CHAPTER 1
“School starts tomorrow,” sighed Anne for the umpteenth time.
“Annable Richard, I am not kidding, I will smack you now.” I said irritably.
Sipping on Sun-kade (Sunkist and lemonade, that is- invented by Anne the weirdo) and lying in the Sun on the beach in a red-hot bikini, filing my nails, school is the last thing I want to think about right now. I am trying to make the most of hundred and eighty days of summer and do not wish to waste a single day worrying about school. The problem arises when you have a nerd-esque friend who won’t stop worrying about studies and grades.
“It’s just that I cannot seem to accept the fact that Summer’s over. We haven’t studied a word, Sarah!” she worried, sitting up on her beach chair, playing with the strings of her bikini.
“So the fact that we party and still manage to get A's doesn’t satisfy you enough?” I said, my chin high and eyes closed, taking in and feeling the cool and moist breeze on body and hair whipping on my face.
“That is because we study extra every Summer,” she pointed out.
“From what I see, we’ve always been so stressed and working like shit. Tell me, what’s the point of all that struggle? We can go easy a little and still get A's. Or B's. Fair enough.”
“NO B!” Anne jumped. “Are you kidding me? We CANNOT afford a B, Sarah.”
“Alright, alright. I’m just saying…”
“What the hell? Sarah, look at that,” she shoved her phone under my nose. I sat up straight in my beach chair, adjusted my shades on my head to get a better look and took the phone from her. Anne had been using Facebook all this time, pretending to be worried about school, and stalking Rachel- a classmate I've been with since grade one yet never heard her voice. She has had zero friends up till this year and I kind of feel bad for her. Although something very surprising caught my sight, which, I assume, Anne must be trying to show me. Ostin, the comparatively hotter guy who literally flirts with every girl irrespective of their age, had become Facebook friends with
Rachel. The surprising fact is that Ostin normally doesn’t befriend girls on Facebook unless he wants to flirt. He’s a real playboy and I feel sorry for Rachel already. She’s way too sensitive to handle these games.
“I feel sorry for her,” I said out loud.
“Why? She isn’t even our friend. I despise her.” She snatched the phone away. “Plus, at least she’s getting herself a boyfriend. I mean look at us.”
For some reason, I was triggered. I spent the entire summer with Anne without realizing the need for a boyfriend, but back to school means back to dates. Rachel was probably getting hooked up with Ostin, and not me? Ostin and I had been friends since fourth grade, but I had learned that the way he talks to girls makes them feel as if he’s interested in taking things to the second base. I was wrong with us; we weren’t even near the first. Suddenly, I regretted feeling pity for Rachel two minutes ago. Nevertheless, I was hopeful for this year. I had gotten the perfect sun-kissed tan and body wax. My body had definitely transformed from a ten-year-old flat chest to a mature fourteen-year-old's.
The Sun started to set as the winds got colder. I shivered. “Let’s go inside,” I said grabbing the blanket and wrapping it around myself. Anne, who was still engrossed in her phone stalking kids from school, got up, and followed me inside.
Anne’s beach house had literally become my place of living. We’ve had many sleepovers till now and I don’t even bring my belongings; I share Anne’s clothes because we’re the same size. The meals at the Richard’s are the best part. I’ve always seen Anne’s mom in the kitchen. She makes a lot of food all by herself and they’re somehow always a success.
“Sarah? You there?” Mrs. Richard called from the kitchen as we entered from the patio leading straight to the kitchen.
“Yeah?” I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a cookie from the jar of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies which I find amusingly irresistible. Mrs. Rickard was kneading dough and reading from her recipe book covered in flour.
“Dear, your mom called. She’s coming to get you. Said you need to prepare for school.”
I groaned.
“Which reminds me, Anne, have you packed your bag?” continued Mrs. Richard. “Are you all set for tomorrow?”
