Fatally Gorgeous

Rain drops fell down the window in gray tears, slipping off onto the bushes far below. I put my small hand up to feel the cold window, following the drops with my fingers. There was so much that I wanted to tell them. But they continued to slide down, one by one, as if it were a race to hell. I wanted to tell them to stop falling, I wanted to cheer up the sky. It was silly, yes I know that, and I knew I was only thinking of something that had no feelings, but yet I felt at blame. Curiosity always took the best of me, making me completely retarded when it came to nature. I simply couldn't agree with the science part of it all. Okay, so I knew the rain fell because of the density of the clouds, or whatever, but I liked to think of it as the sky having a long cry. Silent, so as all that's heard are the tears falling down upon our world, telling us something no one can understand. Is there something unclean about this world that needs to be replenished, or have all our mistakes piled up so high that they need to be washed away?
Why is it that I seem to be the only one whose crazy?
"Are you talking to the rain AGAIN?" my brother Troy walked into the room with his phone in his hand, eating an apple.
I sighed at the disruption, then turned around angrily. "What do you want?" I snapped.
"You're cranky today," he stated, then put his phone to his ear. "Yo, talk."
I rolled my eyes and stretched, falling face down on the couch I was sitting on. "MM," I moaned, frowning as I sat back up again. I hated Monday mornings. I was never awake. Yawning, I got up and straightened out my school uniform. No matter how I wore it I still looked like a plaid freak, but I guess that makes three hundred of us freaks, so I'm okay with that.
"Take the zit out of your ear and get in the car," I yelled at my brother as I walked through the grand hallway on my way to the garage.
He stuck his tongue out, but put his phone in his bag anyway. He knew not to mess with me. "I can't wait until I turn sixteen, when I can drive myself to school!" he explained to me on our way to school.
"Well, one more year." I was a junior this year, which meant college was just a year and a half away. There's no way out of it either. It's college or... I thought of the other option while Troy gabbed on about what car he'll get Dad to buy him.
First he wanted a Lamborghini, then he decided upon a Mercedes Benz, and by the time we arrived at school he had made his decision upon an army green Hummer with the best sound system in Connecticut. Hey, he was fifteen and besides, if he wanted one of those cars-or all-he could get it.
I finally decided that the only other option besides college was...death.

"I got it!" Misty ran up to me, her skirt bobbing up and down over her long legs. She should be a model, but she always rolled her eyes whenever we mentioned it. I think she didn't want to talk about weight around me. I shook my head away from the thoughts before I could get too engulfed in it, and forced my attention on Misty who was babbling on already.
"And then I talked to her and she said okay, so it's all good! I can't believe it, this is the best story of the year!"
See what I mean, if I even blink when she's talking I miss half of it. "Wait, say that again?"
She sighed energetically and grabbed my shoulders in excitement, "I got a cover story!" she screamed in my face.
My eyes grew wide and my mouth hung open, "what? What is it?"
"Well, you know that shooting incident just two days ago, in the city?"
"Yes..." I groaned, my excitement growing.
"Guess who was the gunman?"
"Who?"
"A very troubled football player, Gabe Green," she said with her head high and her eyes looking down on me, waiting for my reaction.
"No, way! He's a senior here! Hiss whole life would be over!"
She paused, "ya, basically."
"Good job, Em!"
She giggled, "Thank ya! I can't wait to write it, I've already got most of the research done, it should be in Friday's issue."
"Sweet, have it on my desk by Thursday at the latest then, you know the drill." The school newspaper was pretty much the newspaper of Fairfield, everyone read it. I was honored to be the editor, and the whole group was part of it. All together there were twenty people on the staff, eight being our group, and the rest in honors English and journalism, therefore every week people expected a great newspaper. It was stressful, but it was also rewarding.
"Do you know if Amber had a chance to start last weekend? She never text ed me about it."
"She didn't text me either. I think she's stressed about the game tomorrow."
I bit my bottom lip, searching the crowd for her. Amber always stressed about soccer. She's been on varsity since freshman year, and also playing in a competitive league since she was nine. Last month they traveled to Germany for a tournament and won first place. She was an amazing player, but a horrible stress handler. It made me laugh sometimes at how crazy and disorganized she was.
"Okay, I'm here, have you seen..." Amber just ran up to us, but stopped her train of thought by glancing around. "There! Hey!" she shouted at a few boys who were throwing around a soccer ball.
