Pretty Smile | Charlie Conway

(1) outsiders

⁕PRETTY SMILE⁕
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01. OUTSIDERS

"Rick, I swear, you are going to be the death of me. If you bother me one more time, I will go into your bedroom at night and smother you in your sleep."

"Woah, sis, calm down. You know I was only joking," Rick told his younger sister with a smirk as they entered the auditorium. The place was already crowded with people trying to find spots to sit with their friends. Yet, the hockey team had already found a place to sit and were all chatting, making their presence known.

Molly and her older brother walked into the room, immediately getting stares from the other students. The three of them were well-known in the school, especially considering that their father was on the board. Not only that, her brother was the captain of Eden Hall's varsity hockey team. So that immediately stamped a big fat 'X' on her head that she was popular.

She had been popular since she entered school all because of her big brother. He was the cute, tough captain of the hockey team. Girls gushed over him all the time and guys tried to imitate him.

Molly walked with elegance and found herself sitting in between her older brother, Riley, and one of his teammates, Cole. She sat down in the auditorium seat, crossing her leg over the other as the teammates beside her began to talk to her brother.

She watched as her father made it to the stage, shaking hands with the Dean of Eden Hall before looking at the crowd. His eyes immediately met with his daughter's and she waved at him and he waved back. Then, her father turned around and sat in his chair as Molly looked away and looked at Cole who was laughing with her brother.

Yet, before the assembly started, a couple of kids sat in front of them and her brother's mood immediately changed.

"Stupid Ducks...," Molly heard her brother mutter beside her and that's when she realized who they were.

The Ducks were the team that was given full scholarships to Eden Hall to be their new J.V. team. They had just won a national championship for J.V. hockey as Team U.S.A and since they had their huge victory, Eden Hall wanted to congratulate them in a sense.

This had hurt the Riley family, especially considering that her twin brother, Matt, was destined to play on the J.V. team and had been turned down because of this new team. This made her brother very angry and she even heard him cuss them out the other day when he heard the news.

Her father, from what she heard from her mother, tried to get the board to stop this new J.V. team from coming and playing, but for obvious reasons, he failed.

Molly felt bad for her brother because he was excited all summer to play for J.V. and be the next big thing in school. He wanted to follow in the footsteps of their older brother, yet Molly also felt slightly bad for the Ducks team and that they may start this school year off with a few enemies on their backs.

Molly stayed quiet from the four kids in front of her and instead began to talk to Cole who was chewing gum beside her. Cole began to rant, so she observed the four kids in front of her and she even noticed that one kid was wearing a cowboy hat which made her raise an eyebrow.

Finally, Molly turned her attention away from them and began listening to Cole. That was until her brother began to speak up.

"Hey, you know what?"

The four kids in front began looking behind them to stare at herself and her brother. Her brother slumped in his seat, crossing his arms in front of himself.

Molly wanted to stop him, cause she knew he was going to cause trouble, but she sat silent and listened to what he wanted to say.

"You Ducks don't belong here at Eden Hall," Her brother said with a sneer which made the kid who sat directly in front of her turn himself fully around.

"What?" He said which made his friend in the cowboy hat beside him speak up.

"Hey, easy, Russ. They probably just think we're someone else..." The kid said. He spoke with a Southern accent which really accentuated the cowboy hat on his head.

Then, the kid began to introduce himself and he took his hand out towards Cole as an offer to handshake. "Um, I'm Dwayne. We're the new hockey team. And you are...?"

Instead of Cole just taking the handshake like a gentleman, Cole decided it was best to take the gum out of his mouth and put it right into the palm of Dwayne's hand, squishing it in.

Molly looked away from Cole and at her brother who began to speak up. "Varsity. The only hockey team. State champs."

Dwayne drew his hand away from Cole, staring at the piece of chewed gum inside.

Meanwhile, Rick kept speaking. "You know, my little brother lost his J.V. slot when they brought you yo-yos in here."

That was when the girl who sat directly in front of Rick began to speak and Molly turned her head toward her. "Probably wasn't good enough."

That was when Rick began to sit up and he rested her elbows on his knees, putting his hand in between the so-called Russ and the girl. He began to point at the stage.

"See, that's my dad. He's gonna get the board to revoke your scholarships. Just you wait."

Everyone looked up at the stage to look at Rick and Molly's dad who was still hand-shaking people's hands and greeting board members.

Russ spoke up this time, "That's your dad? Nice outfit. Did it come with a yacht?"

The Ducks in front began to laugh and Cole began to mock their laughter as Molly just rolled her eyes and slumped back into her seat, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

The four kids in front just stopped talking and ignored the varsity team behind them. Rick just stopped talking and sneered like a lion, ready to pounce.

Molly looked over at him and put a hand on his arm. "Rick, it's fine. You need to stop getting yourself so worked up. They're just a team."

"Molly, they took Matt's spot, I'm not just gonna let that go. He deserved it."

"And I know that, but it's not their fault they got these spots. They didn't choose to be accepted. Blame the Dean for that," she told him.

Riley didn't answer and looked away from his younger sister and by that time, the assembly had started. The headmaster began to talk to the crowd, introducing himself and the others who were present on stage.

The whole room went silent and Molly watched the Dean in contentment. He kept talking for around 10 mins until he was then rudely interrupted by a bunch of loud voices.

The red curtain rustled behind the Dean. He looked back at what everyone was looking at, until it finally came crashing down onto a group of people. The whole room erupted into gasps as the people who were stuck inside tried to get themselves out, but only one of them was able to get out.

He had to be around Molly's age. He had shaggy brown hair and he was starting to grow out of his baby face. Once he saw the crowd of people watching, he immediately grew shy and a blush blew up on his cheeks.

"Uh, hi...we're the Ducks."