Monday
11:27 AM
Charlotte sighed as she tapped her pencil on the assignment in front of her. She had no desire to carry on with the worksheet. It wasn’t that she found the material difficult, Math was her best subject, but the worksheets that were assigned were very tedious and repetitive. She could understand that it benefited some of the other students, the ones who needed the repetition in order to memorize the process, but she fully understood the logic behind the Math. It all made sense to her and repeating the same process over and over just felt like a waste of time. Through the monotony of it all, Charlotte quickly found her thoughts drift to other things.
Sometimes it seemed like her life followed a similar trend to her worksheet. Every day and every week was the same as the previous one, all in hopes of a bright and successful future. It was a routine that was perfectly structured and perfectly executed for the best chances of college admission, scholarships and employment opportunities. She rarely spent her lunch hours gossiping with her friends, opting instead to work in the school’s environmental club or develop her skills in the debate club.
Even her social life was inevitably scheduled and a small time slot on Friday nights was reserved for meeting with her friends and relaxing. She enjoyed those times quite a bit, but it was blatantly clear that she would be the most successful of all her peers. Sometimes she wished that she could be as ignorant about the future as they were. They would spend their free time after school at the mall and flirt with cute guys, but even at the age of eighteen, Charlotte hadn’t ever had a boyfriend. In fact, she had only ever kissed before.
It wasn’t as if Charlotte wasn’t attractive. In fact the gene pool had been quite kind to her. Many of her friends held her natural good looks in high regard, others in envy. They were all jealous of one thing or another: be it her luscious, long brown hair, her slender yet busty figure or her flawless skin. The girls would inevitably find something to be jealous about.
Guys often tried to score a date with her or even get her into bed, but the truth was that Charlotte just didn’t have time for romance. Sure, she had been subjected to the obligatory teen romance comedies from the 80’s, but they just didn’t portray the reality that Charlotte was all too familiar with. She knew that in order to have a good life, you needed to have a decent income; in order to get a decent income, you needed to have a good job; in order to have a good job, you needed to have a good education; and in order to have an education, you needed to work your ass off.
Unfortunately, she didn’t really know what she wanted to do with her life. Sure, the girl knew that she wanted to be successful and independently wealthy, but she just wasn’t passionate about any of the careers that accommodated that. The truth was, Charlotte just wasn’t really passionate about anything… at all. She often wondered what her life would have been like if she didn’t live in the shadow of her overachieving sister. Would she still be so dedicated and focused on her academics if it weren’t for Sam, the future doctor and favourite child? What other things in life would she find important?
Charlotte sighed again and quickly scribbled some numbers onto the page. There was no use even thinking about stuff like that. Her sister would always be there, and her desperation to live up Sam’s reputation would consistently push her to succeed, no matter the cost. So there she was, sitting in class and working quietly while her classmates wasted their time gossiping, just so she could secure her future.
12:08 PM
“Who’s that talking to Amy?” asked Charlotte as she walked with her debate partner, Sandra, to the library. Despite being out of the gossip loop, it seemed odd to Charlotte that Amy would be talking with any guy other than her boyfriend. Jake was one of the school’s star football players and he considered Amy to be his trophy girlfriend. Everyone knew he had a short fuse and succumbed to jealousy really easily.
“I’m not sure. I bumped into him earlier today, but I haven’t seen him around before,” replied Sandra, “Whoever he is, it takes a lot of balls to talk to Amy one-on-one.” They walked past but Sandra’s eyes remained on the guy. “He is kind of cute, though,” added Sandra once they turned the corner.
Charlotte couldn’t help but agree. He was fairly attractive with blond hair and the build of a star athlete. Not even the harsh fluorescent lighting could detract from his wonderful tanned complexion. Evidently, the gene pool had been as kind to him as it was to her: even his butt looked like it was chiselled from stone.
The brunette shook the thought out of her head as they entered the library. She couldn’t afford to daydream about boys: she had a really important city-wide debate coming up and they had plenty of research to do. She sat down at the computer and searched her topic in the library’s catalogue.
“He is kind of cute...” she thought as she waited for the results to load.
1:38 PM
“So do you have any plans for tonight?”
