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Fortunes Fools
Chapter Three
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That weekend was possibly the longest in the history of my life. No matter how much I studied for school, read my latest book, or watched my favourite movies, time seemed to take pleasure in ticking by slower than usual.
What made matters worse was Henry's constant questioning about the… emotions, I guess, that had been there between Ric and I. He kept bringing it up, as if I held all the answers. Truth was, I had no idea where any of it had come from. For him at least. For me, it came from the heart. It wasn't Ric Dalby playing Romeo, it was… someone else. Someone sweet, romantic, a knight in shining armour. Someone who could sweep me off my feet, and take me away from the living hell they had provided me for the last five years.
Someone who would make the world as I knew it disappear into a swirling mist of ecstasy.
Of course, I didn't dare tell Henry that. I simply shrugged until he grew so agitated that he threatened to beat the answer out of me. They were empty threats though; Henry would never hurt me, physically anyway.
By Monday morning I had worked myself into a nervous wreck. I hardly slept the night before, and the hours that I had slept were filled with fitful sleep plagued with dreams of forbidden love between two people who appeared to familiar, yet so different.
As I walked across the quad towards Cass and Belle, I knew they could tell immediately of my somber mood.
"What's up M-Girl?" Cassie asked as soon as I reached them.
I could only manage a weak 'meh' in reply.
"You're not still worried about missing out on the role of Juliet, are you?" B asked.
"Maybe" I mumbled shortly.
Cass and B shared a quick look, one that they thought I missed.
"I saw that look." I said quietly.
"What look?" Cass asked innocently.
"The 'she's done it again' look" I replied knowingly.
"I have no idea what you're on about." Belle retorted.
"Yes you do." I said calmly "It's that look you always get whenever I'm like this. When I've worried myself into a state about an assignment or a game or a TV show or… a boy." I finished.
"Okay" Cass finally caved. "You've done it again. No one can compare to you. And we're going to prove it."
"How?" I asked suspiciously.
"Oh don't get like that," Belle said "Ashton has posted the roles."
"Oh." Was all I could manage.
"Yep. That's right. Guess who landed the role of fair Juliet?" Cass said nonchalantly.
"Me?" I asked weakly.
"Of course you did M-Girl." Belle shouted as she pulled me into a tight hug. "Cass and I knew you had it in you all along."
It was as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulder. All my worries, my fears, my reservations…they all vanished. I had this chance, this one shot, at being the one person I always wanted to be. I smiled into Belle's shoulder as I felt Cass wrap her arms around me. It was a moment I would saver, like all moments I shared with my best friends.
Pulling away, I smiled up at them, asking, "Who's playing Romeo?"
Cass and B shared another look that told me everything I needed to know.
"Ric Dalby." I said aloud, voicing my second fear, which was now a reality.
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"I just don't see how he could've possibly got the role. Surely Ashton has some sense, even if it's this tiny miniscule part that screams 'Ric will RUIN the show.' There's got to be something I can do to make Ashton change his mind." I ranted during recess, as Belle and Cassie listened sympathetically, knowing that I just needed to get it out.
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"How can I work with him?" I asked them later during lunch. It was rhetorical though, I didn't need them to answer, just listen. "He's made it his mission in life to ruin mine. From day one, he's made me crazy. How can I pretend to fall in love with him, when I loathe him." More nodding from Cass and B, who understood exactly where I was coming from.
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"It's like, the first good thing that's ever happened to me in highschool. These are supposed to be the best years of my life, but they haven't… until now. This was the one thing that would've just, made highschool for. My one memory that I could take away, aside from those with you guys," I quickly said to Cass and Belle who smiled brightly at me as we walked across the quad towards the bus stop "But then it had to go and get ruined too." I said, throwing my hands up in the air dramatically "It's like I just can't win."
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"There's just nothing for it." I sighed into the phone, "I'll have to give up the part." I said, my heart breaking.
