_A/N: So I took someone's adivce and started re-writing this story. There are no major differences here, I just think the characters are a bit more defined now. I hope you'll read and stay with me.
23/04/2012- I edited this story again and decided that the chapters are too long so I'm breaking them up into smaller parts. I hope u guys understand.
10/07/2012- I decided I was going to stick with my longer chapters, so here they are.
Thanks,
x annie x_
Chapter One
The new student walked down the deserted hallway of Oakridge High School in her new hot high heels. She click-clacked away, deliberately neglecting to say goodbye to her mother who was standing a few paces behind her with the principal.
Under normal circumstances, she would have been happy or just plain grateful that someone was seeing her off on her first day at a new school in a new place; but her case couldn’t exactly be classified under ‘normal’, and it was just as she had told the principal; she was a big girl now and could take care of herself. She didn’t need any body new waltzing into her life and turning it upside down, just as she didn’t need anybody escorting her to class to ease the ‘absorption process’.
Taking the first turn indicated on the map the principal had given her, she noticed that that day was the clichéd first day of the rest of her life. It was the start of a new life away from the glitz and glamour of being the only daughter of Jake Edwards, the CEO of Edwards Incorporated, and the face of Genéva, a leading fashion company in New York. A new life away from her father, and he had not even been bothered to come see her off and officially send her on her way.
However, she loved him too much to complain.
She walked the last series of lockers before taking the final turn and facing the door to her first class, Biology. She was incredibly late already and the principal saying that her teacher was ‘one of those progressive types’ didn’t do anything to allay her fears. The last thing she needed was a hippie teacher who thought he was very up-to-date on the happenings in the modern world. She raised an elegant hand and knocked the door twice before pushing it open. The noise level in the class was a sharp contrast to the perfect tranquillity of the hallway behind her. The teacher didn’t seem to mind that his class was on the verge of rowdiness, he seemed to encourage it.
The noise ceased dramatically as the students glared at the new arrival. She gauged their reactions as they took in her obviously expensive appearance.
She was wearing a Genéva original which will not hit the stores in major cities for another three weeks and the stores in Oakridge for two months. She didn’t expect anyone here to appreciate or even recognize true quality if it were a truck emblazoned with ‘I’m True Quality’ that ran them over back and forth a hundred times. Some of the students nodded or smiled appreciatively. Some of them actually snorted in dislike. The rest just looked at her dismissively, probably thinking she was just another spoilt rich brat coming to take over their precious out-of-the-way school. She didn’t think they had a lot of the rich spoilt bratty types though.
She held her head high and moved towards the teacher.
“Good morning, sir,” she said, politely.
The teacher gave a very broad, very welcoming smile and held out his hand. She liked the man already. Shaking your students, she mused as she took the hand and shook it, way to go, man!
“Morning to you too, miss,” the teacher replied in the same polite tone of voice.
“I’m Cathy,” she said, touching her chest by way of introduction. “I have this from the principal,” she held out the note she got from the principal and watched the teacher browse through it.
“This is Miss Edwards, Cathy Edwards,” Mr. Gerding introduced, “Now let’s show some love for this new arrival.” The teacher started by clapping and a few scattered applauses came from various corners of the class. That was encouraging, she thought. She would not have bothered herself.
Mr Gerding faced her and gave that broad smile again, “Welcome to my class, feel free to join and sit wherever suits you.”
She didn’t have much of a choice because the only empty seat in the class was way in the back. She made her way there and then dropped her bag on the floor since it looked clean enough. When she looked up again, the teacher was already talking to her again, “Cathy, we were talking about reproduction in mammals. The main focus today, however, is their mating habits.” That explained the enthusiastic response to a Biology lesson. If that was the pace of education here, she would have no difficulty acing all her classes there at Oakridge since she was several topics ahead. Private boarding school probably had its advantages.
She nodded and the teacher continued, “If any of this is above you, I can give you some books to read up.” She smiled knowingly and nodded again.
