This choice: You don't need to get involved with her • Go Back...Chapter #52Options Distasteful to the Host by: rugal b.   Kristy's feelings on the matter are strong and as you're still settling in you decide that it's best to run with them for the time being. So you text Maria back largely telling her as much; that you're still looking at options but haven't come to a conclusion yet but you'll have one by the end of the day. You get a simple one word message, okay, back in response.
"What was that about?" asks Susie as you put your phone down.
"Oh, that was just someone I kind of reconnected with yesterday," you say and regret it because that immediately leads to noises and looks of inquiry. "Okay so you know Maria Vasquez?"
"The Westside cheerleader?" Shannon asks.
"You know her?" Amy asks Shannon.
"Well I know of her," Shannon states. "I've seen her and some of the other cheerleaders out at Catherine's a few times. She's, like, a total bimbo. Well that's what Eva and Jessica have told me anyway."
"Wait, the twins?" Amy responds. There's crossover more crossover than you'd have thought between Eastman and Westside students, Kristy's mind tells you, and the Garners especially are notorious for being "hot twin cheerleaders" that lots of guys fantasize about and for being friendly with some of Alyssa Randall's group. "How do you know them?"
"From middle school?" Shannon answers. "We're not, like, best friends but we still hang out some times and we see each other at parties. I dunno."
"Oh," comes the curt reply from Amy.
Shannon wilts a bit at that. Not for any particular reason but Amy tends to have that effect on others. She's a bigger girl, tall and unlike Kristy definitely falls well into being curvy though she manages to wear it well and she's pretty and fashionable besides so she doesn't get the same flak that others might not get. But she likes to inquire and press forward and then seems to be vaguely unsatisfied with what she finds in a way that, though she doesn't mean it, can intimidate others. It's actually kind of amusing, you think, as there's something inadvertently motherly about it and it somewhat reminds you, you think, of how your own mother can be.
Not that Kristy would think of Amy as motherly otherwise since she parties and even hangs out at the Warehouse some times.
Still you silently thank her because it's taken the attention off of you and your talking to Maria and having to be vague about why and how you'd "reconnected" and instead leads into a general conversation about other students from other schools everyone knows or associates with or even has thoughts about. Morgan for instance practically jumps to mention how hot she thinks Cody Schaeffer, a member of Westside's tennis team, is.
It does make you think as well about your current situation. Sure Kristy maintains a casual acquaintanceship with Maria but maybe having more options to associate with the others wouldn't be a bad idea either if you're looking for someone to fill that second beta slot that Fairfax has been pushing on you.
* * * * *
Lunch is over, it's partway through Kristy's fifth period biology class and you can't really remember what's been talked about. Kristy herself has never been the science type so try as she might she doesn't find the class particularly interesting either and you can't help but feel a little bad for Mr. Zigler. He's a nice enough teacher but you guess you'd really have to be a science nerd to get anything out of it. It's not a particularly hard class so most, like Kristy, take it only because they need a science credit so this wouldn't even be the first time her attention has drifted.
Though in this case it's not just zoning out or stealing glances at Clayton McShane, a baseball player with a strong country boy build and a friendly easygoing personality that she can't help but to find endearing and attractive, but rather the consideration of that second beta. You don't even know if it's required to get a second one but the others seem to see it as the thing to do and being the newbie you don't want to fight against the current.
Yet you're still stuck on who to even get. One of her friends still seems like the easiest option and after that conversation at lunch maybe you should think about who, like Shannon or even Amy (who herself mentioned some people from there she knows), could easily associate with students at Westside as certainly compared to them Kristy's more content to stick around her Eastman friends.
Then there's Alex and the opportunities she provides: a chance to get close to Rae Caldwell and to maybe get you an in to Xavier's. But Kristy's own dislike of her is strong and even thinking about her means having to fight to clamp down on those negative thoughts.
Besides it's not as if Kristy herself couldn't potentially get you in. It was a realization you'd had at lunch. Kristy's parents are out hobnobbing at the country club nearly every weekend. Often they've wanted her to come out too because on the one hand it's good for Kristy to already start making the connections that can help her out later in life. On the other hand their busy schedules mean that it's not at all rare for Kristy to go most of the week having only small amounts of contact with them so in a way it's a bit of family time.
Family time that Kristy turns down more often than not and though she feels bad about it, her distaste for the elitist snobbery of the clientele is as strong as it is for Alex. You can't help to muse that that year at Xavier's seems to have left a large impression on her. But of course, though you are Kristy you're also not Kristy and much like with Alex you wonder if it might be a good idea to fight against her own negative feelings and join her parents for a trip out to the country club this weekend. After all, there are more than a few Muties who hang around there as well and if you can just get one alone...
It's about that time when the bell signaling the end of the period rings and snaps you back to reality. You're still wondering what to actually do as you gather your stuff and head out of class.
* * * * *
You let out a sigh of relief as the bell rings signaling the end of the day. World literature is one of the classes that Kristy really enjoys (and given her proclivity for reading you're not surprised) but it's about as non-bullshit a class as you're going to find. Not only does a student need a teacher recommendation but Mr. Kelly has to approve both it and a submitted essay by the student. Which might seem a bit draconian but it's only to weed out the people who think it'll be another blowoff class. Mr. Kelly is a very good teacher and easy to get along with, at least Kristy thinks so, but he's also passionate about the material and thus takes it seriously.
What you're taking seriously now, and what you've spent all day putting a decision off on however, is still the matter of getting another beta. Eighth period has let out and you'd promised Fairfax that you'd have a decision made by now. But it's harder than you'd have thought you have to admit. For one there's a lot of options and for another Kristy's own instincts dislike all of them.
For a start there's her friends. One of them would be easy to nab for blatantly obvious reasons and specifically there's a few who will make your connection to Westside and thus the other members of your group less tenuous than it currently is. But for also blatantly obvious reasons Kristy dislikes the idea of doing something like that to one of her friends.
To go to the country club too presents its own problems due to Kristy's own dislike of the place and the clientele that inhabit it. Though growing up rich she feels at home right here, at this school and among its crowd. That genteelness is, to be frank, completely alien to her.
Alex as well. You have to fight with a lot of strong, negative emotions to be around her long enough to for the replacement to go off and even then that'd probably mean having to switch from Kristy's mask into her's because you'd bet that even golemized the distaste from Kristy would be strong for her.
And that in and of itself presents a whole new problem. You get a second beta and then what? You switch and live as that person until it's decided that maybe you need a third beta? And a fourth? A fifth? Where does it end? And say you get it and don't switch, then you just have a thing to order around but what use do you really get out of that? Besides though you've only been her for a day, being Kristy is comfortable. Rich with none of the pretension, nice to look at without being ogled constantly. Kristy in spite of her wealth is a normal girl who lives a normal life that she enjoys. She stands out enough to have a nice social circle and close friends but not so much that it feels like a burden.
It's a pretty sweet place to be you have to admit. Why complicate it?  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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