“Uh, no,” replied Anne, finally putting down her phone. She snatched the cookie from my hand, took a huge bite and returned it back to me. “What?” she smiled at me, the cookie crumbs falling out of her overfilled mouth. I smiled back and shook my head, eating the remnants.
I sure as hell was going to miss Summer and Mrs. Richard’s cooking, Mr. Richard’s snide jokes, Anne’s little brother, Harris, who is in my sister’s class, and his mischievous behavior, Anne’s elder sister, Samantha, and the billions of jokes we made on her because of her flatron-figure. We probably wouldn’t have time to hang out all day as often. I had abandoned my family for weeks and had been living with Anne as if it was my home. It feels good to be away from home for a while. I believe the value of a person increases in one’s absence. But in my case, it’s not the entirety of the truth. My sister, for instance, has the time of her life. Dad’s usually never home. He’s either busy with business meetings or at dinner's with friends. I feel bad for mom because she probably feels lonely, but I’m simply too naive. She uses up all of our internet data on Netflix and finishes up corn chips and Hershey bars.
Before we had known, Mom honked the horn of her rattling SUV, waiting for me outside. I quickly ran to Anne’s room, fumbled for my T-shirt and jeans which was somewhere long forgotten in the huge heap of clothes that lay on the floor, pulled them on and headed outside. I hugged Anne tightly as if I’m leaving town and we won’t be meeting tomorrow morning, hugged Mrs. Richard who handed me a box of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in return, thanked her and headed outside. We waved at each other as far as we could see.
“Had fun?” asked mom cheerfully.
“Yeah. Loads,” I replied smugly.
“I’m taking you and Aliza for a back-to-school dinner at Portillo's.”
“Ooo! Yay, Portillo's!” Aliza, my younger sister jumped from the back.
“Oh, hey. I didn’t know you were there,” i said.
“I was hiding from Harris,” she said sitting back down. “I hate that son of a bitch.”
“LANGUAGE!” Mom yelled as I burst out laughing.
Overstuffed with fish burgers, fries and unlimited supply of soda, sore legs due to surfing all day, bed was the only thing I could think of right now. I took down my very old and forgotten school bag and stuffed it with some new spiral notebooks and stationery that Mom had bought for me from Target. I hopped onto my bed as Anne’s text awaited me.
Anne: I don’t want to go to school tomorrow.
Me: Same.
Anne: But I want to too. Missing text books. And Ulfred and Levi. Also, Levi is trying to hit on me.
Me: WHAT?
Anne: He liked all of my beach pictures on IG and commented ‘you make me stiff’.
Me: Wow. Are you going to get him?
Anne: Eww, no. He’s short and skinny.
Me: So are you..
Anne: Stfu. I’m hotter now. He hasn’t changed one bit over the summer. Wonder when puberty will hit him.
Me: Lmao. Whatever it is, he’s still our friend. Gotta respect that.
As i hit send, I drifted off somewhere in oblivion; the poster on the wall in front blurring out, the phone fell and my eyes shut. I was suddenly walking up to the podium and giving the valedictorian speech with a cookie in my hand. No sooner was I woken up by the shrieking sound of my alarm. I groaned and sat up slowly turning it off. My muscles were still aching from yesterday and I was, for some insanely unexpected reason, excited for
school. I picked up my phone, unlocked it and Anne’s text from last night popped up.
Anne: Yeah, yeah. Whatever.
Anne: Will see you tomorrow, love. Goodnight. Xx
I texted her back:
Me: I dozed off last night. Suddenly, I’m pumped for school. Am i weird?
She replied almost instantly.
Anne: Yes. INDEED.
I smiled, sent her a middle finger emoji and got up to get dressed for school. Not that we have much of a choice for dressing up, (we have uniforms- yes, I know) I decided to straighten my hair and do a little bit of makeup. It was officially the first day of eighth grade and I was actually happy to get started. The only thing which kept me motivated was the fact that this was going to be the last year of middle school, we’d be seniors and high school was only a year away.
