Smiling Oak's Academy for the Insane.

I lie awake in my bed, conflicted with thought.
Okay, I made peace with the fact "Innocence"'s real name was Lorenna, but I couldn't stop thinking of the things that conflicted me the most...

"Come on, Lydia. You're coming to Deny's party tonight, whether you like it or not." Shellie said, applying ruby-red lip gloss to flat lips. She had a head full of nothing and unnatural blondness on top of it. It was as though all of the makeup on her face seeped into her skull and ate her brain. She had to be one of the most shallow skanks in the whole school, but she just had to take a liking to me when we were in third grade.
We had nothing in common: I stayed in, she slept around. I did my homework, she slept around. I dressed conservative, she slept around.
We had different tastes in everything: I liked horror and action movies, she liked romance, borderline porn movies. I liked anything from hip-hop to screamo to 1920's music, but she only liked bubblegum pop and Jonas Bothers and... whiny people music. Although I did like Demi Lovato, to an extent.

"I don't know," I said, "I really need to do Pennyworth's paper that's due Monday."

"Fuck Pennyworth! This will be one night of fun."

"Sounds sleazy. I thought to myself. She sounded like a typical celebrity whore. Her idea of fun was a night of getting wasted drunk in a room full of horny jocks and waking up with clothes off in a public place. My idea of fun was going apple-picking with my grand-papi (on my dad's side-- my mom's side was unbearable) as he told me stories about when he was in the CIA. But he passed away in my freshman year. Since then, nothing was fun, except practicing bass with Juliano, the bassist for Emilio's band.

"Nope." I crossed my arms.

"Come on! For me?" She pouted, trying to seduce me.

"Hell no."

"What if Juliano was there?" She lifted an eyebrow.

Tart. Why would a twenty-one-year-old be at a seventeen-year-old's party? He was no douche. But nevertheless, I had to pretend i was nearly as stupid as her, just to make her feel better. "Fine." I sighed.

"Ooh!" She squealed, giving me a hug. "This will be so much fun!"

"To you."

I told my farther that I was going to Shellie's to study.
He didn't question it at all-- Not even the fact that it was Friday.
Emilio drove me to her house on the way to his band's practice, where she sat on the doorstep, all made up.

"She doesn't look like she's ready to study." Emilio said and turned to me. "Are you sure you're not a lesbian?"

"Shut up, Lo." I opened the door and climbed out of the car. "Tell Juliano that I said 'hi'."

He nodded and drove off.

"Lydia!" Shellie squeaked as she ran up to me and pounced. The we both looked down the street to see if Emilio had driven far enough so we could walk down the street to Deny's. What a weird way to spell "Denny".

We walked two blocks north and crossed the street to a small blue house with music bumping. "Come on!" Shellie said, running to the door and ringing the doorbell like a small child or a fool.

Deny opened the door with a red plastic cup in her hand. "Hey! Come on in!" Her expression changed to exasperated. "Lydia! I never see you outside of school! Wait, wait." She turned around to the crowd behind her. "Hey, guys! Lydia's here!"

I feared that. I feared that a big deal would be made out of my going to a party.

And guys hooted and hollered, making me wish I was the "ugliest" girl in school, as opposed to the "prettiest".

"Lydia" Stephanie said sharply, snapping to me.

My eyes snapped from the ceiling to her. "What?"

"Just seeing if you're okay. You looked dead."

"Um...I'm fine."

"Good." she continued reading, with her head overly-bandaged.