Chapter #80The It Girl by: imaj   You slide your car into the parking space and kill the engine. Around you, dozens of other students are doing the same. It won’t be long till the home room bell sounds and the school day starts, but you still take time to flip down the mirror above the driver seat and examine yourself.
Green eyes sparkle back at you through stylish glasses. Though you’ve been at Westside High for years, today is your first day there in your new identity as Rosalie Martin. You are going to make quite an impression if you’ve judged everything correctly, and you are sure that you have. You twitch your blood red lips into a smirk and check over your outfit one last time before you get out of your car.
It’s going to turn heads, that’s for sure. The bandeau top and mini-skirt match the colour on your lips, but the mesh top and fishnet stocking mean that your body is covered, even if a lot of it is tantalisingly revealed through the gaps. It probably comes down on the wrong side of slutty, but you have one sure fire way of making sure people don’t see you that way. Glundandra and Eldibria come when you summon them, replacing your essentia. As you step out of the car, you start radiating Glundandra, letting it suffuse your surroundings.
Heads turn as your boots clack across the parking lot. You glace this way and that as you pass the stunned students, taking in the looks on their faces: amazement, lust, envy, jealousy and more. It’s hard to keep a smirk from your face.
That grin widens when you spot Morgana Hollis sitting by herself on a bench outside the main door. She’s hunched over, thumbing at a book and totally oblivious to the world around her thanks to the white earbuds in her ears. Her long flowing black clothes are shapeless, you notice, presumably to better hide her dumpy physique. She barely notices as you sit down beside her, looking up only briefly.
The look of shock on her face is priceless, but you compose yourself and succeed in looking very earnest. “Hi,” you say to Morgana as she pulls one of the earphones out. “Um… This is my first day and I’m kind of lost. How do I get to the principal’s office?”
Morgana stutters a mousy reply, but you aren’t really listening to her. Instead you pick at the discarded earphone. “Hey, what are you listening to? Can I…” You place the earbud in your own ear. It isn’t exactly too your tastes, too whiney and mopey. “Cool,” you lie. “So can you show me to the principal’s office?” You don’t wait for Morgana to answer, but hook your arm around hers and hoist her to her feet with you. “Thanks,” you gush.
Morgana finally gives in and goes with the flow, witlessly guiding you inside the school. You chose not to press her any further right now. There will be plenty of time to do that later.
You have to spend the whole of first period in the school offices. First with Principal Sagansky, who treats you with a cool disdain that your Glundandran aura can’t seem to shift. Most of the time you spend with his administrative assistant who gets your class schedule sorted. Finally you spend a few minutes with Ms Davies, the watery eyed school counsellor. She seems to have been struck almost mute by you’re the raw power of Glundandra you radiate, as she barely manages to string a few words together before sending you on your way, just in time for second period.
A quick check off your schedule shows that you have Biology with Mr Cash. You get to the class quickly, with most of the class still to arrive. Morgana is there already – hardly surprising since you used the knowledge from the mask Chelsea acquired of Morgana to ensure your schedule matched hers as much as possible. She presumably already has a lab partner for this class, but that doesn’t stop you from planting yourself in the empty seat next to her.
“Hi again,” you say before she protests. “I didn’t get a chance to properly introduce myself earlier. I’m Rosalie,” you add, offering one hand.
“Morgana,” she replies, taking your hand and shaking it briefly.
“Thanks for showing me round,” you continue. “It’s kinda scary starting a new place, but I saw you and thought you looked cool.”
Morgana blushes briefly at the complement. “It was nothing,” she mumbles
A shadow falls across the bench. You look round to see the cause, another girl stands beside the bench. Her puffy face and poor complexion look familiar but you can’t put a name to the face. Her lip wobbles anxiously. She wants to voice the obvious complaint – that’s my seat – but your aura intimidates her.
It doesn’t stop Mr Cash. He tilts his head up slightly, affording him the chance to look down his nose towards you. “You must be Rosalie Martin,” he intones. “If you let Sarah have her seat back I’ll assign you a partner in a moment.”
You rise to your feet graciously, offering Sarah her chair back, but not before you hurriedly whisper in Morgana’s ear. “We should hang out at lunch break.” Morgana nods jerkily, as if her head is being pulled on strings.
“There’s a spare seat right at the back Rosalie,” says Mr Cash. “Next to Keith.”
You look round. Sure enough, your one time friend Keith Tilley is sitting on his own right at the back of the class. His eyes never leave your boobs as you sit next to him and – ugh – did he always smell faintly of cabbages? You sit down next to him, making your distaste plain for all to see on your face.
But then, Keith never could pick up signals like that. He offers his hand. “Uh… I’m Keith,” he stutters before withdrawing his hand unshaken a few awkward moments later.
“My eyes are up here,” you mutter. “Pervert.”
*****
You get caught by surprise when the hand falls on your shoulder as you make your way through the halls before lunch. That, as much as anything else, stops you from resisting as you get dragged into a nearby empty classroom. There your attacker spins you round and shoves you against a wall. You find yourself face to face Kendra Saunders, her face twisted up into an ugly sneer.
“What…” you start.
“Shut up,” says Kendra, her voice dripping poison.
You fall silent and Kendra releases you, taking a step back to reveal Chelsea. Of course it would be her, she keeps a tight hold on Kendra’s reins. The golem frowns at you, making no secret of her dislike for you. Then she forces the most insincere smile she can manage. “Welcome to Westside, I’m Chelsea,” she says frostily.
The golem doesn’t recognise you, of course. She only saw your Rosalie face briefly, and certainly not dressed up the way you are now. You’ve been running on your Glundandra and Eldibria essentia all day too, and whilst the Glundandran aura has cowed a lot of people in the school it isn’t having much effect on this pair. Probably because they are used to being in charge themselves.
“We thought we’d help you by telling you some of the ground rules,” says Kendra. She folds her arms and smirks at you.
They’ve pegged you as a threat, you realise: You have the looks to be one of the school’s A-listers, but you dress like an outcast and have already been hanging round unpopular people like Morgana. Having spent some time inside Chelsea’s head already, it really isn’t surprising that this is happening, though that it is happening so soon is a bit of a shock.
You can’t keep the smirk from your face once you decide how to deal with them, a fact that seems only to irritate them further. Taking a deep breath, you concentrate and bring up your essentia collection. The stars of Kenandandra and Sulva draw close to you.
The sudden change in Chelsea’s demeanour is hilarious. All the arrogance, all the bluster and superiority vanishes in a second as she starts to comprehend exactly who it is she’s accosted.
“Kendra, leave us alone for a moment,” says Chelsea. Kendra snorts unhappily. “Now Kendra.”
You both watch as the African-American cheerleader trudges out the room in angry silence. “Well…” you start to say.
Chelsea holds up her hand. “She’ll be listening outside,” she says in a low whisper. You wait another minute in silence. “She should be gone now. I didn’t recognise you,” states the golem, still whispering. “This is going to be you now? How can I help you?”
That surprises you a little too. Should it though? You did tell the golem to be helpful, so maybe that’s what it’s doing. Joe’s warning that the golem might still be trying to manipulate you, despite the orders you’ve given it resurfaces in your thoughts.
“We should talk over lunch,” says Chelsea. “About what you want me to do next.”
You were supposed to be meeting Morgana.
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