Misty and I looked over at them then laughed. It was Amber's boyfriend, Todd, and Justin, the school jocks. Amber went over to them and tried to get the ball, but of course they passed it to each other while she scrambled in the middle. It was the way they flirt, apparently.
I looked at Misty and we both shook our heads, while spotting Bailey walking up to us.
"Hey," she smiled at us, sporting her uniform, a blue headband and pearls. "Guess what?"
"What?" we both asked at the same time.
"My mom's divorcing my dad."
My smile vanished as quickly as Misty's did, and we both put an arm around her. She was still smiling, though.
"Why are you smiling?" I asked.
"Maybe it'll prove to your parents that divorce is an option and we're not in medieval times," she persisted.
I scowled at her and started walking up the stairs to the building.
They all followed me, Bailey's smile disappearing. "Arie, just think, maybe this will show them that-"
"Enough, Bailey, it's never gonna happen," I muttered as I made my way through the front doors and past students scrambling to get to their lockers. We didn't have many students, but the hallways were small and narrow, the wooden walls holding us all in like animals at a zoo.
"Maybe it will," Misty said optimistically.
I bit my lip again and kept my head down as I opened my locker and dropped off a few books, taking what I needed for the first classes of the day. Trigonometry, AP History, and AP Spanish 5.
Amber met up with us and quickly learned what was going on, what was always going on, them, trying to convince me that things would get better. She noticed my mood and shut up the other two. "So, you're staying with your mom then?" she asked Bailey.
Bailey pulled her gaze from me and looked at Amber, "yup. My dad's moving to LA."
"Oh, that's far."
"Well, his reputation is ruined over here now so ya, he kind of has to move far. Besides, he wasn't the one with the money." Everyone knew Bailey's mom's side had the deep pockets and the history, as my family did, in New York.
"At least you're not moving away from us." Misty punched her in the stomach and they both laughed.
I wanted to get out of his mood, but at school that was almost impossible. It's not that I didn't like school, I actually did, it was just the stress that went with it. Sometimes it was impossible to think of anything besides college here, which made it hard to get out of a bad mood.
"Let's go to class," Misty grabbed my arm and dragged me off to Trig, while the others made their way to science.

The class went by at the speed of a snail. I sat at my desk clicking my pen, which I'm sure annoyed the crap out of the people around me, but if it did they didn't say anything. The atmosphere was cold and the teachers voice traveled through us like an alarm awakening us a little too early. Nobody cared about Trigonometry in the morning, even the teacher. When the class was over we piled out of the classroom and proceeded to our next class. Mine was AP History of the United States, which I had with Amber and Nick. My mood, however, was still bad.
I made it to class a couple minutes early and sat down, taking out my notebook and a pen. I began to click it again, a bad habit I should really brake.
Suddenly I was being lifted from my seat under my arms. I struggled in the air and was taken down to my feet again, realizing that it was Nick.
He hugged me tightly, in front of everyone. I wanted to scream at him for causing a scene but I couldn't. This was typical Nick, making a fool of himself and I all in hopes to raise my mood. How could I hate him for that?
When he put me down he kissed me lightly on the lips, leaving me smiling widely despite my previous feelings.
"How are you feeling now?" he smiled at me, setting me in my desk like an infant.
"Better, thank you," I tried to hide my smile but it was impossible with him around. When the teacher came in the room we all quieted down and Nick and I sat by each other, not concentrating on History as usual, but passing notes. I don't know what I'd do without him.
School ends promptly at two thirty, and that's when the parking lot is the absolute worst. Students who were too young to drive themselves-which consisted of most of the school-all were picked up at the same time by their drivers, all in the same shiny black cars, all at three o'clock. For those who actually drove themselves, well, we all left sometime before or after the rush because otherwise the parking lot is a mess. Today, we hit it at the wrong time.
"Shoot," Misty stomped her leather boots as she saw the line of cars blocking the exit. "You know, maybe this school could build another parking lot, that would be great!" her sarcastic tone made us laugh, but she didn't find it funny. "I'm serious, I've got a paper to write for English!"
"We all do, Hun," Bailey tapped her back and walked over to our cars in the front row. "I'm staying after today to work on mine. There was so much gossip for the column last weekend. First of all, the shooting! Who would have guessed." She dumped a few text books in the back seat of her car and closed the door, holding her almost-empty tote bag.
