The Making of a Drama Queen
By the time she was four she had a unique perspective of the world, and it was that of dolls, pretty pink items and glittering jewels. She was an only child and her parents lavished love and wealth upon her, she was their world and they filled it with all the things a little four-year girl could ever dream of.
By the time she was eight she was adept to throwing lavish tea parties in her backyard where she and her friends would play dress up and pretend to be princesses, putting on amateur talent shows for their parents. It was a pleasant and spoiled way of life, and she knew no different.
By the time she was twelve, the dolls were slowly being replaced with makeup, hairstyles and the latest boy discussion. Her interests changed as she grew from little innocent girl to young woman and the spoiled childhood gave way to spoiled nature, a young woman who was able to manipulate her loving parents with a flutter of eyelids and pouting mouth.
When she turned fifteen, boys, fashion, makeup and gossip were her life. Gone was the small child, lost in worlds of princesses waiting for their knight in shining armour the knights had been replaced by the latest guy on the block. At school she played in the popular circles with the other popular girls, at night she went to parties. At weekends she shopped and went to sleepovers.
"Hey Zan"
Zandra looked over the page of the magazine she was reading as she sunbathed in her backyard. Glen was already climbing over the fence and heading towards her. They'd been neighbours all their life and had been close friends throughout.
"Oh hey Glen" she managed to smile, as she flicked the page of her magazine. Glen was great to talk to, she even allowed herself to flirt with him now and then, for practice only though. But as of late, Glen had been paying her more attention than usual and she really wasn't interested.
"You up to anything tonight?" Glen asked, sitting on a sun longer nearby.
"Not much, I'm meeting up with the girls later...why, you know about any parties I don't?" if there was a party to be going to Zandra would know about it, but it was always good to check that something hadn't been arranged that was worthy or her attention
"Not so much a party...but there may be something you may be interested in" replied Glen with a small smile.
Zandra eyed him over the magazine once more before placing it down on her stomach and giving him her full attention.
"Oh yeah?" she probed "What?"
"What time you meeting the girls?" asked Glen not giving anything away
"About seven" replied Zandra
"Where?" asked Glen
"Outside Cosmos, come on Glen give, what's going on tonight?"
"I'll meet you outside of Cosmos at seven and you can find out for yourself"
"Glen" Zandra rolled her eyes at him once more "Don't waste my time, you really think if there was something interesting going on tonight that I'd be relying on you to tell me what"
"Fine don't me" shrugged Glen standing "Course it involves guys, probably a party, all very hush hush. Total need to know basis"
"And I'm out of the loop?" mocked Zandra
"In this case yeah" smiled Glen heading back to his yard "I'll see you at cosmos, you can come with me or tell me to rack off...see you at seven. I probably don't have to tell you to, dress up for the night"
At seven that same evening, she met up with her friends outside of Cosmos, their usual meeting place. She'd already spread the word about dressing up more than usual after explaining to each one of them in detail her conversation with Glen. They all mutually agreed that they'd go see what Glen was talking about, and if it turned out to be a wild goose chase, at least they'd had the excuse to dress up.
"Ah ladies"
"Hey Glen" said a few of the group. Zandra folded her arms and eyed him
"Well Glen, we're willing to go along with you to wherever for now. This better not be a waste of time"
"Would I waste your time Zan?" grinned glen
"Do I need to answer that?" Zandra replied
"Well then lets go"
Glen pointed a thumb over his shoulder to a few waiting cars
"Your carriages await"
Climbing into the cars, they set off to their unknown destination. They travelled outside of the city outer limits where they lived, further into the country, until soon they began passing fewer houses. Eventually the cars pulled up outside a few abandoned warehouses.
"Glen?"
"Come on, come on, trust me" said Glen, ushering Zandra and her friends towards one of the buildings. She could hear noise coming from the inside, and a small door opened on the side of the building to let them all in. Inside, was a hustle and bustle of activity, and shouts and yells filled the large room, as well as music blaring out continuously in a steady beat?