This was where Cassie and Belle finally stepped in.
"Nope, not going to happen." Belle said firmly.
"But…" I began
"Over our dead bodies." Cassie agreed with Belle.
"I…" I tried again.
"End of discussion Matilda Jane Hunter. You're playing Juliet, you're letting me dress you up all pretty like and letting B do your hair. You're going to let yourself shine like the angel you know you are. And you're going to play an angelic Juliet to Ric Dalby's Romeo, with whom you fell in some kind of magical existence with during your audition." Cassie said firmly into the phone.
"Yep." Belle seconded.
I sighed; knowing there was nothing I could say to change their minds once they were set.
"Fine" I agreed finally. "I won't pull out. And I'll be the best Juliet ever." I finished in a monotone voice.
"There you go," B said happily "That wasn't so hard, was it?"
"You try kissing Ric one day and tell me how easy it is for you?" I retorted angrily.
"I forgot about that." Cassie replied instantly "But don't worry. Just imagine it's Leo, and he makes that cute little face at you that he does in the movie, when Claire Danes is dancing."
I can't help but giggle. This is why we're best friends.
"So, shopping tomorrow?" B asked.
"But we have school…" I cried aloud
"Pfft. School will always be there. Whereas, that adorable dress I saw in the window of Myers won't. And we have that party next weekend" Cassie said persuasively.
I caved again. I just can't say no, not when I know they are trying their hardest to get my mind off everything that's about to come.
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"Well?" I asked as I walked timidly out of the change rooms in Myers to face Belle and Cassie, who had been studying themselves in the large, floor to ceiling mirrors.
While Cassie had chosen a classic, simple black dress that flowed to her knees. Belle had gone for a deep red that hugged her body in all the right places, and was too short for my liking. Together they'd pulled a light pink dress from the rack and shoved it in my face before pointing to a dressing room.
"Try it on" Cassie had said as I began to protest "You'll never know until you try."
While they both looked stunning, I was looking towards the ground, fearful of their scrutiny.
"Behold, the angel that is Matilda Hunter." Cassie said quietly.
"You're a vision M-Girl." Belle said softly, as I heard them walk over to me.
"You really think so?" I asked as I looked up slightly.
Cassie grabbed one hand and she pulled me between Belle and her infront of the mirrors. I looked up fully to see the stark contrast between the three of us. Cassie was a classic beauty donned in midnight mystery, and Belle was a wild vixen in red. I was the pale faced angel in between them.
"How is it that we don't have boyfriends?" I sighed, breaking the silence and sending Cass and B into fits of giggles.
"You're so vain M-Girl." Cassie gasped between laughs.
"I am not" I replied rather obnoxiously.
"No, she's right Cass." B replied as she calmed down. "I look damn HOT in this dress, yet boys go out of their way to avoid me. Why?"
"Because boys are worthless." Cassie replied matter-of-factly. "And we're not people who waste our time, are we girls?"
"Nope." I said confidently.
"We do however, need to buy these dresses." Belle said, confirming my thoughts that we looked amazing.
"Agreed." I said, as I pulled myself away from them and walked back to the change room. "We also need to stuff ourselves with fatty food for lunch." I added before I shut the door to the room, faintly hearing Cassie's reply of "Amen sister."
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Sitting in the food court, our new purchases safely tucked away as we chatted animatedly while waiting for our Chinese to be ready, an unwelcome sight came into view, and I groaned before putting my head down.
"What's up M-Girl?" Cassie asked.
"Don't look, but the three unmentionables are there. I don't know whether they've seen us or not but whatever you do, under no circumstances are you to turn around." I said strongly, lowering my head even more.
And what did Cass and B have to do? Turn, so they could see for themselves that the unmentionables were here, and could quite possibly threaten to pop this bubble of bliss I'd been living in all day.