The teacher started talking again but she was distracted. She didn’t hear him ask a question but she caught the answer a boy gave. It sounded a lot like ‘Birth Control’, and it had more than half the class in roaring laughter.
“Thanks a lot for your insightful contribution, Myles,” the teacher teased.
“Oh, you’re welcome,” the boy responded.
*
Two classes later, Cathy decided to check out her locker. The principal had the combination painstakingly written out for her and he had done everything within his power to make her feel welcome, including offering to join two lockers just for her, but she had declined. She suspected the guy was only looking out for his own interests.
She was impressed by the school. From what she had heard from her friends at her last school, she had expected to find walls with peeling-off paint, floors in dire need of cleaning, and an out-of-control student body, and girls trying too hard to keep up with the fashion, boys, and drama in their lives.
She had no problem with being accepted because she didn’t rightly care as long as she wasn’t attacked with rotten eggs in the middle of the hallway on a Monday morning or turned into a social outcast. She had less than two years to spend there anyway, probably even less if she behaved well.
The locker combination was easy but the locker itself was a bit dusty as if it had not been used recently. Since she couldn’t use the locker that way, she locked it again and picked up her bag just as the bell for the third period rang. She checked her time table and saw she had double period Chemistry. That would be two hours locked up in a hot and stuffy ill-equipped laboratory. It was only the fact that Chemistry was her favourite subject that took away the unappealing quality of that fact.
Her chemistry class was in a laboratory, though not a hot and stuffy ill equipped one as Cathy had feared. It seemed to her that the school was determined to surprise her at every turn. She could only hope that whatever surprises it had in store for her were pleasant ones like she had encountered. The laboratory was divided into two, partitioning the class from the real laboratory. She had another surprise; the teacher was so pregnant she looked like she would burst at any moment.
The teacher didn’t seem to have much control over the class since a significant number of students were in the laboratory. They had their aprons and goggles on, but most of them appeared to be just talking and laughing. She guessed the lab was sound-proof because she couldn’t hear any sound coming from the laboratory, and guessing from the loudness and familiarity that seemed to rule the school, they appeared to be quite loud. It wasn’t her problem in any way if her classmates decide to talk away their classes.
She turned her attention back to the teacher theoretically solving an equation involving methane on the board, not even bothering to explain. Cathy immediately noticed that a vital molecule of methane was missing but she was not willing to be the one who pointed it out. If none of the other students could figure it out, it still wasn’t any of her business.
What she didn’t see however, was the meeting going on behind her in the lab.
The president of the Chemistry Club, Leslie Dawson, was standing in the middle of a circle of six other girls trying to get her point across. “What we need is a new touch,” she was saying. “Ms. Bolton’s pregnancy seemed to have looped her a bit.”
“Are you sure?” the deputy president, Darcy William, asked, not bothering to hide her contempt. “Maybe what we need is a new president.”
Darcy looked at her twin sister for confirmation and then gave her a jab in the ribs when none was forthcoming. Tracey quickly glanced up and rubbed her belly before agreeing, “Yeah.” She then looked up at Leslie’s face and stuttered, “Um, I- I mean, maybe... or not.” Leslie didn’t hold it against her. She even felt sorry for Tracey. Leslie figured she would be perpetually scared herself too if she had a witch for a sister.
Darcy sent Tracey a look that conveyed things that couldn’t be said in polite company, but she let the blunder slide for that time. Leslie shot Darcy the same look. It was no secret that Darcy and Leslie didn’t like each other. They were like social adversaries.
Leslie shook her head at Darcy, “I meant we need a member who knows enough Chemistry to qualify at the Regional Chem-a-thon next month.”
“I know Chemistry,” Darcy said indignantly. “For cripes sake, I am deputy president. I can compete.” It really put Darcy off that Leslie thought no one was good enough. One of Leslie’s best friends, Dana Campbell gave her a wink and thumbs up. Leslie smiled.
“I am president, and I am not volunteering because I know what I know. I am the best in this school right now, and you are second best. Knowing what I know about my knowledge of Chemistry, that’s not saying much about either of us,” Leslie said, sure that she had shut Darcy up for the five minutes it would take for her to absorb and understand what Leslie had implied, given the fact she was extremely slow on the uptake. She turned to face the other girls who knew better than to interrupt a Leslie-Darcy altercation in full swing.
