Learning Curve-Ball
Other people might have learned something.
Other people might have gone through an ordeal like being rejected by their own mother and ending up in foster care and come out of it with some degree of compassion for the world's outcasts. Of course, other people wouldn't have let their frenzied imagination exaggerate the place into a Dickensian orphanage.
Other people, were not Mary Cherry.
The Texan had not, it seemed been humbled by her experience, nor had her attitude towards anyone who was – in her mind, at least – less worthy than herself softened in the slightest. Her anger towards her mother manifested itself as a snarl to anyone who dared cross her.
Of course, she was also still as dumb as a chair leg, so that likely prevented a lot of ideas from taking root, such as "I know how you feel, little bitty socially-discarded bookwormy boy. I understand what it is to feel like you're not good enough, that somehow, you've failed simply because you didn't meet other people's shallow expectations!"
Instead, the young man with the prominent eyeglasses who almost bumped into her in the hallway was treated to a very loud, "Get the hell away from me, little dorky man, before I catch whatever horrible affliction turned you into you."
Her mother would have been so proud.
As it was Nicole Julian just smirked as the poor boy tried to stutter an apology as he ran away.
"Mary Cherry! Got a minute?" Nicole asked, approaching the dim-witted blonde.
"Why, of course, I do Ms. Julian, our own lil' phoenix risen from the ashes of unpopularity yet a-gain."
Nicole knew she'd have the blond's attention. Mary Cherry coveted popularity above all things (except possibly, being thin), and Nicole was, Queen of Kennedy, after all. She may not have inspired the beatific awe that Brooke did in her heyday, but she knew how to work it.
Right now, she was working on not rolling her eyes at the idiot's comments and twangy speech pattern as she led her into the Novak.
"Let's talk, about our old pal Brooke."
"Oh Ah knew it, I knew you were going bury the hatchet with lil' Brooke and we'd all be Chola's one, two and three again!"
Sensing an opening she hadn't imagined even Mary Cherry would be stupid enough to give her, she took it.
"That's exactly it, Mary Cherry," she said, struggling to keep down the bile. "I'm going to win our darling Ms. McQueen away from society's reject pile and put her right back at the top of the 'A' list." Mary Cherry was visibly excited.
"But first, I need your help."
"Well, whateva' Ah kin do to be of assistance in the re-habill-itation of our dear Brooke, you just say the word." After all, she thought, it was always easier to ride little miss Pollyollyanna's proverbial coattails to the top than the too-smart for my own good Ms. Nicole Ju-li-en.
"Well," Nicole said in her best 'teacher talking to a special-ed student' voice, "I think I've discovered exactly how Brooke was won over to the dork side."
Mary Cherry eyes went narrow. "It was drugs, wasn't it?! They drugged our little girl into blindly accepting her fate as a size 12 who shops at Target, didn't they? Those bastards!"
"You might think so, Mary Cherry. You might indeed think so. However, as it turns out, Brooke's vice was not drugs, but – let's call it unusual sexual activity."
"Oh mah sweet lord Jesus, you mean, Brooke's into whips, chains and the illicit use of small furry animals" the Texan babbled.
Nicole took a deep breath as she called upon her every last reserve of self-control not to go for the idiot's throat.
"No, Mary Cherry, I was actually referring to Brooke's being a homosexual."
Mary Cherry managed to blink, squint and shake her head no less than four times before she could respond.
"Brooke MA-Queen is a plaid-wearing, k.d. lang lovely les-bee-ann!? What is the world coming to when even pretty girls are jumping the fence like that?"
"I know what you mean," Nicole said, turning away from her one-time friend. "Once pretty, once popular, now she's just fodder for the Jerry Springer show."
She pretended to check her make-up in the mirror before adding, "Of course, that's not the worst part."
"Well, what else could there be?" the idiot Texan said. Then she gasped, "Oh no! She's not indulging her wicked, carnal desires with lil' Lily is she?" She collapsed onto the couch.
For the second (or was it third?) time since entering the room, Nicole fantasized about having a gun.
"Oh, close, but no. Her attentions have gone even further down the garbage chute." She moved in closer, looking Mary Cherry in the eye.
"You see, Brooke is dallying with her own oily-skinned, fashion disaster of a step-sister."
Mary Cherry's eyes were as wide as saucers. "Spam! Brook is carpet-munchin' with Spam McPherson!"
"Now, now, Mary Cherry, we can't let ourselves get upset. That's not going to help Brooke or us. We need to ask ourselves, 'What could Brooke possibly see in her?'"
Thinking (or whatever she did in lieu of thinking) for a moment, Mary Cherry offered, "Well, at least she doesn't have to worry about having a girlfriend who's prettier than her."
Sitting next to the Texan, and reassuring herself that stupid wasn't contagious, Nicole countered, "That's one possibility. I was thinking, however, more along the lines of, Brooke wanting to keep things a secret and that's bound to be easy when your dallying with someone you live with already and are already around most of the time. It's the perfect cover."
"So what ken we do to show her the error of her sapphic ways?"
"Well, I don't think we have to worry so much about getting her to give up girls as we need to show her that she can pursue her little lifestyle choice in a more positive – and more attractive way. You see, if she's only with Sam in order to ensure that her secret remains a secret, then all we have to do is see to it that there's no secret to keep."
"Yah mean, tell everyone about Brooke so that she can get herself a girlfriend that she doesn't have to all asham-ed of?"
"Exactly!" Nicole said, standing up. She began to pace around the room. "And, you see, that's where you come in. After our... disagreements last year, things are still rather tense between Brooke and I and she might take my perfectly well-intentioned disclosure of her sexuality to the student body as something other than the helpful gesture that it's meant to be – so you'll have to do it. I'll need you too make sure that everyone A: knows about Brooke and Sam and B: realizes that a woman of her former-for-now status can still surely do better."
Leaning in again close to the dim blond, she added, "Think you're up for it?"
"Absolutely! Ya ken count of me."
"I knew I could," Nicole sneered.