"I'm not. I have to get started on the essay for history." I glanced over at Nick who was holding back a smile.
"You two make me sick," Amber pretended to gag then grabbed Ryan's arm, hoisting him into her. "We're going to Star-bucks. Anyone interested?"
"Bring me back a non-fat vanilla latte please! Thank you." I starting tugging on Nick's hand.
"How 'bout I make that regular and you don't have to pay me back?" she nodded with enthusiasm but I didn't accept.
"How 'bout you get what I want and I pay you for your service? OK? OK," I started walking back through the line of cars to get into the building. Nick was trailing behind me.
"I'll take a cappuccino, thanks."
"Can you get me a grandee iced caramel machiato?" Bailey giggled and followed us into the building.
Amber stood there, one arm on her hip and the other floating in the air like she was holding an invisible tray. "What do I look like to you? A waiter?"
"Hold that position for a few and then you do!" Bailey shouted, running in with the rest of us.
Amber's eyebrows furred and she lowered her other arm, walking back to her car with Ryan.

"Okay, someone please tell me their article is on the rough draft and not an outline? Please! I need something to correct!" I yelled, shoving my face into a stack of newspapers on my desk. People began to scurry around like chickens, pecking at piles of paper and sitting down then standing up again, running from computer to computer.
The news room was probably a good replica of the inside of ones brain. Organized chaos. No one sitting down for more than ten minutes, paper actually flying in the air, pens clicking and pencils being sharpened, people shouting at other people or at themselves, pictures hanging on the walls, black ink everywhere. I loved it, it was exactly like the inside of my mind, complete complicated with frequent headaches. It was exciting, challenging, demanding, and excruciatingly painful sometimes, but once the finished product was done...it was amazing.
Every Friday came out a new newspaper to be taken home for the weekend, the first look at the top stories in school, outside of school, in Fairfield, and even in the city of New York. People craved our stories, devoured our evidence, and praised our ability to know things first. It was my job to get this out and ready for viewers by Thursday at four o'clock in the afternoon.
"I'll have the rough draft done by tomorrow, Ariel." Lauren said as she passed my desk on her way to the copy machine.
"Thanks, Lauren. Medical or criminal?"
"Medical, seeing as Misty is doing the feature on the shooting."
"Okay, sounds good." I began typing away on my schedule that said who was doing what and where that article would go on the newspaper. We were fortunate to have our own desks and computers for each student on the newspaper committee, which made it that much easier to get a paper out a week.
The room was becoming less noisy as time went on, and by four theory there were only a few of us left. Lauren, who was working on the medical article, Bailey, who was just about to leave, and Johnathan, who was finishing a rough draft on entertainment in the city.
Oh, and then Nick, who was just walking in carrying his camera, however most people called it his baby because it never left his sight.
"Say cheese," he clicked the button and apparently it took a picture while I sat at my desk, but there was no flash because he turned it off. "I don't think it's possible for you to have a crappy picture." He analyzed the photo, shaking it some more, than gently putting it on my desk by my tote bag. "You almost done?" he waited against the desk impatiently.
"Come on, Ariel, hurry your ass up or you won't have sufficient time for homework and making out." Bailey laughed at her joke and grabbed her bag, flinging it over her shoulder.
"Hang on...." I finished the last article I was correcting and handed it back to Johnathan. "I'll talk to you about this tomorrow, but good lead." I waved to the others and walked out with my friends.

There was so much about Fairfield that I loved. It was just outside Manhattan, giving my friends and I an outlet if we didn't one, but it had a suburban feel to it as I looked at the beautiful homes that lined the perfect neighborhoods. Fairfield was one of the wealthiest cities in America, and it defiantly showed. Not one blade of grass was above the regulation length and not one house didn't have a fresh coat of paint. The streets all looked new with dark concrete and birch trees lining the sidewalks. As my car drove past the gates of my own neighborhood, Staten, I waved to the man at the gate and proceeded through the streets, past large houses with equally large yards, five-car garages, and private gate keepers. My house, the last on the block and the biggest, was stationed in between two large colonial homes like mine, only the home on the left was a dark coat of brown and the one on the right was blue. Both homes had a fountain in front and a long, round driveway.