As all these thoughts rummage in my head, I splash on my favorite perfume, Dior Hypnotic Poison, on my chest and neck, left a few buttons open from the top, tucked in my shirt messily, pulled up my skirt a little higher, revealing the most of my tanned and waxed legs and put on some rosy-pink matte lip color. Posing and admiring my looks, I took a few selfies and instantly uploaded them on Facebook captioning it with ‘this is how all you bitches should get ready fo school’ with a fire emoji.
“Sarah! You are going to miss your bus, come on,” Mom called from the kitchen, taking me out of the oblivion.
Ignoring her completely, I blow-dried my iron-straightened hair adding a bit of carefree, messed up style to it, checked myself out one last time in the mirror, admiring my looks yet again. But since it’s "unacceptable" in our society to do so, I buttoned my shirt and adjusted my skirt so that it reached the hem of my knee socks before grabbing my backpack, slinging it on my shoulder and running downstairs to the kitchen where Aliza already sits at
the counter solving a crossword puzzle with an empty cereal bowl.
“So this took you so long, huh?” said mom, eyeing me.
“Mom, it’s the first day of the last year of middle school. I have to look my absolute best. All throughout the year, in fact.”
“You know you’ve changed so much over the summer since last year," said Aliza. "You used to be a prefect and a nerd and a teacher’s pet and miss-know-it-all. What happened to that Sarah? You didn’t even study the entire summer. Now all you care about is hair and perfection,” she finished, putting down her magazine.
“Firstly, I always cared about perfection. Secondly, one nerd is enough in a family,” I said looking over at Aliza and grabbing an apple from the fridge.
“There’s no time for arguments,” said Mom. “Get to the bus stop right now or you’ll miss your bus.” She picked up our bags which seemed as if she wanted to kick us out as quickly as possible.
I took my backpack from mom, kissed her lightly on the cheek, making sure my lipstick stays put. The weather was pleasant enough, a good omen, not that i believe in any. My sister and I walked to the corner of the street to the stop sign; the bus came shortly afterwards and we stepped in. Anne, neatly and perfectly dressed as always, was already there with an annoyed and sleepy face at the back.
“I’m going to make my sister drive us to school as soon as I get into high school. No more buses,” she yawned with annoyance.
“Why can’t she drop us now?” I said sitting down.
“Still on her permit. She’ll be graduating next year and Dad promised her a car.”
Safe and away from home, I opened a few of my buttons again and replaced knee socks with ankle socks. After a few more stops and excited faces of people coming in the bus, we finally reached school. Entering the school into the hallway, I see a dozen of heads turning to see me again as if mistakenly saw something wrong. The absent-minded staring guys seemed to like my unbuttoned, low-neck shirt too much today. Whispers followed as
I walked to my locker with Anne beside me.
“Is it just me or are people actually acting strange today?” I smiled, feeling proud and awakened.
“Come on. You’re the Sarah, tanned and styled. Why wouldn’t they stare at you.” said Anne with a tinge of bitterness in her voice.
“Ooo, someone’s jealous,” I laughed and elbowed her lightly.
“No, I’m not. At least someone tried hitting on me,” she rolled her eyes and rounded off the corner to her locker.
I shook my head and went straight for my locker which was a bit far from Anne’s. Something caught my attention in the far corner which made me turn my head in that direction again. Rachel with Ostin were talking in hushed voices; Rachel didn’t seem to be talking more than blushing, smiling and looking down at her shoes more frequently while Ostin was hovering over her, leaning on the nearest locker. I pretended to mind my own business looking for books, trying to eavesdrop.
They’re actually together? I thought. Why is this bothering me so much?
I glanced over at them at the same time Rachel looked at me. She quickly told Ostin to go away but he didn’t budge. She saw someone behind me and pushed Ostin away, rushing off in the opposite direction, blushing furiously. Ostin stepped back throwing his hands in the air with exasperation and rolled his eyes. I turned to see who it was that caused Rachel to freak out. Demi. But she went straight to a group of girls, ignoring the scene completely. Or maybe she didn’t see it.
