Notes on a Scandal

THIRTEEN

Barbara is out again, getting groceries for the two, leaving Cate home alone for the second day in a row.

Cate is sitting in her room at her vanity doing her makeup like Elizabeth told her to. Large wings with mascara and a bright lipstick.

She knows it won't look the best but she's doing it to humor the young girl. She finishes the second eye liner and starts to apply the mascara. She gets some under her eye, she stands up and moves to the bathroom to wash the little bit off.

She looks at herself in the mirror, biting her lip, cringing at the horrendous makeup. She walks back to her room to finish the look but feels something stuck to the soul of her foot.

She sits down on the vanity stool and removes the little, yellow, star shaped sticker from the bottom of her bare foot. She looks at it and her mind races trying to think where she has seen them before.

She gives up and goes to throw it into the garage, as it drops into the bin she sees a crumpled piece of paper covered in writing on the bin with another golden star on it.

She picks it up, curious on what Barbara might be hiding. She unravels the paper and starts to read the paper.

Diary Entry 104: The New Teacher

Cate and her husband Andrew are such fools, they think they love each other but it's obvious they don't.

Andrew is a pig, he preys on younger woman and ended up marrying his student. I can't say much because I'm friends with someone whos doing the same....

Cate stops reading after the second paragraph, rage fills her core, her mind races at the thought of her only friend going behind her back, snitching on her affair.

She looks at the row of golden stars on the page, making her more angry, she's giving herself stars to tell herself good job. How pathetic, she thinks.

She stands up and goes to Barbara's room, she starts to empty every draw of their contents, searching for this diary of hers.

Half an hour passes and the whole house is turned upside down. Cate is sitting on the dining table crossed legs with the diary in her hands still unopened, scared to read the written truth about her friends opinions.

She opens the diary and flips through the entry for the day when Petra was put down.

Diary Entry 94: The New Teacher

Petra was put down today, my beloved cat, and my only friend was selfish enough to not comfort me.

9:00 pm, Brian Bangs a fellow teacher comes over asking about Cate Blanchett. He had this weird interest in her, wanting to know if she ever brought him up in conversation since we are friends.

Cate cringes at the name of the male teacher, he's always trying to interact with Cate in weird ways. Visiting her class in the middle of the day or sending her things. She just tried to ignore it.

I told him no, but I mentioned I believe she had a thing for much youngers girls, out of hatred and rage from earlier that day.

He asks where I've heard this from and I say the through grapevine, he asks for the students name and I gladly give it to him, Elizabeth Aird.

Tears are streaming down Cate's face ruining the eye makeup, making it bleed all over. She flips a couple of pages to the date when Elizabeth's mother came over, and she was there.

Diary Entry 98: The New Teacher

Brian Bangs, did his job correctly. He went to Cate's whore's home and told her mother everything. She came over that day to Cate's home when I was over for tea and beat the living hell out of her. Telling her she's going to burn in hell for turning her daughter into a "faggot", her words not mine.

It took every part of he not to laugh out loud because she deserved this. She's having an affair with her student and then lied to me telling me that she ended it. How dare she lie to her only friend.

Cate close the diary with a quick motion, her mascara and eyeliner covering her under eyes and cheeks. How could she do something like that she thinks to herself.

he throws the book across the room with a loud yell and lets out another sob. She would be happy with Elizabeth, not having to worry about her husband or her lovers mother.

Part of her is thankful for the truth to come out but she wanted to do it herself, on her own terms so it wouldn't have been so hurtful for people who were affected, like Andrew.