Читать книгу Retro Geeks - Karen Mueller Bryson - Страница 5

Elisa Coster was the school’s Queen of Mean. Every girl wanted to be her and every guy wanted to date her. She always strode down the hallway like she owned the school, surrounded by an entourage of top-tier teens. Elisa’s bestie, Megan Monroe, was always by her side.

As Elisa and her posse made their way to homeroom, an androgynous troll-like girl, Kimmie Kendall, trotted up to Elisa holding a stack of flyers. Kimmie gave Elisa a huge grin.

“I've been handing out flyers all morning,” Kimmie said. “Just like you asked.”

Elisa took a deep breath, glanced at her watch then addressed Kimmie. “And your point is?”

Kimmie pushed on. “You said I could sit with you at lunch one day if I handed out Caribbean Pirates prom theme flyers to every student in the school.”

“Oh, yeah, right.” Elisa gave Megan a sly hell-will-freeze-over-before-she'll-sit-with-us smile.

“Only 258 flyers to go!” Kimmie stated enthusiastically.

“You go, girlfriend,” Elisa said with mock enthusiasm then rolled her eyes for Megan's benefit.

“Maybe I'll be able to sit at your table this week.”

“Maybe.”

Megan whispered to Elisa, “And maybe she'll wake up and be something other than hideous.”

Elisa did her best to hold back laughter but Kimmie was oblivious. Her desire to fit in overshadowed every bit of common sense she possessed.

Kimmie embraced her flyers. “I'd better get back to work,” she chirped then darted away.

“What a loser,” Megan said when Kimmie was out of earshot.

“I know, right,” said Elisa. “But at least we're getting the flyers passed out. We'll ignore her again next week.”

Just down the hallway, Molly and Ally passed under a huge banner that read: Countdown to Senior Prom 30 Days. Kimmie trotted up behind them.

“Hey, Molly. Hey, Ally. Did you hear voting for prom theme starts today?”

Molly and Ally replied to Kimmie simultaneously. “We heard.”

“Don't forget to vote. Every vote counts, you know.”

“We know,” Molly and Ally countered.

Kimmie handed Molly a flyer then trotted away. The flyer read: Pick Caribbean Pirates for prom theme.

“A pirate-themed prom?” Molly scoffed. “Lame.”

Molly crushed the flyer into a ball and tossed it over her shoulder. It landed on a nerdy freshman’s head. The girls then continued to their lockers to gather their gear for their first class. The pair took every class together. They had since seventh grade.

The 4-H King, Tucker Reed, in the requisite cowboy boots, flannel shirt and Wranglers, approached the duo. Tucker was a bit of a hottie, even if he was a cowboy.

“Voting for prom theme starts today. I thought you ladies should know,” he said.

“We know,” Molly said briskly. She had no time for totally uncool cowboys.

Tucker winked at Ally and she gave him a big smile. Sensing impending danger of the flirtation kind, Molly edged between the two.

“We'll get our votes in,” Molly said. “Don't worry.”

“Only one month till prom,” Tucker reminded them.

Tucker tried to get closer to Ally but Molly blocked him.

“You probably already have a date for the occasion,” Tucker said to Ally but hoped the opposite.

Molly cut in before Ally could respond. “We really have to get to class.”

Molly slammed both lockers shut simultaneously, jarring both Ally and Tucker. As Molly grabbed Ally by the arm and dragged her down the hall, Ally turned and gave Tucker a wistful look.

“Don't forget to get those votes in,” Tucker said as Ally disappeared into homeroom.

Once they were in class, Molly gave Ally her most vicious of looks. It was definitely an if-looks-could-kill look, or maybe worse, an if-looks-could-spontaneously-combust-a-person-and-turn-her-to-ash-on-the-spot look.

“What was that all about?” Molly screeched.

“What do you mean?” Ally replied.

Molly took a seat in the front row and Ally sat down next to her.

“You were practically falling all over that hick,” Molly continued not holding back any of the disdain she felt for Tucker.

“He's kind of cute,” Ally admitted.

“He's completely country. He wears Wranglers. And cowboy boots!”

Second period, Molly and Ally found themselves standing at a lab table, staring in horror at the dead pig they were assigned to dissect. There were very few things in high school more disgusting than dissection lab.

“What are we supposed to do with this thing?” Molly whined, poking the dead pig with her pencil.

“Do you think we should try to dissect it?” Ally asked.

“Gag me,” Molly said making a vomiting gesture. “I think I'm going to barf.”

Dylan Tanaka, an introspective boy of Asian-American descent, approached the girls' table.

“It looks like you could use some help with your dissection,” he said.

“What was your first clue?” Molly said coyly.

“You haven't even sliced your pig open yet.”

Molly stared at the beastly carcass. “It's just too gross for words.”

Dylan lifted the dissection knife and cut the pig from head to tail as Molly and Ally both covered their eyes in disgust.

“If you don't observe the dissection,” Dylan said. “It kind of defeats the purpose of the exercise.”

Molly and Ally slowly uncovered their eyes as Dylan continued to slice and dice. “Prom's only a few weeks away,” he said as he did his dirty work.

Dylan held up one of the pig's organs for the girls to inspect. “This is the liver.”

The girls gagged as Dylan placed the liver back in the pig. “I heard they're going with a live band this year instead of a deejay.”

Dylan held up another organ for the girls to see. “This is the heart. But you probably already guessed that.”

The girls gave each other a look of dread. The sight of the ghastly pig corpse, now in pieces all over the table, was even worse than they had imagined.

Dylan, who planned to be a physician one day, enjoyed biology and was happy to help his crush, Molly, and her BFF complete their dissection. He continued, “I heard we're voting for prom theme today.”

Dylan pulled up the pig's intestines for the girls to see. “The intestines, of course.”

The girls gagged once again. The intestines looked like the school cafeteria’s pasta delight.

“Prom should be quite a romantic evening for the right couple,” Dylan remarked as he gazed longingly at Molly.

But the girls could not take their eyes off of the horror show that was the dissected pig.