Good Walls Make Good Neighbors

Chapter 4: The Disaster

Chapter 4: The Disaster

"Like Maxine said, it all started at the beginning of the semester. What Maxine failed to mention was that there was a layer of deceit underlying the entire friendship. Brooke wasn't some sort of tragic victim like Maxine made her seem. No one was.

Brooke and Carli had known each other for two years since Brooke was a senior and Carli was a sophomore. They had done a bunch of plays together. But Carli had no idea why Brooke always seemed to get the lead. Sure, she practiced all the time. She was always super early to rehearsal and stayed late. She had attended more classes, she knew the proper techniques. But Carli didn't quite know which techniques. What Carli would never discover was that Brooke had been bribing Mr. Clovingdale the whole time with sex. They had been sleeping together since Brooke's sophomore year, which, yes, was before she met Carli, but Carli still had a right to know.

It was a shame Carli never returned her friendship in the way Brooke wanted her too. Which was why she continued sleeping with him in order to not only help herself, but to help Carli too. When Carli wasn't cast her freshman year, she was devastated and sought comfort in her only friend at the time, Brooke. She hated to see her friend so upset, so she amended her deal with Mr. Clovingdale. She agreed to continue sleeping with him, but if he didn't agree to cast Carli as well, she would be contacting his wife. Having the limp-dicked spine he did, he agreed. Things didn't go quite to plan though.

Brooke caught one of her many head colds right before auditions for The Taming of the Shrew and wasn't able to sleep with Mr. Clovingdale, so he gave the role to Saige instead. What made it even worse was that Margaret, her new friend, didn't get a part at all. Margaret was upset about it, and that made Brooke feel terrible. So the next time she slept with Mr. Clovingdale, she amended her deal with him once again to include Margaret as well. No one ever found out about it, although Margaret did suspect that something was up. Too bad it was wasted and Margaret never got to reap the benefits in the next year's show, Hamlet.

But that's not all that Margaret knew. Not even close. She also knew that Carli didn't bring Saige into the group that day so she could feel more included. It was because Carli had a massive crush on her! The crush only grew with time, and she was terrible at hiding it. Carli told Margaret about her crush, but she didn't really need to since Margaret and Brooke felt like they were both third and fourth wheeling simultaneously. Carli talked to Margaret about her affections for Saige constantly, so Margaret thought they were in a relationship, or at least the feeling was mutual, when Carli and Saige started hanging out more alone together and became closer. She couldn't have been more wrong.

After Margaret and Saige got into an argument about the casting decisions for The Taming of the Shrew, they ended up hanging out alone together one day since Carli canceled on them at the last minute. Margaret, playing a discreet attempt at matchmaker for her best friend, ended up not needing to tell Saige about Carli's feelings. She already knew long ago. The problem was that Saige didn't feel that way about Carli, but she didn't want to turn her down for fear of losing her friendship. Since Carli had been her way into the group, she was afraid that if she lost Carli's friendship, she'd lose everyone else in the group as well. So she asked Margaret to keep her secret and not tell Carli. And Margaret agreed, so now she was officially keeping Carli's secret not to tell Saige since she didn't actually have to tell her and was just able to allude to it, and was also keeping Saige's secret from her best friend.

Things were super awkward for Margaret after that. Carli continued to tell her all about how much she liked Saige, and since she was trapped and wanted to be the best friend she could be, Margaret continued to just sit and listen. She couldn't bear to break her best friend's heart, and she knew that airing everything out would likely tear the group apart since it didn't sound like Carli was interested in just having a friendship with Saige. It got even worse when Saige kissed Carli's hand at the party. It left Carli shell shocked, and Margaret horribly confused. When Margaret confronted her about it, Saige said she had to start finding ways to keep Carli's hope alive since she hadn't been giving her much to go on. That's one of the reasons why Margaret broke down at the party, she was so lost and exhausted with everything, and all the while she was the only one who knew a secret that would destroy everything.

This group was completely dysfunctional! Saige was right to turn down her invitation so often. And no, it wasn't always to study or do schoolwork like she claimed. She knew how toxic that environment was becoming, and was trying to do her best to make sure she didn't get burned in the flames. It was like everyone lost sight of what they were really there to do; go to school. She had worked so hard to get there, just like everyone else, but she didn't want to squander her opportunity. If everyone had just communicated, then maybe Margaret wouldn't be dead!"