Scarlett White (23 page)

"This is brilliant," Kirsten said as she looked down at their progress.

"I know. I did come up with it."

"With my encouragement."

"Yeah, yeah. You did help a little…I guess," Alice said with a smirk, and Kirsten giggled as they finally began practice for their next cheerleading game.

Tomorrow was going to be epic.

Chapter Twelve

Scarlett didn't care
anymore that her mother was always passed out on the couch. Scarlett didn't care anymore that her mother didn't care about her. All she cared about now was Tristan, which was odd because just last week she had hated him with all of her guts, and now all of a sudden he was the only thing that was invading her mind for the past week. She was still in a subtle state of shock that Tristan hadn't done
that
to her. She was probably surprised at herself for reciprocating the action. She had never dreamt in three years that she would be lip-locking with the school's biggest and hottest, not to mention most popular, football captain. She had held such a huge grudge against Tristan for three years and now she realized she should have been holding it against his brother—whom she had never met—and Alice.

She always knew she didn't like Alice. She had always thought it was just because Alice was the head cheerleader and she always had a gang of boys following her around everywhere with big, googly eyes on her scantily clad ass. She also didn't like Alice because she took advantage of her luck. Alice had everything a teenage girl could ever want—cute clothes, a nice ride, the title of head cheerleader, and the sexiest boys following her around everywhere. Not to mention the popularity that everyone craved. But that didn't matter all that much anymore because Scarlett was regaining her popularity. But this time, Scarlett wasn't going to take advantage of it. She was going to treasure every moment of it, along with every moment with Tristan if his promise to her was true.

Scarlett woke up early Thursday morning and as soon as she had finished getting dressed for school, she headed off to school as early as possible. Her heart beat hard in her chest in anticipation to see Tristan. She couldn't believe how much she missed him and she had just seen him a handful of hours ago. It almost bothered her that he was the only thing on her mind while she tried desperately to finish her physics homework—almost.

"Hey, girl." Kate caught up with Scarlett who was leaning on her lime green punch buggy waiting for Tristan to arrive.

"Hey, Kate," Scarlett said, smiling at Kate. She hadn't seen her old friends in a while and she was glad that they had a long time before school started, so she could spend some much needed quality time with Kate.

"You didn't call me yesterday. What happened with telling Tristan the whole story?"

"Sorry. It turns out that it was Tristan's brother, Bryan, and...Alice," Scarlett practically growled the last word.

"What?" Kate asked, alarm clear on her face. "Alice? She's such a bitch."

"Tell me about it."

"Want me to get Ginny to kick her ass? You know, Ginny's working on her black belt. This could be some extra practice for her."

Scarlett chuckled, "No, I don't want to hurt anybody. Too many people have been hurt."

"Who?"

"Me."

"Ah, well, I would have paid to see Ginny knock some sense into that whore," Kate said sighing. "Now why exactly do you not want Alice to get what's coming at her?"

"Because I have Tristan and that's all I care about. Also, hasn't Alice been trying to date Tristan since freshman year? So when she finds out we're together, she'll freak. And that will be her dismay."

"You...Tristan...together?" It was like Kate couldn't form a simple sentence. Before Scarlett could reply, Kate jumped on her, hugging her in a bear hug.

When Scarlett started choking, Kate let go of her, giggling, "Oops, sorry. I'm just so excited for you! Your luck is changing! Tell me everything that happened. I want all the tiny, little details. What did he say after you told him the story? Tell me! I have to know everything right now."

"Okay, so you probably already saw the whole crying fiasco when I ran out of lab the other day. That was when I told him about what happened back in eighth grade. He followed me and caught up with me. After he calmed me down, we started thinking because he swore that he didn't do it. I'm not too sure how he did it, but he found out that it was his little brother, who, in my defense, looks just like him, and Alice. Anyway, after I caught Francis biting Jenna's lips off her face, Tristan knew that I was hurting, so he came over to my place, and we talked for hours. Just talking. It felt…nice, but then right before he needed to leave, he planted one right on me. I was in denial at first; I didn't want it because I was healing from Francis's betrayal. But he promised me—he promised me he wouldn't hurt me. And for the first time in my life, I believed him," Scarlett explained, her eyes glazing over in remembrance of last night.

"Oh, girl, you're such a player. First with Francis and now with Tristan. Who will be next? Taylor Lautner or Zac Efron?"

Scarlett snorted, "I wish."

"Hey, where did you get that outfit? It's super cute."

Scarlett looked down at her white mini shorts and white tank top. She had found a gold silk jacket back from her happy years. She had a pair of gold sandals whose straps wrapped four inches up Scarlett's legs. Her scarlet hair had been clipped with a large white clip into a low side ponytail that cascaded in curls down her chest.

"Are those Chanel sunglasses?" Kate asked, noticing the sunglasses perched on Scarlett's red curls. "How the hell did you get all this? You look hot...oh, I get it. You're showing off in front of all Tristan's friends, aren't you?"

"Maybe. And you can't spread this, but I stole my mom's credit card that she uses for drinks and stuff. She won't even notice it's gone until next week," Scarlett whispered.