Charlotte looked at Tony, her lab partner, over the rim of her safety glasses and shook her head. “Not really,” she said as she thoroughly rinsed their burette in the sink, “I have to do some more research for next week’s debate. There’s a huge scholarship on the line, and I’d feel bad if I didn’t put in my due diligence.”
Tony chuckled as he dried a flask, “Do you ever just chill out? I mean, there is no doubt that you’re going to kill it. You always do!”
The brunette chuckled and turned off the sink, “And that’s because I always put in my due diligence!” They probably had the same conversation hundreds of times before and she knew that he wouldn’t understand her dedication to academia. She had been in the same school as Tony for the better parts of their lives and, while she never hung out with him outside of school, she always enjoyed his company. He was definitely more of a hands-on kind of guy, apparently a prodigy in front of a car engine, but he had never been the most studious. Even so, he was far from being a slacker so she never minded pairing up with him for projects.
Tony took off his apron and hung it with the others, “Well still, what’s one night off?”
“I don’t do school work every night: I usually chill with friends on Fridays,” she said matter-of-factly as she began to untie her apron.
Tony gave her a rather patronizing look. “Just Fridays?” he asked with a smirk, “Well, you’ll need a bit more free time than that if you ever want to be my girlfriend!”
Charlotte laughed and playfully threw her apron at his face. It was his ‘cute’ way of hitting on her that he had adopted after she had turned him down more times than either cared to count. “Well, Romeo, if I ever have time for a social life, I’ll be sure to let you know,” Charlotte said. She turned away and collected her lab notes in an effort to hide her bright red face.
“I can hardly wait.”
Tuesday
9:33 AM
Charlotte turned the corner into her first period class and was greeted by Sandra, “Hey Charlotte!!!” The redhead was sitting in her desk and looked like she was ready to burst as she waved Charlotte over.
“Hey,” said Charlotte with a smile as she walked over to Sandra’s desk, “I did some research last night. I think I found a few things that will really help our arguments.”
“I did some research too!” replied an excited Sandra, “Apparently that guy who was talking to Amy just transferred from up north. He’s supposedly one of the best high school football players in the city.”
Charlotte looked at her partner quizzically. She couldn’t be serious. “That’s great and all,” she said slowly, “But did you get anywhere on our debate?“
“Oh! No...” Sandra replied meekly as she played with a strand of her red hair, “Mikayla and I got caught up talking about the new guy all night.”
“Sandra! The debate is next week! We need to work on this!” Charlotte knew instantly that she shouldn’t have raised her voice as she saw Sandra recoil and sink into her desk, but before she could say anything to mitigate the situation, the bell rang to signal the start of class. Charlotte sighed and took her seat. She felt bad, but it was annoying that her friend would choose to spend her time gossiping instead of working on the debate. She couldn’t help but wonder what was up with Sandra. She was usually so level-headed.
2:58 PM
“So have you met the new guy?”
Charlotte looked up from her position paper draft as she overheard Jane and Marie gossiping. At first it was just their volume that annoyed her, since it was louder than what was acceptable for a work period, but once she clued in to the topic of their gossip, the conversation dug under her skin even further.
“No! I haven’t yet,” replied Jane, “I hear that he’s really cute.”
“Oh... He is,” swooned Marie with a goofy grin on her face, “He’s so nice too! It’s too bad he doesn’t date.”
“What? What kind of person doesn’t date?”
Charlotte smiled to herself and looked back down at her position paper. “It’s the kind of person with more important things in mind,” she thought grandiosely.
“He says that there are too many beautiful fish in the sea to spend all day trying to land just one,” replied Marie in a dreamy voice.
“That’s so lame!” scoffed Jane. Charlotte silently agreed.
“No it’s not!” retorted Marie, “It’s cute!”
Finally their conversation must have broken the sound barrier of hushed whispers as their teacher shushed the two girls and told them to get back to work. Charlotte silently thanked her teacher for stifling the distraction. It sometimes amused her how much the walls in her school had a penchant for talking, but it didn’t help when the gossip distracted her from her work. She looked back down at her draft and revelled in the sound of her pen against the paper.
Wednesday
9:31 AM
Walking into her first period class, Charlotte was greeted again by Sandra. Apparently unburdened by Charlotte’s blowup yesterday, the redhead excitedly waved her over. “Hey Charlotte! Are you going to Stacy Wilkins’ party on Friday?”
