Disclaimed.
"Penny for your thoughts,
but a dollar for your insides.
Or, a fortune for your disaster…"
-Fall Out Boy, "Don't You Know Who I Think I Am?"
Dylan slowly opened her eyes. The iHome sitting by her bed beeping, slow and steadily. Slowly propping herself up by the elbows she pressed by volume button up until she heard an angry voice cry at her, "Dylan, shut that thing up!"
"Oops, my finger must have…slipped," Dylan said, smiling, and turned her alarm off.
"Yeah, okay," another voice said. Dylan's room was right smack in the middle of her two sisters, Tallie and Gracelyn's rooms. Forced to remain at BOCD, the private middle school she had a attended since fifth grade, while her sisters continued onto Bishop Connolly, a private high school in Westchester, she had to wake up thirty minutes before they did in order to get to school on time. Waking them up was a temptation hard to resist.
Dylan stepped into her bathroom, still smiling, and pulled out her make-up carrier. Big sisters did have benefits, as they would always show Dylan how to wear her make-up perfectly for her features. She spread a small line of dark brown eyeliner on her lower eyelids and whisked a mascara wand across her lashes. She spread lip gloss that had the slightest smell of grape across her lips and was done. Unlike some of the other girls in her class, Dylan didn't worry about foundation or lip plumper or whatever the hell they put on their faces.
Humming on her way over to her closet, she pulled out a simple pair of skinny jeans and a pink and white tank top under a white, unzipped sweatshirt, so not to get in trouble for wearing a tank top in school. The teachers forced them into an assembly on the mater when Olivia Ryan paraded into school wearing a halter top and short shorts last fall. Besides, it was January, and the heating in school sucked.
She walked down the stairs into the family's kitchen. Her mother sat at the table, eating a piece of toast smeared with strawberry jam, reading the newspaper.
"Hi Mom, where's Dad?"
"You know, he's working. He slept at the office."
"Oh," she replied gloomily before walking to the freezer. Her father worked a lot, and, while it gave them good income, sometimes her just wished that she could have a weekend to just play cards with her dad. She took a bagel out of the freezer and put it in the toaster. "What about you Mom? Are you working today?" Merri-Lee Marvil was a journalist for the Westchester Sentinel, and she mostly wrote for the Lifebeat section.
"Oh, you know, I have a deadline on Thursday, but someone needs to do the grocery shopping around here. I didn't get a chance to Saturday or Sunday, so I guess I have to do it today."
"Alrighty then. See you when I get back from school," Dylan said when she caught a glance of the timer on the microwave that showed that she had only five minutes or so to get the bus stop on time. Her dad would rather pay the extra hundred bucks a month than chauffeur his own daughters to school.
Grabbing a banana and her American Eagle tote bag, she spun on her heel and walked out their ornate door on the quick walk down the street to her bus stop. When she spotted the white bus with the words FIRST STUDENT printed in big letters on the side, she tossed her banana peel in a nearby trashcan before ascending the steps on the bus. Looking around, she saw Claire Lyons, on of her best friends sitting with Kristen Gregory, Dylan's new best friends she had met this year through basketball. Smiling at them, Dylan took the seat across from them. They talked as usual on the way school, about school and sports and Kristin's latest crush, someone named Danny in her AP Calculus class.
As the bus slowed as usual, Dylan and her friends pushed herself up using the seat in front of her stability until the bus rolled to a complete stop. When she stepped off, the first thing she saw was Cam Fisher, her unbelievably hot, lacrosse playing boyfriend. The only problem was that the second person she saw was Alicia Rivera, the most popular, and, in Dylan's opinion, stupidest girl in the entire school. Alicia spotted Dylan and gave a glare before turning her attention back to Cam and giggling and flipping her hair. Dylan couldn't resist rolling her eyes. Bidding Kristin and Claire good-bye as they rushed to talk to their Spanish teacher about a project, she walked up to Alicia and Cam.
