Beacon High and what changed me

Chapter III

So this is how it feels to be treated like trash. I stare up at my boyfriend. "But... but... they way you hurt me... it's irresistible..." He shakes his head. "You don't get it, do you? You just don't get it." Bam. Words that feel like a slap across my face. "Get out of my life. Goodbye Penelope. Forever." And with that, he walks away. Too defeated to run after him, I sink into the table, the psychological scars that he had left in me open and bleeding. I grab my stuff and make my way to the bus stop, hoping my bus would come soon. Worst day of my life? If not, it's been a damn good effort. The tears just won't listen to me, telling them to stay inside. Can't cry in public, got to be a strong, independent young woman... but all I want to be now is on my bed, clutching my old teddy bear and lying down in a circle of pure sadness.

~~Flash Forward To Present~~

"Penelope!" I wake up with a jump. "I am fully awake, Chloe, what did I miss?" Chloe chuckles. "Probably a lot of sleep, but definitely most of Lunch break." It had been a few days since I had started at Beacon High. To be honest, all was looking pretty well for me. No evils, no nothing. The nerds sat around with their laptop and wifi and were playing GameBoy Advance together. The cheerleaders sat around together, desperate to shield themselves from Intelligence and other such complicated things. It was really just your average high school, to be honest. "Penelope!" Skyler snaps with his fingers and wakes me up from my daydreams. "Band Practice tonight, don't forget!" I nod and trot off to class, smoothie in hand. "Real nice that they have a smoothie bar at school now, huh?" Chloe nods. "Yeah, one of the few good decisions the student council has made."

~~~~

"Oh so you say you still love me and it was all a mistake?" Skyler hits the drums and Chloe riffs the guitar, joining in with me. "Well explain all the pain, explain what you'll gain, because I'm starting to think you're insane, and I don't really want to see you anymore..." Lyle starts on the keyboard. "I really don't want to see you at all..." We all have a short breather. "Woohoo! We are going to be so great! We will rock the school when they do that battle of the bands thing!" Lyle turns to me. "Since when were you such a good lyrics writer?" I don't even know, to be honest. "I don't know, maybe it's just like a knack for it or somethi- wait Chloe, what? A battle of the bands?" Chloe nods. "I don't think I can handle all the pressure, Chloe, I mean, we're supposed to wow them, and I'm not sure my lyrics will do that!" Skyler taps me on the back. "Relax, girl, you're great on lyrics. Though thank god for Chloe otherwise we would have glass breaking every time you attempt a high note!" I stare at him. "We're a garage band, Skyler, garages don't have glass windows." He nods. "I know, but somehow I can't really bring myself to care." I smile and write down a few lines. "What a wonderful, beautiful wedding, it's so unlike the groom's usual setting, you think he might be all over you but believe me I've seen him after dark." I chew on my pencil, trying to get old memories back. For once I'm thankful that I have my ex as inspiration. "I've seen him with his hand on the hip of every girl in town, and even on this one dude named Skylark. I'm telling you, get away from him because he's only gonna make you blue, might as well throw all memories and pictures in the bin because you'll be left high and dryy..." Lyle stares at my book. "Penelope, either you have issues or you're really good at thinking up tragedies." I shush him and keep on writing.

~~~~

"You have 70 minutes to complete this test, after that, I expect you to hand it in, regardless if you are finished or not. You may now turn your sheets of paper over. Good luck, oh, and tick tock, time's running." I look at the test paper. 'Show the graph for function f(x)=1,44x^2 + 5x + 11' Should be easy-peasy. Next one. 'Why can function f(x)=x^2 + 25 not be a quadratic equation? Show by drawing the graph and calculating the function.' Okay suddenly things ramped up a bit. But not nearly enough. A quick calculation here, a graph there, an explanation that it is not due to the graph not being a parable but instead a tangent... I am so going to ace this test. Oh god I sound like such a nerd. A few questions later I hand my test paper in and leave the room, waiting outside foe my friends. I pull out my pocket mirror to see if my hair is still okay. The answer is yes, unsurprisingly. A few moments later, Chloe joins me and the bell sounds for recess.

~~~~

"If you wanna know what I think of you, then you'll be sorry to hear, that all that you do is strike fear into the hearts of many. You are a monster, and an ugly one at that, you kill people from the inside and care squat about that." Chloe strums the guitar, while Lyle strikes a chord on the keyboard. "But you don't scare me anymore," Chloe sings, "Because I know you're routine and it's getting real old now. Come up with a new one, but I wish nothing of the best to you, because you're just no fun, you're just dead boring." I continue. "You held me in your arms and I stared into you soulless eyes, and only then did I notice that you would be the death of me, I felt the pressure and the goosebumps rise and then when you put me down, I couldn't see... because you were blocking out all the light in the room..." A blonde girl I know from school comes past. "Nice try, saddies, but you'll be no match for me and the girls." Chloe lets out a guitar riff. "Oh look, there she goes, that girl is so peculiar, never had a chance in life and never will, because she's to busy being useless and trying to 'chill', I've seen her type before in this crapsack town, she gets into everybody's fancy and leaves with her reputation down!" The girl scoffed. "The reigning captain of the cheerleaders, Miss Amelia Rothkirch, does not need to hear your pathetic attempt at music, at least not just yet." Chloe sneered at her as she left in a huff. "When was the last time you ate something, Amelia? Because you could do with a candy bar!" I swear Amelia tried to stifle a scream. Amelia had been an overall bitch to everybody, but I've never seen herself so in love with her own self and so irrational. I wonder why she stifled a scream at the notion of a candy bar. I really do have to ask Chloe some questions later. "What does she have for the battle of the bands thing anyway? Some sort of hyper-pop with booty-shaking and no actual substance?" Chloe nods. "Probably. Last time, Amelia's band, The Disco Girls, did a cover of a song and that was it. All they did was replace occasional lyrics with homophones. So yeah, they did nothing." Lyle snorts. "I'm still amazed she had enough brain cells to create a band." Skyler pulls out the songbook. Flipping past several pages, he starts writing. "So could you please tell me how you're sleeping easy when you're only thinking of yourself. Tell me why and how you even have friends because I wanna know how much you paid to bribe them..."

~~~~

"You will not believe this!" Lyle holds out his phone, a picture of the sign-up paper for the battle of the bands on it. Chloe reads it. "What!? LaShawna and Tracy Bebe are doing something too?" As per standard, according to Skyler, The Disco Girls were right on the top of the list. After them a band calling themselves 'fef' and after that, the band that LaShawna and Tracy Bebe from the hairdressers had formed, The Scissors. "I didn't know they were even at this school! There's no way we can beat them!" Skyler looks at me. "I know how to fix that. What shall we call our band?" Chloe and the gang think hard. Lyle comes up with an idea. "How about 'No Escape' or 'Transcendence'?" I nod with everybody else and Transcendence wins. Skyler goes to the info board and signs us up. "We are so going to lose we are so going to lose..." Chloe pats me on the back. "Well we'll just have to play Beacon High better than all the others.