The Damien High Devils

Present Vs. Future

Jessica was daydreaming in her calculus class. The background music to the grand fight scene aboard a pirate ship was her friends' whispered chattering and the teacher's droning. In her mind, the finely dressed heroine finally tossed the villain overboard and was reunited with her prince, and her evening gown was still in perfect shape.

With a sigh, she reluctantly tunned back into reality. Her blue eyes were still unfocused, and her brown hair was falling out of it's braid. Jessica strongly preferred action and romance stories over Kaitlyn's and Dianne's hushed conversation about the upcoming party.

"I heard that the football team was going to set off fireworks in the front yard," Kaitlyn said with excitement.

"Make sure you stay safe around those!" Jessica warned. "You can't still be captain of the cheerleading team with both of your legs blown off."

"Alright, mother, we'll be super careful," Dianne said laughing.

"You should come," said Kaitlyn, tossing her long, blonde hair. "You have to do something other than homework sometime."

"I'm not really into getting drunk," Jessica remembered the last time Kaitlyn and Dianne had gone to a party. They called her at three in the morning and asked her to pick them up. Jessica's car still smelled like puke.

"I don't think I want to go," said Jessica firmly.

"Okay, your call." Kaitlyn and Dianne went back to gossiping and ignoring Jessica completely.

That day at lunch, Jessica was sitting with her friends, Kaitlyn, Dianne, Bella, Anna, Jennifer, and Zoe. The current conversation was on all of their boyfriends and the parties that they met or did unmentionable things to each other in.

"So Edward and I were at the party last week," Zoe started, "In the spare bedroom, and in the middle of everything, he looks up at me, and he's like 'I need a drink' and I'm like, seriously? Does he really think that he can do that to me?"

Anna said, "He's new to this school. Maybe break up with him for a while and date someone else. You can do better than him."

Dianne chimed in, saying that her boyfriend, Jacob, wouldn't stop trying to get in her pants during the same party while she was in a conversation with a cute guy. Jessica sighed inwardly. Sometimes, she felt as if their conversation was killing her brain cells. Other times, which was most of the time, she was glad that she had been accepted into their circle even though she felt that she was so far out of their league. Now was one of those times. It seemed that her friends' identical long hair, curled at the ends, was getting to her head. In fact, now that she was thinking about it, everything about them looked identical. Their hair, makeup, dress, and almost anorexic body type were so similar. Jessica was the only one who didn't fit in. Jessica also had long hair, only she usually wore her's in a high ponytail while the rest of them wore theirs down. Jessica also wore minimal makeup, and only for the sake of trying to fit in with her friends. She wore shirts and jeans, and on occasion, skirts to school, while everyone else wore short dresses and skirts almost every day.

Two hours later, Jessica dropped two textbooks and five notebooks on her bed. It felt as if her friends were always doing things without her. She supposed that she didn't really fit into the group.

"I guess that that's alright," she thought. "I'd better focus on school anyways. I still want to get into my favorite college."  Which was a college in Paris that's main focus was design.

Just then, Jessica's mom arrived home from work at the hospital, where she worked as a doctor. Jessica ran down to meet her.

"Hey, Ma!" She said excitedly. "You will never guess what recipe I found for dinner!"