chaelisa short stories

Seven

Roseanne Park did not want to be here. She made that known from the beginning, but her two best friends insisted she go. They insisted she be social for once in her life, though being here didn't do much to change that since she was just sitting in the corner watching as Jennie and Hyeri mingled and drank and danced.

Roseanne was never one for parties. She was really never one for anything that involved a lot of people or social interaction. She was always a bit on the shy side, but her aversion to other people also had a bit to do with the fact that she was often made fun of when she was younger. The words most commonly thrown around were nerd, dork, geek, loser, loner...which really showed the limited wit of her fellow grade school classmates. Not all of them teased her. It was mainly one specific group. For the most part, the others just ignored her. All except for Jennie and Hyeri, her two best friends since kindergarten. They had been inseparable ever since and the two of them did their best to protect Roseanne from any bullying, but when they weren't around, it was fair game.

They loved Roseanne and saw past her shyness and awkwardness. As years passed, they didn't care that she preferred to stay home and read or watch History Channel documentaries instead of going to the mall or a school dance. Sometimes they would get her to compromise and get her to go shopping with them if they promised they would all spend at least half an hour in the vintage bookstore and promised not to make her try on any clothes. Clothes were never really important to her. She liked her jeans and t-shirts. They were comfortable.

By the time junior high came around, Hyeri and Jennie had discovered boys. And they had branched out in who they hung out with. Roseanne was always their friend, but getting her to hang out was like pulling teeth. She would just sit there quietly and not contribute to the conversation. They never pressured her to talk, but the others started to think she was a bit of a freak. And by this point, Roseanne was thinking that maybe she was.

Even though they expanded their friend group, Hyeri and Jennie never allowed Roseanne to feel left out. They knew the blonde liked to spend her lunch time at school reading under the tree, so they never bothered her and hung out with their new friends at that time. But they would try to reserve their weekends for just the three of them. Not every weekend, because Roseanne sometimes volunteered at the hospital her mom worked at. Hyeri even often went out of her way to help Roseanne practice chess for her chess team matches. Once, Hyeri even beat her, but Roseanne didn't have the heart to tell her it was by an illegal move. She loved that Hyeri actually got passionate about chess. She hadn't had someone to play with since her father passed away when she was in eighth grade. Hyeri was sweet enough to learn because she knew how important the chess team was for Roseanne. She joined in honor of her father. It was his favorite game. Roseanne was grateful for her friends. She never really felt comfortable around people, but she always felt comfortable around them.

Tonight, however, she was not comfortable. It was early December of their sophomore year in high school and Jennie had started dating one of the popular jocks of the school, Rowoon. As a result, she was invited to a house party thrown by one of the football players, so she insisted on bringing reinforcements in the form of her two best friends. Hyeri was all too happy to go, but it took a lot of convincing to get Roseanne to cancel her plan to study that Saturday night. After an infinite amount of begging, she finally relented because she wanted to be there for her friend. But then the girls decided to press their luck. They insisted she leave her glasses at home and put her contacts in. They also made sure her hair was not in its usual ponytail and fawned over it until her blonde locks were down and flowing around her shoulders. And they dressed her in one of Jennie's low-cut black shirts. It was a bit tight on Roseanne, but that only made her cleavage all the more ample. Hyeri and Jennie were quite proud of the makeover. It was rare for Roseanne to show so much skin. She would still wear a one-piece at the pool even though they both tried to get her to take advantage of the natural assets she was blessed with. But Roseanne would just turn red and cover herself with a t-shirt.