Chapter 44
Eddy remained fixated on the steel double doors acting as the main access/egress to the street for a few seconds. The small Ed boy maintained a slight smile, as well as an air of surprise regarding Lee's bold guess that he had rejected a ride home with her so that he could work on obtaining her Christmas present. Nevertheless, Eddy's mind raced frantically as he pondered his current situation, and the unidentified plan he concocted. He had no idea if what he was about to do would work, but it was most certainly worth a try.
With that in mind, Eddy made his way into the boys bathroom, the door of which was relatively close to his position. Unlike Lee, Eddy had brought his street clothes with him, with the intent to change out of his ballet costume at the end of the show. In around two minutes, Eddy had changed out of his black sleeveless shirt and tights, and back into his standard outfit of a yellow sweater with a purple stripe and blue jeans. He placed the costume in a blue gym back that he brought with him, after which he donned a pair of red gloves, and exited the bathroom.
At the time of Eddy's emergence from the restroom, the hallway was completely empty. Eddy's footsteps echoed off of the hallway walls, each step interrupting the eerie ambient silence. Eddy had opted to travel towards the side exit of the school, further east away from the street and the parking lot; his intent being to refrain from being accidentally spotted by Lee and her family. The side exit of the school led to a relatively spacious alley, where the school stored it's trash dumpsters for pickup by the sanitation department. While the west outlet lead toward the school parking lot, the east outlet of the alleyway lead directly to small road connecting to the main line of the business district, which the garbage trucks used to gain access to the area on trash day. Eddy planned to use this road to escape undetected to his destination.
Eddy eventually reached the steel door, opened it and exited the building. He placed his hands in his pockets, attempting to shield himself from the bone chilling winter air, as he rounded the corner into the school alleyway.
However, his causal walk was interrupted, for as he rounded the corner, his ears detected the sound of a shrill, polish-accented feminine voice. The voice was in the register of a slight whisper, but nevertheless sounded extremely aggressive. Eddy wasted no time, ducking behind one of the school dumpsters to remain incognito. After ensuring that he was hidden, he peered around the side of the metal bin, in an attempt to classify the voices.
Standing around fifteen feet away from his position was his girlfriends nemesis, Lindsay. She had changed out of her cheer outfit and back into her standard outfit of choice, with the addition of a pair of blue earmuffs. She was standing with her back against the concrete wall of the school, her arms to her sides and her feet together as if she were standing at attention.
Standing directly in front of Lindsay was Edyta. While Lindsay shared uncanny body proportions to Lee, being a base 5'9", with an additional two inches added due to wearing her brown high-heeled boots, Edyta stood at a modest 5'5". Accordingly, the woman's right index finger was lifted upwards, pointing directly into Lindsay's face, as she yelled aggressively.
Eddy took notice that the typical arrogant smile that adorned the girls face had vanished, and was replaced with a wide eyed neutral expression. The blonde girl remained fixated on an imaginary point directly in front of her face, as her mother sternly lectured her. Eddy decided to remain still, listening to the conversation unfold.
"Now you listen to me for the umpteenth time!" yelled Edyta in an aggressive voice, "You do NOT lose popularity contest to anyone, especially if I'm going to be in the audience! Do you know how hard I worked to get where I am? I can't afford to be embarrassed because you can't pull enough votes to beat a piece of red headed trash that decided to play dress up for the night."
"I tried," said Lindsay in a soft voice, atypical of the boisterous blonde, "What am I sup..p..posed to do, it's not m..m..my fault, she was just..."
As Lindsay struggled to get her words out, Eddy decided to comment to himself.
"Wow...harsh." said Eddy as he watched the events unfold before him. While he was quite surprised, he couldn't help but feel satisfied. The girl who persistently tortured his girlfriend, causing her so much grief, was being verbally scolded by her mother to the point where she was stumbling over her words. While he was eager to witness more, he knew that time was of the essence as he had a goal to accomplish prior to meeting Lee at the restaurant.
"That's irony for ya," said Eddy as he began his stealthy escape in the opposite direction, "Little Miss Perfect deserves to be on the receiving end of it for once."
As Eddy made his way around the corner with a slight grin, the conversation between the two women continued. Lindsay, was barely able to annunciate her previous words, presumably due to fear, and elected not to complete her sentence. At that point Edyta leaned up towards her face.
"Just what?" asked Edyta in a quiet tone, referencing Lindsay's earlier sentence.
Lindsay paused briefly, before deciding to say her final word in a barely audible manner.
"Better." said Lindsay.
At that point, the petite brunette woman seemed to be sent into a fury. She slammed her hand on the wall as she screamed.
"Listen you little shit," said Edyta, "As far as I'm concerned, I am your mother, and anything you do is a reflection of me. Nobody is better than us, especially when it comes to being beautiful and popular."
Ms. Statorowski angrily dropped her handbag on the ground, after which reached down and unzipped it.
"Your problem is you still haven't learned to take responsibility for your actions," said Ms. Statorowski in a sarcastic tone, as she removed two items from her purse, a cigarette lighter and a half empty glass bottle of a popular lemon flavored iced tea.
At the sight of these two objects, Lindsay's face appeared to adopt an expression of extreme distress. She continued to stare forward, her line of sight remaining above her mother's head and focused on the opposite wall. The woman held the two items she had retrieved out to her side, as she stared angrily up towards her daughters face.
"Your own stupidity put you in this situation," said Ms. Statorowski, "And now you have to deal with the consequences. I think winning Winter Ball Queen would give you a perfect opportunity to redeem yourself."
Ms. Statorowski leaned in towards Lindsay.
"Now let me be clear," said Ms. Statorowski, "You WILL win that crown, no matter what it takes. Here's the deal, your amazon woman ass better come up with a plan to put that little red haired bitch in her place, or you're going to only have one choice to make."
Ms. Statorowski raised her right into the air, and ignited the lighter.
"This," said Ms. Statorowski as Lindsay stared at the flame with fear.
Ms. Statorowski shut off the lighter, and lowered her left hand to toward her side. She proceed to lift her right hand in the air, currently cradling the glass bottle.
"Or this!" yelled Ms. Statorowski, at which point she slammed the bottle against the wall next to Lindsay's head. The bottle instantly shattered, with several segments falling towards the ground as a large shard remained in Ms. Statorowskis hand. The blonde girl winced slightly at the sound of the bottle shattering.
Ms. Statorowski threw the shard remaining in her hand into one of the dumpsters, after which she turned back towards the petrified Lindsay.
"Oh and you if screw up this time." said Ms. Statorowski, "That dream you said you had...it will definitely come true."
Ms. Statorowski turned and began walking down the alleyway.
"C'mon, it's getting late," said Edyta, "Let's get home."
Lindsay remained still for a few moments continuing to stare at the opposite concrete wall. After a few seconds, a tear began to drip down her right cheek; she promptly wiped it off and followed Edyta to the car.
