Dark Paradise (a danisnotonfire fanfiction)

Chapter Two

-Tell me life is beautiful/They think that I have it all-
(Without You)

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Chapter Two, in which Lolita makes some hard decisions and encounters her idol for the first time.

Chapter Focus: Lolita (Lia)

Lolita entered her English class, the first period of the day, and plopped her stuff down next to where Lauren always sat. Behind the two of them was Carmen and Alexis, another girl from their clique. Alexis Forrege was a ditzy blonde with dull brown eyes and shoulder-length, Shirley Temple style hair. Her best features were her curvy hips and large chest. She was the racy slut of their school, appropriately nicknamed Texas after Alexis Texas.

Lolita rummaged through her bag and produced a hemp pencil bag and small green journal. Setting them down on her desk, she looked over as Carmen parked her stuff near her desk with a gusty sigh.

"God, Lia, why do you always race off to your next class? We share nearly every period, you know," Carmen muttered. Lolita shrugged. Honestly, she wondered herself.

Instinct, I guess, she thought. Don't want to miss a single moment of what could be a learning experience, if the teachers actually put in an effort.

Her only teacher who seemed to love his job was the drama teacher, Mr. Kasler, pegged 'Kaz' by the students. He always wore a tucked-in button down and black pants to work, his inky black hair tousled and streaked with gray. Kaz's happy brown eyes only turned angry when students didn't seem to be putting as much work into class as he was, which happened rarely. Everyone loved Kaz.

The English teacher, Ms. Terry, droned on in the background as Lolita lazily doodled in her journal with an orange pen. She made a mess of squiggles, a giraffe-pigeon hybrid, and a large, perfectly shaped heart. Inside the heart in large bubbly letters she spelled out 'DAN.'

"Whatcha drawin?" Lauren asked, clearly bored by her tone. Lolita sighed.

"Meh. Just some shitty doodles, as usual," she replied, pointing to the other side of the page. In a baby blue ink she had drawn a girl with no mouth, a crude cat, and a perfume bottle with the word 'love' scrawled across it in cursive. Lauren shrugged.

"Yeah, they're okay. You're certainly no Picasso... Hey, what's this?" Lauren pointed to the heart. A devious smile spread across her face.

"Is that the name of a boy little old Lia is crushing on?" she joked.

"It's the name of a boy over four million people are crushing on," Lolita mumbled, blushing. She cleared her throat. "I mean, no. I totally have the hots for Oliver, remember?"

Lauren struggled to hide a teasing smile. "Whatever you say."

Lolita went back to doodling - this time focusing on a llama with bug eyes - when her journal was suddenly snatched away from her. She frowned, looking around in a jolt. "Hey!" she protested loudly. Before her stood Ms. Terry with a disappointed scowl and, more importantly, Lolita's notebook. Red bloomed in her cheeks once more.

"Uh, I mean... Hi? I was totally paying attention M-Ms. Terry," she stuttered nervously. The class giggled, and Lauren hid her smile with her hand.

"Sure you were. I didn't know that llama drawings classified as analyses on the English language," Ms. Terry retorted sharply. Behind Lolita, Carmen snorted.

"Oh wait, there is something written down here," her teacher said curiously. Fear clenched Lolita's heart.

No, no, NO. Please don't read it aloud, anything but-