"Hi Cam. What's up?" Without waiting for an answer, she turned to Alicia and looked at her as if she had just noticed her, and, with fake surprise in her voice, she said, "Oh, hi, Alicia. I didn't notice you there. Maybe because of all the concealer on your face?" Leaning in, she whispered while poking Alicia painted chin, "It seems you missed a spot."
Alicia glared at Dylan before pushing her out of the way of her view of Cam with a too-thin arm and said, "Well Cammie, we'll talk," sugary sweetness oozing from her voice. She then turned on her two inch Jimmy Choos and flounced away.
"Yes, Cammie, let's talk," Dylan said, as she turned to face him, arms crossed defiantly across her chest.
He leaned in and pecked her on the cheek, than said, "What can I say? She came up and started hitting on me." Seeing that her eyebrows were still raised at him, he pushed a lock of her vibrant red hair behind an ear and insisted, "C'mon Dyl. You know that you're my girlfriend, not her. She's got nothing on you." The first bell rang, and he kissed her one more time. "I have to go. See you at lunch?
"Of course," she replied, than stood planted for a moment, thinking. She didn't snap out of it until someone crashed into her. Her bag flew open onto the sidewalk, and her math notebook, her homework folder, her gym bag, and her LG Shine lay splayed on the cement. Her cell phone was the first thing she picked up, checking it for any chips or scratches.
"I'm so sorry," a voice said. Looking up, Dylan saw a boy with blonde hair that hung across one eye. When he reached up and brushed it back she saw that his eyes were brown, but seemed to be flecked with gold.
"Is your phone okay?" He asked. She couldn't help but look at his eyes. They were so…beautiful, in a way quite unlike Cam's deep green ones.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm pretty sure it's okay. Its been through a lot before this." Grasping the hand he held out to her, she said, "I'm Dylan, by the way."
"Hi Dylan, I'm Derrick. Sorry about that, I'm just trying to get some last minutes studying in," he said, holding up the psychology book he had been previously reading.
"Psychology, huh? That can't be easy. I won't blame you for that," Dylan added, smiling.
"Thanks," he replied, smiling back. Then they both heard the warning bell ring from where they were standing outside the school. "Crap," Derrick said. "I'll maybe see you around?"
"Yeah, sounds good," Dylan answered, now distracted by double-checking that all of her books had made their way back into her bag. Glancing up to invite him to sit with her and her friends at lunch, she saw that he was already halfway down the hall, separated from her by a sea of students. Disappointed, she rushed to her locker and quickly grabbed her math textbook and hurried to the stairs in order to get to her first class on time.
Ninety minutes later, she emerged from room 251 and, after grabbing her French book, met Claire and Kristin at Kristin's locker.
"Hey guys," she greeted, the last one to arrive.
"Hey Dyl. I have to tell you two this story!" Kristin's smile seemed to measure half a foot long. "Danny, that guy I was talking about earlier, you know, on the bus, you remember, right?" Kristin paused only to flip her head upside down and pull her hair in a high ponytail before continuing. "Well, today, in Calc, he asked me out"
"Oh my God!"
"Kristin! That's great!"
"I know! Isn't it?"
Glancing at her watch, Dylan said, "I really think I should go. I was almost last period, and French is on the other side of the building."
"Bye, I'll see you at lunch," Kristin and Claire chorused before separating themselves to their classes.
Dylan continued down the hall. Suddenly she felt someone grip her arm. Spinning around, she saw Alicia Rivera standing there, her best friend Olivia Ryan behind her.
"Listen Marvel–"
"Uh, Dylan actually."
"Whatever. So, I know you think that you're all that because you got Cam, but listen. Just when you thought you were the center of attention, I showed up. And guess what? I'm not going anywhere. He will be mine. There is nothing I can't do." Alicia smiled menacingly.
"You know what you can do, Alicia? You can shove it. And you know where." A slight smile on her face, Dylan continued on. It was fun to be powerful. Fun to have nothing to be afraid of.
A/N So, here's chapter one. Let me know what you think.
Review?