Charlotte furrowed her brow at the girl. “No, I don’t really go to parties... You know that! Besides we have to prepare for the debate; Did you read any of those links I sent you?”
Sandra shifted in her seat coyly, “No...”
“What?!? Why not? The debate is on Monday!” Charlotte was flustered and knew that her face had to show that fact.
“I know, but... Well I ran into Marie after school and it turns out that she’s actually talked to, well, you know... him. So we hung out last night. It’s amazing, we’ve never hung out before but it was like we were sisters!” Sandra giggled, “I guess that’s what common interests will do.”
Charlotte was appalled. Sandra was never so wishy-washy about stuff like that. It was their similar work ethics that made her choose Sandra as her debate partner. “You know how important this debate is! Why aren’t you focusing on it?”
Sandra was stunned, “I...I honestly don’t know. I think I’m in love, I just can’t stop thinking about him.”
Charlotte scoffed, “Have you actually ever talked to him?” She couldn’t let some teenage daydream ruin her chances in this debate.
“No...” said the redhead with obvious disappointment in her voice. She seemed to be rolling a thought around in her head when suddenly she perked up, “Oh! I should ask him if he’s going to Stacy’s party!”
Charlotte sighed, “Sandra. I need you to focus on the debate.”
“Fine, I will. But you really need to lighten up,” she said, “I know! Promise to come to the party and I’ll promise to work on the debate!”
Charlotte thought she would use up all of her sighs in one conversation, “Fine, I’ll be there. But promise to check out those links tonight! You need to be up to date when we meet and practice on Saturday.”
Sandra clapped her hands and squealed in delight. Charlotte rolled her eyes and took her seat as the class started.
12:56
Charlotte was rigging up the stand for that day’s titration experiment when Tony came up behind her.
“I cannot wait for Friday,” he said as he set the remainder of their materials on the lab desk.
“Yea? Big weekend?” asked Charlotte without missing a beat setting up the stand.
“Naw, not really. I work on Sunday, but Friday is Stacy Wilkins’ party and it’s going to be off the charts!”
“Of course he’s going to the party,” thought Charlotte.
She finished up the prep work and turned to her lab partner, “Really? What’s the appeal to house parties?”
Tony shrugged, “Well, typically it’s not a whole lot. But you know the kinds of parties you always see in movies?” Charlotte shrugged and nodded. “Well they don’t exist in real life, but Stacy’s parties are about as close to that as you’re going to get. There’s a ton of people, great music, beer pong, and she even has a pool!”
“Sounds like a blast,” Charlotte replied dryly as she turned her attention back to their experiment.
“Sounds horrendous” she thought at the same time, “But at least I can probably make an appearance and slip out without anyone missing me.”
Her partner laughed, “It is! I swear!” She shot him a look of skepticism causing him to laugh again. The girl turned her attention back to the experiment and heard him tapping his notebook with the back of his pen. “So how about you? Any big plans for the weekend? Let me guess, you’re going to light it up at the library!”
Without looking away from the experiment Charlotte responded, “Believe it or not, I’m actually going to be at Stacy’s party too.”
Tony’s drumming stopped as his pen dropped from his hand, “What?!? Who are you and what have you done with Charlotte?”
“You’re so funny,” replied a sarcastic Charlotte, " Yea, I’m definitely not looking forward to it, but my debate partner seems to have developed a schoolgirl crush on the new guy, and she’s basically forcing me to go.”
“Well, I guess there could be worse outcomes. Maybe it’ll be good for you to unwind a bit.”
“Yea, but I’m not going to know anyone there! Are you going to write that down?” she said looking at her partner and signaling towards the flask swirling with colours at the bottom of the stand.
“Oh, right!” replied Tony, picking up his pen and scribbling in his notebook, “Well, you’re not going to be completely alone there... You’ll know me! I mean, it may slightly ruin the popular opinion of me, but I don’t mind being your social crutch.”
Charlotte smirked at his joke and turned back to their experiment. “Thanks,” she said, “But I doubt I’ll be there too long anyways: I’m planning on being at the library first thing on Saturday morning to look at some case studies.”
