Betty Quinlan was like a shark. A ruthless, blood-seeking, terrifying, and completely fascinating shark. Some people would say that she just never took no for an answer, but I say that she never asked in the first place - she just sunk her teeth right in without even the common courtesy of saying hello.
I was sitting in English class on a Thursday when Betty sat next to me and smiled, her teeth showing brilliantly. Betty was sitting next to me; this was good and bad at the same time. Good because it's Betty Quinlan and Betty Quinlan usually doesn't pay attention to me unless she wants to cheat off of me (which - this is probably one of those times), and bad because that was Cindy Vortex's seat.
If Betty Quinlan is a shark, Cindy Vortex is like a venomous snake. Cruel, aggressive, and cold. Cindy doesn't hate me as much as she used to, but that isn't saying a lot, because she must have hated every fiber of my being because she still treats me like crap. I try to stay out of her way. Nobody likes to mess with Cindy, but nobody usually messes with Betty either.
Sometimes it's like Betty is a wolf in sheep's clothing, and I know that doesn't make sense because I like to refer to her as a shark, but she's good at disguising herself. To teachers and parents alike, she is sweet and kind and generous. To her enemies, she's evil and merciless. To the people in-between, you don't exist.
People oftentimes seek Betty's approval because she's on top of the pyramid. If you're her friend, you get treated like royalty by association. I suppose I can understand why people always try to be her friend, no matter what. It must feel good to be treated so nice by Betty Quinlan. I wouldn't really know.
In other words, I believe that sharks are more popular than snakes.
Cindy has one real friend, and that's Libby. Cindy is smart and cunning and witty, but she's not very popular among her peers. She's feared, and people don't dare get in her way or treat her bad, but it's a long shot from being adored by our classmates. I bet if Cindy acted sweet and nice, she would receive two reactions: one, people would be freak the fuck out because it would be so weird, and two, people would actually start to like her.
Betty wins people over by her charming smiles and posse of mindless fans. She's still smiling at me when Cindy strolls in one minute before the bell rings, like always, and I can tell she's in a bad mood because of her eyes - her expression is one of indifference, but her eyes speak of another story. She's pissed off and she hasn't even seen Betty yet.
I smiled back at Betty but warily scoot away, hoping that Betty didn't think I was scooting away because I didn't want to sit by her. I was scooting away because Cindy was a snake with a grudge and that was a deadly combination. I didn't want to be caught in the crossfire.
Though I must admit - I was curious as to why Betty was sitting next to me.
Sheen, who was on my other side, nudged my arm. "What's up with Queen Bee sitting next to you?" He stage-whispered, and I glanced at Betty to see if she heard. It's known that she doesn't like being called "Queen Bee" and Betty already hated Sheen enough. But it seemed that Betty was occupied enough; Cindy was standing next to her desk, hands on hips and eyes blazing, her features set in a scowl.
Sheen quickly forgot about the question he just asked and his eyes lit up with excitement, "Oh man I hope we get to see a cat fight. I haven't seen one of those since…well, I've never seen a real catfight before. I guess today would be a good day to start -" I punched him in the ribs and he quickly stopped his rant and started in on a new one, saying something about how I should be more careful because you wouldn't like it when the Sheenster gets angry or whatever, but at about this time, I was focusing more on the two girls beside me.
"A seat is just a seat, Cindy, no need to get in a fit over it." Betty shrugged, smile and hair in place. She was the epitome of primness with her legs tucked under her seat and her skirt smoothed over her legs. There were no wrinkles in her clothes, and that had to be a miracle in itself. My mom always ironed my clothes but they were wrinkly by second period. I told her every day that she was wasting her time.
Cindy's scowl had disappeared, and now she seemed slightly amused, with one eyebrow raised and a smirk on her lips. "Fine. You can have it." She glanced at me for a second, and then walked down the row and sat down in a different seat.
I was shocked, of course. I've never known Cindy to give up an argument in her entire life. I looked at Betty, who was sitting in her seat, looking like the cat who just ate the canary. Or perhaps the shark who just ate a human diver.
Beside me, I heard Sheen sigh. "Well. That was the most disappointing catfight I've seen in my entire life."
-
I can never tell if it's going to be a good day until Cindy walks in the door for our first class. It's ridiculous that the outcome of my daily life depends on one person, but if you knew Cindy, you would knew what I was talking about. One insulting sentence from Cindy could ruin your entire day. And on many occasions, she had ruined mine. I'd like to think that I didn't have a low self-esteem, but Cindy usually didn't stop insulting after just one sentence. Sometimes sentences turned into long rants; rants that told me that I was an idiot and completely infuriating and somehow every experiment that I conduct goes wrong.
