Teardrops of Roses [Completed]

Chapter 18: Print these Copies

C h a p t e r   E i g h t e e n 

"The 80's? Are you actually being serious right now?" Cassie– mid twirling her hair around her finger– shot Adam a disgusted look. "Talk about old fashioned, we weren't even alive back then! I still think we should go with Angels and Demons theme." She popped her bubble gum over her mouth then licked it off.

It was days later, after school. The five of us (Adam, Cassie, Jane, Max and I) were situated in the student guild room for the first School Ball Committee meeting. I'd gladly taken up the role as scribe since I was more comfortable with writing than speaking. 

"Cassie, seriously! For the last time, no one likes that fucking stupid theme! We're. Not. Doing. It." Max rolled his eyes next to me whilst Cassie yelled at him to shut up.

"Guys, how about a haunted house?" Adam suggested animatedly twiddling his extremities in a ghostly manner. I wrote that one down on the blackboard as well. 

"Gross, I don't want to have to wear fake blood! That's so childish and lame." Cassie shot the idea down immediately, like she'd done the others that anyone suggested. "Okay, how about this, Cowboys and Indians. Write that one down, Loser!"  

Doing as told, I wrote down the Wild west, gripping the chalk hard. Had I known she'd be in the committee, I would never have agreed to join. Just hearing her non-stop whining was doing my head in. Plus, the name calling, oh man I thought in class was bad, here it was endless as we were often left to our own devices.

I'd already been called a freak and loser, amongst many other things. Oh, and the name calling wasn't only directed to me... though these guys didn't seem phased at all, they shot it right back happily.

"Oh so you don't want to wear fake blood, but you'll happily wear bird feathers and fake fox fur for the Indian theme, huh? Cultural appropriation bitch! Bet your nose is fake too," Adam snorted. 

Cassie glared back. "Shut up nerd, my nose isn't fake okay!? And it's called "aesthetics ", not that you'll ever know what it means, you fucking ugly, virgin, piece of shit–"

"Okay guys, ENOUGH!!! Come on man! What else, we've been here ages already" Jane, the student council president– and thus the natural middle ground– interjected, bringing us back to the topic. "Okay, we've got Caribbean, Las Vegas, Masquerade, Wild West, Bollywood, and Angels and Demons. What else can we do?" 

Our small group lapsed into a small awkward silence, staring daggers at each other. It hadn't  been progressing well so far as bickering was pretty much all we'd done for the past hour.

I found out relatively quickly that all my co-committee members were pretty head strong. None of them were afraid to call each other out, and when we had someone as impolite as Cassie, and someone as blunt as Adam and Max... Well, let's just say it was never a dull moment and made for an interesting group dynamic. 

"Rose, you've been pretty quiet. Do you have any ideas you might want to throw in?" Jane looked at me. 

I froze suddenly as all eyes turned to me. "U-uh... I..."

Sensing my hesitation she encouraged me on. "Don't worry about if you're not confident in the idea, we're only brainstorming right now."

 "Okay, mm... I was thinking maybe a carnival?" I suggested nervously. 

"Ooh, like magicians and circus acts?" Jane enquired. "That could be interesting."

"Yeah, maybe. And I thought–"

"–Of course Rose would want to choose to be a magician. Why she should grace us with her disappearing act again, she's being totally useless." Cassie sneered in that stupid English accent of hers. Everyone else turned to look between the two of us, confused. A scowl appeared on my face as I realise she still refused to let the past go.