A Change Of Heart (North and South Fanfiction)

Two

When I get home, I go straight to my room. I cannot believe how much my life stinks! 

Immediately, I fish my phone out of my backpack and text Luana. Luana and I have been best friends for as long as I've been at Oxford, but our schedules this year are so different, plus I've been wasting all those lunches eating but not eating with Lance, that sometimes I barely even get to talk to her until after school.  

'Call me! Call me!! CALL ME!!!' I text madly. 'This is 2 big & involved & crisis-worthy 4 texting!' 

A minute later my phone rings and for a second I'm happier than I've been all day. There's' something to be said for friends you can rely on. Too bad the same thing can't be said about cousins. Or at least not my cousins.  

"Hey there, what's the emergency?" Luana says. I ignore her 'hey there' and head straight for the emergency. 

"Lance is no longer interested in pursuing Rebecca," I say.  

"But that's the good news, right?" she says. "Where's the crisis?" 

"Where's the crisis?" I'll tell you where the crisis is. He's decided to switch his romantic allegiance to Sofia!" 

"Who the hell is Sofia?" she asks, echoing my question from earlier in the day and giving me a moment of nostalgia as I remember how simple my life was before I knew the awful answer.  

I tell her who Sofia is.  

What do I expect when I tell her? I expect outrage. I expect sympathy. Certainly I feel plenty of bit of those on my own behalf. But instead I get: 

"HA!"  

I'm in shock. "You're laughing?" I don't believe this.  

"Come on," Luana says. "You've got to admit, it's funny." 

"I don't have to admit anything of the kind!"  

"It's like that old sitcom The Brady Bunch. Have you ever seen it? It's like if Jan liked a boy who liked Marcia only to have him turn his attention to Cindy. You know, 'the youngest one in curls'?" She breaks out laughing even harder.  

"Stop this!" I burst out. "My life is not a sitcom!" It's doubly harsh to hear her imply that it is since I'd had that thought myself earlier. "And Sofia isn't some cute little 'youngest one in curls'. She's...she's...she's some hot little eight-grade number-a vixen in Justice clothing!-and now she's gotten Lance to fall for her!" 

I'm fuming. Not at Luana. She's my best friend, meaning she can say anything she wants to me and no matter how I outraged I might seem, it's okay. Rather I'm fuming at the unfairness of it all.  

"Claire?" that's what she calls me.  

"Hmm...?" I say vaguely, still fuming.  

"Why do you resent Sofia so much?" 

I cannot believe she is asking me this.  

"Do you not remember the incident of the Shawls?" I say.  

"Oh no," I hear her groan, although I'm fairly certain it's a loving groan. "Not the Incident of Shawls again!" 

"Oh yes," I say emphatically. "It's the Incident of the Shawls again. When I was 10, Rebecca was 11 and Sofia was 7. Mom went on that two-week trip to Spain with her Aunt Helena and her debate members. She brought back three shawls for us as souvenirs. You wouldn't think a shawl would be a cool thing, but these shawls were amazing! They were pure silk and had all this really awesome fringe and each one was a different color. Rebecca got to pick first, which is not okay since I am my mom's daughter. Well of course she chose the ivory-colored one, which is far and away the prettiest. But I considered that because the second prettiest was this orchid-purple. With my blonde hair, I figured I could look very dramatic in it. And I was all ready to say that's the one I wanted, but then my mother said-"