“Yes. He’s Todd’s best friend right?” she asked, although she already knew the answer. She had been waiting for this. She had known that Cindy was once again on the look-out for her for a boyfriend although she never asked. She knew that she just wanted someone to double date with and found it slightly annoying. But Cindy was nodding emphatically.
“Do you like him?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Rachael replied uneasily.
“Do you want to go out with him next weekend? He is only a junior, but he is pretty cool,” Cindy said, making as good a sell as she could.
“I don’t know… maybe,” Rachael replied, once again trying to ignore it. She’d squirm out of this before then. She wasn’t sure whether or not she would be attracted to a boy, but she knew that she could never like any meat-headed friends of a cheating jerk like Todd. She wondered why her friend didn’t just break up with him, but never could figure out a way to bring it up.
“Great, I’ll tell him,” Cindy said and before Rachael could object, her friend was gone. Cindy had a tendency to do that sort of thing. To act like someone said what she wanted to hear. Rachael shrugged her shoulders and in just a few moments she was at her locker. She opened it up and a small, folded note fell out. She picked it up, concerned it was from Todd and read it. It stated: “Meet me in Mrs. Lowell classroom this afternoon at 4:00. It is important.” She didn’t recognize the handwriting and it wasn’t signed. So very strange.
*****
That afternoon, Mrs. Lowell sat in her classroom after school let out, waiting to see who had sent the letter. She had a sneaking suspicion that it was Rachael. She had told the girl they wouldn’t have time that week, but she was a little bit flattered that the girl couldn’t wait. At exactly four, Rachael walked in, she was still sweaty from cheer practice, and she had rushed over. She was excited that Mrs. Lowell had freed up some time for her, it was the most likely thing she could think of with the note.
“Hey, why did you leave a weird little note?” Rachael asked, holding it up between her fingers. She smiled brushed her bangs out of her eyes. She noticed that Kitty was giving her a very strange look.
“What?” She asked.
“I thought you sent me a weird little note?” Kitty said, taking Rachael’s note and quickly reading it. Their minds were both racing, trying to figure out who had sent the letter. They didn’t wait long. Just three seconds later Ariel Cooper walked in with an attitude of supreme confidence. She was so surprising in her arrival that Kitty, for the first time, realized how beautiful the girl was. She was very tall and slender, with the narrow, sexy build of a super model at 5’9 and 115lbs. She was clearly a fully grown women at 18 years old with 32-A breasts. In Kitty’s mind her beauty was marred by the fact that she was so clearly an outcast on purpose. She dressed in red corsets, black miniskirts, and combat boots. Her long blonde hair and been dyed purple and the tell-tale signs of tattoos were cast about all showing skin. It was made all the worse, to Kitty, because she had such an angelic face.
“I am glad you both got my notes,” Ariel said, sitting down gently in her seat.
“What’s up?” Rachael asked helpfully. The sneaky way in which Ariel had set this up and the way she was speaking made Rachael nervous, although she wasn’t sure why. She saw in Kitty’s eyes the same concern and emotions.
“Let’s cut to the chase,” Ariel said. She reached into her bra and pulled out a small cellphone, “Don’t bother destroying the phone this is already on my computer.” She pushed a few buttons and then handed the phone to her teacher. Kitty gasped and Rachael quickly moved around the desk and looked down at the tiny screen. She felt sick and nearly gasped herself. There, tiny on the screen was showing Kitty and Rachael from the day before, writhing and licking each other on the floor. Rachael couldn’t believe was she was seeing. She clearly saw both her own face and her teacher’s face, they were clearly identifiable at times. She could hear Ariel giggling on the phone, looking in at them through the small window on the door.
“That’s enough, don’t want you two getting all hot and bothered,” Ariel said, standing up and snatching the phone out of the shocked teacher’s hand. She then sat back down and looked at the other two. They were both staring at their shoes and their faces were absolutely red. This, in and of itself, was enough for her. But she might as well try for a little more.
“Why?” Kitty said finally, “Why do you have this and why are you showing it to us?”
“Those are two very different questions,” Ariel said with a wicked laugh. She liked pretending she was a bond villain or something. It just felt so right, “Why do I have it? Because I came back to get my cigarettes when I figured you’d be gone and there you were, with little miss perfect. A misdemeanor (I think) for you and a major embarrassment for little miss perfect. She’s 18 Mrs. Lowell, but it is still a crime in this state to fuck a student. And fucking your teacher is not the best way to become prom queen Rach.”
“I feel sick,” Rachael said, her mind was reeling. What did this mean? She felt Kitty’s arms around her, helping her down into a chair and was sad to think that it made her feel dirty to have Kitty’s hands on her. She sat down quickly.
“Now the other question,” Ariel said, not skipping a beat in her little game, “Well I figured if you have something of value, you don’t just give it away for nothing.”
“What are you saying?” Kitty said, struggling to keep her composure. She was trying to imagine herself outside of the situation. What would a rational person do?
“To be honest Mrs. Lowell, I fucking hate you and I hate your girlfriend even more,” Ariel said and got some satisfaction in noticing that Kitty at first had begun to act like she was going to reprimand her for her language and then realized where the power lay now. Ariel leaned forward, “So you see I would get a lot of satisfaction out of seeing you embarrassed and sent to prison and having your little girlfriend turned into a leper and maybe get kicked out of her house.” Where did this rage come from? Kitty couldn’t believe it, why did this girl hate her? She then realized that the girl was obviously unstable in some way. She couldn’t possibly be seeing them as real people if she could do this to them.
“Want do you want?” Rachael asked. She just wanted all of this to go away. She was pretty sure she would say anything to make it go away.
“I don’t ever want to show up to math class again but I want an A,” Ariel said.