couldn't even talk right! Claire thought in disgust!

"So, have you made any friends so far?"

Joanne shook her head.

"Well, I have a lot of friends!" Claire said in the most excruciating way possible, "In fact, I'm not only in the sorority clique, but I also lead it! I'm also co-president of Latin club with my best friend Mary Bass (oh, and by the way, I also speak French too), I've been in most of the school musicals and always had a starring role, I'm in competition choir and I rank in the top 5, and I'm also a kick-ass tennis ace—and did you know that my family inherits a lot of the land! My great-grandparents, the Fosters owned pretty much the whole town in their time! All my friends are also as exalted and they live with the wealthiest parents in New Haven or Hartford! Some actually live in Treegap as the minority of preeminent residents living in mansions—just like mine!"

Joanne wanted to shiver. Claire wasn't here to interview her, and certainly not in hopes of becoming her friend. Claire was here to intimidate her, to crush her! But why? What had she done? Just when she felt the tears about to roll down her cheeks, a tall slender boy with sparkling blond hair and dazzling natural highlights joined them, sitting right next to her!

"Hey, sup?" Jacob greeted.

Way to kill her chance of being the hunter who finally, after all those years of new edited "special edition" DVDs, got the chance to kill the damned deer!

Joanne giggled in nervousness. "Nothing much," she replied. "What about you?"

But no way was Claire about to let Bambi even come close to having a decent conversation with her future husband! "We were just having a wonderful conversation." Claire said, then in a more disgruntled tone, "That is, until you interrupted, and practically ruined it!"

Jacob shrugged. "The rise and fall of Rome!" he exclaimed.

Claire scoffed loudly! Jacob knew that Rome was one of Claire's obsessions(she even got a tutor to teach her Latin when she was already taking AP French), and it was excessively insulting to her to defame the great Ancient Roman Empire! "Damn you to hell!" she hollered, then walked off with a "humph"!

Jacob laughed. "I hope she wasn't bothering badly. She's a sophomoric bitch, and she thinks she's just better than anyone else."

Joanne laughed. At least somebody was on her side!

Jacob let out a relieved sigh. He knew that Claire would be condescending poor Joanne today, and he was glad he had made it in time before Joanne had run off to the guidance office, begging to be able to transfer to some other school with nicer girls. Or at least, that's what the last new girl did.

"You look awfully proud of yourself!" Joanne ejaculated, "What have you been up to?"

It was so much more calming to talk to Jacob...he was so understanding, and although Jacob was one of those sorority jocks, he was still a very amiable person.

"Well, it just so happens that I made it in time to rescue Rapunzel from that beastly dragon!"

Joanne giggled.

For the rest of the lunch period, Jacob would sit there next to Joanne, staring at her in such intermittence that even a short, dweeby freshman "mathlete" would stop to notice. Joanne just ate innocently, hardly noticing that Jacob Brachenbury, the gorgeous prestigious sorority boy was falling for her, an outsider.