“Is there anybody here with something helpful to contribute?”
Some of them shrugged and the others said they didn’t.
“That’s not good enough,” Leslie said. “I really hope we can come up with something before Thursday. There will be a meeting at three thirty p.m. We have important decisions to make.” She faced Tracey and said, “You can tell your sister to pass around the notice for the meeting, or you can do it yourself if it is less stressful. Thanks everyone, you are dismissed.”
All the girls stalked off except Leslie and her two best friends. She sighed a bit dramatically, “It’s good to know I still call the shots around here.”
“That was real good, Les,” Dana said. “i still haven’t gotten over what she said to me on Friday. I tell you, it totally ruined my weekend.”
Leslie turned on Dana angrily, “I told you to stop calling me ‘Les’.
“What’s wrong with ‘Les’?” Dana asked.
“What’s wrong with ‘Leslie’?” Leslie demanded.
“Easy, tigress,” Dana joked.
“Oh,” Robyn said, holding a hand to her forehead. “It’s the age-old argument. I think I’ll slash my wrists if I have to listen to it one more time.”
Leslie raised her eyebrow in Dana’s direction and said, “Oh, we don’t want that now, so you can please tell Dana to stop-”
“I’m going to class now,” Robyn interrupted, raising a hand and starting to pull off her apron.
“Oh Robbie, Robbie, Robbie,” Dana sang, “don’t be so petty.”
“Dana, stop,” Robyn groaned.
Leslie turned serious. “I still don’t know what to do guys. I don’t have a competitor and the regionals are next month.”
“Make that ‘yet’, Leslie,” Dana advised. “You don’t have a competitor, yet.”
“I seriously doubt that I will have one at all. Everyone who knows that the chemical representation of water is H2O is in the club already.”
“It seems as if Oakridge youths are not so committed to contributing scientifically to civilization,” Robyn observed.
“That is so true,” Leslie agreed.
Dana pursed her lips in thought. “There’s a new student, actually. Luckily, she might be interested.”
Leslie’s eyes lit up with interest, “A new student? Where is she?”
Dana looked through the partition into the classroom, “She’s sitting right in front of the twins from Hell.” Both Robyn and Leslie strained to catch a glimpse of the girl but of course, Robyn got a better view.
“OMG!” Robyn exclaimed, “She’s the girl everyone has been talking about.”
“Why?” Leslie asked, confused. “And when did she get here?”
“She came into Biology this morning,” Dana supplied. “Which I think you would have known if you had been in class this morning.”
“I had a meeting with the student body president,” Leslie defended herself.
“Who also had a first period class, no doubt.”
Leslie shrugged, “You know how I feel about being late to class.”
“I think there’s a quote somewhere that says ‘Better Late than Never’. Anyway Mr Gerding took to her so fast you could almost feel them meshing. Ad we all know the guy has wonderful intuition.”
“Whatever,” Leslie huffed, “What’s her name?”
“Cathy Edwards,” Dana supplied.
“Basic description?” Leslie inquired.
“She’s tall, has long hair, she wears high heels, expensive-looking designer clothes, that sort of thing,” Dana supplied effortlessly. “I think she’s very rich because she has this dainty way she walks. I am not even started on the way she speaks, like through her nose or something. That posh accent makes you want to-”
Nobody found out what Cathy’s accent made Dana want to do because Leslie interrupted at that instant with a “Yeah, we get it, you have a crush on her. Any other thing we should know?”
Dana smiled, “She looks smart, though, and a little bit unhappy.”
“You got all of that by just looking at her and being in the same class for less than an hour?” Leslie was amazed at how much Dana could see in a person she had never even talked to.
Dana looked hurt at Leslie’s questions. “Are you questioning my credibility? I told you I’m physic.”