"Guys," I said as their heads snapped around to look back at me "I said 'Don't Look'. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"
"We just wanted to see them for ourselves M-Girl. Take a chill pill." B replied evenly, but the damage had already been done. They were walking towards us, wicked, evil grins plastered on their faces.
"Great." I grumbled into my hands "Just great."
"Well, well, well" Henry said as soon as he was in earshot. "What do we have here?"
Why is it that males can only ever ask dumb rhetorical questions while they are under the impression that it's intelligent?
"I don't know." Luke replied to Henry's rhetorical question "It looks like the witches of Eastwick."
"More like the Charmed ones." Belle bit back, glaring icily at him.
I knew where this was headed, and my head had already begun to hurt in anticipation.
"There's nothing charming about you honey." Luke snapped, as Henry sat down between Cassie and myself.
"Shopping I see." Luke observed from his standing position, as Ric stood awkwardly to the side, unusually standoffish.
"Stocking up for the whore house?" Henry said evenly, raising his eyebrows, which earned him a hard slap across the face from Cassie.
He turned to glare at her, and you could see the heat rising in both their faces.
"You'll pay for that one, you little witch" He said angrily under his breath.
"Bring it on." She replied, looking him in the eyes. "Any day Henry Hunter, I'll take you down."
He let out a sick, hollow laugh as he turned to face me.
"Darling little sister." He said in a sickly sweet voice "I think you should be somewhere else… like, school? What would mother dearest say when I told her you were found here, with Dumb and Dumber?" He finished, indicating towards Belle and Cassie.
"She'd probably ask how you found me, since you were supposed to be at school too." I said, smiling angelically at him while rolling my eyes at his idiocy.
His face darkened and it was like I could hear the storm clouds rolling in, with thunder and lightning as background music on a really bad TV show. Just as he opened his mouth to say something, the unexpected happened (as it generally does).
Ric cut in. He pulled Henry out of the chair and wheeled him over to a corner as Luke followed them. What occurred next looked to be some sort of heated discussion between the three, which ended in Henry shoving Ric and stalking off with Luke in hot pursuit.
There was a line that had been drawn on our battle field long ago. A line that determined the direction of the battles, and the direction of the war. Once crossed, it was irreversible, and could not be undone. Henry, with his cruel comments, had just blasted across that line, with no troops in tow.
"That… pig…" Cassie seethed "Has no shame."
Her fists were clenched in tight balls, and her face was glowing red, as if she was going to spontaneously combust at any stage. And she could. Henry had wounded her, as he always managed to do. While their jokes were all directed at me, he took unusual pleasure in focusing all his cruel comments towards Cassie.
She never showed how much it really got to her though; she always hid behind a mask she'd created for herself. I guess we were all a little guilty of that concerning what these boys had put us through.
Taking one of her balled hands in mine, I eventually felt it relax as I squeezed it comfortingly.
"You know he's worthless. Don't waste your time on him." I said quietly, as Belle nodded beside me.
"Cass, he's just doing it to get this reaction out of you." Belle continued, bumping her hip against Cassie's in a manner that said 'Are you okay?'
She broke out into a small grin before bumping B back.
"And you know what makes events like that even better?" Belle said mysteriously.
"What?" I replied, grinning at them.
"The fact that we're in a shopping centre, with every single clothing shop at our beck and call." Belle said gleefully as she pulled Cassie and I up with her, our lunch order forgotten, ready once again, to take on the Mall.
It was only later, during a coffee stop to feed our caffeine addiction, did I realise that Ric had done a decent thing, stopping Henry before he said, or did, anything else. The thought came and went, however, when Cassie pointed out the cute guys that had been eyeing us for the last ten minutes, and it wouldn't be until later during the week, that I'd remember the noble deed of Ric Dalby.
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From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star-crossed lovers that their life-
AN: Thanks to Tess, for reading through it. Thanks to those who reviewed. This story is my fave to write at the moment, easiest as well. Anyhow, hope you liked this one!
