Down With The Queen

A Queen's Crib

A QUEEN’S CRIB

“So how are you liking Knox? Personally, I can’t wait to get out. It’s like a prison but with freedom,” Jennifer said as she led the way to the ballroom. Vi guessed she shouldn’t be surprised that the housed had a ballroom considering how large it was. The house had probably been in the family for a century or more.

“It’s not California, but it’s still fine. At least there’s fresh air out here and less traffic,” Vi shrugged. She didn’t feel there was a need to impress Jennifer, but somehow she wanted to. All these rich girl s**t was impressive and somehow made her feel small. She had only agreed to go on the tour because Sun Tzu had said in his legendary book to ‘Know Thy Enemy’, which she was doing right now. You could attack your enemy in the right places if you knew everything about them.

“Yeah, if you’re trying to run away from a stalker,” Jennifer scoffed and then paused as if she had just realized something and turned to Vi. “Are you being stalked? Is that why you moved to Knox?” she asked wide-eyed, hoping to hear some juicy details she could use to score points with the girls.

“No,” Vi answered, looking somewhat puzzled at the question. “But if I had a stalker, I’d probably take care of him myself. Running like a coward isn’t my style,” she said with a smirk, examining the window panes of the ballroom which seemed to be coated in gold.

‘But you ran like a coward...’ a voice inside her said.

“Take him...out?” Jennifer asked, choking on the non-alcoholic wine she was sipping from a glass, trying not to look horrified. She hoped to the powers that be that her mother hadn’t invited some psycho killer into their home.

Vi looked up from the window pane that she had now concluded wasn’t entirely coated with gold, but with enough to make it last a while. She was enjoying Jennifer’s discomfort, though she felt Jennifer shouldn’t be surprised at such dark jokes if she was friends with Raven. She figured Raven would have fed Jennifer bits of darkness to last her a lifetime.

“Relax! I’m kidding,” Vi chuckled, looking at her host with an expression that suggested that Jennifer was being dramatic. Jennifer tried to regain composure and pretend like she wasn’t bothered, but inside she was annoyed that this newbie would scare her in her territory.

‘You are queen bee for God’s sake! Act like it!’ her inner queen scolded, her words like scalding hot water.

“Anyway, let’s get on with the tour, shall we?” Jennifer said, waltzing out of the ballroom with the hand in which she carried the wine glass stretched out at a ninety degree angle.

As they walked, Jennifer studied Vi out of the corner of her eye. The girl was looking too smug for her liking. Usually, when she gave people fortunate enough to be in her house, they would gaze wide-eyed and with open mouths at the magnificence that was her house. That’s what Vi was supposed to be doing. Instead, the girl was owning her, and looking like she owned the place. Well, Jennifer planned to smack that smug look off her face soon.

“This is our state of the art gymnasium; this is easily my favorite room in the house...asides my room that is,” Jennifer said with a smile. Her thin fit physique was no mistake, neither was it a gift. She worked hard for it. In fact, one of her celebrity takeover plans was to create a gym that only A-list celebrities could have access to.

“I think they already have that Jay. Khloe Kardashian’s Revenge Body...helloo??” Mars said as-a-matter-of-fact-ly when Jennifer pitched the idea to her.

“That’s a fitness program owned by a celebrity for individuals who want to mold their bodies into sexy physiques that would tell their exes or judgmental friends and family ‘I told you so’. Dumbass,” Jennifer had fired back, a little sour that her idea was not seemingly unique.

Whatever. She would find something else.

“I can see that,” Vi said.

“Huh?” Jennifer asked. She had spaced out for a second and didn’t hear Vi’s reply.

“I said, I can see that,” Vi repeated herself, saying the words slowly so that Jennifer could grasp. Honestly, she was already tired of her. She just wanted to go back home to her bed, but she just had to be nice to her for her mother’s sake. It was strange really, how little her mother knew her, because if she did, she would have known that Jennifer was the person responsible for the incident that had happened. And she would never have accepted to fraternize with the enemy. But she was here now, and she planned to make the most of it.

“See what?” Jennifer asked, confused.

“Really Jennifer, you need to keep up,” Vi said with a shake of her head, as if she were speaking to a child, and left Jennifer standing alone in the gym.

Jennifer was positive that her head was smoking right now, and steam was escaping her ears. That was how mad she was. She had try to play nice, but Vi was getting on her nerves. It was as if she was sent here specially with the task of testing her patience, which she knew might not last long. After all, she had little patience for people that were not top rank in Knox High hierarchy or St. Luke’s even, much less some b***h who was basically rankless.

She would show her this time, really.

Vi did not know where she was going, so she walked slowly so that Jennifer could keep up and continue with her tour. Vi thought Jennifer rather looked like a child trying to be an adult with the wine glass she held aloft in her hand like a prize, even though it wasn’t even alcoholic wine. Why does non-alcoholic wine even exist in the first place? It was really laughable though, that the Simons had to serve them non-alcoholic wine because they were ‘kids’ when their daughter had literally guzzled down beer two nights ago. Adults were simply clueless.

Jennifer eventually caught up to Vi. “There’s one last stop we have to make, and then our tour ends,” she said, and not waiting for any response or reaction from Vi, she continued walking. They got to a staircase that looked like it was rarely used, and Jennifer started to climb. Hesitant, Vi followed. The stairs led to the roof, and Vi could see a lot of Knox from up the roof which looked beautiful from that vantage point.

“I like it up here,” Jenifer started. “When I was little, I would come up here and pretend I was looking over my kingdom,” she said, taking a sip from her glass.

“Cool,“ was all Vi said.

“But it is my kingdom,” Jennifer said, turning to Vi. “Which makes you a subject,” she finished, inching closer to Vi.

“I don’t follow,” Vi answered, getting uncomfortable with the fact that Jennifer was coming closer and if she took any step she might slip off the roof. Jennifer was comfortably well balanced though as she knew the roof like the back of her hands.

“Stay away from Aaron. He’s my boyfriend,” Jennifer barked.

“He didn’t mention it,” Vi retorted.

“Of course he didn’t. He doesn’t like to brag,” Jennifer faked a smiled. “But it’s just a simple warning, nothing more. Oh, and don’t ever try to mess with me or think you can mess with me. Or else...”

“Or else what?” Vi countered, and right at that moment Jennifer pushed her off the roof.

---

Emilia was ready to leave as the fifteen minutes she’d given Vi were already up. She wondered where the girls were, and hoped they wouldn’t waste any more time because she had to set out for work early the next day. Then she saw Jennifer coming down the stairs-but without Vi.

“Where’s Vi?” she asked.

“Oh, she’s outside,” Jennifer said as she walked with Emilia and her parents to the door.

“How did she get outside?” Emilia asked, puzzled.

“She just wanted to try out the trampoline in the back,” answered Jennifer, and soon enough Vi appeared looking a little shaken up and disheveled.

“Vi! Are you ready to leave?” her mother asked.

“Sure.”

Emilia turned to Mrs. Simon. “Again, thank you for having us. It was really a nice dinner.”

“I hope you both enjoyed it,” Jennifer cut in, smiling in a way that only Vi could see was sinister.