"Oh, you badass girl." Kate smirked.

"Hey, guys!" Ginny said, bounding up to Scarlett and Kate with the largest grin either one of the girls had ever seen. Scarlett was almost scared that her friend's lips would crack from smiling so wide.

"Guess what the dish is today."

"What?" Kate wondered.

"Kirsten Zane is throwing some baby's temper tantrum because of something her boyfriend did. I didn't really understand the whole thing, but you have to come see. Meg's over there laughing her ass off along with the rest of the school."

Kate looked back and winked at Scarlett before she left to follow Ginny. Scarlett took a deep breath, checking herself out in the side window of her car, and then followed after her two friends.

When Scarlett arrived at the other side of the parking lot, she saw a huge crowd of students circling some spectacle, which Scarlett knew to be Kirsten acting like a baby. She wondered what Kirsten was whining about now. She did have a pretty notorious reputation for making the littlest things into huge dilemmas. Scarlett remembered sophomore year that this one girl, Andrea, who was on the dance team had gotten the prettiest pearl necklace for Christmas, and Kirsten had been so jealous that she had 'accidentally' popped the string making all of the pearls fly over the floor. Andrea cried for days because it used to be her dead grandmother's. Scarlett was pretty sure this time might even be about something more inane than the last time, which had been about the milk not being cold enough in the cafeteria.

Scarlett pushed her way through the crowd and came to the middle where she saw Kirsten kneeling on the concrete ground crying. Every time someone would get close to her, she would throw a rock at him. She was getting the knees of her outfit so dirty from the muddy ground. Her eyeliner was dripping down her cheeks, plus her green eyes looked so red and puffy. Scarlett was sure she looked pretty similar last night before Tristan had come over.

Scarlett couldn't believe this idiotic, childlike behavior Kirsten was performing for everyone. Inwardly Scarlett was busting out laughing, but on the outside shock crossed her face. What? Were they back in middle school or something? Actually, Scarlett was pretty sure that even middle schoolers acted more mature than this juvenile behavior. But, at least, it would get the student body's attention off Scarlett's meltdown during lab the other day.

"You're shocked, too?" Libby came up behind Scarlett. "I never thought she could go this crazy."

Scarlett continued to stare completely and utterly shocked at the poor girl kneeling in the middle of the crowd as she asked, "Why?"

"Because Alice apparently threw her off the cheerleading squad because she wasn't doing any of the moves correct, of course. Hey, I heard about you and Tristan last night. Alice is peeved—I think that's why she's been especially bitchy lately and keeps kicking random girls off the squad for no obvious reason. High five, girlfriend." Two days ago Libby had forgotten her name after ten years of their friendship, now she was offering her a high-five? High school and drama were just so fickle and mind-boggling; it made Scarlett's head spin.

Scarlett high-fived Libby, still eyeing Kirsten. "Someone has to stop her," Scarlett whispered.

"Whoever gets close to her gets pegged with a rock. Hey, cute outfit," Libby commented, noticing her designer clothes.

"Thanks; wish me luck. I'm going in."

"Wait, you'll get dirt all over your shorts." Libby grabbed her wrist.
God, teenagers these days. They're all materialistic,
Scarlett thought.

"I don't care." Scarlett yanked her wrist out of Libby's grasp and headed to the center of the crowd.

"Kirsten!" Scarlett cried over Kirsten's loud and pretty damn obnoxious sobs.

"You!" Kirsten pointed her finger at Scarlett. "It's all your fault!" she screamed. "You did this to me! It's because you're such a damn slut and whore that I got kicked off the precious cheerleading squad. Alice wouldn't have fired me if you hadn't hooked up with Tristan last night, you bitch!"

Pssh, I beg to differ,
was exactly what Scarlett wanted to say, but she pushed it back and really said, "Kirsten, get up off the ground and quit acting like a four year old. If you want to settle this, we'll settle it like mature teenagers."
What an oxymoron.

Kirsten did not reply, she merely picked up a small rock lying next to her and threw it in Scarlett's direction. It zoomed past Scarlett and hit some innocent by-stander. Thank God for all those torturous dodge ball games during gym class.

"Really, Kirsten? Are you really going to act like this?" Scarlett was playing with Kirsten now, and she knew she should stop, but...

"Get the hell away from me. You stole Tristan from her. If you had just left it alone, everything would go back to just the way it was before you squeezed your big, fat ass into our table."

There was an audible gasp throughout the crowd, but Scarlett held her composure with her head held high.

And then some random guy in the background yelled, "I think her ass is sexy!"

Scarlett really wanted to roll her eyes, but instead smiled at the boy as the rest of the crowd giggled and whistled their agreement.

"I did no such thing. Now, get up off the ground."

"Don't tell me what to do; you're not my mother!"

"Kirsten, please! You're making a fool out of yourself."

"Why do you care if I humiliate myself? Why do you even give a damn?"

"Because you're my fellow classmate. I've known you for almost thirteen years now and I am willing to set aside any disputes between us if you are," Scarlett replied.