Lost in thoughts, trying to figure out what just happened, I heard someone call my name.
“Hey, Sarah. What’s going on?”
I looked up suddenly to see who it was. Ostin had walked up to me now. Clearing my thoughts, I finally spoke.
“You tell me what’s going on. Rachel? Seriously?” I replied, half laughing.
“She’s really nice. Pretty.” Ostin said dreamily.
“When did you even meet her? Because I don’t recall Rachel ever talking to
anyone before.” I asked pretending I hadn’t seen that they were Facebook friends.
“I met her on Facebook,” he replied.
I looked at him quizzically, being sure that was not completely true.
“Okay okay. I thought she was beautiful and alone so I stalked her,” he smiled.
I laughed, shaking my head in disbelief. “Rachel is too soft to be played with. Don’t hurt her.” I said.
“You look hot,” he said checking me out, spellbound by the architecture of my tanned thighs and slim waist.
I smiled running my hand through my hair, but before I could reply, Mrs. Jenson, our history teacher, came out of nowhere.
“What do you think you are doing here on the girl’s floor, Mr. Hashven?”
“Uh, nothing, Mrs. Jensen," said Ostin. "Just came by, uh, to get some help. In math,” he finished awkwardly.
“It’s only the first day, and the classes hasn’t even begun yet,” she said triumphally, adjusting her horn-rimmed glasses on her nose and folding her arms across her chest.
“Yeah, umm…” he looked at me for help but I just stared back cluelessly. “Sarah had my book so I just came here to take it back.”
Mrs. Jensen looked unsatisfied, so he continued.
“She helped me with Math over the Summer and I forgot my book at her place,” he finally spoke with utmost confidence.
I let out a snort, but stiffened my face quickly as Mrs. Jenson turned to me.
“Oh is that right, Miss?” she scorned.
“Yeah. Yeah, sure. I helped,” I said looking over at Ostin with a smile curling at the corner of my mouth slightly.
She still looked unconvinced but there was nothing more she could say to support her facts. Looking defeated, she let out a heavy sigh, unfolding her arms.
“Okay, then. The bell’s about to ring. Get your books. Mr. Hashven, I need
you to go to the boys’ floor immediately.” She turned on her heels and left to scan the whole crowd of girls for any more boys.
“Okay, Mr. Hashven. See you at recess,” I laughed.
He laughed back, waved and walked towards the staircase leading to the boys’ half of the building.
I turned and saw Anne running towards me, smiling with all of her teeth. “Sarah!” she exclaimed putting an arm around my shoulder. “You and Ostin, huh?” she chuckled.
“What?” I looked at her stopping dead in my tracks. “No, we’re just friends and you know that. He’s with Rachel now, by the way. For sure.”
“I knew it!” she yelled.
The bell rang and we walked all the way to Biology lab as I told her what Ostin told me.
“Well, the devil and angel always make a good couple,” she said when I finished, sitting down at the back of the class.
The door to the class opened and Mr. Bob walked in, silencing the whole class. “Alright, class! First day, some new faces. Good to be back,” he said scanning the class joyfully. “I am going to try to make your first day a little interesting,” he smirked. “DISSECTION!” He bellowed cheerfully.
“Gross,” I grimaced.
“And! You have to work in pairs. Pair up everyone and get your frogs,” he beamed.
“I’ll get the frog,” I said as Anne left to take the instruments.
Waiting in line for the frog, I saw Demi and Rachel talking as if they had been good friends for so long.
“Did you see that?” I asked Anne when I got back and placed the frog on the table.
“No. What?” she said.
“Just until last year, Rachel was friendless. Heck it was almost as if she didn’t exist. But this year, suddenly she has a boyfriend and something to do with Demi.”
“Oh, Rachel didn’t have a partner so Mr. Bob asked Demi to work with her,” Anne said.
“But in the morning, Rachel caught sight of Demi and rushed off. What does that mean?”
