Down With The Queen

You Know Aaron Felt?

Vi looked herself in the mirror one last time and twirled to check out her outfit. Since it was her first day of school, she had to dress to get attention, not that being the new girl wouldn’t fetch her the desired attention, because she also had another message to pass across which was ‘I’m not scared of Jennifer Simon’. Last night’s events had shaken her up, and she had even dreamt about falling from the top of a very high building. This time, there was no trampoline. Thankfully, she had woken before she hit the ground as she didn’t think it was such a good idea to die in your dreams.

“Vi! Breakfast!” her mom yelled from the kitchen.

Vi took one last look in the mirror before she ventured outside to stuff herself with her mother’s pancakes, as she would need all the energy she could get.

---

Kaleen was yelling her goodbye to her parents on her porch when she noticed her new neighbour coming out of her house. She was going to start school at Knox High today, and Kaleen thought changing schools in the middle of the term was weird. She wondered if something had happened at Vi’s old school, because it was either that or she just loved changing schools. And no one really moved in to Knox either...they moved OUT, not in. casting out all thoughts and questions about Vi’s movement, she started to walk a bit faster so that she could catch up to Vi, who was walking slowly because she was looking at something on her phone.

“Hi,” Kaleen said nervously from behind Vi. She really hoped she could be friends with Vi, as she never really had any friends at school. Plus her mum was always reminding her of how elegant Jennifer was, and the comparison always annoyed her. Parents in Knox were almost always competing against themselves about who was richer, who was more popular, who had more talented children and even who had the greenest lawn in town, which led to water waste.

“Hey,” Vi replied, not looking up from her phone. She was reading something about crowd psychology on her phone, but was finding it hard to see through the dark sunshades she put on right before she left the house; plus, the sun’s reflection was bouncing off the screen of her phone. She recognised the voice as Kaleen’s though, and to be honest, she had forgotten that the girl even existed. She didn’t feel like being nice this early, so she just continued what she was doing.

“Um...a-are you nervous about today?” Kaleen managed to ask, feeling like she was intruding since Vi wasn’t exactly like she was there at all.

“Why would I be?” Vi asked with, finally giving up on whatever she was trying to read as she would rather not go totally blind in her youth, and looked at Kaleen as if she had asked a stupid question.

“Sorry. Just trying to make small talk,” Kaleen said with an apology.

Vi wanted to just ignore her and keep walking, but her conscience wouldn’t exactly allow her to abandon the poor girl, who looked like she could use a friend. Besides, if she’d had even half a friend back then, maybe she wouldn’t have been such a loser.

“Okay look. I don’t really want to be your friend, but you’re pathetic at being friends because you’re so scared, so, I’m going to be your friend,” Vi said with a dramatic roll of her eyes, which thankfully Kaleen couldn’t see because her eyes were hidden behind the shades.

“Who said I don’t have friends? I-I have lots of friends. Yeah. I was just feeling sorry for you, you know, because you’re new and all,” Kaleen replied, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear and trying to look very serious.

“Uh huh. Of course,” Vi said, trying not to laugh. Maybe she wasn’t so bad after all, she concluded.

They had only walked about ten blocks before they heard a car horn behind them. When Vi turned back to see who had decided to deafen them in the wee hours of the morning, she saw that the face behind the windshield was Aaron’s.

“Hey Vi, how about a ride to school?” he asked, sending a wide grin her way. He wore a simple pastel tee with jeans and paired it up with a not-so-noticeable silver chain around his neck and a pair of sunglasses. He looked pretty simple, but that made him all the more handsome. Sitting at the wheel of a red convertible scored him more points.

“You know Aaron Felt??” Kaleen whispered to Vi with excitement and awe. She looked like she was going to explode and was doing a terrible job of holding back a squeal.

“Oh get a hold of yourself nerdo, he’s just a person,” Vi whisper-scolded. She rolled her eyes as she walked up to Aaron, wishing she didn’t have Kaleen by her side at this moment.

“Hi. Um, morning, I guess,” she said, not really knowing what to say, since the last time she saw him was at the party.

Morning, I guess?? Was this kindergarten? Vi groaned inwardly and slapped her forehead mentally. She should come up with better things to say.

“Do you know how far the school is? You shouldn’t be walking. Hop in,” he said.

“Thanks,” Vi said and walked around to the passenger’s seat, thankful that Aaron could not see her eyes widen in mortification. As soon as she got in and fastened her seatbelt, she gestured to Aaron that she was ready to go.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” he bent to whisper in her ear.

“No?” she replied, confused.

Then she saw Kaleen who was still standing on the sidewalk with both hands clasped together, looking like she didn’t even know where she was.

“She’s just a stray I found,” she said to Aaron. And to Kaleen she said “what are you standing there for? Come on!”

Kaleen nervously entered the back seat and murmured a barely audible ‘hi’ to Aaron. He nodded in acknowledgement and started the car.

The wind whipped their hair as Aaron sped to school, and Vi thought with pleasure that they looked like a scene right out of a movie.

“I didn’t know when you left the party,” Aaron said, taking a moment to glance at her.

“You went to Anderson’s party?!” Kaleen shrieked, almost passing out. “Who are you?” she asked Vi in awe. Aaron chuckled, and Vi liked the deep vibrations his throat made when he did.

“What is so special about going to this party Kaleen?” Vi asked, massaging her temples with her thumb and fore finger as if Kaleen was giving her a head ache.

“Well, Anderson is one of the baddest bad boys at St. Luke’s and you went to his party. And it’s invite only! How did you get in?” Kaleen said so fast that she was almost out of breath.

“I went with Aaron,” Vi said simply, expecting Kaleen to react dramatically, which she did. She pretended to faint.

“I like her,” Aaron laughed.