"A rave, you brought us to a rave?" groaned Zandra to Glen. She'd been to a few, and found they were more trouble than there worth
"Not just any rave" yelled Glen into her ear, "Come on, let's get you gals a drink, before the fun starts"
Soon, drinks in hand from a less than trustworthy looking vendor, Zandra found herself and her friends being propelled towards stalls which had been set up at the other end of the warehouse, away from the louder, music blaring mob. The stalls surrounded a small empty space, where two spotlights beamed down to eerily light it up.
"Glen?"
"Just wait"
The stalls filled up, against the background of the head thumping music and drone of voices. A hush fell upon the stalls, as two figures appeared in the empty space beneath them, and without warning Zandra found herself watching a full on fight happening before her.
"Streetfighters? You brought me to watch street fighters"
Street fighting was a growing craze, in fact it had become a new 'clique' in schools all over the place. Of course Zandra had her eye on a choice few of them in her school, they certainly kept themselves toned and always looked great, until they came into school with a busted up face or some lethal looking wound about their body.
"Hey, don't try and deny that you wouldn't be interested in a few of them" threw back Glen as the crowd cheered around them at the ongoing fight below.
Zandra had to give it to him; she was intrigued, more so by the fact that the two guys fighting at the moment certainly was high up on her cute factor.
"They go to our school?" she yelled back to Glen, who merely grinned a 'I told you you'd enjoy it' smile back to her. Zandra took a sip of her drink and smiled at her friend next to her who had perked up as another guy stepped into the ring as one stumbled injured from it.
It was late when the crowd started to disband; Glen warned them that they'd have to leave soon in order to make sure they could get lifts back from the guys who had brought them all. Zandra found she had a new found taste for the Streetfighters, although had been completely repulsed by the few girls who had taken a shot at it, taking on guys as well as girls. Why would anyone want to put themselves through that when they could just date a guy to fight for you?
As they walked back to the cars, Glen stopped to chat with a few of the victorious fighters who had escaped with minor injuries from their antics.
"Hey Guys, great show you put on in there"
"Ah Glen" one approached a sinister look on his face "How goes the betting master"
"With your fighting Lex, moneys coming in great" replied Glen
"So where my cut?"
Zandra eyed the guy up, he was tall, certainly had a nice body, dark hair, dark eyes. She gave her best pout and shot him a flirtatious look as he stood over Glen.
"Got it right here Lex" said Glen, pulling a wad of cash from his pocket.
Lex took the wad from him with a smile and started counting through it.
"Who's your friend?" he asked as he counted through the money, not glancing Zandra's way
"This is Zandra, thought I'd bring her along, show her what you guys are all about"
"You enjoy the show?" asked Lex, looking over at Zandra. She watched as his eyes travelled over her face and down her body.
"A couple of boys fighting in a ring, it makes a girls night" she shot over to him "Come on Glen, I want to get home"
Zandra always knew what card to play and she'd seen all the looks and moves before. She had a feeling playing the hard to get card, would get her further. She certainly would like to get to know Lex a little better. She planned on asking Glen more about him in private. For now though, she wanted to get back in time for her curfew before her parents tried to impose a grounding, she really was too tired to wrangle herself out of one.
Within the next few months, Zandra and her friends got to know a few more of the Streetfighters. Zandra still played hard to get but learned more about Lex and his friend as well as attending more of the 'streetfight' raves. But as she entered the dark world of raving and Streetfighters, darkness also started to spread about her world. A virus had come, and at first no one knew what it was, and eventually it was too late. Lex and others were sent away to camps, although no one knew where or why at first. Her parents grew sick, but refused to send their only daughter away and Zandra watched her once perfect world slipping from her and shattering into a thousand pieces.
She and Glen were left alone, and she was afraid. Her once close crowd of friends had been sent away, or had left as fighting and chaos became the norm of the streets. Zandra wanted her world back; she didn't want to face this new reality. She wanted her jewels and fashion; she wanted the glitter and parties. She wanted her parents and they're lavishing praise. She wanted her knight in shining armour, and he came in a form, in a wicked twisted way that this new life, which had presented it. Lex returned for them a friend in tow, and they left their small part of the world for the city, because Lex had notions of power and control and Zandra, vulnerable and alone, following him into the strange unknown.