I pulled into our circular driveway and got out of my red convertible, letting Gary-the gatekeeper-to park it in our garage on the side of the estate. My bag swung over my shoulder and I walked into the house. I was immediately tackled by my King Charles Spaniel as she jumped up to my knees enthusiastically. Her body wasn't very big, only about a foot and a half in length and a foot tall, and her cute puppy face could never be taken as scary. She was two years old and I've had her since she was born, which makes her even more attached to me, so wherever I go she goes too. I picked up the puppy and snuggled her warm, soft fur against my cheek. "Did Francine feed you yet?" I asked her and ruffled the top of her head, and then walked to the kitchen with her following closely behind.
As I entered the two story kitchen, the bottom level for bar seating and a few kitchen supplies and the top for storing the food and some cooking essentials, our cook Francine immediately set down a plate of warm cookies.
I lifted up Lily to hold her on my lap and pushed the plate away from me. The smelled delicious but, not today. "Did you feed Lily?"
"Yes, she's just acting like that because she wasn't let outside today." Francine shook her head, smiling as the puppy barked once to defend herself.
"Why not?" I turned to Lily and pouted. "You wanna go outside, girl?" she barked again.
"No, there's construction workers in the garden, dismantling a statue and putting another one in." She rolled her eyes. "Your mother got bored again."
"Oh, great. Well, I'll take her for a walk then." I started to get up.
"How 'bout you eat a cookie, and then take her for a walk." Francine turned to the dark side again.
I scowled, but grabbed a cookie, feeling it's warmth scratch against my palm. "Happy? Now I'm going, see ya later." I walked off with Lily, throwing the cookie in a garbage bin near the foyer.
Lily didn't need to be put on a leash, she'd never dare run away from her master, so I walked casually down our side walk and into the neighborhood with her trailing beside me. I admired the roses and other assortments of flowers our neighbors had, waving to the gardeners who were the real reason this neighborhood was so beautiful. Everyone was still at work, and there were only a few housewives who were running in and out of their cars, pretending to pick up groceries or run an errand when really going out to meet someone in the city. That's the way it worked around here. Everyone had their secrets, yet they continued to pretend everything was perfect. I waved to Mrs. Derby as she entered a black Cadillac driven by her chafer.
"Hello, darling. How's your mother doing?" she acted like she cared, when really there was a huge hint of jealousy in her tone. All the home mothers around here despised my mother for her career as a model and owning her own photography agency. We were too perfect, they thought, but they didn't know anything.
"She's doing wonderful. She's in Venice right now, actually. How's David?"
"Oh he's fabulous, getting ready for collage at Dartmouth, thank you for asking."
"You're welcome, and that's great. Well, I'll see you around." I waved once more than continued walking. David was a senor at my school, but we never talked. I shook my head as I pitied him. It was fall and people were sending out their applications for college pretty soon, but no one knew if they were in yet, of course, especially not Dartmouth. Poor David, he doesn't have a choice. When the family has a long line of Ivy League grads, there is never a choice for anything else. As for me, the line isn't at Dartmouth, it's at Harvard. Law school, to be exact. That's where everyone in my family has graduated, and I'm expected to do the same. My father has his own law firm, but my mother never went that way. She graduated from Princeton, much to my father's dismay, but we don't talk about Princeton, only Harvard.
"Ariel!" someone was shouting my name. It sound like the voice was coming from behind me, but when I looked to my right I saw Jacob standing there, smiling with his bright green eyes, his arms crossed and his stance straight yet casual. "Hey Ariel."
I brought my head out of the clouds as my heart started pumping quickly. "Hey." Jacob was my ex boyfriend, and we broke up on my sixteenth birthday. We had been going out for eight months.
"How's school going for you?" he kicked a rock on the ground, looking up at me through his long, blond hair.
"Good. And you?"
"Good, thanks." He too noticed the awkwardness, but something about him wanted to say more. "Are you busy?"
I searched my mind for an excuse, but nothing came to me besides the lame homework one. "I have some homework to do..." I lowered my head so he couldn't see my eyes.
He smirked and mind a coughing sound, then proceeded on, "would you get some coffee with me? I'm bored stiff."
My heart thumped louder as the anticipation in me grew. Would he want to talk? Or would we just sip coffee and chat about school and friends? "OK..." I said softly, unsure about it.
His face lit up and I saw something familiar in him, like an old spark I hadn't seen in a while. It made my stomach churn nervously.
"Come on," he led the way to the star-bucks around the corner while Lily and I followed hesitantly.