A Modern Beauty: Part One

CHAPTER FOUR

Bzzzzzzz!

The bell rang for the last class period of the day Friday afternoon, and the entire class immediately sat up straight, faced forward, shut their mouths, and turned their attention to the front of the room where Ms. Robinson sat behind her desk, scrawling something down on paper. She glanced up briefly, and said after a quick survey of the room, “You may go.”

Noise once again erupted around Clara as students filled out, eager to start the weekend. Well, most of them. It was last Wednesday when she had decided to simply do her best to ignore Kenzie from here on out, and it was working pretty well. There had only been one other run in with her- literally -, and that had just been Kenzie not watching where she was going. Clara was pretty sure Kenzie hated her now. The thought gave her warm fuzzies.

“So are you coming over to my house today?” Abigail asked Clara as she was bending down by her locker to retrieve her textbooks.

“No.” she said, straightening. “I have that detention today, remember?”

“Oh yeah.” Her face brightened up a little bit, presumably from the memory of the incident.

“It wasn’t funny.”

Abigail cocked an eyebrow at her. “You sure?”

“Very.” She replied, but did have to admit internally that, looking back on the occasion, it was a little humorous.

“Fine,” Abigail finally said as she pulled out her phone to check why it had buzzed. “How about you come over tomorrow, and we can study for that test together then?”

“All right.” Clara was about to walk away when Abigail suddenly half squealed:

“I just got a text from Ryan!”

Clara rolled her eyes but smiled, and proceeded.

***

An hour and a half later, Clara walked out of the ‘detention center’ (aka, cafeteria) and toward the nearest restroom, which happened to be the girls’ locker room. Once inside, Clara chose the very furthest stall from the doorway (these tended to be the cleanest), and did her stuff. When she was done, she almost walked out to go wash her hands, but the bathroom door opened, and some instinct told her to stay hidden. Surprised at how quickly she had stepped back into the shadows, Clara immediately sought the person which had inspired these new reflexes. She walked in through the door.

It was Kenzie.

Oh great. Now not only am I thinking up random conspiracies against her about how she wants to destroy the world, I’m spying on her in the bathroom too. She was about to exit the stall and reveal herself, when she realized that would only make her look even weirder. Especially because it was so obvious that she had been hiding. Well, every moment longer spent in here only adds a digit to the weirdness factor when I do get out, so- what is she doing?

Apparently her newfound instincts had been spot on, because instead of choosing a stall and walking into it like a normal person, she was snooping around guiltily, as if to make sure no one was there. She settled down for a long wait, and as she was adjusting her foot position, the lock on her stall clicked together.

Kenzie froze, and quickly turned in her direction. I’m busted. For what felt like several long, agonizing hours, Clara held absolutely still and watched Kenzie through the little crack in the door. By the time Kenzie finally turned back around, Clara was sweating, and could feel her heart pounding in her ears.

Then Kenzie walked up to the sinks and did something that Clara never thought she would ever actually see happen in real life: she pulled out a crystal ball and started chanting. The entire scene was actually quite impressive, but it was totally cliché. The ball was, of course, crystal, and it was filled with swirling violet mist, as well as being four times the size of Clara’s fist. The steam rising from the sinks amplified Kenzie’s voice, and fogged up the mirrors to give them a mysterious quality. Clara had to resist the urge to dream up some epic background music to the scene and start singing it.