“I don’t know about that,” said Anne unconcerned, putting on her gloves.
I let the thoughts go away and watched Mr. Bob as he carefully pinned the frog on his tray.
“Don’t forget to work on your research. Presentation is due next week,” bellowed Mrs. Jenson as the lunch break bell rang and everyone rushed to the cafeteria.
I stuffed the books in my bag and headed outside. I turned the corner to the cafeteria and saw a poster hung on the wall.
“STUDENTS INTERESTED FOR PREFECT DUTY MAY SIGN UP AT THE ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE. VOTING WILL BEGIN NEXT WEEK.”
No way am I signing up again. Last year was enough. I thought. I pushed open the door to cafeteria and got in line, scanning the room for Anne. Spotted, there at our usual seats with Levi and Ulfred.
“Did you see that?” A deep, recognizable voice spoke behind me.
I turned around to see Ostin staring at a table in the far corner. I followed his gaze to see that Demi and Rachel were sitting together, giggling.
“Not that I know they’re friends, but they worked in pair today in Biology.”
“I’m going to get to the bottom of this,” he said softly, still glaring at them.
“Wait. Why are you so offended with them being friends?”
He looked at me quickly. “No. No, I’m not. It’s just that Rachel said she had no friends, but apparently, she lied to me.”
“Dude, chill out. Rachel was alone in Biology and we had to work in pairs for dissection. So, Mr. Bob asked Demi to work with her. They obviously talked and became friends. Just today.”
“Thank you, detective.” He grinned.
I shook my head, grabbed lunch and went to Anne whereas Ostin went straight to Rachel.
“Sarah!” Anne hooted. “Tell them,” said Anne excitedly clapping her hands.
“Tell us whuh?” said Ulfred, pizza falling out of his mouth. He looked at my twice before returning to his food.
“I don’t know. What?” I asked looking at Anne just as perplexed and sitting down.
Anne grunted and rolled her eyes at me. “Rachel and Ostin are together!” she jumped.
“NO WAY!” said Levi bewildered.
“Fuck, man. What the hell,” said Ulfred.
“Guys! Quiet, people are looking at us.” I said.
“By Rachel you mean that girl who has never spoken a word since she was born?” asked Levi, still bemused.
Anne and I laughed.
“Ostin never told us, man,” Ulfred elbowed Levi.
“Look,” Anne giggled, eyeing to the table where Rachel and Ostin sat hand in hand talking to Demi.
“Oh well. As I was saying,” Levi turned to Ulfred. “As rockets are based on Newton’s Third Law of Motion, the same principle is applied to flying cars.”
“Oh, enough with that Einstein,” said Anne irritably.
“Seriously, man. I wasn’t even listenin’ half the time,” said Ulfred.
Levi shook his head in disbelief and picked up his spoon to continue eating.
“Guys, did you see the prefect poster?” I asked after a while, putting down my fork and taking a sip from Sunkist.
“Yeah, I’m going to sign up for it,” said Levi.
“Aw yoo see us?” Anne asked with her mouth full of mashed potatoes. She swallowed and spoke again. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah, I am. So is Rachel.”
“What is that supposed to mean,” I quizzed.
“Nothing,” said Levi, looking down, his ears turning pink.
“Oh-em-gee!” shrieked Anne.
“Bro, she’s taken,” smirked Ulfred glancing towards Ostin.
“Jesus, guys. Calm down,” said Levi. “I don’t like her. Not like that.”
“Oh yeah, you do,” said Anne.
“Why else would you turn pink,” I said.
“It’s nothing. She’s just tall and cute.” Levi almost whispered, blushing furiously.
We all burst out laughing causing Levi to laugh too. Before we knew it, the bell rang signaling the end of lunch break. I groaned, picked up my bag and we all headed for our assigned classes.
“Looks like Levi was only fooling around with you with that comment,” I smiled when Anne and I were out of earshot. “And you fell for it.”
“I hate you so much, Sarah.” She fumed and stomped away.