The Ugly Side of Beauty

Chapter Ten: Idiots

A/N: Hey guys, sorry it took so long to update even though I promised to do it constantly. I've been writing other stories, you see. I've published a book called 'The Legend of Fables' under the pseudonym 'Vilana' and you can get it in online bookstores like Barnes and Noble or Amazon, or even eBook versions.

Also, you can check out my new story, 'Take Me To Heaven', about a budding romance between a hot rocker with beautiful vocals and a artistic girl who's just starting to come out of her shell. Anyway, I know this isn't a long chapter, but enjoy!

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For the next month or so, I took my time just observing the dynamics of my classmates, and more drama than I expected unfurled before me. Now that I'd put my guard up and kept at a distance, I could see them more clearly than before.

I had forced myself to go out with Dan, and I'm somewhat thankful for it as well. He had asked me out not as a date, but as a friend, and had confessed to me that he wanted to get closer to Chocolate.

Drumroll, please. Dan, as it turns out, is into Chocolate. A month later, I still thanked my lucky stars that I hadn't been that into him yet, so although I did feel a small twinge of sadness, it wasn't nearly piercing enough to hurt me. The most annoying thing? Chocolate seemed to be into Dan as well. The two idiots were so insecure that they couldn't even hint to each other. It was so frustrating.

As jealous as Jolene seemed to be of me, which was strange in and of itself, she was that much more jealous of Chocolate. However, she seemed totally resigned about it, and was never openly hostile towards her.

Nick, though, was my most shocking revelation. Nick wasn't into Chocolate. The concept of a guy/girl best-friend-ship was so foreign to me that I had mistaken all the signs. Startlingly, the one that Nick had a crush on was Jolene. Like, Jolene. Jo-freaking-lene. Jo-attention-seeker-immunity-from-her-spiteful-sister-but-at-least-she's-still-sort-of-nice-lene. Maybe, as the deep, emo guy that he is, he's able to see past her faking to something better.

Personally, I liked Jolene. I just wished she wasn't so jealous all the time. And that left the confusing parcel of Tom. Like...where does he fit in this picture?

No matter how much I observed, he just really had no interest whatsoever in Cindy. Example, when she's talking and forcing him to look at her, he would have this mildly interested, I'm-only-listen-to-be-polite type of face on. As soon as I open my mouth, however, he would face me full on, as if I say the most fascinating things in the world. More often than not, I wonder if he's just using me to shut Cindy up.

"Hey, L," Jolene called easily the second I stepped onto the school grounds. My hand automatically flew up to make sure that my glasses were in place.

"Jolene," I returned inflectionlessly. As therapeutic as Penang's sandy beaches has been, my tone of voice hasn't made a comeback.

"So they're going to have, like, a prefect's trial today," she started but paused when I raised my eyebrows. I had no idea what that is. "Okay, so you've seen the prefects, right? The ones that go in and out of classes at will, are the teachers' lapdogs, conduct spot-checks and whatnots?"

I nodded. Come to think of it, I did notice those. They seemed to get special privileges all the time.

"Yeah, well, the teachers are having tryouts for that today. Only the elite of the elite get to be prefects. You have to be in the top ten in your class grade-wise, hold a post in all your extra-curricular activities and you have to be recommended by a teacher," she continued, quite possibly all in one breath.