Robyn interjected, ignoring Dana’s admission, “To me, she looks like she’s fresh out of one of those boarding schools in Switzerland. They teach them a lot in those schools. I even heard they finish the curriculum a year early and spend their final year socializing and sleeping with their teachers and all those cute Swiss boys.”
“Robyn!” Leslie and Dana exclaimed at the same time.
“What?” Robyn asked innocently. “We could ask her. And if I am right and you’re lucky, she won’t even need tutoring.”
“Which would be good for you, Leslie, since you don’t even have a tutor,” Dana stated. The tone of her voice made it sound like she was angling for the girl.
Leslie pursed her lips and pretended to think about it. It was not going to work, that didn’t require any thinking. She told her friends that.
“Why?” Dana and Robyn asked in unison.
“I don’t need another spoiled little rich princess messing up everything now,” she replied with a passion.
Dana and Robyn glanced at each other and wondered why Leslie was so insistent. They would have asked her but she had on what they had termed ‘the Leslie Look’. It was a look Leslie unconsciously got sometimes which made everyone around feel small and insignificant; so they just nodded and followed her lead back to class.
Leslie and Robyn took the seat in front of the new girl while Dana went ahead to sit right next to her. Leslie refused to refer to her by name, even in her mind and thoughts. Calling her ‘the new girl’ would do for that time.
“Hi,” Leslie heard Dana start a conversation in whispers.
“Hi,” the girl responded. She seemed really surprised.
“I’m Dana Campbell, and yeah, I know who you are.”
The girl probably looked surprised because Dana continued by saying, “You were in my Biology class this morning.”
The girl didn’t say anything but she probably nodded because Dana asked, “What do you think of Ms. Bolton?”
Leslie could hear the girl’s reluctance in her next words, “She’s alright.”
“Are you kidding me?” Dana asked as if she couldn’t believe it. The girl was too polite. Maybe she was from Switzerland after all.
“Maybe,” the girl replied, a smile evident in her voice.
“I like your sense of humour,” Dana commented.
“Thanks,” the girl said and Leslie could see that she was finally relaxing. Dana was deploying the let-your-guard-down charm with full force.
“Is all this stuff getting too much for you?” Dana asked, probably to see how much she knew. “Personally,” she continued, “I think Organic Chemistry is the toughest part of Chemistry. We shouldn’t even be doing it until senior year.”
“It’s quite easy once you get the hang of it. Besides, this is not the first time I am taking it.” Leslie had to keep her jaw from dropping. As good as she considered herself; she still had problems with organic chemistry.
“So, you are familiar with a lot of stuff, right?” Dana asked, pushing the question a bit.
“I try. I do a lot of private study.”
“That’s great.”
“Thanks for talking and all, but right now, I really need to pay attention to what the teacher is saying, or rather, writing,” the girl said and Leslie noticed the teacher hadn’t explained a word since she came into class that morning. She had just been writing. Leslie glanced at her watch; they still had over an hour of Chemistry to go. She looked back just as Dana answered, “That’s right. I have to pay attention myself so I can get the hang of it and make it easy for me and my friends.”
Dana looked up and caught Leslie’s eyes, a superior, challenging smile playing on her lips. Leslie stood up quickly and asked for a hall pass, getting herself out of class and away from all the hurt feelings that threatened to re-surface.
*
Cathy’s mother was waiting patiently in the living room to receive her immediately she stepped in. “How was your first day of normal High School?”
“I went to a normal high school before,” Cathy replied shortly.
“Ok, how was your first day of school here?” her mother asked again, patiently.
Cathy resumed the walk to her room, “I’ve been to school before, it’s not like this is the first time pr something.”
“Wait,” her mother called out and she stopped briefly. “It must have been different,” she insisted.
Cathy counted to ten. “It was fine. What did you expect?” she asked her mother sarcastically.
“I’m sorry, Cathy,” her mother said. “I know things didn’t quite turn out the way we all expected, but it’s not my fault.”
Why couldn’t grownups just shut up? Must they spoil everything with their big mouths?