“You’re really serious about this debate thing, hey? Are you planning to go to law school or something?”
Charlotte sighed and just shrugged. It’d be nice if that was the plan and it was definitely something she had contemplated, but it lacked the same desire and passion as every other outcome she had considered. She was well on her way to a super successful career and she had no idea what it would be. All that mattered was that her securing her future.
Thursday 9:30 AM
Charlotte made it to school a bit early that day, so with a highlighter in her hand, she was sitting at her desk reading through some pages that she printed from the web. She wanted to make sure that she knew the material inside and out in order to perform the best at the debate.
She was memorizing a particularly tasking fact when she heard the same two words that she heard the previous two mornings, “Hey Charlotte!” Sandra’s perkiness burned her ears and made the brunette cringe. “I looked over those links like I promised!”
Charlotte scoffed and looked up ready to unfurl a sassy remark, but was not prepared for the sight in front of her. The girl standing there was not Sandra, at least not the Sandra that Charlotte knew. Instead of the conservative and modest girl who typically wore an unflattering sweater and worn out jeans, there was a bubbly tramp wearing stockings, a short skirt and a low cut v-neck shirt that did everything to expose her cleavage. Her face was caked in makeup and her ruby hair was overly big.
“Sandra? Wha- what’s going on?”
The girl shifted uncomfortably, “Nothing... I’m just talking to you!”
“No,” stammered Charlotte, “Why are you wearing that?”
The redhead played with the hem of her skirt. “Oh! I just figured he’d like me better if I worked on my appearance a bit. I asked him if he’s coming to Stacy’s party and he is!” Sandra punctuated her sentence with a squeal.
“Okay, well never mind that,” said Charlotte, shaking the shocked expression from her face, “What did you think of those examples?”
Sandra appeared to be in a daydream, but snapped out of it quickly enough to respond, “Well, they were kind of boring, but I read every word like I promised!”
Charlotte couldn’t believe it, “Are you kidding me?!? Why aren’t you worried about the debate? Why don’t you worry about your future rather than some stupid guy?”
Sandra looked like she was about to cry, but fortunately for her, the bell rang and Charlotte was cut off from berating her even more. Charlotte watched in disgust as Sandra sauntered away and took her seat. The redhead pulled down her tight top to reveal even more cleavage and looked up at the ceiling as if in a daydream. What was going on with her?
Friday
9:32 AM
Once again, Charlotte had made it to school earlier than needed and spent her time preparing for the debate. She could legitimately recite a couple of the articles from memory, but she still wanted to make sure that she knew the issue from every angle.
As she perused her articles, something started to make her feel uneasy, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. It wasn’t until the girl glanced up from her research and looked around the room that she realized that Sandra hadn’t come over to say, ‘Hi’. Instead she was sitting in her desk with a gloomy demeanour, a stark contrast to the days prior.
Charlotte took a second to observe her debate partner. She was wearing a similar skimpy outfit to the one that she was wearing the day before. It may have even been skimpier. She was sure that the skirt’s hemline was more than toeing the line of their school’s dress code. But there was something so different from her usual mood. Even before this week, Sandra had always been pleasant and happy. She was the kind of girl who always had a smile on her face and it wasn’t like her to look so upset.
Charlotte sighed and rose from her chair. “I suppose I should see what’s wrong.” she thought, “It’s not like she has anyone else in the class to talk to.”
She walked over to the glum girl and stood beside her desk. “Hey Sandra,” she said in a tone that showed she meant no harm, “How’re you doing?”
“Terrible,” Sandra pouted, “I’m never going to have a chance with him.” Sandra didn’t even look up at Charlotte, she just kept staring at the desk in front of her with her arms crossed.
Charlotte couldn’t avoid rolling her eyes, but luckily the girl wasn’t looking at her so she got away with it. “I can’t believe she’s still hooked on him!” she thought, “Sure, he’s cute, but he’s probably a pig just like every other jock. She probably hasn’t even had a full conversation with him yet!”
She crouched so she was at a closer height to Sandra’s and decided to feign empathy. “Oh, don’t be so sure of that,” she said as one hand left a reassuring pat on her back, “He just has to get to know you. What makes you say that anyways?”