And not every experiment goes wrong. Only some of them. But Cindy didn't care for such details.
I don't know why Cindy is always so insulting, but I am not the only one she insults. She just happens to give me some sort of sick special treatment.
So, no matter if the day is beautiful and I woke for school on time and I am having a great morning so far, my day doesn't truly start until I see what kind of mood Cindy is in. Some days, she'll walk in without saying a word, and I don't hear from her all day. I don't know what this means. Other days, she'll walk in and yell at me 40 times in one hour. And on those occasional rare, wonderful days, she will actually smile and make normal conversation.
At first I thought it was a girl thing, because all girls are kind of mysterious when it comes to their behavior; but then I realized the truth: it's not a girl thing, it's a Cindy thing.
I'm at my locker after English ends when Betty saunters up to me. "Hey," she says to me, smiling softly.
I take a few moments to how the hell I ended up in this position. Is this doomsday? Has God smiled upon me? Is this a cruel trick? I glance around, but there are no cameras, no laughing people, no television crew.
"Uh, hey," I reply. "What's up?"
Betty just smiles again, as if she knew exactly what I would say and when I would say it. That's a little disconcerting, I must say.
"Listen - I was wondering…there is a party going on at my place on Saturday and I wanted to know if you wanted to go. As my date."
Did people really need dates to go to parties? Especially if that party was your own? I wanted to ask these questions out loud, but I didn't think that would go over too well.
So, I said what any other hormonal teenage boy would say.
"Sure, why not?"
-
At lunch, Sheen, Carl, and I are in the middle of eating and talking when Cindy plops down with her tray right across from me, smack dab in the middle of Sheen and Carl.
Sheen scoots out of the way and guards his food with his arm protectively. "Woah, Blondezilla, what do you think you're doing interrupting in our manly talk?"
Carl rubs his ribs cautiously. He says nothing.
Cindy rolls her eyes. "Don't call me Blondezilla. And don't give me that crap about manly talk - what kind of manly things would you three ever talk about? Playing with those stupid dolls you like and watching re-runs of American Idol? Isn't that what you guys do anyways besides go on those -"
I cut her off mid-rant. "Okay, Cindy, what do you want?"
She just shrugs and pokes at her meatloaf. "Libby is gone today."
I don't say anything. Libby has orthodontist appointments every once in awhile, so she'll usually miss lunch on those days. I know that Cindy doesn't have anyone else to sit with who she can tolerate besides us (and she barely tolerates us) and I know I could make fun of her for it, but I don't. And oddly enough, Sheen and Carl never do either. It's pretty weird because Sheen doesn't have that little thing in his brain that says that's an inappropriate thing to say. He'll say anything.
I'm about to make some sort of casual conversation, but then Betty walks by, with a few freshman following behind her. She slows down as she walks by our table and smiles at me. I smile in return.
I look back to Sheen, Carl, and Cindy. Sheen is waggling his eyebrows suggestively and Cindy is glaring. Carl looks confused.
"Is there something going on with you two?" He asks.
I shrug. "No, not really. She asked me…to go to her party on Saturday." I didn't exactly want to reveal that I would be her date. I didn't know how they would react just yet.
Sheen gasped. "What? Little Jimmy is going to a high school party?"
Cindy put a hand to her heart and mocked Sheen by gasping dramatically and fluttering eyes. "You mean Little Jimmy has a date to his first real high school party?"
I glare at her. Sheen doesn't seem to notice that she's making fun of him but Carl seems to know, and he rolls his eyes.
"It's not my first party," I grumble.
"So it's really a date then?" Cindy asks, one eyebrow raised. She looks amused again.
I stay silent and she laughs, a loud, belly one. "Oh, Little Jimmy," she pokes my cheek. I grab her finger and I swear, I meant to push it away, but somehow, I just end up sort of holding her hand in mine, and then she's not smiling anymore. She's just staring, and so am I.
I quickly let go and sit back a little. I decide I'm just not hungry anymore and get up, leaving Cindy sitting with Carl and Sheen.
I'm so sorry. I haven't updated in forever, but I guess you can say that I've taken a small break from fanfiction. This story will be done in about 3 or 4 parts, maybe less. I'm going to write the whole thing and just update it in about a weeks' time. I hope all of you are doing well and you guys are having a good summer! Please review! (: