"Somebody"

Level for CC: 2A "write two totally AU fics"

Features: Totally AU, self-assured Claire with an inflated ego

A very odd little drabble. Proceed at your own risk

I can't say I know anything else to do. It's fall now, we're going to see each other every day for our foreseeable 8th grade future at BOCD. I'm still blonde, tan, and fairly thin. It's still not enough to get his attention.

In fact, I never get enough attention. You'd think that being the oldest child in the Lyons family would get me some of the parental kind, but no. I don't play a sport, do great in school, have dozens of friends or exceed expectations physically. Todd Lyons, however, after a summer growth spurt, is all of these things. Even though he's barely a month into seventh grade, none of his grades dip below a 95%. I, however, am the proud holder of no higher than a seventy-one-point-zero-five in biology. Ha, I only have an A in gym, and even that's a miracle.

There's really only one thing that can be seen as positive about me right now: I'm in the pretty committee. It's not all positive though: like Todd, everyone in the pretty committee one-ups me in one-way or another. Kristen hit life's jackpot: she's got beauty, brawn (soccer) and brains. She doesn't have money though; I imagine if she did she'd be leading us all. Massie's got the money, the beauty and the attitude. It's the charisma. I'll never be like her, and that's something that's still hard to swallow. Alicia's prettier than her, and I imagine she's richer too, but she doesn't have that spark. She's not smart. I'm smarter than her, both book-wise and socially, but as the saying goes: beauty beats brains, especially when the brains are rather mediocre.

I guess Dylan's also better than me. She's got that look: the one she doesn't realize gets her attention. Dylan also has money, but she doesn't have that attitude.

Anyway, being in the pretty committee isn't enough for him. It seems like that's all I care about, nowadays. I put on the pretty face for school. The I-don't-care-face. I was especially good at it when I came across Olivia Ryan and him making out in the art hall. Or when the soccer boys took over my hard-earned bomb shelter (I say my, because it's true. I practically did it all, except for Layne, who doesn't really count, does she?). Or when the Pretty Committee was booted into the trailers yesterday.

Beneath that pretty face, I'm still the crazy girl who threw the bracelet into the wave pool because of some overheard maybe-truths. I'm still the girl who said the spying was wrong, but stayed anyway. I'm still the girl who threw away a practically perfect relationship with a boy that never should have paid me attention in the first place for no good reason.

I'm Claire Lyons. Westchester Claire Lyons.

I know deep in my heart that if Cam ever came crawling back to me, I'd take him back, because I'm still Claire Lyons. Westchester has led me to believe all of these aforementioned things about myself. I'm never going to be pretty enough for him. I'm never going to be more popular than Massie. I'm never going to be sportier than Kristen, or nicer than Allie-Rose.

Everybody in Westchester is better than me in some way or another.

And that's why I have to take this offer.

I was stupid last spring to turn down that movie. I should have been smarter then to stay in Westchester. Sure, everyone was still better then me back then, but the at least the Pretty Committee was on top. Massie was being a good friend, but I should have seen right through that. She only needed me to boost her own self-esteem and "round out her group". They say everyone has to have a scapegoat.

Well, here's the thing. I'm not going to be her scapegoat anymore.

I'm going to take this movie. My agent said Bernard's actress fell through, and they've moved the movie release back a year to accommodate a replacement. He's willing to take me on as the scrappy runaway. I'm going to do this role.

I'm going to be somebody.

Not Westchester Claire, who everyone belittles and outshines or tosses away like a piece of trash because she made one little mistake, but Claire. Claire Lyons, with her own star on the Hollywood boulevard.

I'll have my own tutor, who will inflate my grades for me, lest I fire him off my numerous sets. I'll pick up dancing, and I'll have the best teachers, so I'll outshine even Alicia. I'll have so many friends; friends that actually count, in the world, that Massie will just be a flattened gnat on the windshield of my life. Todd won't end up eventually out-shining me, because I'll be an actress. A Hollywood actress.

There's nothing left for me in Westchester. I'm far too good for them, and they don't even know it.

This is Claire Lyons, and I'm going to be somebody.

Review?

- B