The girl kept her head down, but Charlotte heard her mumble, “Amy...”
“Amy? What did she do?”
Sandra turned and looked at her, “Amy broke up with Jake to be with him! And everyone knows that Amy can have any guy she wants!” The redhead turned away again, her eyes clearly welling with tears.
Charlotte was shocked, “Wait... Amy broke up with Jake?!?” It couldn’t be true. Amy and Jake were less of a couple and more of a single entity. Not that Charlotte paid that much attention to gossip, but the rumour mill often joked that their separation would be the first sign of the apocalypse.
“How did Jake react?!?” she asked. If anything, he’d go berserk. Everyone knew that he was the jealous type.
“He’s fine with it! Apparently he’s practically best friends with the new guy... But Charlotte, you’re not listening! I’m never going to have a chance with him now!”
Charlotte snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Sandra, “Why don’t we go to the library during lunch and work on the debate so we can get away from all the gossip?”
Sandra nodded solemnly, “Thanks Charlotte.”
Charlotte smiled as she was called back to her desk by the school bell. “At least I won’t have to go to that party tonight,” she thought smugly as she sat in her chair.
12:40 PM
Frustrated and annoyed, Charlotte stormed back to her locker. She had waited in the library the entire lunch hour for Sandra, but her debate partner never showed. Charlotte was livid. It was one thing for Sandra to throw her future away for some stupid boy, but to put Charlotte’s future in jeopardy too, that was unbelievable.
She threw open her locker door and started to wrestle the textbooks that she needed for the rest of the day into her backpack. She was just finishing struggling with the zipper on her bag, when she heard the one thing that could make her even more angry.
“Hey Charlotte!”
The two words seared into her skull and she struggled to contain her rage. The brunette slammed her locker shut and turned towards her bubbly debate partner. It was a definite change in the redhead’s mood from earlier in the day, but Charlotte could care less about that.
Charlotte spat out at Sandra, “Where were you? We were supposed to work on the debate! Are you even prepared for it? What has been with you lately? You’re so stupid for this boy, I bet you don’t even remember what we’re debating about!”
Even though Charlotte’s assault was meant to snap the perky girl back into reality, it didn’t seem to have any effect. “Of course I know what the debate is about, silly!” replied Sandra with a vacant smile on her face, “But there’s something more important!”
“What?!?” cried Charlotte, “What could possibly be more important than a scholarship and academic prowess that could secure your future forever?”
Sandra giggled and responded in the same perky tone, “Well, I found out that Amy’s still single!”
“What? Who cares?” Charlotte slammed her locker door shut, but the wide-eyed redhead hardly flinched.
“Well that means that he is still available. I talked to him earlier, and apparently he’s not looking for anything serious.“
Exasperated, Charlotte rolled her eyes, “Do you have any idea how stupid that sounds? You’re throwing yourself at a boy who doesn’t even want a relationship. Just because he’s not with Amy, doesn’t mean your chances of being his girlfriend are any greater!”
Sandra just smiled and stared off into space as if picturing a wonderful scene in her head. “Yea...” she replied, “But it means he’s still single and that’s enough for me!”
“Oh my god! Since when did you become such a slut?” Sandra snapped back to reality and looked at Charlotte with a confused expression. “Look, never mind that,” continued Charlotte, letting the rage simmer and issuing a facade of composure. “Just promise me that you’ll stay focused enough to do this debate! I really need your help on this!”
Sandra brightened up and replied, “Right! Don’t worry, I promised I’d go over everything with you tomorrow, but remember, you promised that you’d come to the party tonight!“
Charlotte wanted to bat away the manicured finger that was pointed her way, but she instead groaned and began to turn away. “Sandra, it’s probably not a good idea...” Sandra pouted and hurried after her, “But Char... you promised!”
“Ugh... Fine I’ll be there. But you had better work hard tomorrow!” Sandra squealed in delight and hugged the brunette. “And don’t call me ‘Char’!”
Sandra smiled and nodded before running off. Charlotte could hear her yelling through the hallway, “Marie! Char’s coming tonight!” She watched as Sandra hugged Marie and the two girls jumped up and down happily. Charlotte furrowed her brow. Had Marie always dressed so provocatively? Something weird was definitely going on.
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