Chapter #52(Taking) Peyton's Place by: rugal b.   In a huff you ascend the stairs and reaching the top turn right. You make your way down the hall past a door that leads to a bathroom and to a dead end with doors on either side. Normally you'd go left but instead you sharply turn right and, facial muscles tensing, throw open the door.
"Hey! You really need to knock if--"
But you don't give the girl sitting crosslegged on her bed, laptop in her lap, a chance to finish. "I'll knock some sense into you, Paris!" you growl as you march up to her and lean in, your face only inches away from her own. "They taught you about not taking things that don't belong to you when we were kids didn't they?"
"I don't know what you're talking ab--"
"The yogurt that I'd been eating with my meals, Paris."
"Pey, I have no idea what you're talking about," protests Paris. But you look onto her nightstand and see an empty cup with a spoon still in it and she seems to have noticed that you've noticed it. "I don't know how that got there," she states.
"You took it," you declare. "It was the last of my yogurt and you took it."
"I did not!" she exclaims defensively.
"Paris it's sitting right there."
"I didn't do it!" she continues to protest. "Maybe it was a ghost with a bad case of bubble guts.
You can only roll your eyes because, as usual, when confronted with something your sister's first instinct is to be a smartass. "The only ghost in this house is going to be you when I'm through," you say as you yank Paris up and, brutish as it may be, put her in a headlock until she quickly cries uncle. Twins you may be but Paris is definitely not your physical equal. You let her squirm, not actually releasing her until she finally admits she ate it.
"There, was that so hard?" you ask as you watch her flop back down onto her bed.
"You're an ogre Pey. A brutish ogre. Are we sure you didn't replace my real sister?"
"Are we sure that my real sister wasn't replaced by an alien who doesn't understand basic Earth customs like not taking other peoples' stuff?" you counter.
"Jeez what's your problem anyway?" she asks. "I figured you'd be happy on account of being able to hang out with your crush."
"You're the lesbian not me."
"Bisexual. It's a thing Peyton."
"Sure. Just not your thing," you counter before groaning. "Why am I even arguing this? But yeah, I am happy because Eva and Jessica were, like, so cool! They told me about the squad and I mean it's got issues but those'll be gone next year and they said I'd probably be a shoo-in for a spot then. We got along really great and we might be hanging out some more soon. Oooh, it was awesome!"
"Yeah huh and did they tell you about that Will guy at all?"
"Huh? Oh, sure. Yeah they've been getting real friendly with him lately so they told me a lot of stuff that I can pass on to Courtney," you tell her though quickly add, "if she's even still interested. You know how she is."
"I really don't," she replies. "But I guess that's good. Jenny didn't really have much to say about him this morning."
"She didn't have much to say about him this evening either," you reply being unable to resist teasing Paris just a little bit.
"Twist the knife," she groans. "Anyway are we good? Seems like I helped you and her out so you can go back to your room right?"
"Yeah I guess so," you say. As you walk out and shut the door behind you you're left to wonder what's up with her completely forgetting why you'd barged into her room in the first place.
* * * * *
You give yourself a once over in the rearview mirror. Brown eyes, accentuated with just the right amount of eyeshadow, stare back at you while light strawberry blonde hair falls in loose waves down to just past your shoulders. You doublecheck that all of your makeup is perfect and as you do you note that you and Paris certainly have similar faces if one glances hard enough but makeup and other tricks -- and the wildly differing personal styles you both employ -- do more than enough to differentiate the two of you.
"You spent long enough getting ready," your sister grumbles as she opens the door. However she can't help but get back at you for your own dig last night. "Do you think he's going to notice you across the parking lot and fight through the crowd just to get with you?"
You lean over and shove Paris before sighing, muttering, and exiting the car yourself. The pair of you walk in together but quickly split up in opposite directions as you send a few texts. You're digging through your locker when a voice calls out to you. You turn to see Dallas Lockhart come bounding up and in short order both Kelli Taft and Cara Fuhrman are huddled around. Leah Powers has some other stuff to take care of while Courtney Tran's running late.
"Oh right is she still interested in that guy she danced with on Friday?" you ask. "I talked to Eva about him since she's been hanging out with him a lot recently so, like, I could pass along whatever she's told me to her."
"As far as I know," Dallas says, "but you know Court. She'll be into some new guy she meets at a party this weekend."
"Are there going to be any?" you ask.
"When aren't there?" asks Cara rhetorically.
"I think Harmony's got plans for one," states Kelli.
"Must be nice having pretty hands off parents," Cara grumbles; her own parents not knowing the meaning of the phrase hands off.
"Just tell your parents you're getting together with us to study," Kelli tells her knowing that next will be a complaint about how her parents would never let her go. "I mean it won't technically be a lie right? We'll be studying."
"Cute guys," adds Dallas with laugh.
"You can study them with us," Kelli says to you.
But you grumble at that. "There's only one guy I want to study," you moan as you think of Jason Rowe, the handsome dark-haired quarterback for the JV football team.
"You'll have to fight Stacey for him," Dallas points out.
"Only if I can throw her in front of a train at the end of it," you shoot back.
From there conversation continues for a few minutes until the for first period rings. You head with Kelli towards your first period class while Dallas and Cara break off. On the way there you pass by Stacey Stahl, her arm wrapped around her boyfriend's. She doesn't notice you but you sure notice her and only one word comes to mind when you do.
Bitch.
* * * * *
Getting Peyton Morrow had been ridiculously easy which is part of why you'd picked her in the first place. You'd texted Eva to tell her to try and get Peyton out to the storage facility which, as it turned out, took very little cajoling from Eva to accomplish. Eva's a popular senior cheerleader so you were banking on that being enough to tip the scales but what you hadn't been counting on is that Peyton herself very strongly desires to be a cheerleader and admires Eva considerably.
So when Eva asked her if she wanted to talk about Will Prescott and maybe hang out the word "yes" was out of her mouth practically before the question was even finished. Of course Peyton was quick to text her friends -- most of whom also harbor dreams of being on the squad next year -- the news. Her sister though, being the artsy bohemian musician she is, could not have cared less and offered up only a terse one word response.
But Peyton didn't care and gladly followed the Garners out to the storage facility and from there the switch went down much as it had with Jenny though now Jenny, her masked fixed with that stuff and placed on the real Peyton, was herself a beta under your control.
Once you were in Peyton's mask and clothes you'd asked Eva and Jessica if they were getting ready to switch. They told you that they knew who they wanted but were holding off on Fairfax's request because he wanted to see if there were any interesting angles to approach the underclassmen from. But neither seemed to be too enthused by the idea of potentially becoming freshmen and you can't blame them as neither were you.
But popular junior girls that aren't all that different from popular senior girls minus being a grade lower? Dallas, Cara, Kelli and Leah would all make for good places and Carlos and Mike might be able to go for it. You could probably push Courtney on your own but her interest in a guy tends to be capricious so having their help might keep her on track in getting and if Keith and Josiah could be convinced well that might cover all the bases... but those two, by all accounts, are happy where they are so it's no guarantee.
But would helping you really want to be something they continue? Everyone seemed to indicate that little experiment was over... but does it have to be? Or rather would you be able to find a new person to build up? Someone like Paris might make for a good subject as she's only now coming out of her shell and finding her own identity. Maybe it's the sisterly affection from your current identity but giving her a push, maybe finding a girlfriend for her, sounds like it could be something everyone could get behind.
Maybe it's Peyton's own feelings influencing you as well because you think back to the boy she likes and the girl can't stand. Keith had suggested tearing someone down might make for a good target. Especially if it can be done in such a way to get Peyton together with her crush.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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