Cathy reared up. “So you are saying it’s my fault?” she motioned around the room with her hand. “Look around you and see for yourself. I don’t want to be here probably as much as you don’t want me here. But of course you and Dad know what’s best for me. Or don’t you?”
“Cathy, no-” her mother started.
“Where is my father?” Cathy asked, cutting her mother off.
“You know he left for New York this morning. One of his biggest clients was passing through the state,” her mother explained.
“I thought he would be back,” Cathy said, her face falling.
“I’m sorry,” her mother said. “He’s not back yet, but I hope he’ll be soon.”
Cathy was hurt but she shrugged, “Whatever.”
“I was actually waiting for you to get back from school, I have to run now. I’m meeting a few friends for dinner. If you get hungry, just tell Mrs. Whitley to fix you something.”
“I’m not hungry,” Cathy said petulantly, “I had a big lunch.”
“That’s alright,” her mother said, hesitated and then added, “If you ever want to talk about anything, anything at all, I am here.”
Cathy couldn’t care less if her mother was on Mars. She seriously doubted she would be talking to anyone other than her therapist in the nearest future, but she felt bad for blowing up at her mom previously and so nodded. “That’s nice to know.”
Her mother hovered uncertainly for a while as though unsure of her next move. She finally made herself stop, “I guess this is it then. I’ll see you later, Bye.”
“Bye.”
Cathy frowned as her mother made her way out of the house, and moved to her bedroom. She closed the door and did a cool appraisal. It was much simpler than the one she had in her father’s house but she didn’t care about that right now. She had less than two years to go anyway, and she promised herself that the moment she turned eighteen or went off to college, whichever came first, she would hightail out of Oakridge faster than she had arrived. She was sure her mother wouldn’t mind though since she had previously severed all ties with her husband and daughter when she left him about eleven years ago to start a small-town law practice.
She had not actually had a chance to appreciate or hate her room since she had arrived because she had arrived at Oakridge and her mother’s the previous afternoon, and it was settling in that had made her late to school that morning. She took in the bedroom carefully figuring she should at least know the colour of her room as she was about to take a nap in case someone from her dream asked. The walls looked freshly painted and light blue in colour. They were also bare and she kind of liked it that way. She was not big on hero worship and her room at her father’s house had only posters of herself on the walls. She was determined to leave this one bare; besides, her therapist had told her that she should probably de-clutter as it would ease her transition process.
This room had a table and two chairs, a medium-sized, floor-to-ceiling, built-in closet which she was sure would be filled with clothes in less than two months. She also had a beautiful four-poster bed which she knew was probably bought on special order. Anything for Jake Edwards’s princess. She knew that the door in the room led to the exquisitely surprising bathroom with an ivory bath and a shower. Although she loved the fact that her father had a lot of money and could get almost anything she wanted, it couldn’t make her happy and that was the only thing she really wanted. She noticed a TV and a computer in the room too, but she didn’t bother checking it out since she already had a laptop and didn’t care much for television. She didn’t need to be in any other part of the house except maybe the kitchen which she wouldn’t be using very frequently since she didn’t eat much food and could always have the food brought to her room anyway.
Her mother had seemed nice enough but Cathy had only been here for approximately twenty-four hours. There were times when they had interacted during the move, and now Cathy couldn’t decide if she was really nice or just being polite.
That was where the confusion really began. Over the weeks, her mother had told her that the reason she was taking Cathy in wasn’t because it was the only way out of Cathy’s current situation, but because she actually cared and wanted to have her in Oakridge. She had asked herself countless times why her mother hadn’t fought for custody all those years ago if she really wanted her. She was curious but she didn’t think she wanted to know the answer right now, not now when she was hurting so much.
Her stomach rumbled making her aware of the lie she had told earlier. She had not eaten anything at all that day; the cafeteria had just felt weird. Her years of modelling had taught her how to go without food for a long while even though Genéva herself was a total advocate for the importance of food to mankind. Gene was a very woman and a great mother figure to Cathy. She would be so pleased when her father finally married her.
She stamped the urge to call for the housekeeper and climbed into bed with her school clothes still on.