In 1988 when Dylan Montgomery moves to Beverly Hills after her mother remarries, she must navigate the challenges of fitting into a glamorous but daunting upper-class life. Living across from the charmingly cocky Nicholas and his introspective broth...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
UPPER CLASS | cherriasian
december '88
The days following Christmas had passed in a haze for Dylan. While the festive decorations still twinkled around her new home, the excitement of the holiday felt distant, like a fading echo. The house often felt eerily quiet despite the vacation Tom was able to take for the holidays. Everyone was always home yet it felt like nobody lived there sometimes.
Dylan missed her friends from Massachusetts each passing day with Katie, Tiffany, and Marissa gone. Even with them, who had once seemed so vibrant and glamorous, she felt a nagging sense of loneliness that crept in during the quieter moments spent alone.
Now, as she slid into the passenger seat of Tom's car, the anticipation of picking up her old friends filled her with a sense of purpose. She was excited to reunite with them and share the extravagant world she had stepped into since their last visit. But there was also a flutter of anxiety in her stomach.
"Are you ready for your friends to arrive?" Tom asked, glancing at her. His tone was upbeat, a stark contrast to the tension she often felt with him since she never knew what to say.
"Yeah, I can't wait," she replied, forcing a smile. "It'll be nice to show them around."
As they drove through the streets of Beverly Hills, the decorations for New Year's Eve shimmered against the evening sky, and Dylan felt a surge of excitement. The countdown was on, and with it came the promise of laughter, memories, and perhaps a chance to bridge the gap between her two worlds. She would show her friends that even in Beverly Hills, there was room for the comfort of her old life.
As Dylan and Tom waited by the arrivals gate, her heart raced with excitement and nerves. She scanned the crowd, and finally, she spotted her old friends weaving through the bustle of people—familiar faces from what felt like another lifetime in Springfield.
"There they are!" she said aloud to Tom, who smiled politely, clearly not as thrilled as she was but willing to play the part of the friendly stepfather. Her friends spotted her too, and their faces lit up, breaking into a run as they came over.
"Dylan!" they shouted, nearly tackling her in a hug. Hannah, her hometown best friend, held her a beat longer, as if grounding herself in the reality that they were really there together.
"Look at you, you're a valley girl!" teased Emma, another close friend. "Living the high life now, huh?"
They all stared for a moment at Dylan. Her hair was longer and styled, the jewelry along her frame had hit the light differently and there even was a difference in her pearly white smile. Did she really look that different from only a few months ago?
Dylan laughed after glancing down at herself, "I know, it's... weird. But I'm so glad you guys are here. C'mon, let's grab your bags and get back to the house."
